Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 1426304" data-attributes="member: 3586">That sounds about right. Of course, the 3E they were considering wasn't our 3E. I'm sure that in 1991 and 1992 there were people at TSR thinking about AD&D 3rd Edition. Not in the sense of "we're releasing it next year", but in looking at how the game was developing through the supplements and how that would impact the next edition of the core rules.If one looks at the history of D&D:1974: oD&D is released1974-78: Various supplements drastically expanding the game1978/79: AD&D puts the best parts of the supplements into the core game and makes a (mainly) coherent package of it.1980-1988: More supplements, although the main ones that influenced the development of the game were the post-Gygax ones (DSG, WSG).1989: AD&D 2nd Edition puts the "best" of the supplements into the core rules and makes a (mainly) coherent package of it.1990-1994: A great number of supplements which alter parts of the game dramatically from the original idea. (Kits, extra uses for Proficiencies, etc.)1995: AD&D 2E Player's Option - a 3rd edition that isn't a 3rd edition. It takes ideas from the supplements and makes a more coherent package of them, whilst introducing new stuff.1996-1997: The downfall of TSR, the acquisition by Wizards.1997-1999: Work begins on "our" 3E. The design is influenced by what came before and some radical new stuff (for D&D). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> The changes to Combat have been foreshadowed in Combat & Tactics, the changes to classes in the other two Player's Option books and the Complete series - the idea of lots of meaningful choices for players has a severe impact on the game.2000: 3E is released!2000-2003: Lots of supplements from both WotC and the other d20 System publishers. During this time, various assumptions about 3E begin to fail. Prestige classes, originally envisioned as a DM tool for individualising their campaigns by providing special classes for Organisations, have a much, much broader role. As Monsters get used more by DMs and players, the flaws in the monster creation and advancement system also come out, and problems with weapon sizes likewise.2003: 3.5E is released, fixing the more apparent flaws of 3E. (And introducing new ones, what did you expect? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) 2004: Unearthed Arcana, or "the bits we wanted to put in 3.5E, but it wasn't a new edition" is released, and the process of developing the game continues. (I love UA, btw. We were using several of the new rules in the game on Sunday, and they really improved our game.)Cheers!</blockquote>

Verification