WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[Henadic Theologian]

This is something that I've really enjoyed.

I love that too.

 

[Marc_C]

I think someone would be happier on Dragonsfoot forum or The Piazza forum. That is where old gamers who feel neglected by Mama-WoTC hang out to complain and talk about the good old TSR days.

I'm 56 (playing since 1980) and feel WoTC is doing a stellar job with D&D 5e. When I want the old TSR stuff WoTC put it in PDF format for ALL (old & new players) to buy at reasonable prices. I just got the three 2e core books in print format from them. Before that you had to pay $$$$$ to get physical copies of damaged TSR stuff on eBay.

 

[Reynard]

I think someone would be happier on Dragonsfoot forum or The Piazza forum. That is where old gamers who feel neglected by Mama-WoTC hang out to complain and talk about the good old TSR days.

I'm 56 (playing since 1980) and feel WoTC is doing a stellar job with D&D 5e. When I want the old TSR stuff WoTC put it in PDF format for ALL (old & new players) to buy at reasonable prices. I just got the three 2e core books in print format from them. Before that you had to pay $$$$$ to get physical copies of damaged TSR stuff on eBay.

Fantasy Grounds also has pretty robust support for old school play with many original modules converted for play.

 

[Sithlord]

I think it's great that people of all ages are playing and that 40% of the player base is female. I want the game to continue to succeed an grow.

However, I gotta admit I get tired of the term "Grognard" being tossed around. I find it kind of offensive to lump any category of gamers into a generic group. The term Grognard literally means "one who grumbles", it's an insult. Just as if I assumed all Gen Xers were the same [insert favorite stereotype here].

They wear the term as a badge of honor.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, I do grumble. It's just that the things I grumble about are the things, that, according to some, as an older player I should love.

Really, they only thing old men have in common is a tendency to grumble. Their pet hates are all different (although they labour under the delusion that all right thinking people agree with them).

 

[Warpiglet-7]

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.

You are correct—-it’s not always a pejorative. I would proudly self label as grognard. I have been gaming for 4 decades having started young.

however, in the context of many discussions and the tenor of many threads on this very site, it is increasingly used in a negative way. Various negative characteristics are often attributed to the older player base.

so while you are right, folks’ sensitivity to the term is context dependent. I have seen it used in an ‘OK boomer’ way a lot. The reason I remember it is because it is offensive each time I see it.

add to this a fairly regular campaign to denigrate the forefathers of the game and it’s not too hard to read “yay! Fewer grognards” as something akin to “they are dying off! Let’s party and rub it in!”

 

[Oofta]

I'm assuming @Parmandur's definition is something like "go out of their way to provide something for a part of the fanbase that is steadily becoming less and less important (in terms of profit and the future direction of the hobby)". I can't speak for them, but that's what I got from their post.

They could have done Innistrad, though. If they wanted to bring Gothic Horror to 5e, they could have just as easily (or possibly more easily) just whipped out the WotC workers that developed the M:tG Innistrad sets and had them work with the WotC workers in charge of setting books to bring Innistrad officially to 5e. I think it's highly likely that the people they needed to get in order to transport Innistrad to 5e would have been easier than to bring back Ravenloft, especially given the fact that there's already a Planeshift Innistrad document to get them started, and based on the amount of work it must have taken to make the huge changes to Ravenloft that are now official.

That seems like "bending over backwards to please older players" to me.

I don't play MTG so I have no idea what Innistrad is like. However, if you have two gothic horror theme settings one which needs a significant amount of work to adapt or one which needs just quick updates, the pencil pushers are going to advocate for the latter. In other words: what advantage would there have been for Innistrad over Ravenloft? Both end with the same target niche, Ravenloft was cheaper to convert. They are going to get diminishing returns trying to appeal to MTG players because they've already done a couple of settings (or had them planned, I don't remember release dates).

That to me is not "bending over backwards" to target a portion of the demographic. It's making a decision based on what they think will get the most profit based on how much they can sell vs development costs. The same way most business decisions are done whether or not what they think is correct or not. They are well aware of the demographics, and as a corporation they are trying to maximize profits.

 

[Oofta]

I think you got pretty close here, the "doomer" nostalgia sentiment can be pretty overpowering sometimes. I cringe every time i read a variant of "D&D is being destroyed by Eberron and Critical Role", or by story-gaming or by whatever else isn't in line with how things "used to be". It shouldn't matter what age someone is, be it 60 or 15, everyone should be able to see that the best is yet to come for DnD! And while that is true for the wider "new" DnD community, i think forums like this could do more to embrace the rising tide in terms of community.

Do people really say that on a regular basis? I mean, maybe I just filter it out but it doesn't seem particularly common. On the other hand, many people stop listening to new music when they graduate from high school so I'm sure some do. Kind of funny when I try to discuss music with people my age and they have no idea who half the artists I talk about are.

In any case, this seems to be just another complaint that I think is just confirmation bias. If it shows up once in a hundred or thousand posts it sticks out like a sore thumb. There's a difference between having a preference (i.e. not liking CR) and saying that "D&D is being destroyed" which I don't recall ever seeing on this forum.

 

[Oofta]

They wear the term as a badge of honor.

Self-labeling and calling someone something are completely different. While it is much more extreme and hateful (by far) I will never use the "n" word even though it is perfectly okay for other people to claim it.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Now you're just trolling me