D&D General Why Is D&D Successful?

[bedir than]

The general constructs behind D&D influencing in some ways story tellers leading to D&D's popularity is a huge stretch of logic. Some influence? Sure. The acceptance of fantasy in general and speculative fiction have an impact. Fantasy fiction is far more prevalent than it was when D&D was created and so of course there's a feedback loop.

But a significant reason for 5E's popularity? I don't buy it. There's no reason for those factors to favor D&D over any other system.

But this means you think Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Critical Role, Warcraft, Joe M, the Decemberists, The Rock, Michelle Rodriguez, Hasbro, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, etc have had no influence on 5e's popularity.

 

[Oofta]

But this means you think Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Critical Role, Warcraft, Joe M, the Decemberists, The Rock, Michelle Rodriguez, Hasbro, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, etc have had no influence on 5e's popularity.

I think it is one of many factors. It is not why D&D is more popular than other RPGs, it's not why people choose to spend time playing a game instead of the many other things they could be spending their time on.

It's a reason, it's not the sole reason or even necessarily a major factor.

 

[Composer99]

I've speculated that D&D is the success that it is because its current mechanics better support the kind of heroic gameplay that has predominated since the mid 1980s while being more streamlined than other modern versions of D&D.

TSR-era D&D had streamlined mechanics (well, aside from THAC0 or a lot of 1e clunkiness), but its classic dungeon-crawl and attrition-survival chassis didn't really enable heroic-style gameplay. Pre-5e WotC D&D better supported heroic play but was very crunchy.

5e basically has the advantages of both. It's baby bear's porridge, chair, and bed, as it were.

I also think this sets up a positive feedback loop with the pop culture, D&D streaming, and such.

E.g. I don't think Critical Role could have become such a sensation with any other version of D&D (or, if memory serves, Pathfinder, which I vaguely recall reading that the group might have been playing before Geek & Sundry approached them about the live play streaming show).

Or, e.g. I don't think the interest in Stranger Things would have helped D&D if the game had the unforgiving chassis of TSR days or the fiddliness of 3.X/4e.

 

[Oofta]

I've speculated that D&D is the success that it is because its current mechanics better support the kind of heroic gameplay that has predominated since the mid 1980s while being more streamlined than other modern versions of D&D.

TSR-era D&D had streamlined mechanics (well, aside from THAC0 or a lot of 1e clunkiness), but its classic dungeon-crawl and attrition-survival chassis didn't really enable heroic-style gameplay. Pre-5e WotC D&D better supported heroic play but was very crunchy.

5e basically has the advantages of both. It's baby bear's porridge, chair, and bed, as it were.

I also think this sets up a positive feedback loop with the pop culture, D&D streaming, and such.

E.g. I don't think Critical Role could have become such a sensation with any other version of D&D (or, if memory serves, Pathfinder, which I vaguely recall reading that the group might have been playing before Geek & Sundry approached them about the live play streaming show).

Or, e.g. I don't think the interest in Stranger Things would have helped D&D if the game had the unforgiving chassis of TSR days or the fiddliness of 3.X/4e.

Yes, CR's home game was PF before they started their stream. The switched to D&D because it was less finicky and flowed better. They thought it would make for better viewing.

I think they were right, and the same factors that make it better viewing also make it more enjoyable for a lot of people.

 

[Parmandur]

WotC made eth very fortuitous decision to lean into D&D as a social activity that focused on quick decision making and results calculation just as people were getting used to the fact paced high information dump world of smartphones. Sitting around a table, or even on Zoom, amd talking to your friends, rolling a few dice and sharing some beers and laughs. Poker night for needs in the Information Age.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Some people get together to have poker nights. Some for sportsball parties.
Some for movies or video games or even ye olde book club.

D&D is a group social thing for us geeks. And there are a lot more geeks now. It’s cool to be “a geek” sort of.

“Kids” today don’t know how good they have it when it comes to the nerdier hobbies compared to 20-30 years ago.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes, CR's home game was PF before they started their stream. The switched to D&D because it was less finicky and flowed better. They thought it would make for better viewing.

I think they were right, and the same factors that make it better viewing also make it more enjoyable for a lot of people.

They did a Pathfinder 1E one shot at one point, aaaand...it slowed down a lot whenever a player had to calculate their bonuses and minuses, etc. A lot.

 

[billd91]

They did a Pathfinder 1E one shot at one point, aaaand...it slowed down a lot whenever a player had to calculate their bonuses and minuses, etc. A lot.

They did a PF one shot back in 2016, but I haven’t watched it.

Interestingly enough, you see a lot of vestiges of PF in the early episodes of Campaign 1, since they had just converted over to 5e from PF.

 

[Parmandur]

They did a PF one shot back in 2016, but I haven’t watched it.

Interestingly enough, you see a lot of vestiges of PF in the early episodes of Campaign 1, since they had just converted over to 5e from PF.

It was kind of rough as a viewing experience: and having started with 3.5, it all seemed very familiar, do it wasn't just them. There is a certain...flow yo modern D&D, that 3E would get in the way of.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

RPGs still niche but D&D was the first in a somewhat popular genre.

One of the things I learned in business school was that being first entrant into a market is the single biggest factor correlated to success in that market. More than 60% of market leaders across all industries were the first entrants (or successors in interest).

That advantage isn’t unassailable, clearly, but it’s huge. The #1s still need to work hard and adapt to maintain their power or they’ll be surpassed by competitors.