A hypothesis about why D&D took off

[Lanefan]

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."

Indeed.

And earlier than that, there was a fairly significant LotR craze in the late 60s-early 70s among the college/university crowd; and by the mid-70s the people left over from that craze were looking for something to cling to other than references in Led Zeppelin songs. In this way D&D's timing was perfect.

 

[Reynard]

Indeed.

And earlier than that, there was a fairly significant LotR craze in the late 60s-early 70s among the college/university crowd; and by the mid-70s the people left over from that craze were looking for something to cling to other than references in Led Zeppelin songs. In this way D&D's timing was perfect.

That initial success really is based in large part on college students. Tons of pirated photocopies spread when folks came home and even the nascent internet helped spread the game.

 

[MGibster]

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.

I'm not trying to be a pedantic jerk here, but how do we define mainstream? In the 1980s, D&D had a cartoon airing on Saturday mornings on CBS for three seasons, Warduke could be found in Kay Bee toy stores throughout American malls, and D&D merchandise such as stickers and school supplies, novels that made the best seller lists, and it was a household name. Granted, we have far more players today than we had back then, we have celebrities who say they've played in the past or still play today which we didn't have in the 80s, and we've got streaming celebrities who attained their fame largely through their gaming platforms online. D&D is more mainstream today, but I'm not sure it wasn't mainstream in the 80s.

 

[GreyLord]

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.

I don't think it took off at first, but by the early 80s...it REALLY took off. I've never seen it be as prevalant as it was then. It literally was everywhere. I could go to the local toy store or department store and pick up D&D books and the latest D&D releases (you can find that now at Target and occasionally at some Walmarts, but you can't do it at most stores like you could D&D back when it was a fad).

Heck, later in the decade I could PICK UP D&D material at GAS STATIONS in the U.S. (of course, that was when comic books were sold at gas stations, and I'm talking about D&D comic books).

It drove an entire movie industry of fantasy movies INSPIRED (they couldn't say they were based off D&D, but it was obvious why they were being made, they were trying to make money off the ongoing fad of D&D...this is where a TON of your 80s B-movie Fantasy movies come from) by D&D. FAR MORE movies were inspired by D&D than anything I've seen as these days.

What drove it in popularity...hard to say.

If I had to peg it to something I'd say it may have been counter-culture and the drive of some groups to label it as a forbidden game. Forbidding anything to teenagers and college students seems to sometimes just drive their interest into the stratosphere.

It was similar to other fads that come and go (so, as big as some of the fads that you see that seem to be everywhere for a while...and then...they just...vanish). Unlike many others, it didn't vanish completely, but it lost how big it was.

If I had to point to something similar I'd say it was more like how Pokemon came and went (yes, it is still around, but for a while...it was just everywhere. Even if sales may be bigger today, it's cultural impact is nothing like it was a few decades ago when it was a fad).

Fidget spinners from last decade could be another example of a Fad like D&D was. For awhile it was easy to get one and they were everywhere. Now...it's a lot harder to find them unless you decide to go online.

D&D today is not the Fad it was of yesteryear. In some ways that is a good thing as it's probably not going to be the flash in the pan and then sink down into a bit of obscurity.

 

[Neonchameleon]

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.

The caveat to this is just how many early video games were based on trying to turn D&D into computer games - everything from Colossal Cave Adventure to Ultima to Wizardry, with Final Fantasy taking damage types from D&D and being based on games based on D&D.

 

[aramis erak]

THere are a few other factors... minor, but contributory

1) the 1970-1975 era saw a change in typecasters, so when TSR (and GDW) went looking in the mid 1970's, there were serviceable typcasters on the 2nd hand market

2) Photocopiers - mid 1970s saw a new era of photocopiers. And the idea that one could go pay a dime for a copy of a page. This meant your paste-up need not be the original.

3) Optical typsetting becomeing affordable... which meant your cast lead only needed one imprint... for being scanned to the actual production plates. this reduces the setup a lot... so printing costs went down.

4) the great gas shortage... when petrol is limited, hobbies tend to go more in-home.

