Are kids playing tabletop D&D these days?

[Glyfair]

Yes and no. They are playing tabletop RPGs but D&D is on the outs with the actual teenagers I know unless someone else is running it. My exposure is limited; I know two actual groups of under-18's playing tabletop games (they also play MMO's and console games as well). D&D, they play as a rather more complex boardgame. It's total crunch with both groups with little in the way of what I'd think of as roleplaying.

My FLGS has a forum and someone asked about the feasibility of having a tabletop RPG convention. The owner, who runs regular mixed LARP and tabletop conventions and who ran the first D&D convention in Delaware back in about '78, mentioned the challenges. One of them is the fact that non-D&D games get scant attention. Around here the bulk of the players want to play D&D and aren't very willing to go outside that zone. Some might be willing to try a different game system, but you can rarely find a group that agrees on what that different game system should be.

The store is smack dab in the middle of a college town (in fact, on Main Street in that town). So, this isn't just the local players. This is his experience with a constant rotation of players coming through the college.

There are other RPGs played. However, D&D is far and away the most popular.

 

[qstor]

And thats a real shame. I really do believe that if RPG's are to survive that new players need to be drawn away from the computer or console and brought into tabletop roleplaying. Theres so much more to the gaming experience when played socially, than there is when playing online.

I *agree* 100%. I think of that South Park WoW episode with the overweight smelly guy in his basement and sort of wonder how many people would want him in their group long term lol Kinda like the ongoing rpg.net thread of the worst person you've ever gamed with.

I enjoy the social aspects of table top gaming. I've been playing since 1e and I've never played WoW or Everquest to me its over of getting together with friends, gaming, sharded experiences and laughing with each other.

Mike

 

[MINI]

That is a major reason why electronic games are so popular - you don't really need another person available at the same time you are; if you want a multi-player game, you can just connect to an online server and play there; occasionally, you'll get friends together and game, but, it's much more irregular.

You can do this with online gaming too, namely with OpenRPG though I'm not sure that other platforms work in this way.

Here's what a lot of people fail to grasp -- playing online can be social. Adding a physical table doesn't make the experience anymore social, it's just a different kind of social. In a world where people have limited free time for games and internet access is no longer a luxury, one of these mediums for social interaction is much more convenient than the other and, thus, much more appealing to the masses. That's one of the main hurdles that tabletop RPGs have to leap, I think -- hence the Digital Initiative at WotC.

Playing online is social, but it takes more time to be so. After you have gamed with teh same folks online for about 6-8 months you can forge realtionships by IM, email, and voice or phone.

What roleplayers need to do is get with it -- boardgame players embraced virtual mediums years ago (today, for example, there are probably more people playing games of Risk online than there are in their living rooms). If I wasn't clear earlier, I think this is the hurdle that most tabletop RPGs need to clear -- the reluctance of many established players to change.

yes alot of table top[ gamers are resistant to online gaming. Its something I have noticed but I don't quite undeerstand it really. I've seen online games that are more profductive than table top games and teh time investemnet in an online game (when you take off going to someone's house and such) is possibly less as well.

 

[Orius]

I completely agree. There was the "basic set" for 3E, but I looked at it once and thought it stunk. It looked like it only handled up to 3 levels and the adventure looked really lame.

If they want to attract new gamers, a really cool boxed set with a few simple rule books priced affordably should be a no brainer. I can see kids and parents being intimidated by the price and length of the core books as others have mentioned.

That's the point I made earlier. Have a stripped down version of the game, include just the 4 basic classes, Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue. They've always been fairly central to the game (even if the Rouge came after the other 3), and that party always works well. Use only human, elf, dwarf and halfling for races, if even allowing a race choice. That still leaves plenty of stuff for the PHB and its subsequent volumes to cover.

Go up to level 10, since the rules are broken into three groups of 10. That's a good break point, and if they want to go paragon or epic or whatever, then they can buy the books. I had the black box basic D&D rules which went up to only level 5, and that seemed limited. I can imagine thhat level 3 in 3e seemed even worse, especially given the faster level progression.

In addition, include a few thing like some basic minis and dungeon tiles that'll be useful to a lot of players. It would probably have dice of course, but experienced players will have plenty of those. Put in a unique miniature that would be a draw for mini players that otherwise don't play D&D, possibly some might even try D&D. Have some good canned adventures that don't need to be groundbreaking, but exciting enough that new players will want to play it.

 

[thismric]

heyy,

i am 16, on the football team, get Bs and i went to Barnes and Nobels and picked them up after me and my friends on the bus created our own "mind dungeon" (played just thinking it up as we went.)

thimsric

ps. first post.