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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8684673" data-attributes="member: 82106">I don't think that was a big factor. In fact, it is kind of the opposite, 1e had already faded by the late '80s. 2e's popularity just took off from where 1e left off. There was definitely a bump in the beginning as everyone that was playing 1e 'upgraded'. After that people mostly played 2e, it really did displace 1e to a large extent as 'core rules', but in practice it was not a different enough game to attract a lot of new audiences when there were plenty of other high quality RPGs out there. I guess in a sense compatibility 'held it back' but it wasn't a matter of people just going on and playing with their 1e books still. There just wasn't that many people being added to the ranks. I mean, between 1975 and 1985 I must have introduced 100 people to D&amp;D, and built a pretty solid core group of 30-40 players that I could count on to be interested in a game. There were other groups that mine overlapped with too. After around 1986 or so things kind of just leveled off and became a lot more static. I mean, yes, I've acquired some additional players in various games in the last 35 years here and there, but its never been anything like the early days. Surely it seems like D&amp;D itself really didn't start an upward trend again until the mid '00s. People came in, some left, there were a couple edition releases in there that created some stir, but not a ton. Somewhere around 3.5/4e it seemed like the whole industry had gotten enough bigger to support a bigger D&amp;D, and its been growing again since then. Now, that isn't to say the whole hobby didn't grow from 1985 to 2005, just that D&amp;D was not growing as much and the whole thing became a lot more spread out. If you were to look at product sales in the early to mid '80s I can pretty much guarantee, D&amp;D was 95% of everything (in the US), which is not so much true now.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8684673, member: 82106"] I don't think that was a big factor. In fact, it is kind of the opposite, 1e had already faded by the late '80s. 2e's popularity just took off from where 1e left off. There was definitely a bump in the beginning as everyone that was playing 1e 'upgraded'. After that people mostly played 2e, it really did displace 1e to a large extent as 'core rules', but in practice it was not a different enough game to attract a lot of new audiences when there were plenty of other high quality RPGs out there. I guess in a sense compatibility 'held it back' but it wasn't a matter of people just going on and playing with their 1e books still. There just wasn't that many people being added to the ranks. I mean, between 1975 and 1985 I must have introduced 100 people to D&D, and built a pretty solid core group of 30-40 players that I could count on to be interested in a game. There were other groups that mine overlapped with too. After around 1986 or so things kind of just leveled off and became a lot more static. I mean, yes, I've acquired some additional players in various games in the last 35 years here and there, but its never been anything like the early days. Surely it seems like D&D itself really didn't start an upward trend again until the mid '00s. People came in, some left, there were a couple edition releases in there that created some stir, but not a ton. Somewhere around 3.5/4e it seemed like the whole industry had gotten enough bigger to support a bigger D&D, and its been growing again since then. Now, that isn't to say the whole hobby didn't grow from 1985 to 2005, just that D&D was not growing as much and the whole thing became a lot more spread out. If you were to look at product sales in the early to mid '80s I can pretty much guarantee, D&D was 95% of everything (in the US), which is not so much true now. [/QUOTE]

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