D&D General D&D In The Mainstream - Again!

With the latest mainstream article* (this time the New York Times for the third time!) from a major news outlet covering the resurgence of D&D, I thought I'd take a quick look at similar articles which have appeared on the radar of major newspapers and broadcasters recently, including The Guardian, the BBC, the Washington Post, and more!

*Note, this article was written in Nov 2019, but I intend to update the list below as more such articles appear. Last updated Sep 2022.

Image from NYT, depicting live-streamed D&D show "Rivals of Waterdeep"​

Just yesterday, the Washington Examiner joined in. Forbes also covers the game fairly regularly. It's pretty amazing that this hobby is now appearing in mainstream media on a regular basis. There's a major mainstream article every couple of months now, it seems. The articles are usually very similar -- the surprising revelation of the "rise" or "resurgence" of D&D, and reports that D&D is now 'out of the basement', a few words from somebody at WotC about how the current year is the best year yet, and perhaps an interview with a gamer or two explaining why they think D&D is resurgent now, as well as quotes from a celebrity gamer.

The New York Times was surprised about the popularity of D&D twice this year - this week on D&D's resurgence, and back in April on "why the cool kids are playing Dungeons & Dragons". The Times looks at the strangeness of D&D becoming cool, while the Washington Post wonders how D&D became more popular than ever. IGN explains the recent surge in popularity, and the Guardian tells us we're no longer nerds because D&D is cool now (update: and then again in November 2019, July 2019, May 202, and then in September 2022). The BBC covers the phenomenon, as does Australia's ABC.

It'll be fun to see what comes next, if D&D's resurgence becomes no longer 'news' but accepted fact, and the outlets get to report on more focused aspects of the hobby -- hopefully the coverage won't die down. It's come some way since 2004 when the BBC asked "What happened to Dungeons & Dragons?" They've certainly got to stop being surprised at the resurgence soon! (*edit -- as of July 2022, nope, they're still surprised!)

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UPDATE -- January 2023, during the height of "OGL-gate", D&D has featured heavily. I have made a separate OGL-gate list here.

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• The Guardian: From satanic panic to billion-dollar business: how Dungeons & Dragons conquered the world (Sep 29, 2022)
• The Telegraph: How Dungeons and Dragons became cool (July 1st, 2022)
• The New York Times: Who’s Playing Dungeons & Dragons These Days? The Usual Fans, and Then Some (May 21st, 2022)
• BBC: Covid-19: 'Dungeons and Dragons got us through lockdown' (July 3rd, 2021)
• LA Times. Turning to Dungeons & Dragons to escape a real-life monster — COVID-19 (Jan 13th, 2021)
• The Metro. Why now is a great time to start playing Dungeons & Dragons (Nov 4, 2020).
• LA Times. D&D nerds (like me) are donning virtual armor and venturing online amid pandemic (Oct 9, 2020).
• The Washington Post: Amid a pandemic and a racial reckoning, ‘D&D’ finds itself at an inflection point (July 24, 2020)
• The Guardian: Dungeons & Dragons in lockdown: as my universe contracts, this game expands whole worlds (May 19, 2020)
• Variety: Inside Joe Manganiello’s Epic Dungeons & Dragons Campaign (May 6th, 2020)
• CNBC: How Critical Role helped start a Dungeons & Dragons renaissance (March 14th, 2020)
• USA Today: Dungeons & Dragons had fallen on 'troubled times.' The role-playing game's fifth edition changed everything (Jan 14th 2020)
• New York Times: In a Chaotic World, Dungeons & Dragons Is Resurgent (Nov 13, 2019)
• CBR: How Dungeons & Dragons Quietly Took Over Pop Culture (Aug 25, 2019)
• New York Times: Why the Cool Kids are playing Dungeons &/ Dragons (April 6, 2019)
• The Times: Dungeons & Dragons cool? Stranger things have happened (July 12, 2019)
• BBC: Dungeons & Dragons: The revival of a 'geeky' pastime (May 26, 2018)
• The Guardian: No more nerds: how Dungeons & Dragons finally became cool (July 13, 2019)
• ABD News: Dungeons & Dragons resurrected from basement into mainstream (July 5, 2019)
• IGN: Dungeons & Dragons Creators and Celebrity Players Explain Its Recent Surge in Popularity (October 2, 2019)
• Washington Post: How Dungeons & Dragons somehow became more popular than ever (April 18, 2019)
• The Guardian: 'It's cool now': why Dungeons & Dragons is casting its spell again (Nov 29, 2019)
• The Star: When did Dungeons & Dragons suddenly become cool? (Jan 5, 2018)
• The New Yorker: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons & Dragons (Oct 24, 2017)
• WIRED: The Media Still Owes Dungeons & Dragons an Apology (yes, they were saying this back in 2015!)
• Vice: How Dungeons & Dragons Went Mainstream (Sep 3, 2015)

