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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4685619" data-attributes="member: 1003">Well, naturally each D&D is "its own", when narrowly defined.  But I think the strongest argument is that 3E is a species in transition, still demonstrating the "Advanced" strategy of having a rule for everything (RFE) but also with some of the "rationalized" traits that will only reach their full potential in 4E (naturally I speak of races being inherently balanced against each other, circle-complete Saving Throws/Defenses, etc.).I'm not sure there are three categories though, but rather two: Advanced and Basic. 4E is the newest Basic, having evolved from 3E rules but shedding the Advanced's RFE appendages and returning to the gamist simplicity and "adventuring focus" of Basic. Most of 4E's attributes are simply superior to B/X in many respects, as would be expected from a more evolved species, but of course a niche for B/X remains, if smaller.These truly are clones, not new species. Like Dolly the Sheep, Basic's DNA was carefully extracted and given a new shell in a privately owned habitat carefully engineered to match the original as closely as possible. C&C even hired the original shepard for a time (God rest 'im).Somewhat more seriously and somberly, I believe Reynard hit the nail on the head when he recognized the OGL mutation as the precondition for an "explosion" in the Cambrian sense. Moreover I believe that the OGL Explosion was a necessary precondition for 4E, as we witnessed many of its short-lived ancestral species mutating and sharing memetic information in the OGL soup.  Iron Heroes is a good example, for obvious reasons.  Moreover I believe that the evolution of D&D has now come to a near standstill thanks to the GSL, and that while this will allow Wizards to capture more of the benefits created by the OGL Explosion, it will mean that much future progress will simply not happen. Many beautiful species will simply never be born.But perhaps the GSL is necessary to keep the whole ecosystem alive? Perhaps. All ecosystems need an external source of energy. As the real ecosystem needs sunlight and rain the D&D ecosystem needs money to pay for the Mountain Dew and office space that nurtures creative minds. Perhaps the GSL will capture more energy (and put it to better use) than the OGL would have. But I doubt it. The evolutionary explosion seen between 2000 and 2007 has already tapered off. And this makes me sad.</blockquote>

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