D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[PsyzhranV2]

So D&D has its own expectations.
All these other "better" rpga no one players them. The sacred cows exist for a reason.

D&D's sacred cows are entirely incidental to its market dominance. It's status as the 800 lb gorilla is more about having Hasbro money, name recognition, and celebrity connections. Other RPG designers and studios don't have access to those resources and social clout. Doesn't stop them from making games that are superior in mechanical design to D&D.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I’ve come to the conclusion over time that Kobold Press is, overall, quite bad at balance.

This is true. They're okay at designing races, I haven't seen any race that they've designed that I would say was as OP as Yuan-Ti Pureblood or as weak as Dragonborn, but their subclasses are all over the place.

 

[Oofta]

D&D's sacred cows are entirely incidental to its market dominance. It's status as the 800 lb gorilla is more about having Hasbro money, name recognition, and celebrity connections. Other RPG designers and studios don't have access to those resources and social clout. Doesn't stop them from making games that are superior in mechanical design to D&D.

D&D 5E works well enough for a whole heck of a lot of people. You only need to look at the year after year growth that has happened. The celebrity connections are there because the game works and ... wait for it ... some of the people who enjoy it happen to be celebrities. Matt Mercer's campaign (before CR started streaming) was a PathFinder campaign. They switched because they like the system better.

Your claim may have been accurate with previous editions that had a big spike at version introduction and a drop off after the fans got the books. The sales trajectory of 5E is something that hasn't been replicated since the 80s. Being the 800 lbs gorilla doesn't hurt but that's not the end of the story.

It may not be the game for you, no game is the right one for everyone. It certainly has it's warts. I'm sure there are other games out there that do some things I would prefer, but it works for me well enough that I see no need to go elsewhere. YMMV.

 

[Zardnaar]

D&D's sacred cows are entirely incidental to its market dominance. It's status as the 800 lb gorilla is more about having Hasbro money, name recognition, and celebrity connections. Other RPG designers and studios don't have access to those resources and social clout. Doesn't stop them from making games that are superior in mechanical design to D&D.

You forgot to stick an imho on that.

4E tanked because people didn't like it.

I would guess 5E is popular because people like it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You forgot to stick an imho on that.

4E tanked because people didn't like it.

I would guess 5E is popular because people like it.

4e didn’t even tank, of course, and the upswing in D&D’s popularity started during 4e.

But yes 5e has regained the top spot for D&D because a wider swath of people like it, and because it’s easy to get into, and because few people feel like they need more than the PHB, and other related reasons.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hmmm.

True.

But...what if it did?

It objectively didn’t, so the hypothetical is irrelevant.

 

[Minigiant]

D&D 5E works well enough for a whole heck of a lot of people. You only need to look at the year after year growth that has happened. The celebrity connections are there because the game works and ... wait for it ... some of the people who enjoy it happen to be celebrities. Matt Mercer's campaign (before CR started streaming) was a PathFinder campaign. They switched because they like the system better.

The key words are "a lot of people".
D&D hasn't been a niche game for decades now and the fandom grows by the day. Both TSR and WOTC wanted a wide net and designed a game for a lot of different kinds of fantasy fans.

The wide appeal means it is worse at honing down on specific tones and systems of fantasy.

What D&D does best is taking the familiar, twisting a few of the ideas, and adding ideas from the outside. If you want to play any genre, style, or tone straight, there are tons of games better at that than that. D&D is best at mixing ideas as it itslef is a host of classes, races, monsters, items, and other ideas from all over.

Hence why I don't get the heavy traditionalism in D&D's GM community. If you are have a style, genre, tone, or image you want to run over and over and have been for a long time, there are probably a better RPG for it by now.

D&D without a constant stream of spice just feels like a massive compromise.

 

[Oofta]

4e didn’t even tank, of course, and the upswing in D&D’s popularity started during 4e.

But yes 5e has regained the top spot for D&D because a wider swath of people like it, and because it’s easy to get into, and because few people feel like they need more than the PHB, and other related reasons.

Right, which is why the game days in a major metro area I helped run went from 50+ attendees to 10 or so and D&D lost it's top slot for the first time ever. D&D 5E was a Hail Mary. Fortunately it worked.

 

[Oofta]

The key words are "a lot of people".
D&D hasn't been a niche game for decades now and the fandom grows by the day. Both TSR and WOTC wanted a wide net and designed a game for a lot of different kinds of fantasy fans.

The wide appeal means it is worse at honing down on specific tones and systems of fantasy.

What D&D does best is taking the familiar, twisting a few of the ideas, and adding ideas from the outside. If you want to play any genre, style, or tone straight, there are tons of games better at that than that. D&D is best at mixing ideas as it itslef is a host of classes, races, monsters, items, and other ideas from all over.

Hence why I don't get the heavy traditionalism in D&D's GM community. If you are have a style, genre, tone, or image you want to run over and over and have been for a long time, there are probably a better RPG for it by now.

D&D without a constant stream of spice just feels like a massive compromise.

All I can say is that for me, the stories I and my group matter more than the system as long as the system does an adequate job. The fact that it supports many different styles is a strength, not a weakness. YMMV and as for the rest ... millions of people who have started playing since 5E was released seem to disagree.

But hey, what do I know. Other than that D&D is more popular than ever. Must be because we have such a crap edition.

 

[Minigiant]

All I can say is that for me, the stories I and my group matter more than the system as long as the system does an adequate job. The fact that it supports many different styles is a strength, not a weakness. YMMV and as for the rest ... millions of people who have started playing since 5E was released seem to disagree.

But hey, what do I know. Other than that D&D is more popular than ever. Must be because we have such a crap edition.

I agree with you.

My point is 5e succeeded because WOTC had the money and D&D had the fame to make 5e into a "Fantasy Gaming for Almost Everyone" edition at the start and buy people in earlier. This is different form 2e, 3e, and 4e which were made into rigid games for subgroups of RPG fans and expanded later with a march of extra books and articles.

Hence why I don't why some fans don't get why other fans like some optional stuff in 5e. 5e was literally designed to catch all kinds of fans.