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ICE (http://www.ironcrown.com/), makers of the Rolemaster system, started understanding this a while ago and have been selling PDF versions of their books online, with great success from what I've seen. I've bought a few myself.

The first "real" RPG I ever played was Palladium's RIFTS and Palladium worlds, I had most of their books. I agree that the system was somewhat unyieldy mostly due to the lack of clear-cut classifications and categories. Rolemaster is a lot more complex, yet has an inherent structure and standards applied throughout the system that make it elegant.

Could it be that the AD&D world has just cottoned on to a book that the Rolemaster game has had for years?
For a good read on interesting topics for a GM, GM Law really does the trick. It's not geared solely to Rolemaster either, but covers a whole range of topics and ways of running a story (fast and loose rules of thumb that are of interest, rather than hard rules).

A real good book about GM'ing?

And new material for that matter. For example, right now their newest game HARP is available as a PDF for just $2. This is less than I spent on the plastic lyfjacket cover for my printed copy!

ICE

No the problem is that D&D sucks ... Now Rolemaster from ICE thats a real system for real RPers and is much deserving of being ported. Then we would have real RPGs instead of this let me lead you down a story junk that comes from most other CRPGs. And yes I am a fan of Bethesda's TES series

Chris Tolkien Gaurds his Father's properties like Smaug Dwarven gold and mithril. The attitudes seem similar too. He single handedly put Iron Crown into bankrupcy by jacking up the licencing costs a couple of years ago, even going so far as to have the printed works seized and destroyed even though they were printed and delivered while still under license. Of course this is all old news to any of my fellow Rolemaster / MERP players.

Yes... no

I mean, yes, the GM is pretty damn important, but a good group is what makes the game. A good GM with a bunch of bad players won't have a good time, although the players might. A bunch of good players with a bad GM might have a reasonably good time interacting with each other but as a whole won't have much enjoyment. And a single bad player can make hell for everyone.

The best is to have players and GM that fit together, with about the same level of experience/expertise, and the same tastes. Monty Haul campaigns are fine, as long as everybody loves Monty Haul campaigns. Same goes for munchkins.

And, well, sincerly, the only reason to play D&D 3rd is because it's the best hack'n'slash munchkining game ever. If I want to roleplay, I'll pick Tribe 8, RoleMaster, Shadowrun, or an Anime-level Sengoku campaign with BESM rules, any day of the week.

Okay, I'm done whoring :P

Personally I played D&D and AD&D for a couple of years but didn't like it. So I moved to Role Master from Iron Crown. And fell in love with it so much I'd never go back to AD&D, specially since WotC owns it. Any how RM might be a bit more complicated, or have a high learning curve but it is worth it.

Not only that, but there already are gaming systems that are generic and have rules for all types of games. GURPS is the best known, but other games like Rolemaster are also somewhat generic.

It looks to like all they're doing is trying to make D&D more GURPS-like.

Well, if you're that big a nerd, check out MERP: Middle-Earth Role Playing game. Can't much nerdlier than that. My friends and I played that a lot in high school. It may not be the best system, but it's fun to be able to use all that middle-earth stuff (they have a book which lists stats on the valar and maiar, for example.) Check it out: www.ironcrown.com. I'm still trying to get through the Silmarillion this summer (I've been trying to read it for about three years.) Heh. I still remeber "naur an edraith ammen" after reading _Lord_ four years ago.