D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Oofta]

Nothing you just said contradicts anything I just said.

Then I have no idea what you were talking about.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure. To be clear, I didn't say rock music is no longer accessible. I'm simply saying as a genre, it has relatively little impact on current developments within mainstream music, other than as a source of inheritance.

Rappers are the new rock stars.

Ok. Not sure what relevance degree of impact on current developments in gaming has though.

 

[TwoSix]

Not really, you missed the important part

Spoiler

The ages of the members of the Japanese metal band Babymetal are:
Su-Metal (Suzuka Nakamoto): Born December 20, 1997, she is currently 26 years old
Yui-Metal (Yui Mizuno): Born June 20, 1999, she is currently 25 years old
Moa-Metal (Moa Kikuchi): Born July 4, 1999, she is currently 25 years old
Babymetal is a Japanese band that combines heavy metal and Japanese idol genres. The band was formed in 2010 and has released multiple albums and won several awards. In 2014, when the band was on average 14.7 years old, they became the youngest female act to perform at the Budokan.

The band I went to see wasn't even born 30 years ago. Coincidentally, the brightline I took has only been running about 5.

"OSR" might not be a hotbed of innovation°, but 2024 d&d is just more of the same 2014. Innovation with new stuff today is found in stuff like draw steel and maybe dc20 while d&d is locked in a holding pattern with a frozen play style

°or it could be I dunno &not arguing either way.

Oh, I missed that reference. But again, and I think this should be fairly obvious, singular exceptions don't prove points about the current mainstream.

If you want to see what I mean about "rock music", just look at the Billboard charts from December 1994 compared to this month. This is just conventional wisdom stuff.

And I certainly wouldn't hold up current D&D as a hotbed of innovation. I don't remember if I even mentioned innovation?

But there's almost certainly way more innovation in the OSR space than in the "D&D-like" space. "D&D-like" competitors require a higher production standard; much like AAA video games, there's a lot more copying of what's currently successful.

 

[TwoSix]

Ok. Not sure what relevance degree of impact on current developments in gaming has though.

It was a metaphor. Comparing the cultural ascendance of rock music 30 years ago with the ascendance of prep-heavy trad games 30 years ago.

Both are present, but not ascendant in 2024.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Don't the rules associated with D&D's 'most successful years' give players the ability to decide when their character is lucky, when they're inspired, and all the player-authored worldbuilding background traits that we were talking about?

Who's to say what people are responding to? All we really know is that WotC makes a lot of money off 5e and 5.5 D&D as they present it. I wouldn't make any assumptions as to exactly why and what they like best about such that they are willing to throw money at WotC for it.

 

[Emerikol]

It was a metaphor. Comparing the cultural ascendance of rock music 30 years ago with the ascendance of prep-heavy trad games 30 years ago.

Both are present, but not ascendant in 2024.

I disagree even with that...they obviously aren't ascending as they were in 1978 but they are ascending relative to the 3e and 4e eras. Some new players are finding out that there is a way they like more when they play in an OSR game. It all goes back to preferences and people have different ones.

 

[TwoSix]

I disagree even with that...they obviously aren't ascending as they were in 1978 but they are ascending relative to the 3e and 4e eras. Some new players are finding out that there is a way they like more when they play in an OSR game. It all goes back to preferences and people have different ones.

Yes, but that's a fairly facile statement.

"What preferences of playstyle do you have?"
"Why do you have those preferences?"
"Do those preferences make you prefer certain games over others?"
"Do your preferences shift if you're playing one set of mechanics over another?"
"If I have a different set of preferences, will they clash with you as a DM? As a player? Can a different game or set of mechanics minimize that clash?"
"How common are my playstyle preferences? Will it be easy or hard to find a like-minded group of individuals with whom my preferences don't clash?"

Those are all more interesting questions, just in the context of the subject of the OP.

 

[Oofta]

I disagree even with that...they obviously aren't ascending as they were in 1978 but they are ascending relative to the 3e and 4e eras. Some new players are finding out that there is a way they like more when they play in an OSR game. It all goes back to preferences and people have different ones.

First, I disagree with this idea the prep heavy games (whatever that means) are going away. Plenty of modules are still being sold that wouldn't have been out of place decades ago.

While I've never run prep heavy games if I understand what the term is supposed to mean, I also don't see why it matters or why anyone would feel the need to repeatedly make the claims that people who still support a style are just clinging to the past.

 

[Maxperson]

 

[prabe]

First, I disagree with this idea the prep heavy games (whatever that means) are going away. Plenty of modules are still being sold that wouldn't have been out of place decades ago.

While I've never run prep heavy games if I understand what the term is supposed to mean, I also don't see why it matters or why anyone would feel the need to repeatedly make the claims that people who still support a style are just clinging to the past.

There's a pretty strong argument that anyone running a published adventure is running a prep-heavy game, it's just that they aren't doing the heavy prep. I guess someone could look at polling to see what people are running, I'm sure that polling's been done somewhere kinda recently-ish, but I'm mostly inclined to leave finding it as an exercise for the interested student.