D&D General Ray Winninger on 5e’s success, product cadence, the OGL, and more.

[Dire Bare]

That's odd. Elves and, to a lesser extent, dwarves are not uncommon in modern anime (admittedly, much of it is low-quality, samey anime). I wouldn't have expected that, but then I'm an out-of-touch 50 yo.

I think the difference is . . . in the 80s when I grew up, Tolkeinesque fantasy DOMINATED the fantasy genre, including the D&D game.

Elves and dwarves are still represented in anime and other modern fantasy, but not in the same dominant degree as in earlier decades.

Plus, odd characters with weird hair or pointy ears are certainly all over anime . . . but how distinguishable as a "species" are these characters? I'm sure that varies by story, but . . .

Animal people? Hard to miss.

I watched Robotech on late-night broadcast TV back in the day, but other than that, have never been much of an anime fan. I just watched the final season of Arcane on Netflix and the more fuzzy or piscine non-human characters stood out . . . I can't honestly remember if there were any "elf" type characters in the show.

Most of my students watch anime. Many of them have never watched Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, few of them read for pleasure in any genre. My book nerds ARE into fantasy and sci-fi YA, but Tolkeinesque tropes no longer dominate the genre. When I get a kid who DOES get those old-school fantasy tropes . . . it's because they have a dad who has been feeding it to them since they were little.

 

[Azzy]

few of them read for pleasure in any genre.

That saddens me.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I've found myself struggling to explain to an 11 year old what exactly a dwarf or elf is. They are all over the animal-person races like dragonborn, owlin, and giff! Elves, dwarves, and halflings are boring.

When me and my friends started with the Red Box, no one played a Halfling because we had no idea what it was supposed to be. Months later I visited a Hobby Shop to get books that you couldn't find at the toy store, and I overheard a couple of grogs talking about D&D elves being too short. Didn't know wtf they were talking about.

 

[WinningerR]

That was great fun. Thanks for listening everyone.

 

[bedir than]

Why on earth did they ever get away from these big events? I actually felt that did so much to drum up attention for Tomb of Annihilation, the Waterdeep adventures and Descent into Avernus...and then they just faded away. Was there a noticeable before/after with those events? Declining returns?

Those events stopped because of a global pandemic.
And now the people that organized them are no longer with WotC.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Elves and dwarves are still represented in anime and other modern fantasy, but not in the same dominant degree as in earlier decades.

Plus, odd characters with weird hair or pointy ears are certainly all over anime . . . but how distinguishable as a "species" are these characters? I'm sure that varies by story, but . . .

Animal people? Hard to miss.

I'm finally watching Delicious in Dungeon (I'm not a big anime consumer) and while there is a dwarf and, I guess, an elf and a halfing in the main group, the latter two haven't ever been name-checked as such.

Meanwhile, the dog people in the other adventuring parties are clearly the most interesting non-human species I've seen so far, including having a better-than-human scent ability.

If I were someone coming to D&D through Delicious in Dungeon -- which seems like a likely vector for some new players -- the dog people would be what I'd be looking for in the PHB. (Insert standard bafflement about why 5E seems to have zero interest in dog people.)

 

[darjr]

Those events stopped because of a global pandemic.
And now the people that organized them are no longer with WotC.

I think they petered out before then, didn’t they?

I did a “Tour of Annihilation” because if it. I ran D&D at 9 different game stores in the area, friends did two more. In ten days straight.

 

[Azzy]

I'm finally watching Delicious in Dungeon (I'm not a big anime consumer) and while there is a dwarf and, I guess, an elf and a halfing in the main group, the latter two haven't ever been name-checked as such.

I haven't watched that yet.

Meanwhile, the dog people in the other adventuring parties are clearly the most interesting non-human species I've seen so far, including having a better-than-human scent ability.

If I were someone coming to D&D through Delicious in Dungeon -- which seems like a likely vector for some new players -- the dog people would be what I'd be looking for in the PHB. (Insert standard bafflement about why 5E seems to have zero interest in dog people.)

And D&D has its own dog people in Mystara's Lupin. I am surprised that they haven't been updated to 5e considering we have four bird people, two cat people, a cow person, etc..

 

[TiQuinn]

Those events stopped because of a global pandemic.
And now the people that organized them are no longer with WotC.

Possibly. Would love to hear from Mike though if he had thoughts on it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Meanwhile, the dog people in the other adventuring parties are clearly the most interesting non-human species I've seen so far, including having a better-than-human scent ability.

The dog people in Dungeon Meshi are Kobolds.