D&D 5E Could D&D Die Again?

[Zardnaar]

I’m counting one time D&D almost died. That was when TSR went under. Not sure about the other two times. 4E wasn’t one as it was still the #1 and for a time #2 selling RPG in the world.

Every fad fades. Even D&D. If Hasbro is smart they won’t bank on the extreme popularity of D&D lasting forever. As with most entertainment right now, D&D and MtG are taking hits because people are not isolating and are going back to the office. They kept producing mid-pandemic levels of product when the pandemic is ending.

I'm not including 4E as a time D&D almost died.

Basically in the 70's they ran out of money and the Blumes put money in essentially Gary lost control of D&D at that point. That's the 1st time.

The other time was 85 when the Blumes sold to Lorraine and her money bailed D&D out leading to Gary's eviction.

So basically without other people's money D&D would have died.

 

[Lanefan]

Yes.

"Everything dies, baby, that's a fact."

"And everything that dies, someday comes back"

 

[tolcreator]

Of course D&D will die, but that's on a long enough time table. I can see it fading from its current height. But D&D is bigger than WotC: if they go under we still have the OGL and the SRD. For D&D to die its player base needs to die/stop playing.
As to whether it will just fade away back to the nadir of the 2000s, from riding the crest of the zeitgeist like it is now, I wouldn't count on that. If nothing else, in 20-30 years, there will be 2010s/2020s nostalgia media like Stranger Things is now, and D&D is bigger now than it ever was in the 80s.

 

[Lanefan]

What's really ironic about all this is that one of the things that really clobbered all RPGs in the mid-90s was that everyone started playing M:tG instead.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Will D&D die? Will it be bad?

 

[Weiley31]

Well, you have to make three death saves.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

 

[DND_Reborn]

No, but it could become undead...

 

[EzekielRaiden]

One D&D flops for whatever reason. Bit harder to know but if it's 4E 2.0 and it goes out of print in a few years it's probably a flop.

And here we go with your "4e was a huge failure that nearly killed the game" rhetoric again.

It wasn't true before and it isn't true now.

D&D has not "died," other than when TSR nearly drove the IP into the ground and locked it into the tomb with it. None of your fears are going to cause that to happen any time in the even somewhat near future. Hasbro is not in massive financial danger, and issues with MtG are unlikely to cause widespread damage within Wizards.

Get back to me in five years, when we've actually had time to see how "One D&D" has been received. I strongly suspect D&D will be below the heights achieved during the pandemic, but still doing quite well, much to my chagrin as I would prefer much larger changes than Wizards is willing to make.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I can't see it dying in the foreseeable future, even if Hasbro closed up shop and nothing for D&D was produced ever again. No other game does what D&D does, the way D&D does it.