New long article by Jon Peterson. The Basic Set is mentioned a few times, including "Gross sales of around $300,000 in 1976 doubled the following year, thanks in no small part to the release of the revised “Basic Set” of Dungeons & Dragons edited by Eric Holmes."
https://medium.com/@increment/the-ambush-at-sheridan-springs-3a29d07f6836
I finished the entire article but it left my stomach feeling quite queasy. To me its just sad and depressing. As humans we have to mess (in a negative way) with and let our ego run rampant over everything we get our hands on. Maybe its just me being naive ( I get it that its business) but I just would like to be surprised by human nature once in a while.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my favorite story either. That's why I exiled it to this little place where it will live by itself. The problem was that the common narrative about how and why this happened was full of just errors, and for various reasons I needed to clean those up.
ReplyDeleteJon Peterson Please let me also clarify that although it was disturbing, it did need to be written for the reasons stated. It was also written, and researched, very well (as your other offerings are). Thank you.
ReplyDeleteJon, that was a fascinating article. While it may not be your favorite, given all of the discussion over the years it is an important piece. Also a good cautionary tale for anyone considering going into gaming as a business.
ReplyDeleteA cautionary tale of giving outsiders with little direct and specific experience in your industry too much power to early....
ReplyDeleteWell written and engaging if not a little sad in terms of it's impact. TSR never really 'settled' into being a solid company it seems, despite producing exceptional content in parts but variable content in others.
Thanks for sharing this.