What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

[Zaukrie]

I just don't have the time or desire to learn a new game...I'm already overwhelmed remembering the DnD rules for this version vs the other ten (exaggeration?) versions I've played.

I agree with @mearls, design a damn adventure assuming we use a VTT.

I think what I'm missing, and it likely because I'm 61, is a sense of adventure, of awe. No idea how to get that from DnD at this point.

 

[overgeeked]

I think what I'm missing, and it likely because I'm 61, is a sense of adventure, of awe. No idea how to get that from DnD at this point.

Generally the more familiar you are with something the less it's able to inspire that sense of awe or wonder or adventure. The best way to overcome that is try new things. A style of play you've never done before, a style of adventures you've never done before, or try a new game...

I just don't have the time or desire to learn a new game...I'm already overwhelmed remembering the DnD rules for this version vs the other ten (exaggeration?) versions I've played.

Well, there you go. But you should know there are heaps of games that are way lighter on rules than D&D out there, so don't assume learning a new game would be anywhere near as daunting as learning a new edition of D&D, keeping track of all the rules, or keeping the different editions separate in your head.

 

[payn]

Pathfinder started out as a means of continuing to make adventure paths. That was the killer app Paizo had discovered via Dungeon: selling a full campaign rather than standalone adventures. They did make standalones as well, but nowadays they're down to about one or two of those per year (plus Pathfinder Society offerings), because they don't sell all that well. And even the standalones are now meant to cover 3-6 levels – it feels a lot like Paizo's APs (who now mostly are three parts long and either cover level 1-10 or 11-20) and their standalones are converging.

The problem with standalone adventures is that the target audience is tiny. For the PHB, the target audience is "Everyone who wants to be a player." Then you have rule expansions like Xanathar's or Tasha's, whose target audience is "Players who want new stuff." After that you have the DMG and MM, whose target audience are "Everyone who wants to run a game." Additional monster books are aimed at "DMs who want new stuff." Setting sourcebooks try to sell to "DMs who think this setting seems cool." Campaign-length adventures want "DMs looking to start a new campaign." And finally, standalone adventures want "DMs whose party is in this particular level range and who want this specific type of adventure."

This is particularly problematic in a game like D&D where the power differential between low and high levels is extraordinarily high. A 5th level party would absolutely demolish a 1st level adventure, and in turn get smashed by a 10th level one. And if you want to make cool adventures, you probably want to tie them into the world somehow, but an Eberron adventure focused around house Deneith potentially making a bid to expand their military power base (influenced by agents of the Dreaming Dark) would be really hard to put into a Forgotten Realms campaign that's mainly set in the High Forest.

Recently, Paizo announced doing module subscription in pocket size. So, they are bringing it back, but no they wont be filling any physical shelves with them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Answer to the OP: optimistic space opera with fun starship combat.

Small Angry Planet RPG?

There was an effort to do something like this, unofficially. I don't know if the Kickstarter campaign ever produced anything.

 

[MGibster]

What you are missing is that people don't buy stand alone adventures in enough numbers to interest WotC. But they do buy them enough to sustain smaller companies. look to Kobold Press, among many others, for the types of adventures you are looking for. Or, if you must have WotC IP, the DMsGuild.

I'm taking that into account. From a business standpoint, at least long term, I don't know if it was a good idea to turn over those smaller projects to other companies. It helped lead to the creation of D&D's biggest rival, Pathfinder. If it was a mistake for TSR to compete with themselves by producing so many different settings with AD&D 2nd edition, maybe it was a mistake on WotC's part to encourage their customers to go to other products to satisfy their D&D needs.

 

[Reynard]

I'm taking that into account. From a business standpoint, at least long term, I don't know if it was a good idea to turn over those smaller projects to other companies. It helped lead to the creation of D&D's biggest rival, Pathfinder. If it was a mistake for TSR to compete with themselves by producing so many different settings with AD&D 2nd edition, maybe it was a mistake on WotC's part to encourage their customers to go to other products to satisfy their D&D needs.

As someone else mentioned above, Paizo does not do it either. That should tell you something.

 

[Reynard]

I just don't have the time or desire to learn a new game...I'm already overwhelmed remembering the DnD rules for this version vs the other ten (exaggeration?) versions I've played.

I agree with @mearls, design a damn adventure assuming we use a VTT.

I think what I'm missing, and it likely because I'm 61, is a sense of adventure, of awe. No idea how to get that from DnD at this point.

Generally the more familiar you are with something the less it's able to inspire that sense of awe or wonder or adventure. The best way to overcome that is try new things. A style of play you've never done before, a style of adventures you've never done before, or try a new game...

Well, there you go. But you should know there are heaps of games that are way lighter on rules than D&D out there, so don't assume learning a new game would be anywhere near as daunting as learning a new edition of D&D, keeping track of all the rules, or keeping the different editions separate in your head.

Another option is to play with people -- including kinds of people -- that you have not played with or don't play with. Assuming you generally play with folks in your own cohort, play with some younguns. Play with people of different ethnic, religious or sexual identity backgrounds than you. I don't want to make any assumptions about you, @Zaukrie, specifically, but I am a middle class GenX white dude and play is always fresh when I play with young brown folks, gaymers and others.

 

[Zaukrie]

Another option is to play with people -- including kinds of people -- that you have not played with or don't play with. Assuming you generally play with folks in your own cohort, play with some younguns. Play with people of different ethnic, religious or sexual identity backgrounds than you. I don't want to make any assumptions about you, @Zaukrie, specifically, but I am a middle class GenX white dude and play is always fresh when I play with young brown folks, gaymers and others.

I'm old and white, but I do play with two people of very different backgrounds, but I've known them some time. This is good advice, which I might try!

 

[MGibster]

Another option is to play with people -- including kinds of people -- that you have not played with or don't play with. Assuming you generally play with folks in your own cohort, play with some younguns. Play with people of different ethnic, religious or sexual identity backgrounds than you. I don't want to make any assumptions about you, @Zaukrie, specifically, but I am a middle class GenX white dude and play is always fresh when I play with young brown folks, gaymers and others.

That may certainly be true. But this whole thread is about what the hobby needs. So anything suggested here is by definition not currently produced.

 

[Reynard]

That may certainly be true. But this whole thread is about what the hobby needs. So anything suggested here is by definition not currently produced.

Maybe you quoted the wrong post?