We've previously discussed the original end goal of Dungeons & Dragons and the rising success of video in boosting the game's popularity, but the enormous success of Matt Colville's Strongholds & Streaming seems like a turning point that brought both of those elements together at the right time. Here's a few theories as to why.
[h=3]Who Is Matt Colville?[/h]Ztang on Reddit does a great job of summing up Colville:
The above description doesn't entirely encompass Colville's achievements. He's also written for video games, fantasy fiction, and comic books. Colville was active on ENWorld too, with potentially as high as 30,000 posts.
For more information about the success of his Strongholds & Streaming Kickstarter campaign, check out Christopher Helton's excellent article, "A Change is Coming." The Kickstarter concluded at $2,121,465, 4,242% of its goal, and took the top spot for the highest-funded tabletop RPG Kickstarter in history. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
[h=3]Strongholds: Old School is New School[/h]Building a stronghold and leading followers is nothing new. As we've discussed previously, the original end goal of D&D was to transition back to a wargame with the player characters as generals. This was the purpose of "name level," a gaming trend that has gradually fallen out of favor with each edition of D&D. Colville felt this style of play was something his fans would find refreshing, with a book for Fifth Edition, "Strongholds & Followers":
The current generation of gamer may well be primed for this type of play, because resource management and strategy games are commonplace on mobile platforms. Given the Kickstarter's success, it seems stronghold management is back in vogue.
[h=3]Streaming: The Rise of Video[/h]Back in 2016 we discussed one of the challenges of attracting new players to tabletop role-playing games: reading books titled guide, handbook, and manual. The answer was video, which succinctly demonstrates the game and its rules without a player ever cracking a book.
In 2010, Acquisitions Inc.'s live game at PAX Prime demonstrated the feasibility of the medium, followed by profession and semi-professional efforts. 9 million people have watched others play D&D on Twitch. In 2017 alone, there were more than 7,500 unique broadcasters streaming live play D&D for more than 475 million minutes watched over the course of the entire year. For an in-depth discussion of video's impact on tabletop play, see "How Video Saved D&D."
Colville is no stranger to video. His YouTube channel, filled with advice for gamers, has over 180,000 subscribers. But Colville wanted to do more than share his gaming wisdom. He wanted to capture the magic of the game:
His comments echo those of Peter Adkison, former CEO of Wizards of the Coast:
So Colville incorporated funding for a studio into his Kickstarter:
Judging from the success of the Kickstarter, his fans liked the idea. Colville confirmed that the YouTube numbers closely track to his Kickstarter supporters:
It's an important data point demonstrating that the broader YouTube audience can be monetized to support a gaming Kickstarter.
[h=3]What it All Means[/h]Colville thinks the success of the Kickstarter is a sign of a seismic shift in online fandom:
The success of Streaming & Strongholds is also a testament to the success of D&D. The game had its best year ever, with 8.6 million Americans playing the game in the past 12 months.
Fantasy tabletop gaming is no longer restricted to forums but is now so widespread that social media platforms can serve up plenty of content for gamers. This was some of the motivation behind Wizards of the Coast shutting down its own forums, as discussed in "D&D Does Digital Part IV: Online Communities."
The conclusion still seems apt: D&D has always belonged to us, there are just so many more fans of the game than before. If Colville's Kickstarter is any indication, the fans have spoken and we are everywhere.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
[h=3]Who Is Matt Colville?[/h]Ztang on Reddit does a great job of summing up Colville:
Matt Colville is a writer, game designer, and, at the risk of sounding pretentious on his behalf and suspecting he may buck the praise, an intellectual. He has spent more time playing, thinking about, and dungeon-mastering D&D than most players today. His perspectives extend beyond just how to play or how to teach players, but also what makes the game fun at a primal level, and what makes the system an effective means to have fun. Moreover, as a long-time fan of the system(s) and editions, he is a wealth of knowledge on the history and practice of playing and DM'ing. Perhaps most important of all, though, he is a passionate and compassionate individual, sensitive to the ways in which role-playing urges players to step outside of their comfort zones, to explore themselves and their friends in some unfamiliar ways, and an able advocate for the ways in which D&D in particular and role-playing in general are powerful tools for making the world a better place.
The above description doesn't entirely encompass Colville's achievements. He's also written for video games, fantasy fiction, and comic books. Colville was active on ENWorld too, with potentially as high as 30,000 posts.
