D&D General D&D 3E Style Guide Peeks Behind The Scenes

Alex Kammer of Gamehole fame, the convention and the wonderful museum of every TSR D&D product and game room also has a copy of the D&D 3.0 Style Guide!

Interesting parts include the 3 million active monthly players, the primary and secondary target audiences, the list of "do's and don'ts" and cursing!

The primary audience was college students ages 18-24, with a secondary audience of young people form 13-16 and adults 25+.

"Dos and Don'ts" include "do show monsters as fearsome, evil creatures. They're not misunderstood--they're EVIL!", and "don't show the game being played by children or pre-teens".

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[Ralif Redhammer]

That is a fascinating window into the past and behind the curtain. Equally fascinating is which rules they broke later on (Book of Vile Darkness, for example, transgresses on a bunch of them) within the edition and after the edition.

Much of the broader cultural stuff that's helped propel D&D to its current popularity also directly contravenes these rules. Stranger Things, for example, strongly features kids playing D&D. Death Saves has multiple t-shirts that reference the Satanic Panic. But now is a very different time from then.

 

[TarionzCousin]

"D&D Promises: When you use D&D, you will always have fun with your friends."

"Always"??? Somebody is stretching the truth there.

 

[Lanefan]

Heh, must remember this when I'm told that D&D absolutely was meant to be marketed to the over 30 crowd and how the over 30 crowd was a major consumer.

What you've been told is that the over-35 crowd was not consulted for input through the marketing surveys.

Why does this matter? Because those who were over 35 then would have been 20-ish years younger (i.e. college age in many cases) during the heyday of 1e, and their experiences from that time - plus their experiences from the intervening decades - would have been useful data.

(note I say 35 rather than 30, as 35 is noted in Dancey's write-up as being the cut-off point for discarding responses)

 

[RobJN]

"D&D Promises: When you use D&D, you will always have fun with your friends."

"Always"??? Somebody is stretching the truth there.

If you're not, clearly you aren't D&Ding correctly.

 

[pumasleeve]

"Dont suggest the game is about dressing up in costume and acting out the fantasy"
every current d&d podcast - "hold my beer..."

 

[jaerdaph]

Their primary target market was 18-24 year-olds, with secondary markets of 13-16 and 25+. That means D&D 3.0 wasn’t being marketed to 17 year-olds.

Teens are at peek teenage angsty-ness at 17, so that's their WoD year.

 

[darjr]

"Dont suggest the game is about dressing up in costume and acting out the fantasy"
every current d&d podcast - "hold my beer..."

 

[darjr]

"Dont suggest the game is about dressing up in costume and acting out the fantasy"
every current d&d podcast - "hold my beer..."

 

[Remathilis]

"Dont suggest the game is about dressing up in costume and acting out the fantasy"
every current d&d podcast - "hold my beer..."

Cosplay in general is a lot more accepted 21 years later. In the 90's, cosplay was for Star Trek/Wars or comic cons and mostly limited to Federation unforms, the 501st, and Leia's metal bikini. It's gotten very popular with the growth of the internet and the change in fandom.

The other consideration for D&D in particular was disassociation from LARP which had a very negative stereotype, not at all helped by Michigan State steam tunnels aspect of Mazes and Monsters. To the layman, D&D and LARP was synonymous, so I can see why WotC wanted to break the connection between foam swords and cheap Ren faire costumes and a primarily tabletop game.

21 years later? With the advent of streaming games done through webcams, I can see why dressing up as your PC took off.

 

[darjr]

This is not cosplay! This is D&D!

and cosplay