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<blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 3473269" data-attributes="member: 15538">Things I remember:- Stupid products no one wanted, like the monster Trapper Keeper concept, deluxe &quot;parchment&quot; style character sheets that were unreadable, and so forth- Really bad products, like Player's Option: Powers &amp; Skills- Forgotten Realms was the Eberron of its day, very popular, but not what a lot of the older fans wanted. - Explicitly selling powergaming. Read the Dark Sun back cover, boasting about the most powerful PCs ever, starting at 3rd (gasp!) level with above average abilities and psionics. - Failure to evolve. THAC0 was a step up from Chart-O, but really, yuck, just yuck. The Rules Cyclopedia version of D&amp;D was superior in this regard, but was intentionally written as a game with training wheels, so what did you do with it?- Ruthlessly stamping out fan activity in favor of pay-for-play activities, never mind that a lot of them just weren't very profitable endeavors. Fanzines, cons, third party modules, there was not a penny operation that was immune to TSR's financial jealousy. The RPGA took shape. Dragon magazine invited other games on board, then once their zine and magazine presence was gone, dumped them like a rebound relationship. A lot of this, to me, says &quot;organizational chaos.&quot; Everyone was trying to be the biggest part of the company, nobody was really looking at the future, and nothing got tested or analyzed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pawsplay, post: 3473269, member: 15538"] Things I remember: - Stupid products no one wanted, like the monster Trapper Keeper concept, deluxe "parchment" style character sheets that were unreadable, and so forth - Really bad products, like Player's Option: Powers & Skills - Forgotten Realms was the Eberron of its day, very popular, but not what a lot of the older fans wanted. - Explicitly selling powergaming. Read the Dark Sun back cover, boasting about the most powerful PCs ever, starting at 3rd (gasp!) level with above average abilities and psionics. - Failure to evolve. THAC0 was a step up from Chart-O, but really, yuck, just yuck. The Rules Cyclopedia version of D&D was superior in this regard, but was intentionally written as a game with training wheels, so what did you do with it? - Ruthlessly stamping out fan activity in favor of pay-for-play activities, never mind that a lot of them just weren't very profitable endeavors. Fanzines, cons, third party modules, there was not a penny operation that was immune to TSR's financial jealousy. The RPGA took shape. Dragon magazine invited other games on board, then once their zine and magazine presence was gone, dumped them like a rebound relationship. A lot of this, to me, says "organizational chaos." Everyone was trying to be the biggest part of the company, nobody was really looking at the future, and nothing got tested or analyzed. [/QUOTE]

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