A New "anti-D&D" Era

[Micah Sweet]

Kleenex, Band-Aid, Post-It's, Wite-Out, Dumpster, Popsicle, Tupperware

This is a pretty common thing.

It being common doesn't make it ok.

And yes, I was waiting for someone to make that observation.

 

[dirtypool]

It being common doesn't make it ok.

Your distaste for it doesn't make it wrong

 

[Micah Sweet]

Your distaste for it doesn't make it wrong

Your acceptance of it doesn't make it right. We can go all day.

 

[dirtypool]

Your acceptance of it doesn't make it right. We can go all day.

We shouldn't though because this is a hobby and not something that should be beholden to the moral absolutism of any one person

 

[Micah Sweet]

We shouldn't though because this is a hobby and not something that should be beholden to the moral absolutism of any one person

Or one company.

 

[dirtypool]

Or one company.

So you think that WOTC exhibits a moral absolutism they expect the rest of the industry to adhere to, or was that just to get the last word regardless of whether it made logical sense?

 

[TheSword]

Just searching for "roleplaying" on Kickstarter turns up a bunch of small companies getting into the market. ZineQuest is obviously skewing the results a bit, but very few of them mention 5E, Pathfinder or OSR. (Obviously, if you search for any of those keywords, you can find a ton of projects as well.)

Some examples:

• https://www.kickstarter.com/project...war-adventures?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• Fear Within: A Vessel Roleplaying System Zine - [Zinequest]
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soncka/rootsystem-in-print?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• AMPERSAND RPG – Tabletop Games for Kids & Parents
• Titans' Story - Embers in the Wind.
• FEVER DREAM NEXUS
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jesseross/rlyehwatch-rpg?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e-playing-game?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/korvidae-games/kill-him-faster?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/project...leplaying-game?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/project...leplaying-game?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowlandsgames/raven?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vaultrpg/vault-0?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/project...or-1-6-players?ref=discovery&term=roleplaying
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fral/children-of-amur?ref=discovery

Not all of those campaigns look good to me necessarily, and I suspect one or two of those campaigns are too ambitious to succeed, but they appear to all be new systems, or based on a previous recent campaign introducing a new system, and they represent a wide range of new ideas, unless there are more "tropical fantasy by Brazilian RPG designers" or "speed-run killing Hitler" games out there that I'm unaware of.

Most of those are tiny. They don’t even come close to comparing to the likes of White Wolf, Chaosium, Games Workshop in the 90’s. One has raised $300 most are around $2k

I’m more wondering what makes people think there will be a backlash/revival of non-WotC, or is it just wishful thinking.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So you think that WOTC exhibits a moral absolutism they expect the rest of the industry to adhere to, or was that just to get the last word regardless of whether it made logical sense?

I think they're trying to set a standard and "show themselves first among equals", yes.

 

[schneeland]

I’m more wondering what makes people think there will be a backlash/revival of non-WotC, or is it just wishful thinking.

The only indication we have that people are moving away from WotC products is the increased sales numbers reported by multiple other publishers (if I remember correctly: Paizo selling through 8 month of inventory, Goodman Games reporting the best month in history, Chaosium reporting significantly increased sales, Pinnacle Entertainment's Savage Worlds being sold out in many places, Schwalb Entertainment's Shadow of the Demon Lord also being sold out in many places). But IMO it remains unclear, to what degree this constitutes a permanent move away from WotC D&D (as mentioned before, I would be happy to see people spread out to other systems, but I don't see it happening yet).

We might see a move away from WotC also in response to people moving on with their lives (as in the typical play cycles we saw with older editions), but there, too, I feel it is not something we are observing so far.

 

[bloodtide]

I like 5e as a quick stress free game. The rules are simple and easy to understand. But It does feel like bowling with the rails up.

And this is what D&D 5E is good for: the quick, casual game.

The thing to remember about Candy Land

I don't know anything about Candy Land the board game. I'm from the generation that learned Poker and Blackjack as our first games. Our family game nights were poker for pennies.

What game would you recommend starting 3 year olds on to get them into the hobby?

Toon!

What was the average age of these 50 (or so) gamers? I'll be rather surprised if you say it's under 25, 'cause IME that cohort was right on top of this stuff.

Nearly all are under 30...

Perhaps. It's the difference between seeing levelling/ability gain as the main reason for play and seeing levelling/ability gain as merely a side effect of play.

Another way of saying the main reason to play is the role playing.