D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

[UngainlyTitan]

I like me a bit of Jane Austen.

I have read some Austen but not all because I find that I cannot recall it afterward. I think it may relate to my near total inability to recall names, (This extends into the real world), perhaps I should watch more of the movie and TV adaptations. Then I could relate the characters to the actors faces. Hmmm, food for thought.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have read some Austen but not all because I find that I cannot recall it afterward. I think it may relate to my near total ability to recall names, (This extends into the real world), perhaps I should watch more of the movie and TV adaptations. Then I could relate the characters to the actors faces. Hmmm, food for thought.

The names in Austen are a lot less weird than the typical fantasy!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The names in Austen are a lot less weird than the typical fantasy!

Does not matter, I cannot recall names in real life, I can just totally blank, even with people I know, I can meet someone in the street and I can tell you how many kids they have, where they work and so on but not their name. It will pop back into my head on a random day in the next couple of weeks.
Real people, actors, the characters they played, characters in novels, people in history. There was a time I could have walked you through the battle of Waterloo (for example) maybe not hour by hour but phase by phase and not remember a single divisional or corps commander.

 

[Bohandas]

There was a time I could have walked you through the battle of Waterloo (for example) maybe not hour by hour but phase by phase and not remember a single divisional or corps commander.

There's an argument to be made that those names aren't important anyway, at least as compared to the other details

 

[SteveC]

I looked at Amazon for the top-selling Kindle books in the Fantasy genre, and I can see what the "rom-fantasy" folks are talking about. The top 20 books, full of "New York Times Bestseller!" and "Upcoming Film!" are pretty much all in that genre, and looking at them, I didn't see anything I wanted to read. I'm very glad Fantasy casts a broad shadow, and there are lots of books and authors I do like.

What I do find interesting is that these super-popular books don't really look like D&D would be a good fit for them. It seems like there would be a market for a game targeting that kind of story as an entry point. I'm going to show my age by saying the last system I know of that targeted that style of play was Blue Rose. There must be something along those lines that's newer and an active line. I definitely see a market for this but I've no idea how to get those readers to know about RPGs.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

There's an argument to be made that those names aren't important anyway, at least as compared to the other details

Sure but it is a social killer

 

[TiQuinn]

Does not matter, I cannot recall names in real life, I can just totally blank, even with people I know, I can meet someone in the street and I can tell you how many kids they have, where they work and so on but not their name. It will pop back into my head on a random day in the next couple of weeks.
Real people, actors, the characters they played, characters in novels, people in history. There was a time I could have walked you through the battle of Waterloo (for example) maybe not hour by hour but phase by phase and not remember a single divisional or corps commander.

This happens to me all the time. You always hear about those people who meet someone and instantly remember their names, and everything about them, and for me, I have to hear your name at least two or three times and link it something you do or say before I’ll remember someone.

 

[Mournblade94]

You keep bringing up “prevalence” as if that’s the only thing populating fantasy bookshelves and yet I still see plenty of Sanderson, Martin and other writers who do not write in that style. This to say nothing of the various other genre writers (horror, sci-fi, crime, and so on) that are not writing romantasy or coffee shop cozy books. It’s as if the existence of these books at all is the affront.

Prevalence has never meant only. I know what is populating the fantasy bookshelves. Cozy and romantasy wouldn't be on Horror and Crime book shelves. The suggestion that these books are an affront came from you not from me.

 

[Mournblade94]

This is sexist nonsense. I (male) like cosy escapist fiction (especially after the relentless tide of grimdarkness we have had in recent years). My (female) partner enjoys gory hardcore crime thrillers. My late mother also enjoyed violent thrillers. People tell children what they think they should be reading based on their gender and this creates a bias.

No its not. Publishers know this. Why is it that the Romance genre has so few male readers? There are men that read romance but theyre not the target audience. Most men aren't reading coffee shop books and most women aren't reading military fiction. This sentiment will be said in the same breath as REH is not popular for women.

Maybe don't be so quick to judge. The statistics are there to support this and in no way did I say anything sexist. That's absurd.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Why is it that the Romance genre has so few male readers

Because men have been taught that reading romance makes them insufficiently macho, and most are too insecure not to conform (or at least admitting to it).