D&D 5E Alphastream - Why No RPG Company Truly Competes with Wizards of the Coast

[BookTenTiger]

I have never seen data on it, would be very interested how many current players picked up the game via CR, and were never exposed to a proper session at a table before jumping into the game. I have run into a few at my gaming cafe, and their view of D&D is radically different than that of players pre-CR.

I don't know if this is your intention, but it reads as very judgmental and gatekeeperish. Is getting into D&D because of Critical Role any different than getting into D&D because of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, or the old D&D cartoon?

 

[Morrus]

With a few exception period already mentionned D&D has always been number one. The reason for me is simple. D&D is generic enough so that any style can be reproduced with the rules. This is not so with many of the other systems out there.

Although a fan of the work of Lovecraft, I am still surprised at the success of CoC as a RPG. Sci-fi and horror are particularly niche in genre (as ttrpg goes) and from experience, niche genre excitement fades over time. YMMV on that though... But it is also why I do not do every campaigns in Greyhawk, FR, Dragonlance or Ebberon. We change the setting from time to time to shake things up. This both renew the interest and shake up the table with new (or old ones we are fond of) ideas.

I really think that the generic aspect of D&D is its greatest strength. After all, Cthulhu is Cthulhu and LotR is LotR just as Star Wars is Star Wars. At some point, their system is so integrated in the setting that to change setting means changing game system altogether. Not so with D&D. So many settings in D&D gives a unique chance to mix and match so much.

It’s not unique at all — there are tons of generic rule sets. Hundreds of them. No, that’s not the secret of its success.

 

[Vince_Snetterton]

That's all conjecture. It not only diminishes all the successes of WotC with D&D, but puts the sole responsability of the health of the hobby on a (great) RPG show.

I have seen enough anecdotal evidence to KNOW that much of WOTC's success in the past 3 years is driven by the popularity of CR and by the fact that Covid has made online gaming with others a larger thing than before. And CR's success was driven in part to Covid, as housebound people watched the equivalent of a TV show.

As to the actual hard numbers, only WOTC has even close to a handle on that. CR has now earned income in excess of 20 million (you can look that up) in the past 3 years. They are actors running a business. They have a business relationship with WOTC, that is mutually beneficial.

 

[Vince_Snetterton]

I don't know if this is your intention, but it reads as very judgmental and gatekeeperish. Is getting into D&D because of Critical Role any different than getting into D&D because of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, or the old D&D cartoon?

In answering your question, which if off topic to the thread, it is vastly different. No one who used the examples you supplied as a gateway into D&D expected a session to operate as it does in that book or TV shows. I hear now on a monthly basis "That is not how they do it on CR". CR is a massive driver of D&D sales.

Further, the D&D cartoon was driven by the success of D&D, not the other way around.

 

[Scribe]

I don't know if this is your intention, but it reads as very judgmental and gatekeeperish. Is getting into D&D because of Critical Role any different than getting into D&D because of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, or the old D&D cartoon?

Yes, it is.

Because CR is not just playing the game, but presenting how they play the game.

It's vastly different.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah. I've had to explain to people (with admittedly slowly decreasing patience) that the time when PF1e was in real competition with D&D was a historical accident, and nothing whatsoever Paizo did was going to duplicate that again, no matter what they did with the PF2e design. It just wasn't going to happen.

Depends on what you mean by "historical accident". Pathfinder started doing better than D&D Q2 of 2011, 5E wasn't announced until spring of 2012.

But yeah, PF was kind of just D&D 3.75 for a lot of people while D&D 4E was a different game altogether for a lot of people.

 

[darjr]

CR is fantastic. And they do sell books. But D&D was filling PAX ballrooms SRO for live play long before CR existed. They even did it with 4th edition. Huge rooms packed to the gills at PAX, a video game convention.

So no I dint think CR switching to PF would really hurt as much as folks like to think. It’d hugely help whoever they picked though! See COC and Mothership.

 

[billd91]

I have never seen data on it, would be very interested how many current players picked up the game via CR, and were never exposed to a proper session at a table before jumping into the game. I have run into a few at my gaming cafe, and their view of D&D is radically different than that of players pre-CR.

This always strikes me as a bit weird since there's a lot of similarity between CR and how we used to play back in the 1980s. Sure, there's a LOT more characterization of the PCs because they're professionals at it. But the zany elements, the recurring enemies, the willingness to try just about anything including going with it when screwing up - that all takes me back to my roots. But then my experiences underwent a significant change when we added a DM who loved to do characterizations and adventures based on villains and their machinations rather than site-based, tactical-heavy, dungeon exploration.

 

[darjr]

Further, the D&D cartoon was driven by the success of D&D, not the other way around.

Sorry? Your going to have to show some proof for this one, or at least a bit of homework.

 

[Oofta]

If CR decided to go back to say Pathfinder, or even jumped to something like Call of Cthulhu, its disciples would leave D&D in droves. WOTC knows how much CR is driving sales, and will do everything their power to keep Mercer and his crew happy.

I have never seen data on it, would be very interested how many current players picked up the game via CR, and were never exposed to a proper session at a table before jumping into the game. I have run into a few at my gaming cafe, and their view of D&D is radically different than that of players pre-CR.

First, I disagree that a significant number of people would switch. Second, even if every single viewer of CR stopped playing D&D it would represent less than a 5% drop in sales. Critical Role is watched by about 1.5 million people, around 50 million play D&D.