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Message: <blockquote data-quote="teitan" data-source="post: 8928645" data-attributes="member: 3457">I think it is because the design philosophy is that everything is designed to work with the free Basic D&D pdf and you can pick and choose what you add on if you have it without breaking the central system presented in that pdf. It keep D&D accessible without forcing people to spend a lot of money to try it out kind of like the starter set or the Essentials set. That was at least the reason when Mearls was running the brand and I think a wise decision if they are continuing to follow it. That more home games aren't talked about I think is that the other policy of those early days was to emphasize the adventures similarly to 1e where those shared experiences were what built the community. We didn't have DDB for the first three years of D&D and the community was built on the next season of adventures and its tie ins in video games and even the Driz'zt novels had some aspect of that. The GF9 minis tied into the storylines as well so it was a massive aspect of the first 5-6 years at least and part of why those side rules didn't get talked about. It created a different sort of culture around the game than we had seen before with the lack of mechanical support as we had gotten in the past. There were people actively saying "you don't need the DMG" even though it's probably up there with the 3.0 DMG in terms of design and usefulness and that 3.0 DMG was pretty close to 1e in how helpful it was to DMs. It was the toolkit that the 2e DMG wanted to be. So expansions and settings came out and aside from Xanathar and Tasha's people moved on pretty quickly after the hype train dropped off for most of the settings. The SCAG still was the best selling one for a LONG time. With those longer release dates and production schedules people just... moved on and played PHB with Xanathar's.The quality is definitely still there but it is also, aside from Perkins, different designers with a different head in charge with different priorities. Mearls was very much a solid mechanics guy. Winninger was very much a let's see what works guy and about creativity looking at his history and what was on offer. The new guy? man... I don't know because he is coming in at a really bad time and I don't even know his resume.</blockquote>

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