D&D 5E Are we at, or close, to peak D&D? Again?

[Mercurius]

It's not actually possible to try too hard to emulate the Marvel films, merely succeeding to do so or failing to do so. Not trying hard enough to emulate them is the greater failure, particularly for D&D which has always had the same tonal pitch as Marvel material, from OD&D onwards (heck, the OD&D artist just plagiarized their favorite Marvel artists oftentimes).

I'm not really sure what you mean here, re: "tonal pitch."

My concern is about emulating certain elements of Marvel films that are borne out of the context of the MCU. They work for MCU, but I don't think would work for fantasy - even D&D.

As far as the "tonal pitch," I'm not sure there is a one-size-fits-all for D&D. There's almost always humor at the tables I've played at, but most of the time it is between the players, not the characters. MCU humor, by the nature of the medium, is between the characters, although referential and winking at the audience. That is my concern, and think it will probably not work, or at least not be to my taste. Meaning, in-game jokes are fine at the table, but I don't want to see them on the screen. I'd rather be immersed in the world of the story and not be reminded "this is a D&D movie!"

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Somebody is going to come up with a game-changing VTT. The market's there for something that looks much better than Roll20 with a much less steep learning curve.

No kidding. Roll20 has a really horrible UX. I think the problem though is that there simply isn't THAT much money in RPGs that an ancillary product like a VTT can obtain the resources required to be good. I mean, AAA games are $200 million affairs. Even basic web applications require several million to develop (trust me, it feeds me). Something like a VTT is NOT a basic application, it is a gruelingly complex one, which really would take several 100 million dollars to 'do right' (and I'm just talking about functionality similar to what we see today, just polished and perfected, not some magical 3D whatever whatever). An industry which probably doesn't total IN ITS ENTIRETY at $1 billion will simply never achieve that sort of level of investment.

Eventually coding and UX will all be reduced down to a largely automated AI/ML driven affair where you can pencil in what you want, and some machine somewhere can mostly build it for you, at which point we'll have things like awesome VTTs, but that era is at least 10-15 years away, maybe longer. I expect sometime approaching 2040 playing D&D online will be a pretty amazing experience. The question then is whether D&D will actually be a desirable activity to put into that context, per se.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not really sure what you mean here, re: "tonal pitch."

My concern is about emulating certain elements of Marvel films that are borne out of the context of the MCU. They work for MCU, but I don't think would work for fantasy - even D&D.

As far as the "tonal pitch," I'm not sure there is a one-size-fits-all for D&D. There's almost always humor at the tables I've played at, but most of the time it is between the players, not the characters. MCU humor, by the nature of the medium, is between the characters, although referential and winking at the audience. That is my concern, and think it will probably not work, or at least not be to my taste. Meaning, in-game jokes are fine at the table, but I don't want to see them on the screen. I'd rather be immersed in the world of the story and not be reminded "this is a D&D movie!"

The tone of the published books particularly, and play evident in my own group and other observed groups.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Grimdark reinterpretations only work if you're doing a reinterpretation. Ya can't reinterpret something the audience doesn't know. You can do a dark Batman or Superman film because everyone knows Batman and Superman. You can do the WITCHER as dark fairy tales because everyone knows fairy tales, and the Netflix version just matches the original

You can't do a grimdark version of DnD cause no one in the audience will know the original. Ya gotta go GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

 

[Emerikol]

To the original posters question: Are we at peak D&D or are we anywhere near what was happening in the late seventies and early eighties?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer:
While the sales totals may be bigger, the total number of people impacted is not. Go to a school and find out how often D&D comes up in conversation. If it's not all the time, then you don't have 80's penetration.

 

[payn]

Isnt that a bit anecdotal?

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

To the original posters question: Are we at peak D&D or are we anywhere near what was happening in the late seventies and early eighties?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer:
While the sales totals may be bigger, the total number of people impacted is not. Go to a school and find out how often D&D comes up in conversation. If it's not all the time, then you don't have 80's penetration.

Spend a lot of time lurking around Middle and High Schools?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Ignore post

 

[Morrus]

Spend a lot of time lurking around Middle and High Schools?

What the hell was that for? Don’t insult other members or obliquely accuse them of crimes, please.

 

[Parmandur]

To the original posters question: Are we at peak D&D or are we anywhere near what was happening in the late seventies and early eighties?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer:
While the sales totals may be bigger, the total number of people impacted is not. Go to a school and find out how often D&D comes up in conversation. If it's not all the time, then you don't have 80's penetration.

Ignoring the unpleasantry...do you have data to back that up? I feel safe assuming that for tons of people who went to high school in the 1980's, D&D never came up at all, and for plenty of Gen Zers D&D comes up all the time at school (as noted above, more Middle Schoolers currently play the game than Baby Boomers or Gen Xers combined).