Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Question for the Paizo folks regarding D&D's state of today
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Erik Mona" data-source="post: 5430499" data-attributes="member: 2174"><p>Yeah, pretty much. To the great unwashed, D&D and tabletop RPG is synonymous. I suspect more people come into the hobby because they want to play D&D (or have simply heard of D&D) than come into it because they like the idea of pretending to be a hero, or to play any other game.</p><p></p><p>It's the acquisition arm of the RPG industry, essentially. It's also a major anchor of the RPG business in hobby shops. It's kind of amazing, but if you go to any of the distributor open houses you'll run into tons of stores that _only_ carry D&D (usually in addition to cards or comics). So if D&D were to dry up, I suspect stores like that would just use that shelf space for something else. Which would mean RPGs are available to fewer people in fewer markets, which means fewer players across the board.</p><p></p><p>Take a look at the RPG section in Barnes & Noble. Over the holidays, D&D books filled more than a single shelf in that "section" at several stores I visited. If that goes away, leaving only the more marginal brands, you're in trouble. I think B&N does a generally pretty good job of stocking Pathfinder, for example, but more often than not a given B&N has one copy of the Bestiary, two random AP volumes, and nothing else. It's not that they never stocked the other stuff, but they probably ordered one or two copies per store, and it's a crapshoot whether those items will ever be restocked. D&D, on the other hand, has multiple copies of numerous books, including one or two different ways to get into the hobby (say, an unsold 4e PHB, all of the Essentials books, and maybe Red Box or earlier "starter" set). If one of those sells, there are still some ways to get into the game. Plus they seem to be restocked with greater frequency than similar books by smaller publishers. Not a lot of Pathfinder fans start with the Bestiary and two random AP volumes.</p><p></p><p>So take away the D&D "shelf" in the RPG section at B&N and you're left with a random smattering of core rulebooks and assorted supplements, usually stocked about 1 deep if you're lucky, and that's it.</p><p></p><p>I doubt that's enough to keep B&N investing an entire section to a given subject matter in almost all of their stores. Either some other folks "step up" and fill that D&D space (very, very difficult, as almost no RPG publishers are as well capitalized as WotC and few have long-standing relationships with buyers and distributors like they do), or the space probably goes away.</p><p></p><p>Which is bad. Essentially, that leaves the wide-stocking FLGS retailers and the internet. Decent for getting books into the hands of the die-hards, but not so great at exposing the hobby to new customers.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>See above. I suspect that would be very challenging for the hobby retailer business and very challenging for the hobby. But it might be necessary to meet the kind of profit goals Hasbro likely has for WotC, so I wouldn't find it a terribly surprising development. </p><p></p><p>--Erik</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Erik Mona, post: 5430499, member: 2174"] Yeah, pretty much. To the great unwashed, D&D and tabletop RPG is synonymous. I suspect more people come into the hobby because they want to play D&D (or have simply heard of D&D) than come into it because they like the idea of pretending to be a hero, or to play any other game. It's the acquisition arm of the RPG industry, essentially. It's also a major anchor of the RPG business in hobby shops. It's kind of amazing, but if you go to any of the distributor open houses you'll run into tons of stores that _only_ carry D&D (usually in addition to cards or comics). So if D&D were to dry up, I suspect stores like that would just use that shelf space for something else. Which would mean RPGs are available to fewer people in fewer markets, which means fewer players across the board. Take a look at the RPG section in Barnes & Noble. Over the holidays, D&D books filled more than a single shelf in that "section" at several stores I visited. If that goes away, leaving only the more marginal brands, you're in trouble. I think B&N does a generally pretty good job of stocking Pathfinder, for example, but more often than not a given B&N has one copy of the Bestiary, two random AP volumes, and nothing else. It's not that they never stocked the other stuff, but they probably ordered one or two copies per store, and it's a crapshoot whether those items will ever be restocked. D&D, on the other hand, has multiple copies of numerous books, including one or two different ways to get into the hobby (say, an unsold 4e PHB, all of the Essentials books, and maybe Red Box or earlier "starter" set). If one of those sells, there are still some ways to get into the game. Plus they seem to be restocked with greater frequency than similar books by smaller publishers. Not a lot of Pathfinder fans start with the Bestiary and two random AP volumes. So take away the D&D "shelf" in the RPG section at B&N and you're left with a random smattering of core rulebooks and assorted supplements, usually stocked about 1 deep if you're lucky, and that's it. I doubt that's enough to keep B&N investing an entire section to a given subject matter in almost all of their stores. Either some other folks "step up" and fill that D&D space (very, very difficult, as almost no RPG publishers are as well capitalized as WotC and few have long-standing relationships with buyers and distributors like they do), or the space probably goes away. Which is bad. Essentially, that leaves the wide-stocking FLGS retailers and the internet. Decent for getting books into the hands of the die-hards, but not so great at exposing the hobby to new customers. See above. I suspect that would be very challenging for the hobby retailer business and very challenging for the hobby. But it might be necessary to meet the kind of profit goals Hasbro likely has for WotC, so I wouldn't find it a terribly surprising development. --Erik [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Question for the Paizo folks regarding D&D's state of today
Top