With a bit of Googling, you can also uncover a ton of local news outlets which have covered the game, such as the Liverpool Echo, the Oxford Observer, the Washington Examiner, or the Chicago Daily Herald, as well as many comic book and general geek sites. D&D is everywhere! Even the Cyprus Mail!

I'm sure there are more! Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

The Fumble: Major Newspaper Surprised By How Often It's Been Surprised By Renewed Popularity of RPGs

As part of its 2019 retrospective series, the Peoria Times-Mail-Picayune recently featured a surprising article expressing surprise at how often it's been surprised over the past year by the surprising resurgence in popularity of tabletop role-playing games. "One of the biggest stories of the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Vanveen]

Oh, we get it. You have a good point, but your tone screwed it all up.

You start with "Here's the thing," end with "you may be a dog," and fill the space between with gems like "all of you are too young," "you don't know," "as I often say," "strawman argument," and "I wonder if people are able to think, or to read." You shouldn't be surprised if people respond with hostility or dismissal.
[/QUOT
lol

 

[Son of the Serpent]

You're missing the point, wistful vampire. What you chose to address is by far the least interesting part of my post. In fact, I'll give it up now. Yes, I was wrong. So many people on this thread recognize old rule sets!


The real issue is the witlessness of so much of RPG discussion. I dunno, maybe I'm the idiot for thinking it could get better. But when some gatekeeper swoops down and advances the crappiest straw man argument I've ever seen--the whole uphill in the snow both ways thing...dude...--I have to wonder if people are able to think, or to read.

Go ahead, reread my post. A-a-and, think about it a minute. My real point is a) a lack of historicity in most of these discussions and b) the fact that the complexity of any rule set is IMMATERIAL to the popularity, reach, etc. of a roleplaying game. Which makes edition wars, the sedulous business of the witless, completely irrelevant. Can you dig it? Can you...get it?

Of course, you may be a dog.

Well...actually the rule set isnt completely lacking any effect on popularity.

The simpler the rule set is will actually shift average iq down for instance.

The more modular and build it your self option laden the rule set is the more it will attract dms who like to add tons of things.

Yes. The ruleset effects popularity. Mostly in the "which part of the game will be particularly popular/unpopular with select demographics" kind of way. Otherwise you are mostly right.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We have to remember many gamers are used to complex rules thanks videogames. And many movies and videogames as Warcraft or Lord of the Rings indirectly has given TTRPGs advertising. D&D is different, but not too strange.

And today players want board games where they can do things in videogames aren't possible as improving social interactions to trick nPCs.

In the next years fantasy action-live movies and series are cheaper to be produced thanks to the technology of stagecraft software. This means more elves vs orcs battles in the big and little screen, and classic movies set in past ages, based in famous novels.

* It is curious. Here in Spain the second most popular TTRPG was World of Darkness, maybe the first in the last years before 3rd D&D Ed because translations stopped. But now WoD isn't in the top of the wave. Call of Cthulhu is famous, but not so much, and the translation of titles is even slower than other lines. At least Lovecraft's myths have got some movies or even videogames.

