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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2992299" data-attributes="member: 19675">One of the earliest & most repeated lessons in my MBA program was that the market factor that has the highest correlation with success in that market is being FIRST.  Simply by virtue of being first, you gain all kinds of advantages- your products set the market standards; your product's name becomes virtually synonymous with the market; your opponents cannot help but to compare themselves to your product, since you set the standards; market penetration, etc.To put it a different way- I can beat a Top Fuel Dragster in a quarter-mile race if you give me enough of a lead.There are other factors, of course- you do have to manage your product and counter whatever improvements are made by other market entrants.  Stagnation = Death for almost any product.But to the world at large, D&D=RPG.  You ask Joe Normal what a role playing game is, and if he's even heard of one, the response you're likely to get is "You mean, Dungeons & Dragons?"D&D is found in stores other RPG companies WISH they could crack.  Hit a plain old bookstore- you'll find D&D (in VARIOUS editions if its a used book store) and perhaps another couple of companies' material, if any.  White Wolf gets in a lot of stores, but I also see GURPS, or products that tie into popular Books, TV shows or Movies- so you'll see supers games related to Marvel or DC characters, Starship Troopers, "Buffyverse" stuff, Star Trek/Wars, Bab5, Jericho and LOTR & A Game of Thrones themed products.But wherever you find those other products, you will almost always find D&D dominating the shelf space. Yes & no.Yes in that it set the standard, and every game designer since D&D's initial publication is either learning from, stealing from, or reacting to what was done first in that game.  D&D is the inevitable factor in every RPG that followed it- its the primer, the gesso, which lets all the other stuff follow.However, there has been a lot of innovation in the field, some with so little resemblance to the original stuff that it is truly its own thing- like the various point-based systems (HERO, GURPS, etc.) or the diceless games like Amber.Besides- flavor matters.  Setting matters.  Both influence the design of RPG systems.A supers game is very different from a FRPG which differs greatly from a Sci-fi game.  There are different expectations, different standards, different fictional conceits from the underlying source material that can have, in certain cases, a deep effect on the mechanics of the game.For instance, supers games are based on comic books (DUH!), and one thing that is common in comic book melees is that combatants go flying when hit with great force- something that also happens in martial arts fantasy movies.  In RPGs based upon those genres, "knockback" is part of the game mechanics, while being virtually absent from any other RPG system.</blockquote>

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