D&D: Is this the Golden Age?

[dreamthief]

I see a lot of rants about the state of D&D, but I think it's a great time for RPGs, and D&D in general. Neverwinter Nights, lots of great third-party products and supplements, online forums such as these to exchange tips/rules/war-stories, tons of high quality free stuff, the LotR movies and much much more.

I'm grateful. I stopped playing the game for a while but the community, the products and the interest has pulled me back in. Sure it's not perfect and I wish more new gamers would join in the fun rather than just the old guard, but really, things aren't too bad.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Yeah man, this is a golden age for epic fantasy. It's making a greater splash now than the fantasy phase that came across in the 70's. I'm incredibly happy to be a geek at this time.

As for D&D, though, I think its golden age has come and gone... that being the early eighties. Maybe it'll rise again, but I think some real changes will have to be made for that to happen.

 

[Sigma]

I agree w/Doctor Midnight, the golden age of D&D was the early 80's. I'd call this the silver age.

 

[Chromnos]

I'd say that, for D&D, this is the gilded age. Big company moves in takes over and, for the first time since I fell in love with this game at the age of eight, all I hear about is corporate downsizing, magazine sell-offs and outsourcing.

Since when has the business of gaming affected my gaming sessions, the feelings of my players, and my own? D&D has moved out of the creative world of visionary college students breaking into college dining halls late at night and into the corporate world of board rooms (although there may be a D4 lurking, like a lonely caltrop, hunting for some poor secretary's feet).

I long for the days when the sky was the limit, where you were dared to blow the top off the rules just for the fun of it. Now things are too serious, too dire, too real. Get the reality out of my fantasy!

Damn, pretty soon they'll have a degree for WOTC corporate rules lawyers.

-C

 

[Crothian]

I think it's more of a golden age for RPGs. We are finally out of the 90's slump and many companies and games are doing very well with quality work.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Whaaaaat? The 80's were the golden age of D&D REPRESSION. The whole decade we caught flack from every idiot who looked at a bible, as well as every administration from teachers to cops. If anything the 80's were a HELL of fantasy RPGs.

The late 70's were IMO a golden age, and maybe into the early 80's. Thats when all the premo modules were coming out, there was a growing fanbase, but the fanatics hadn't gotten started on burning Gygax in effigy yet. All the 80's gave us were crappy TSR books.

Now is a return to that golden age, but even better. Because of Hairy Potter and a few choice movies for once our hobby is almost accepted. Some of the greatest books ever are coming out and again there is a massive resurgence of players. The new modules are some of the best ever! RttToEE, Freeport series, Of Sound Mind, a DM could run years of gaming modules and never run a dud.

 

[Johno]

I definitely think it is the golden age for D&D...

The 80s are more flavoured by the rosy glasses of memories of my youth.

Realistically, there has never been more. What with the web community, ESD of old stuff, and all the 3rd parties producing D20 stuff, D20 Call of Cthulhu, D20 Modern round the corner...

And to top it all off, The Two Towers is to be released in time for Christmas...

Man, is it an excellent golden age!

 

[jester47]

It is a golden age, and we want it to last a long time, the luster is beginning to tarnish... Join the DDLF. Save the golden age.

A

 

[dreamthief]

Since when has the business of gaming affected my gaming sessions, the feelings of my players, and my own? D&D has moved out of the creative world of visionary college students breaking into college dining halls late at night and into the corporate world of board rooms (although there may be a D4 lurking, like a lonely caltrop, hunting for some poor secretary's feet).

-C

Man Chromnos, that analogy almost bought a tear to my eye.

 

[ForceUser]

I'm beginning to wonder if the decade of 2000-2010 will be the last huzzah for D&D. The books are so good now that I don't see why I'd ever replace them. And the product line is full. The class books are done, the core books and "core" supplements - MotP, Psionics Hanbook, etc - are done, and on the horizon we have...what? Book of Vile Darkness, MM2, and...Warcraft III d20? WoTC has rebuilt D&D from the ground up for 3rd edition, and there's not much left to do as far as I'm concerned.

Did you know that bridge was wildly popular in the early half of the 20th century? Lots of old people play bridge now, and hardly any young people. I wonder if D&D will go that way; when the D&D community is 60+, will we sit around our nursing homes rolling dice and making attacks of opportunity while our grandkids play holographic computer games? I think D&D will die with our generation, a forgotten footnote of history.

In the meantime, I'll be rolling my d20.