> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> I am curious whether you think that the other genres TSR offered early on
(but were based on D&D system derivatives) failed primarily because of the
system deviations or because of the quality of the settings and offerings.
If
you think the deviations were responsible, do you think that the D&D system
was really flexible enough to have not needed them for other genres?
If you are referring to games like Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot Hill,
and Top Secret, then I'll throw in my 2 cents worth. Three of these have
very similar (D&D-like) mechanics, while the last was a rogue system based
on stats & skills. The first three suffered from (IMO) terrible support in
the way of settings (the last was only better because it was set during the
height of the cold war, and thus had LOTS of real-life material to draw on).
I'm not saying the settings were bad, rather that they were too skeletal for
a novice gamer to play, especially when compared to D&D. Thus they were
automatically restricted to only the smallest portion of the community - the
veteran gamers who would buy anything anyway, just to see how they were
different. It was sort of a chicken-or-egg problem for TSR, in that they
couldn't make the line profitable without spending a ton of time/money on
the setting, and once they spent enough on the setting you would have a hard
time making the core product pay for your capital outlay.
This problem of insufficient critical-mass infected D&D in the early 90's
with Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape, Mystara, etc..., there
were too many products and not enough gamer dollars to pay for them. That
was the source of TSR's eventual downfall - too many products an no way to
pay for them. Wizards is hoping to avoid this situation with the d20 System
and the OGL.
Other than Top Secret, I don't recall anything memorable about the systems
of these early divergent games. They were barely more than D&D wearing a
new skin. The old 1st Ed D&D wasn't very flexible, so the skin didn't fit
very well. The d20 System is much more flexible, and combined with the OGL
it is much easier for third parties to make up for the shortcomings of the
d20 fantasy system while still maintaining direct links to familiar
territory. IMO, by the time that 1989 came around most of these games were
already too far gone to save. Perhaps if they'd had the Star Wars franchise
back then it would have been different, but without a rich setting I think
even the best engineered system is doomed to obscurity.
-Brad
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