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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 3266457" data-attributes="member: 28854">Well, Bill, I'd heard this too (iirc, from Gary Gygax, who doesn't tend to cite specific numbers).  He (if it was Gary) said that D&D's popularity peaked in 1981-2 and was in freefall by 1984, when he had to cut short other business activities in order to rush out Unearthed Arcana and basically save TSR from the bailiffs.  This rings true to me -- I think UA was a rush job compared to the previous material.He also said that after all the court wrangling, he was still getting royalties on the 1e rulebooks even though he no longer had any control over the company.  Therefore the Powers That Be in TSR told Zeb Cook & Co to write a second edition.I don't doubt that Zeb himself and his design team thought they were improving the game, of course.  He was a gamer through and through, and while I don't agree with his design decisions I respect his personal integrity.But the people who told Zeb to do it were motivated by trying to cut Gary out of the loop and it misfired.  It was definitely Gary who said that those idiots in the polyester suits with the briefcases full of balance sheets "halved D&D's audience to get out of paying me a few cents on each book."</blockquote>