D&D General D&D's Utter Dominance Is Good or Bad Because...

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, kinda.

TTRPGs is not a big enough money industry to maintain itself at its current level without leaning or pooling on other industries to create its moneybase.

But how much of "the current level" is already factoring the massive buy-in to D&D? Is there some reason to believe if you pull out WOTC and the companies directly dependent on them (i.e. who make their living primary on D&D supplemental products) that the rest would suddenly have a problem? Seems like pretty rank speculation. You can maybe argue there'd be problems over time as that gateway stopped feeding new people into the overall hobby, but even that's based on the people who move to other games from D&D is significantly larger than peopel who start with the others in the first place, and in any case it'd hardly be immediate.

 

[Thomas Shey]

But the TTRPG market shrunk during that time and its reach was the smallest.

That's largely speculative. All that can really be said was that a certain number of bigger older companies had failed, but when examined, they all failed for reasons that would apply if the same things happened with them today.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

My goal in video games is usually just to see how far I can get, and have fun doing it. Is there another?

Ok. That seems like the same goal for me. Get as far as possible. Trying to win.

 

[Minigiant]

But how much of "the current level" is already factoring the massive buy-in to D&D? Is there some reason to believe if you pull out WOTC and the companies directly dependent on them (i.e. who make their living primary on D&D supplemental products) that the rest would suddenly have a problem? Seems like pretty rank speculation. You can maybe argue there'd be problems over time as that gateway stopped feeding new people into the overall hobby, but even that's based on the people who move to other games from D&D is significantly larger than peopel who start with the others in the first place, and in any case it'd hardly be immediate.

Well there aren't that many TTRPG companies out their trying to make a new entry point into TTRPGs.
The vast majority have their business model based on converting D&D players. Especially for Fantasy TTRPGs.

I've love for some other companies to really give it a try.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Well there aren't that many TTRPG companies out their trying to make a new entry point into TTRPGs.

Doesn't seem at all supported. New people are trying to wedge their way in all the time as Kickstarter shows. They don't always have a lot of money behind them--but then, that's been true of a lot of companies from day one--but they give it a try and see if it can get them anywhere. Modiphus is hardly the normal model even for some of what ended up being relatively big, long lasting companies in this hobby.

 

[Minigiant]

Doesn't seem at all supported. New people are trying to wedge their way in all the time as Kickstarter shows. They don't always have a lot of money behind them--but then, that's been true of a lot of companies from day one--but they give it a try and see if it can get them anywhere. Modiphus is hardly the normal model even for some of what ended up being relatively big, long lasting companies in this hobby.

Ehhh.. many of those big RPGs Kickstarters for full RPGs come off with big "We're making a Better D&D/CoC/VTM" energy catered t players of those games.

Nothing wrong with it. But it is relying on D&D's or whatever's dominance over the genre.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But how much of "the current level" is already factoring the massive buy-in to D&D? Is there some reason to believe if you pull out WOTC and the companies directly dependent on them (i.e. who make their living primary on D&D supplemental products) that the rest would suddenly have a problem? Seems like pretty rank speculation. You can maybe argue there'd be problems over time as that gateway stopped feeding new people into the overall hobby, but even that's based on the people who move to other games from D&D is significantly larger than peopel who start with the others in the first place, and in any case it'd hardly be immediate.

The thing to take away from this discussion is, there's nothing more important than getting as many people in the world as possible to play WotC D&D, and anyone with different priorities needs to figure that out, apparently.

Right?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ok. That seems like the same goal for me. Get as far as possible. Trying to win.

Winning is nice, but I don't have less fun if I don't. Maybe that's just me.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Speaking if the big dog and marketing and how it effects other games just look at the Adventure Time RPG.

It was going to be its own system that many said looked a lot of fun. Then they decided they might make more money by just making it a 5E game.

Better for their business? Probably. Better for creativity and the hobby? Probably not.

I was going to purchase it until they switched.

Look at The One Ring and its 5E counter part. Every review I’ve read says the TOR version emulates Tolkien’s world better. They could have just as easily just made a 5E version.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Ehhh.. many of those big RPGs Kickstarters for full RPGs come off with big "We're making a Better D&D/CoC/VTM" energy catered t players of those games.

I won't say that's not true, or that they may not be trying to horn into some other extent game's turf (the last two I backed were clearly trying to eat Shadowrun's lunch), but even the ones that do are usually trying to grab part of D&D's market they perceive as poorly served. Basically, only in the D&D-sphere does everyone think D&D is well-designed for every fantasy campaign.

Nothing wrong with it. But it is relying on D&D's or whatever's dominance over the genre.

Or simply acknowledging it. Not to do so makes you look like you've been living in a cave, as does some marketing that talks about "no classes!" or similar things like that's a brand new idea.