What did TSR do wrong?

[Waylander the Slayer]

unrelated content

 

[Razz]

Dancey's letter pretty much sums things up.

Funny how he mentions giving Planescape the axe because it was confusing and "jargon-filled" yet I see a ton of Planescape fans among those that started in 2E and a bunch more who started D&D in 3E would've loved to see and be a part of.

It'd be nice for them to state how many of these replies they received and then post it somewhere and see how many rebuttals it gets. They may have heard the cries of people wanting Planescape and Ravenloft to go away, but how many cries of them hearing they want Planescape and Ravenloft to STAY? Most likely none, because no one knew the plug would be pulled on them until 3E was making its first steps.

It's along the same lines as discontinuing Dragon and Dungeon. They may have had great expectations from their online survey a few months back, but while they were hearing what people would like to have they became totally ignorant of those who were silent on the issue because they were happy with what they had and didn't expect their world to get turned upside-down all of sudden in the span of one day.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Funny how he mentions giving Planescape the axe because it was confusing and "jargon-filled" yet I see a ton of Planescape fans among those that started in 2E and a bunch more who started D&D in 3E would've loved to see and be a part of.

It'd be nice for them to state how many of these replies they received and then post it somewhere and see how many rebuttals it gets. They may have heard the cries of people wanting Planescape and Ravenloft to go away, but how many cries of them hearing they want Planescape and Ravenloft to STAY? Most likely none, because no one knew the plug would be pulled on them until 3E was making its first steps.

It's along the same lines as discontinuing Dragon and Dungeon. They may have had great expectations from their online survey a few months back, but while they were hearing what people would like to have they became totally ignorant of those who were silent on the issue because they were happy with what they had and didn't expect their world to get turned upside-down all of sudden in the span of one day.

They didn't need to hear from the people who liked the lines because they had SALES FIGURES (or circulation figures in the case of the magazines) - and those apparently weren't too impressive. 50k circulation in a 5m business says 99% of players won't 'have the rug pulled out from under them,' even if not one Dragon/Dungeon buyer like the Digital Initiative.

 

[Ostlander]

Didn't TSR also play around with other genres?

Buck Rogers

Star Frontiers (Whatever happened to that anyway?)

Gamma World

They had some great ideas, but no steam to keep them going for long.

Pity

 

[thedungeondelver]

I agree. What is scary is not even the Blume Bros. could cancel Dragon (they tried). Now WotC has done what some of the real D&D "villains" couldn't do.

It...boggles the mind, does it not?

 

[thedungeondelver]

Didn't TSR also play around with other genres?

...
Star Frontiers (Whatever happened to that anyway?)
...

Three boxed sets, about a dozen or two modules, a starship combat set (one of the boxed sets), a smattering of miniatures. No real support - although these days that'd be considered a veritable plethora of releases for any RPG.

You might also want to check out

www.starfrontiers.com

...which apparently has WotC's permission to exist.

 

[Ostlander]

For the most part I enjoyed the 2e material; although the QUALITY was terrible. I still have 1e books that have withstood 20 years of gaming!

As far as the mags go...I was surprised they lasted as long as they did, but it was a good run for them both. A testament to a long standing loyal fan base; a 30 year fan base!

 

[kenobi65]

Buck Rogers

From what I've read, the company was pretty much forced to publish the Buck Rogers game by She Who Must Not Be Named, because it'd financially benefit her family (the Dille family, descendents of Flint Dille, who created Buck Rogers).

 

[amethal]

From what I've read, the company was pretty much forced to publish the Buck Rogers game by She Who Must Not Be Named, because it'd financially benefit her family (the Dille family, descendents of Flint Dille, who created Buck Rogers).

As I understand it, TSR bid on both Buck Rogers and Star Wars.

They bid more for Buck Rogers, and won the licence. The put in a lower bid for Star Wars (clearly an inferior licence to the mighty Buck Rogers!) so West End Games got it instead.

 

[amethal]

Also, the death of wargaming article people have mentioned is A Farewell to Hexes by Greg Costikyan, once a very prominent name in this hobby, and an excellent writer to boot.

http://www.costik.com/spisins.html

Thanks for the link. That's an excellent article.

When I think of wargaming, I think of Warhammer i.e Games Workshop. Given there's not one mention of Games Workshop, I suppose Greg defines wargaming a bit differently? Might be another case of "divided by a common language" .