For more information about the success of his Strongholds & Streaming Kickstarter campaign, check out Christopher Helton's excellent article, "A Change is Coming." The Kickstarter concluded at $2,121,465, 4,242% of its goal, and took the top spot for the highest-funded tabletop RPG Kickstarter in history. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
[h=3]Strongholds: Old School is New School[/h]Building a stronghold and leading followers is nothing new. As we've discussed previously, the original end goal of D&D was to transition back to a wargame with the player characters as generals. This was the purpose of "name level," a gaming trend that has gradually fallen out of favor with each edition of D&D. Colville felt this style of play was something his fans would find refreshing, with a book for Fifth Edition, "Strongholds & Followers":
More than just a set of rules and charts, this book also describes a style of play that assumes your character becomes more interested in influencing the world around them. You’ll still adventure and fight monsters, but this supplement gives you tons of fun things to do during your downtime. Maybe only one or two players in any group are interested in this sort of thing, but it only takes one character building a stronghold to radically change the nature of a campaign and introduce new narrative opportunities for DM and players alike!
The current generation of gamer may well be primed for this type of play, because resource management and strategy games are commonplace on mobile platforms. Given the Kickstarter's success, it seems stronghold management is back in vogue.
[h=3]Streaming: The Rise of Video[/h]Back in 2016 we discussed one of the challenges of attracting new players to tabletop role-playing games: reading books titled guide, handbook, and manual. The answer was video, which succinctly demonstrates the game and its rules without a player ever cracking a book.
In 2010, Acquisitions Inc.'s live game at PAX Prime demonstrated the feasibility of the medium, followed by profession and semi-professional efforts. 9 million people have watched others play D&D on Twitch. In 2017 alone, there were more than 7,500 unique broadcasters streaming live play D&D for more than 475 million minutes watched over the course of the entire year. For an in-depth discussion of video's impact on tabletop play, see "How Video Saved D&D."
Colville is no stranger to video. His YouTube channel, filled with advice for gamers, has over 180,000 subscribers. But Colville wanted to do more than share his gaming wisdom. He wanted to capture the magic of the game:
I've been playing D&D since the month this issue of Dragon was released and some amazing, astonishing things have happened on both sides of the screen that are now lost. Lost forever. And sure, the fact that they were temporary and fleeting made them rare and valuable, but I love the idea of our game having a permanent record.
His comments echo those of Peter Adkison, former CEO of Wizards of the Coast:
I love roleplaying games but I’ve always wondered if there was a way to make roleplaying experiences less ephemeral. We have these magical moments, but the descriptions of our sessions to others are not nearly as engaging as the experiences themselves...These magical moments can be reminisced with the other participants, and often are for years and years, but there’s no way to really share capture the excitement for someone who wasn’t there.
So Colville incorporated funding for a studio into his Kickstarter:
...the other goal of this kickstarter is to raise money to cover the lease on studio space for us to stream our next game starting with character creation! I’ve already spent several thousand dollars on gear, we just don’t have any space to stream and we have very specific requirements. No, your garage won’t do. No, your living room isn’t big enough. 
We’re basically building a TV Studio. Since finding studio space means signing a multi-year lease and being on the hook for a lot of money, it terrifies me. It’s my hope that enough people want this book, or want to support the stream, to cover some or all of that cost.
We’re basically building a TV Studio. Since finding studio space means signing a multi-year lease and being on the hook for a lot of money, it terrifies me. It’s my hope that enough people want this book, or want to support the stream, to cover some or all of that cost.
Judging from the success of the Kickstarter, his fans liked the idea. Colville confirmed that the YouTube numbers closely track to his Kickstarter supporters:
We had my YouTube metrics! Could we not assume that folks would back roughly in proportion with how they watch? At least in terms of how many people live where, where will all these orders be going? It didn't really matter if this was a good metric, it was a metric, an objective one, and the only one we had. So we used that. Exported the list of which countries my YouTube audience is from. It's early days, but right now it looks like that metric was within 3% of the actual number. If we could have gotten shipping costs down, I think it would be exactly the same.
It's an important data point demonstrating that the broader YouTube audience can be monetized to support a gaming Kickstarter.
[h=3]What it All Means[/h]Colville thinks the success of the Kickstarter is a sign of a seismic shift in online fandom:
The success of the Kickstarter is the success of the YouTube channel. There’s no way to understand it otherwise. I don’t think they’re really interested in my opinion...I feel very little connection with folks in tabletop now. I realize to me, now, this hobby is something that happens at the table, but the community happens on twitch and youtube and reddit and twitter. Those are my native environments.
The success of Streaming & Strongholds is also a testament to the success of D&D. The game had its best year ever, with 8.6 million Americans playing the game in the past 12 months.
Fantasy tabletop gaming is no longer restricted to forums but is now so widespread that social media platforms can serve up plenty of content for gamers. This was some of the motivation behind Wizards of the Coast shutting down its own forums, as discussed in "D&D Does Digital Part IV: Online Communities."
The conclusion still seems apt: D&D has always belonged to us, there are just so many more fans of the game than before. If Colville's Kickstarter is any indication, the fans have spoken and we are everywhere.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
