D&D 5E New D&D Player Survey!

[Lanefan]

I ran into an error (likely previously discussed here at length) where a question asked how much D&D I have played other than 5th edition in the past 5 years (I answered none), and then asked why I have not played any D&D in the past 12 months. What?

I got almost the reverse: I told it I'd played D&D within the last (12 months?) and then got a barrage of 5e-specific questions regarding that time frame; as if it assumed that the D&D I'd played during that time had been 5e.

Lots of zeroes in those answers.

 

[Parmandur]

I deny your claim that everything was thrown at the wall equally. Again, look at what settings ... no, sorry, setting, was the only one Wizard's published officially for a significant fraction of 5e's lifespan. Look at the list of settings in the D&D survey and tell me with a straight face that there were no half measures and each was supported similarly in each edition of D&D.

Because if they weren't "thrown at the wall" equally, then that doesn't refute the point I made.

So what? In a money making enterprise, what makes money tends to get attention over the long run. It really is as simple as that.

 

[Blue]

So what? In a money making enterprise, what makes money tends to get attention over the long run. It really is as simple as that.

Sure, but that's not the point under discussion.

Your original thesis was that "...your finger exactly on why the Forgotten Realms is perennially the most popular across 5 Editions: it is the easiest to mold and customize because it isn't burdened with excess flavor."

My point was that it's popularity has a number of reasons, especially the large amount of support, and your claim of why it was the most popular doesn't stand up.

Let's make sure we don't wander from debating a specific point to just trying to win an argument on the internet.

Are you now agreeing that a good measure of it's popularity was from the pushes that Wizard's gave it?

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but that's not the point under discussion.

Your original thesis was that "...your finger exactly on why the Forgotten Realms is perennially the most popular across 5 Editions: it is the easiest to mold and customize because it isn't burdened with excess flavor."

My point was that it's popularity has a number of reasons, especially the large amount of support, and your claim of why it was the most popular doesn't stand up.

Let's make sure we don't wander from debating a specific point to just trying to win an argument on the internet.

Are you now agreeing that a good measure of it's popularity was from the pushes that Wizard's gave it?

Chicken and egg problem. They go hand in hand.

The secret sauce to get things going was Greenwood, in my book: he happily, joyfully supported the Setting for decades. Can't buy that sort of ambassadorship. Fairly similar to the current popularity of Exandria, actuslly.

 

[Blue]

Chicken and egg problem. They go hand in hand.

The secret sauce to get things going was Greenwood, in my book: he happily, joyfully supported the Setting for decades. Can't buy that sort of ambassadorship. Fairly similar to the current popularity of Exandria, actuslly.

Except that you have yet to demonstrate that "least flavor so easiest to mold" is actually a contributor to the FR popularity in any meaningful way. You haven't provided anything to support your point, you've just been trying to shoot mine down. Now that you acknowledge what I was saying, you can't magially handwave and grant an unsupported point the same weight.

Someone could make that "the most lore to know" from all of the novels and books makes it the hardest to run. Some could argue that with what the average gamer knows about Greyhawk that it has the point you are trying to support.

 

[Azzy]

Ugh. The FR tangent is really something. It also is lacking in context. Forgotten Realms took over as the "default" setting (as it were) after the ouster of Gygax and was the only setting that was supported post-Gygax to the end of 1e aside from from two one-off books (Greyhawk Adventures and Dragonlance Adventures and a series of modules (Dragonlance and possibly for OA—I don't remember if the first OA modules predate or postdate 2e).

When 2e dropped, FR remained the flagship setting (with GH not receiving any attention except to spit on it until From The Ashes, and Dragonlance only getting support for Taladas, the other continent). Then the glut of settings began—though those that weren't FR mostly received only limited-run support (like Spelljammer, Dark Sun, etc.) with only FR getting consistent support.

3e came and made GH the default setting (which, in reality, ensured that the setting had very little actual product support), while FR dominated the scene with a seemingly endless supply of products. Aside from some one-off books, it wasn't until 3.5 and Eberron that WotC supported anything aside from FR.

4e, I wasn't around for, but it seems the default Nentir Vale setting got a lot implied support (but no actual campaign setting book), and then there was FR to carry the day with Eberron and Dark Sun seeing some love.

5e has been mostly about the FR again (though mainly through the adventures), but since WotC has been pushing one-off setting books like a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.

The Forgotten Realms has been set up for success since TSR first released the grey box with more support than any other setting. Sure, there (especially in 1e) are some great things about the setting that helped made it popular, but to contend that a consistent glut of support, that other settings didn't have, hasn't factored into FR's popularity would be grievously mistaken. FR has been the favored child since it first release and it shows.

 

[Parmandur]

Except that you have yet to demonstrate that "least flavor so easiest to mold" is actually a contributor to the FR popularity in any meaningful way. You haven't provided anything to support your point, you've just been trying to shoot mine down. Now that you acknowledge what I was saying, you can't magially handwave and grant an unsupported point the same weight.

Someone could make that "the most lore to know" from all of the novels and books makes it the hardest to run. Some could argue that with what the average gamer knows about Greyhawk that it has the point you are trying to support.

Hey, just calling it like I see it. My experience of the Forgotten Realms supports that, and Perkins has said that Forgotten Realms products sell to a majority of fans because a little over a quarter play in the Forgotten Realms, and a little more than a quarter play in a generic homebrew and like to have raw material (such as the portable FR Adventure books). Like, dislike it, take it, or leave it. The Setting works well for generic high fantasy, it is wonderfully vanilla.

 

[MNblockhead]

Anecdotally, in my experience, gamers who are interested in highly stylized, deep settings, gravitate to other systems. For D&D it seems the most popular settings, either published by TSR/WotC or by third parties (Mystara, Greyhawk, Forgotton Realms, Paizo's Golarian, Kobold Press's Midgard, Frog God Game's The Lost Lands) are all kitchen sink settings with slightly different spice racks.

I believe that decades of D&D have shown that the market gravitates towards kitchen sink settings. A DM can run such a setting and easily mix in elements from other settings. Players can easily work in their character concepts and just join a session or campaign without having to think too much about whether their characters will be a good fit. DMs who home brew their own setting can easily integrate content from a kitchen sink setting.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Hey, just calling it like I see it. My experience of the Forgotten Realms supports that, and Perkins has said that Forgotten Realms products sell to a majority of fans because a little over a quarter play in the Forgotten Realms, and a little more than a quarter play in a generic homebrew and like to have raw material (such as the portable FR Adventure books). Like, dislike it, take it, or leave it. The Setting works well for generic high fantasy, it is wonderfully vanilla.

I think that's right, and I also think it's a truth hard to see sometimes if one frequents EN World. The people who congregate here tend to be pretty serious about the hobby and often lose sight of just how unserious it is to so, so many others. In the party I'm DMing you would be very hard pressed to find anyone who fusses much about lore inconsistencies in FR or any other settings; they just wanna eat pretzels, fight monsters, and visit strange new lands.

I think most casual players are like this and I also think most players are casual players. I certainly was until it came time for me to DM.

 

[darjr]

My last game was less than two hours. There was a deadly fight with two PCs downed and an extended interaction/negotiation with an inn keeper and a big chunk with the PCs dancing and exchanging weird trinkets with ghostly glowing lights, ie shopping via barter.