D&D 5E 5e isn't a Golden Age of D&D Lorewise, it's Silver at best.

[Maxperson]

2e came out in 1989. Are you saying it started to fail less than one year into release?

Look at those sales numbers. They weren't stellar from the get go. Even the Forgotten Realms, by far the most popular setting came out in 1990 at high numbers and by 1991 were in the dump.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Look at those sales numbers. They weren't stellar from the get go. Even the Forgotten Realms, by far the most popular setting came out in 1990 at high numbers and by 1991 were in the dump.

Wow. I'm glad they had so much money to burn they were able to put out a decade of heavy product before it caught up with them then. If TSR were a better-run company, a lot of my favorite gaming products wouldn't exist. I'll always be grateful to TSR for that.

 

[ersatzphil]

I think the sales numbers don't really show its popularity.

That’s fair, but I’m not sure how else to gauge it. My gaming group in the 90s didn’t care about Spelljammer at all, but I have no clue how representational we were - I really just have a sample size of 1.

…then again, based on the number of people on Reddit exclaiming “OMG! A playable ooze! This is a dream come true!”, it’s entirely possible I’m just way out of touch with how people play D&D these days.

 

[Maxperson]

That’s fair, but I’m not sure how else to gauge it. My gaming group in the 90s didn’t care about Spelljammer at all, but I have no clue how representational we were - I really just have a sample size of 1.

I think we leave it to them to gauge through their polls and other research. Clearly they seem to believe that large enough numbers of players want it to create the upcoming release, so we can assume that there are a lot more people now that want it than the 2e numbers show.

…then again, based on the number of people on Reddit exclaiming “OMG! A playable ooze! This is a dream come true!”, it’s entirely possible I’m just way out of touch with how people play D&D these days.

LOL I'm sure a number of them were Star Frontiers fans as well, so maybe if we blend Star Frontiers with Spelljammer we can get a better number.

 

[Mort]

on the number of people on Reddit exclaiming “OMG! A playable ooze! This is a dream come true!”, it’s entirely possible I’m just way out of touch with how people play D&D these days.

My son's group (all 14) has an aarakocra (flyng bird person), a centaur, and at one point, a sentient hat (though I think he switched) - yeah maybe we're just out of touch now!

Edit: And a minitour - because, why not.

 

[Mind of tempest]

That’s fair, but I’m not sure how else to gauge it. My gaming group in the 90s didn’t care about Spelljammer at all, but I have no clue how representational we were - I really just have a sample size of 1.

…then again, based on the number of people on Reddit exclaiming “OMG! A playable ooze! This is a dream come true!”, it’s entirely possible I’m just way out of touch with how people play D&D these days.

people have dealt with Tolkien demi-humans since dnd came out, a playable ooze is novel, new has a taste all its own.

My son's group (all 14) has an aarakocra (flyng bird person), a centaur, and at one point, a sentient hat (though I think he switched) - yeah maybe we're just out of touch now!

Edit: And a minitour - because, why not.

given I am a man who normally plays his attempts at a custom race as nothing fits me, you likely are behind but more like you like cholate ice cream and they like the new limited edition flavour.

 

[ersatzphil]

…you likely are behind but more like you like cholate ice cream and they like the new limited edition flavour.

I was actually musing on this the other day - it’s interesting to see D&D turn into effectively it own somewhat self-referential genre. My fathers well loved copies of Tolkien, Howard, Leiber and Leguin were tent poles of my adolescence - when I was first handed the 1e DMG in middle school, my immediate reaction was, “…my God, I GET THIS.”

Understand that I in no way mean to yuck someone else’s yum! It’s just fascinating to see the game exist and be played with a totally different frame of reference than I have.

 

[Maxperson]

people have dealt with Tolkien demi-humans since dnd came out, a playable ooze is novel, new has a taste all its own.

I've heard it tastes like chicken.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I was actually musing on this the other day - it’s interesting to see D&D turn into effectively it own somewhat self-referential genre. My fathers well loved copies of Tolkien, Howard, Leiber and Leguin were tent poles of my adolescence - when I was first handed the 1e DMG in middle school, my immediate reaction was, “…my God, I GET THIS.”

Understand that I in no way mean to yuck someone else’s yum! It’s just fascinating to see the game exist and be played with a totally different frame of reference than I have.

it also eats things it spawned itself as most generic fantasy world over is just dnd in a different hat or something.

I've heard it tastes like chicken.

most things do that are meat and edible it is the blandest of all archosaurs meat.

 

[ersatzphil]

My son's group (all 14) has an aarakocra (flyng bird person), a centaur, and at one point, a sentient hat (though I think he switched) - yeah maybe we're just out of touch now!

...now that I look, there are multiple posts on reddit with requests for / homebrew rules for playing a sentient hat in D&D, and a few with requests for a sentient hat warlock patron. There has to be some cultural reference here that I managed to skip.