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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jaeger" data-source="post: 8278567" data-attributes="member: 27996">It was a very healthy #2, that while it never really toppled D&D, (only outselling it for six months or so at 2e's lowest point) it had a prominence in the hobby that brought awareness to the fact that there were other RPG games out there.Which was good for the hobby IMHO.IMHO it would be better for the RPG hobby as a whole if the solid #2 RPG was not D&D's clone.You are probably right.Doesn't change my critique. In WOTC's defense the HP bloat causes scaling issues in the game that are hard to account for vs other RPG's that do not have it. Add in the various class features and it is a lot of moving parts to account for.I disagree.IMHO how the early competition fell short:Tekumel - Obtuse setting not newbie friendly.Tunnels and Trolls - System wasn't as good, group combat is a deal killer - no other successful rpg has done combat the T&T way.Chivalry and Sorcery - System complexity. Ouch.RuneQuest - Glorantha. But also character creation and certain system elements.Yes, OD&D  did assume previous wargaming knowledge to fill in the gaps.But it was first! And no one had seen anything like it before.TSR also upgraded the game fairly quickly to keep up with and stay ahead of the upstart competition.OD&D only had a 3 year edition life until Holmes basic and AD&D started rolling out. And they kept refining the B/X side of the game which covered for any of AD&D's foibles.It upgraded and clarified things while holding on to the things that it got right.It did a great job in learning the right lessons from 4e.People are very IP loyal in RPG land. Yes, PF outsold 4e for a time, because 4e was not the direction the majority of the player base wanted to go in.But the second WOTC gave them a reason to; they all came swarming back to play 'official' D&D.It read its market better and gave people something less complex than PF and 4e. Having a reduced supplement release schedule was also a very savvy move to extend the edition life cycle.5e made the right moves, and was going to put D&D back to the number 1 RPG spot by default.Then it hit at a great time to take advantage of a big pop-culture upswing in D&D love not seen since the 80's. (And probably even bigger.)It was the right edition at the right time, and the rest is history.</blockquote>

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