WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[teitan]

Firstly, I don't hate any edition. I've been playing this game nonstop since the 90s and I'm always DMing whichever edition is the current. Not sure how you are labeling me a hater just with that.

Now, I do think 5e success is mainly due to it's presentation as an easily approachable system. It's just like the design team really focused on publishing a game for the masses above all else. Mechanical depth, crunchy subsystems and even character options take a back seat in favor of simplicity this time around. That's all.

So like the previous best selling version... Basic.

 

[teitan]

There are more players in just the 35–39 age range than in the entire 40+ range!

Does that seem odd to anyone else? What exactly happens to people when they turn 40 that causes such a steep dropoff?

4e? I'm 46 but I don't know if it is a steep drop off. We are the last generation where playing D&D was a stigma and we were made fun of and sometimes even faced physical violence on top of the accusations of Satanism. Many of us now are out of the loop on the game and it's current status which is weird. It was a very, very different time for us, which I think is why so many of us reel at the claims of gate keeping etc. because for most of us it's more a mistrust issue because the people wanting to play now remind us of the people who made fun of us then or we are just happy with our chosen edition.

 

[Stormonu]

From what I have seen people stop playing around 25 when they have kids. Some start again about 12 years later when the kids are old enough to be 'captive players' . Usually they play the edition they are familiar with, which is not the current edition.

That sounds like the story of my life, though it was 30 or so...

 

[Morrus]

There are more players in just the 35–39 age range than in the entire 40+ range!

Does that seem odd to anyone else? What exactly happens to people when they turn 40 that causes such a steep dropoff?

It’s a percentage not an absolute value.

If 1000 20-yr old people play D&D in 1980 then 100% of the player base is age 20.

If they all still play D&D 40 years later in 2020, then 1000 people age 60 play D&D. But if 4000 people age 20 start playing in 2020, then the 60+ cohort is just 20%, compared to the 80% who are aged 20.

In that example there was no dropoff. Just lots of new players entering the hobby. It’s a great sign of a growing hobby.

Those are silly made up figures I just used of course. There almost certainly is a drop off but the percentage doesn’t tell that story.

 

[Reynard]

The fact that the vast majority of people in the hobby are under 40 is really, really good news for the hobby and it means those of us that are ahem experienced can continue to enjoy new content and innovative products.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

There are more players in just the 35–39 age range than in the entire 40+ range!

Does that seem odd to anyone else? What exactly happens to people when they turn 40 that causes such a steep dropoff?

Children

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Children

Career.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That was unplanned, though. It was supposed to be released earlier, closer to the release of Dragon Heist.

Now see that makes more sense, they are clearly tied together, to the point of sharing the part of their titles, both are Waterdeep. I guess something went wrong and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage got delayed, but the fact that they still released it at the same time as a setting book, shows they are willing to release both an adventure and setting book at the same time if they have a good reason to do so.

I really think in September they will release the Summer Adventure and a Faerun Campaign Book with major tie ins to AFR MtG Premiere Set and AFR Commander Decks. Its going to be the Summer of Legend, aka the Summer of Faerun this year.

It also occurs to me as one of the none major projecrs maybe they will release a collector edition of the Waterdeep books (combining them into one book with a special cover) like they did with Tyranny of Dragons. It would be a big book, but as a collector edition they could charge more for it too, great product for whales.

 

[Oofta]

I can assure you, grognard isn’t just used pejoratively - all you have to do is hang around with wargamers long enough to see that. Plus, they wouldn’t call a wargame community site grognard.com if it were just pejorative.
Considering Napoleon’s grognards were a highly respected formation that had won the right to complain openly, I’m more inclined to think that anyone using It pejoratively is actually fairly clueless about the connotations of the term.

There's a vast difference between someone self-labeling and being labeled that by someone else, or everyone in a general category being lumped together into the same group. Whatever the source of the term, it seems to be primarily used as a pejorative.

In other words, it's okay for me to make a joke about how young whipper snappers should stay off my lawn. It's another story completely if you accuse me of being an old coot telling youngsters to stay off my lawn.

This article is good news all around, it means that the hobby is healthy and growing. I was just (very) mildly annoyed by the use of grognard because of how I see it used on this message board. Now stay off my lawn.

 

[SkidAce]

<S> I urge you to all switch from Grognard to the acceptable terms Wizened Old Crone or Old Grumpy Fart. </S> By the way, almost all of Gen X is contained in the 40+ demographic. We are old too. I celebrate that a majority of players are under 40. That means the game has a bright future, rather than dying off with our nerdy geriatric selves. Plus, more players means potentially more games!

May I request/reserve the epithet "Babbling Old Fool" for myself please?