 

[payn]

My old man graduated HS in '77. He read The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings, Jammed to Led Zeppelin, and had friends that made Molly Hatchet style paintings on their cargo vans. Never ever played D&D. Though, when I was young and showed interest in it he was fine with getting me the products. He didnt understand how to play and was no help there, but he got why I thought it was cool.

The sword and sorcery genre was bigger than D&D. Books, films, music, etc.. I believe that helped pave the way for popular acceptance. The backlash just made it more appealing as counter culture baggage from the 50's and 60's carried on.

 

[Jer]

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.

I would argue that without D&D, video games today wouldn't look like they do. D&D very much impacted a lot of the early computer games either directly with people trying to replicate D&D on the computer - like Colossal Cave, Rogue, Dungeon (later Zork), Alkabeth (later Ultima), etc. - or indirectly by the impact of those games onto the next generation of games. D&D also provided a lot of the bare-bones mechanics that folks expect in many genres of computer games - hit points, for example, are in a ton of different games that don't look like they're descended from D&D at all because they're a mechanic that has been pulled from other games that pulled from other games that if you look back long enough you'll find the D&D influence.

So I'd argue that D&D has been mainstream for a long time, just not as a tabletop game. D&D is like the artist that influenced every major artist of their time but never got rich themselves. If D&D hadn't become a widespread game among table top gamers, the video game as we know it would probably look quite a bit different. (Similar mechanics might have emerged, but their history and impact would have been different.)

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Why did D&D "take off?" (Most of this is taken from memory from various sources, including the excellent Game Wizards by Peterson which has the best account of the sales of early D&D).

1. Originally, it didn't. I mean, it did pretty well, much better than expected, but it wasn't the alpha and omega of all things.

2. The first problem was that OD&D wasn't very easy to understand from just the rules. So the initial bursts of sales corresponded to conventions where people were able to see how it was played first-hand. Once you could understand the gist of how it was played, then you could play it yourself.

3. From there, D&D primarily spread through existing hobbyist channels during the 70s. Specifically, there were two- the wargaming community and the Sci-Fi community (which was an umbrella term that included fantasy). These two communities, along with some college scene, was the primary driver of D&D during the 70s. Still it was incredibly niche during that time- it was very dominant in terms of the wargaming community (for example), but still quite niche overall.

4. Two things combined led to the explosion of D&D. The first was the disappearance of James Egbert III in 1979 (the basis for the later Mazes & Monsters movie with Tom Hanks). Without going too far into it, Egbert's parents hired a private detective who blamed everything on D&D to the national media. Suddenly, a lot of people want to play D&D across the nation (I know.... all publicity is good publicity). In effect, Egbert's disappearance was the rocket fuel that D&D needed for national growth and prominence, leading to what most people remember as the "golden age" of D&D's prominence.

The second factor was something that eventually killed off TSR- 1979 was also when the signed the Random House deal. This allowed D&D to be in all sorts of places that other games weren't; it's why, for example, people could find D&D everywhere from Sears to Waldenbooks to Kaybee Toys to Scholastic book fairs.

In short, the combination of nationwide publicity and the Random House deal led to the explosion of D&D in the 80s.


There are other factors, but that's the nutshell.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Culturally, there's a lot that was going on in the 60s and 70s related to fantasy and sci-fi. Tokien's counterculture rise, the Lancer/Ace Conan line with Frazetta covers, Ballantine Adult Fantasy, DAW Books, and countless other novels.

If you look at music, there's a huge amount of medieval- and fantasy- referencing works. The aforementioned Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Gryphon, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Bo Svensson, The Amazing Blondel, Comus, just to name a few. Fantasy was in the air.

My old man graduated HS in '77. He read The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings, Jammed to Led Zeppelin, and had friends that made Molly Hatchet style paintings on their cargo vans. Never ever played D&D. Though, when I was young and showed interest in it he was fine with getting me the products. He didnt understand how to play and was no help there, but he got why I thought it was cool.

The sword and sorcery genre was bigger than D&D. Books, films, music, etc.. I believe that helped pave the way for popular acceptance. The backlash just made it more appealing as counter culture baggage from the 50's and 60's carried on.