I guess after Bloodlines 2 the things will start to change. WoD is easier to be adapted to the screen because it is set in the current age.

* Easier rules is opening doors because new players are children with their parents or older family. It is time family is together and more controlled by adults, but youngest members have fun using their imagination and without videogames.

* If D&D is popular now... what about novels? After the end of Harry Potter saga some readers would find in Dragonlance the next target, at least reading books by family.

 

[Umbran]

The real issue is ...

... that you are being rude and dismissive, actually.

Sometimes, when one of the staff enters the conversation, folks who were overly condescending can figure out that maybe they need to step it back, without our having to make a public deal out of it. This was apparently not one of those times.

So, let us make it official - you are being rude. You are done in this thread. Please, before engaging with anyone else, consider your approach. If it isn't based in having a general respect for your fellow gamers and posters, please leave off until you are of a disposition to treat people better.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

We have to remember many gamers are used to complex rules thanks videogames. And many movies and videogames as Warcraft or Lord of the Rings indirectly has given TTRPGs advertising. D&D is different, but not too strange.

And today players want board games where they can do things in videogames aren't possible as improving social interactions to trick nPCs.

In the next years fantasy action-live movies and series are cheaper to be produced thanks to the technology of stagecraft software. This means more elves vs orcs battles in the big and little screen, and classic movies set in past ages, based in famous novels.

* It is curious. Here in Spain the second most popular TTRPG was World of Darkness, maybe the first in the last years before 3rd D&D Ed because translations stopped. But now WoD isn't in the top of the wave. Call of Cthulhu is famous, but not so much, and the translation of titles is even slower than other lines. At least Lovecraft's myths have got some movies or even videogames.

I guess after Bloodlines 2 the things will start to change. WoD is easier to be adapted to the screen because it is set in the current age.

* Easier rules is opening doors because new players are children with their parents or older family. It is time family is together and more controlled by adults, but youngest members have fun using their imagination and without videogames.

* If D&D is popular now... what about novels? After the end of Harry Potter saga some readers would find in Dragonlance the next target, at least reading books by family.

Totally just a tangent but:

I hate harry potter.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Me neither I am a fan of Harry Potter, only I saw the first movie in TV years ago, and reading some articles from the wikipedia.

When I was a child I saw the worst witch, the 1986 movie with Tim Curry.

But Harry Potter was a great hook to get new readers among children. Do remember somebody started with Endless Quest gamebooks, or Dragonlance movies.

* Fantasy Forest and Heart Quest could be interactive comics, or interactive cartoon movies, or for media streaming services. Let's remember now the tablets are replacing the TVs. But I warn fantasy romances for teenage girls may be too easy to be parodied. Hasbro could create a smashing-hit as Prodigious: adventures of Ladybug and Cat-noir, because maho-shojo or magical girls is a very popular subgenre.

Why not Endless Quest gamebooks, but this time as interactive comics for media streaming services?

* I have seen in youtube some minutes of the Dragonlance movie. I like the draw, but the CGI was horrible, today a mobile videogame has got better graphics, this got old very bad, and the animation, the characters moving, wasn't so good as other cartoons from previous decades. And the level of violence was too high for parents to allow their children to watch it. The death by innocent victims should be off-screen. Books and movies have got a different action rhythm, but Dragonlance would deserve a second chance as animated adaptation, maybe as webserie, with a module to allow different levels of censure for distinct public (+7 and +13). In the streaming media services this could be possible.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Me neither I am a fan of Harry Potter, only I saw the first movie in TV years ago, and reading some articles from the wikipedia.

When I was a child I saw the worst witch, the 1986 movie with Tim Curry.

But Harry Potter was a great hook to get new readers among children. Do remember somebody started with Endless Quest gamebooks, or Dragonlance movies.

