Zardnaar
Legend
I think it's more that it hits a lot of cultural/religious tropes and myths and legends that have been popular for millenia.
A new Sci fi game for example is really only going to appear to Sci fi nerds who also like rpgs.
D&D General D&D's Utter Dominance Is Good or Bad Because...
I think it's more that it hits a lot of cultural/religious tropes and myths and legends that have been popular for millenia.
A new Sci fi game for example is really only going to appear to Sci fi nerds who also like rpgs.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
In short: agreement.
Religion and myths often have an element of personal empowerment in bad times.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Yes CoC is successful, I havent got any stats, but there is the oft cited anecdote of CoC being the most popular RPG in Japan (and Korea), and the fact that it has lasted a while in the industry (though Chaosium did face bankruptcy at one point).
I do think that the mainstreaming of DnD has been beneficial to CoC too, primarily because it is so different to DnD - modern, psychological horror-melodrama, with a strong narrative lean - and could capture a slightly different market segment.
Remathilis
Legend
Nature abhors a vacuum. Someone will rise up.
I don't find anything wrong with 5E being so dominant. If other games were worth being more popular, they would be. The designers could make changes if necessary to make their games more popular if that level of "popularity" really mattered to them... publishers could advertise more if a higher popularity than what they currently have was that important to them... players who liked and played those other games could spend more time advocating for them and running games of them for people who didn't know about them if higher popularity mattered that much.
I'm of the opinion that once you reach a certain level of scale... any single individual voice ceases to matter. And thus one or two people saying "X should be more popular" is a meaningless statement, when you would need thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of additional people out there to actually make something "more popular". If they aren't there, then it means 'X' is only as popular as it needs to be right now. So don't blame Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition because (general) you, as an individual voice, can't find anyone willing to play your Legend of the Five Rings game since they only want to play D&D 5E. That just means you haven't done enough to make the idea of playing Lot5R popular enough to get others to sit at the table with you. It happens. And lessening the "popularity" of D&D 5E won't suddenly make your Lot5R table worth sitting at.
I'm of the opinion that once you reach a certain level of scale... any single individual voice ceases to matter. And thus one or two people saying "X should be more popular" is a meaningless statement, when you would need thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of additional people out there to actually make something "more popular". If they aren't there, then it means 'X' is only as popular as it needs to be right now. So don't blame Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition because (general) you, as an individual voice, can't find anyone willing to play your Legend of the Five Rings game since they only want to play D&D 5E. That just means you haven't done enough to make the idea of playing Lot5R popular enough to get others to sit at the table with you. It happens. And lessening the "popularity" of D&D 5E won't suddenly make your Lot5R table worth sitting at.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Regarding Korea. A friend of mine of Korean heriatge once told me that in Korea, bollywood movies always end after the first half, when the loving pair of people think that they never get together. Because happy endings are frowned upon there.
So I did not doublecheck what she told me back then. But going by that story I really can see why a game that inevitely ends in madness could get more traction there than being heroes who will try to win the day.
Last edited:
My daughter is of Korean descent and she really got into K-dramas for a while and, hoo boy, I am pretty sure they are designed specifically to make teen girls bawl their eyes out regularly.
I don't actually think D&D's game design has much to do with it. It has never been particularly strong, especially compared to other games, and it stopped being innovative after OD&D (which was less an innovation and more of a collection of innovations by others). At best, 5E's design doesn't hurt it so much.
I think the brand and inertia have a lot more to do with it.
I wasn't referring to D&D's design, publishing or players, I was referring to the other games that wanted to be "more popular". I agree with you that D&D design has little to nothing to do with the question, which is why I didn't talk about that. If I didn't make that clear, I apologize.
Similar Threads
