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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rogueattorney" data-source="post: 1694611" data-attributes="member: 17551">Well, yeah.  Gygax & Arneson's vision for D&D was different from Gygax's visions for AD&D1 was different from Frank Mentzer's vision for D&D was different from "Zeb" Cook's vision for AD&D2 was different from M. Cook, Tweet, etc.'s vision for D&D3, etc.  There really is no denying the changes in the respective versions.  Those changes are due to the designers' differing visions on the way the game should be.  As more and more "cooks" are added to the D&D rules "pot", the game gets farther and farther away from the original conception of the game.What many of us grognards miss about the oldest versions of the game, and I think what Merric was talking about in regard to the settings, is that in their original incarnations there is something very organic and personal going on with the original creator that isn't really replicated with designers who aren't working on their "baby".  While the changes might "work" or even be "better", often times there is something that just isn't quite right.  I have this vision of a living organism, onto which people keep sticking mechanical appendages.  Eventually, the thing that made it alive in the first place becomes obscured and only the artificial add-ons can be seen.  R.A.</blockquote>