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Why did TSR dump Alternity?
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<blockquote data-quote="buzz" data-source="post: 1412767" data-attributes="member: 6777"><p>The <em>Alternity</em> PHB was released in April 1998. The limited edition came out in 1997, at GenCon. The WotC purchase of TSR was announced in April 1997.</p><p></p><p>Bill Slavicsek, Lester Smith, and Dori Hein proposed the idea for <em>Alternity</em> in 1995, so yeah, its initial development pre-dates the buyout... which I think is even more reason to believe that there was no plan to kill the game after X years in place, especially seeing as the decision by WotC to revise D&D didn't even occur until after the buyout. Even the suicidal TSR wouldn't spend 2-3 years developing a line it was intentionally going to kill.</p><p></p><p>I also see no reason why "starter" versions of <em>Alternity</em> (e.g., StarCraft and the <em>Introduction to Alternity</em> starter game, each released about 1-2 years after the PHB) would have been marketed to rope in new players if the intention was to kill the game from the get-go.</p><p></p><p>It also seems evident that d20 is influenced a lot more by games like <em>Ars Magica</em>, <em>Runequest</em>, and D&D's own tropes than it is by <em>Alternity</em>.</p><p></p><p>Ergo, I find the whole theory bunk. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I think it simply comes down to the fact that <em>Alternity</em> was basically a good game that got hamstrung by bad business decisions, differing expectations, and the fickle finger of fate.</p><p></p><p>Thankfully, though, we have d20, which I think is, overall, a better system. Once <em>d20 Future</em> comes out and even more old <em>Alternity</em> content gets converted, we'll have the best of both worlds.</p><p></p><p>Sources:</p><p><a href="http://www.rpg.net/sf/interviews/alternity.html" target="_blank">http://www.rpg.net/sf/interviews/alternity.html</a></p><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/99666/002-1718461-4161628" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/99666/002-1718461-4161628</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="buzz, post: 1412767, member: 6777"] The [i]Alternity[/i] PHB was released in April 1998. The limited edition came out in 1997, at GenCon. The WotC purchase of TSR was announced in April 1997. Bill Slavicsek, Lester Smith, and Dori Hein proposed the idea for [i]Alternity[/i] in 1995, so yeah, its initial development pre-dates the buyout... which I think is even more reason to believe that there was no plan to kill the game after X years in place, especially seeing as the decision by WotC to revise D&D didn't even occur until after the buyout. Even the suicidal TSR wouldn't spend 2-3 years developing a line it was intentionally going to kill. I also see no reason why "starter" versions of [i]Alternity[/i] (e.g., StarCraft and the [i]Introduction to Alternity[/i] starter game, each released about 1-2 years after the PHB) would have been marketed to rope in new players if the intention was to kill the game from the get-go. It also seems evident that d20 is influenced a lot more by games like [i]Ars Magica[/i], [i]Runequest[/i], and D&D's own tropes than it is by [i]Alternity[/i]. Ergo, I find the whole theory bunk. :) I think it simply comes down to the fact that [i]Alternity[/i] was basically a good game that got hamstrung by bad business decisions, differing expectations, and the fickle finger of fate. Thankfully, though, we have d20, which I think is, overall, a better system. Once [i]d20 Future[/i] comes out and even more old [i]Alternity[/i] content gets converted, we'll have the best of both worlds. Sources: [url]http://www.rpg.net/sf/interviews/alternity.html[/url] [url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/99666/002-1718461-4161628[/url] [/QUOTE]
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