A hypothesis about why D&D took off

[John Dallman]

Starting a separate thread, because this one may be contentious.

I don't even think I could speculate, because I don't think we understand properly other than right-time, right-place why D&D became what it did.

There's a possible reason in the historical context. In 1974, American culture was likely to be receptive to an imaginary world or worlds where good and evil were well-defined, where combat could be heroic, and warriors were well-rewarded. Those things had just been very much absent in Vietnam.

 

[Morrus]

It took off in comparison to other TTRPGs. In terms of the general entertainment market it was always a very niche thing. I’d argue that it didn’t take off and never became mainstream (it’s only now doing that). Video games took off; D&D didn’t.

 

[Yora]

A claim I often came across over the years was that Dave Arneson wasn't the only one experimenting with wargame hacks that would eventually become established as RPGs. But I also never heard of any specific designers and their games that could potentially have risen to prominence if D&D hadn't.

 

[Reynard]

A claim I often came across over the years was that Dave Arneson wasn't the only one experimenting with wargame hacks that would eventually become established as RPGs. But I also never heard of any specific designers and their games that could potentially have risen to prominence if D&D hadn't.

It wasn't just wargame hacks, either. Sci-fi and fantasy Fandom was in full swing and engaging in freeform roleplaying (with potentially some influence from old parlor games -- I have not seen any actual documentation of that last point but it is widely considered true). RPGs were inevitable.

On the main point of the thread: I have read that the popularity of Westerns correlates strongly with unease in the population and war.

 

[bennet]

Predated by, and the same reasons movies took off, look at the success of George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon

 

[Malmuria]

Alliteration

 

[Reynard]

Alliteration

Never underestimate the value of a catchy title.

 

[Blue Orange]

I had read it was Gail Gygax who suggested 'Dungeons & Dragons', before that it was 'The Fantasy Game'.

It's been well-imitated:

Alliteration & Adventurers - TV Tropes

Any fictional roleplaying game can be recognized as such because it will have a title consisting of two alliterative plural nouns suggestive of its genre separated by an ampersand. A writer in need of a fictitious parallel to Vampire: The …

tvtropes.org

 

[Dioltach]

Terry Brooks mentions in his book about writing that one reason why The Sword of Shannara finally got picked up for publication (in 1977) as because Lester Del Rey was convinced that there was a large enough market for fantasy to become its own genre (until then it was mostly something that sci-fi writers did on the side). He argued that there were vast numbers of Lord of the Rings lovers who were just waiting for another book to come along and scratch their itch.

I reckon that part of D&D's initial success was in part because it also scratched that itch.

 

[Mezuka]

Terry Brooks mentions in his book about writing that one reason why The Sword of Shannara finally got picked up for publication (in 1977) as because Lester Del Rey was convinced that there was a large enough market for fantasy to become its own genre (until then it was mostly something that sci-fi writers did on the side). He argued that there were vast numbers of Lord of the Rings lovers who were just waiting for another book to come along and scratch their itch.

I reckon that part of D&D's initial success was in part because it also scratched that itch.

This. It reflects how I experienced it. I saw the LOTR animation movie at the school theater in 1980(?). At that time we were playing a lot of Avalon Hill wargames. After the showing, I said "Wouldn't be cool if there was a game in which you can recreate similar stories." One guy with us said "Well I know this guy who has a game called Dungeons & Dragons."