* Fantasy Forest and Heart Quest could be interactive comics, or interactive cartoon movies, or for media streaming services. Let's remember now the tablets are replacing the TVs. But I warn fantasy romances for teenage girls may be too easy to be parodied. Hasbro could create a smashing-hit as Prodigious: adventures of Ladybug and Cat-noir, because maho-shojo or magical girls is a very popular subgenre.

Why not Endless Quest gamebooks, but this time as interactive comics for media streaming services?

* I have seen in youtube some minutes of the Dragonlance movie. I like the draw, but the CGI was horrible, today a mobile videogame has got better graphics, this got old very bad, and the animation, the characters moving, wasn't so good as other cartoons from previous decades. And the level of violence was too high for parents to allow their children to watch it. The death by innocent victims should be off-screen. Books and movies have got a different action rhythm, but Dragonlance would deserve a second chance as animated adaptation, maybe as webserie, with a module to allow different levels of censure for distinct public (+7 and +13). In the streaming media services this could be possible.

No such thing as a tim curry movie that isnt good.

That said, his appearance in the worst witch was little more than a cameo and thus i dont consider it a tim curry movie. I was dissappointed.

Another side note. Alan rickman's metatron from dogma is gutbustingly funny. Also his deadpan humor seals it.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In that movie he was without moustache nor beard, and he sang a song. But it was a little role.

Please, don't mention Kevin Smith's Dogma, Code da Vinci, Garth Ennis' Preacher or movies like this because because for other people is as if somebody talks about theological lessons from Maria Valtorta's visions. Wouldn't you feel uncomfortable? (Sorry for the off-topic).

Hasbro and Allspark studios have to learn to do good titles, and then to dare to produce the ultimate D&D adaptations. And the main cinema studios still are working to find the right key. Transformers were a true blockbuster, but in the last knight there were too burnt. Power Rangers wasn't so good. The second movie of G.I.Joe was not very popular.

Hasbro wants good relations with Disney, and this wouldn't like Star*Frontiers (d20 Future) as potential rival. But Spelljammer is another matter. It is curious but Disney could create its own fantasy franchises, but they haven't done it with the D&D style yet, but more like Elena of Avalor. The cartoon Black Cauldron and the action-live Dragonslayer are practically forgotten, but a remake, or a sequel is possible.

Have you seen "The Dragon Prince" in Netflix? It could be a good example as reference.

* Fantasy Forest could be a chibi version of D&D, about a forest linked to the demiplane of the dreams, and some dream spirit can incarnate into living creatures and be tamed as harmless monster pets, a mixture of living spell and illusory astral construct with shape of dragons, dinosaurs or furby-like creatures.

* Hasbro could produce a movie about toys getting alive and sentients and they have to save a group of children, their owners, in a monster mutant post-apocalypse.

* If "my little pony" is as kodomo (manga+anime for children) how would be the shonen (teen male) and shojo (teen girl) version, with centaurkins and centauresses? (centaurkins were canon in AD&D, and also some new creatures in 3rd Ed).

* Now I am thinking again WotC wants a new edition of d20 Modern, but this needs a lot of work, because not only there are firearms, but usually there are more investigation and social interactions, and the balance of power and XPs reward is broken when PCs or enemies can use modern weapons as help. Should surviving a sniper be a XPs reward as a trap with a shooter mechanism?

How would be Ravenloft spin-off "the masque of the Red Death" set in the XXI century?

 

[Morrus]

The Guardian is caught by surprise again at D&D’s popularity, forgetting that it was surprised back in July.

'It's cool now': why Dungeons & Dragons is casting its spell again

Thanks to the popularity of open-world video games – and Stranger Things – a new generation has rediscovered the communal pleasures of the 80s role-playing phenomenon

www.theguardian.com

 

[Ulfgeir]

Well, as long as they keep printing good stuff about rpg's, instead of the old morality panic-stuff, then we should be thankful that they write about rpg's at all..

Finally they realize that we nerds/geeks are much cooler to write about than overpaid footballers, celebrities who are only famous because they are famous etc... =^_^=