D&D 5E Are we in D&D's Golden Age?

[Panda-s1]

Eventually 5E will peak or people move in from critical role, or something else turns up and people go do that instead.

there's way more than critical role, lol. adventure zone is also a popular d&d podcast, and I'm sure whatever WotC themselves puts out is also popular, like it has to be if they're willing to produce it. they've been going on for years, too. if anything I'd hope people learn about other rpg's and move on to those.

A lot of casuals will try it for a year or two then move in for whatever reason.

that just sounds like the story of my life lol.

Eventually they'll hit saturation point. Everyone who wants a phb has one and sales will start to decline.

If that happens 2 or 3 years in a row they'll start thinking about 6E which won't happen until 2024/25 minimum

I mean that just sounds inevitable, not sure why they're mutually inclusive.

 

[Zardnaar]

there's way more than critical role, lol. adventure zone is also a popular d&d podcast, and I'm sure whatever WotC themselves puts out is also popular, like it has to be if they're willing to produce it. they've been going on for years, too. if anything I'd hope people learn about other rpg's and move on to those.

that just sounds like the story of my life lol.

I mean that just sounds inevitable, not sure why they're mutually inclusive.

Every edition you get a few online thinking current edition is best edition eva and it will last forever or 10 years at least.

And then the next edition lands. Shrugs.

You can kind if tell when an edition is on the way out. There's not even a sniff if that with 5E.

 

[DwarfHammer]

My group is weird. We play with the PHB only. No supplements. Go figure. But we adore the edition and creating adventures with it. And amazingly I still buy the new books to see what is going on. Our only complaint about 5E is there are not enough spell books in published adventures to be captured or found by wizards. But I think this edition will go for an easy decade and it’s replacement will probaly be very similar.

 

[Panda-s1]

Every edition you get a few online thinking current edition is best edition eva and it will last forever or 10 years at least.

And then the next edition lands. Shrugs.

I was online when 4e hit, I beg to differ.

You can kind if tell when an edition is on the way out. There's not even a sniff if that with 5E.

okay then why even bring up CR fans losing interest in d&d?

From an art standpoint, 1E-early 2E was the golden age. Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, and Clyde Caldwell made art that I would have hanging in my house if my wife would let me. The art in the books these days is trash.

not sure I follow. I like a lot of the art in AD&D, but can't in good faith call the art in 5e "trash". some of the art in 1st ed. and OD&D, however, doesn't hold up well, and in some cases is literally cartoony.

 

[schneeland]

In terms of general popularity: yes, at least in the US it seems to have surged; and here in Germany it is at least rebuilding its place as one of the major TTRPG games. It still doesn't feel close to the >100k boxes of the Dark Eye that were sold in the 80s, and also not the second wave we had with a lot of D&D-related video games in the 90s. But there's also no indication that we have reached peak-5e here, so we'll have to see how things develop.

For me personally: no - while 5e came at the right time to restore my interest in D&D and TTRPGs in general (after being quite burned out on 3e, which we played for 15 years), I realized 5e doesn't really offer the experiences I am looking for. There's enough other games that come closer to that, though. And maybe I'll join the fray again with 6e.

 

[gyor]

Lore wise I think 2e D&D was the Golden Age, FR, Spelljammer, Planescape and more. But there were major problems the time.

But really I think in practice I think D&D never had a Golden Age, only Silver ages.

This could be a D&D Golden Age, 3rd parties companies are doing their part, but WotC so far is very unambitious, when instead they should be leading the way.

Now as for CRPGs THAT is entering a Golden Age, Wrath of the Righteous, Wasteland 3, Baldur's Gate 3, Solasta, ect...

 

[Argyle King]

No

 

[Azzy]

I'd say it's a second golden age. D&D has seriously boomed.

 

[MNblockhead]

I couldn't disagree more. I feel like we're buried in creations right now!

Yeah, there is no shortage of third-party material. There is no shortage of homebrew material shared freely or at low cost on-line in DTRPG, on blogs, and on streaming sites. Some of those gathered following large enough to launch highly successful kickstarter campaigns, new companies and careers, and new IPs.

I kinda skipped from 1e to 5e. I guess the d20 era had a lot of stuff published, but what impact did that have on the larger culture outside of gaming subcultures? I never heard about D&D or RPGs in general after I stopped paying attention to the hobby.

You could have never played an RPG in your life and you would be familiar with D&D today and could be consuming material launched from D&D. I mean, Vox Machina will be an Amazon Prime show.

There was the 80s and their is now. And today is a much more accommodating environment. I think we are at the start of the golden age.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I think I would describe the current period as a D&D renaissance. It has been an era of renewal for the game. 5E is the second renaissance, with the first renaissance being the early to mid 2000s period of 3.X. The 5E era has brought a new level of popularity, diversity and mainstream acceptance to D&D. It revitalized a game which had been fractured from the "edition wars" era, just as 3E revitalized a game which had decayed under the Satanic Panic and collapse of TSR.