D&D's Lead Increases; Stars Without Number Surges In Latest Orr Group Report

The Orr Group (who produce the Roll20 virtual tabletop platform) has just sent along its latest quarterly statistics which look at what folks have been playing over the last three months. The group reports that "Once again, 5th Edition is widening the gap as the most popular DnD option. 4th Edition activity decreased slightly, but the biggest change is that 3.5 Edition players seem to be migrating to 5e. This is a continuation of a shift we noticed in Q3, so it will be interesting to see if the trend continues in 2016." The statistics below are from Quarter 4 2015.

Some other analysis provided by The Orr Group:

• Stars Without Number continues to climb the charts, hopping over FATE since Q3.
• We were also interested to see that, despite the big news that Paradox Interactive bought White Wolf from CCP in November, this hasn’t affected World of Darkness game activity on Roll20.
• The latest season of Yogsquest by popular steamers Yogscast caused activity to double since Q3.
• Increases in Smaller Games: We’ve also added new titles to the report, which were pulled from the Other Games umbrella section when we noticed an increase in activity. The recent release of the Fantasy AGE ruleset saw a nice pop of players, and Fallout 4’s popularity led to more people playing the Fallout RPG.
• Increase in Non-English Games: We recently implemented Transifex to improve the accessibility of games and character sheets for non-English users. We were thrilled to see that, as a result, there’s been an increase in foreign-language games. We noticed in Q3 that players were using character sheets for two particular games, Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk and Das Schwarze Auge, so we added them to the report. This is an ongoing process and we’ll keep looking for ways to bring games to international players.

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The above is the short version. The Orr Group gets the data from Roll20 member profiles. Player numbers are derived from the "Enjoys Playing" and "Seeks Group For" sections; game numbers come from the "My Campaigns" section. Where percentages exceed 100%, that's because players list multiple games. There's a more in-depth description of the methodology here.

D&D 5E is increasing its lead (there was speculation that its new lead would be short-lived, but so far it's still growing), although only by a percentage point or so. You can see the group's last report from October 2015 here. Much like Fantasy Grounds' report, the first few places are all flavours of D&D either current or past.

Below is the "long" version of the data. Every quarter or so, we get data from three sources - Fantasy Grounds, the Orr Group (Roll20), and ICv2's surveys. By and large, they tend to agree.

 

[SerHogan]

I don't see AD&D 2E unless that's included in AD&D.

 

[smiteworks]

<sorry, wrong thread>

 

[darjr]

It would be interesting to see them split. BTW thank you for making these numbers available. Very much. I do wonder if there would be a way to find out which of these are instances of the software being used as a reference.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

There's a heap of games on here that I'd love to either try out or play more often. If only I had more free time and a group that was willing to give more of a go to games besides D&D. As much as I love D&D (and it's been my game of choice for many years), I'd love to stretch my roleplaying legs every now and then.

 

[jhilahd]

It sounds kind of like it's a bit more focused on hard sci-fi than White Star, which is a lot more space opera. It can also do cyberpunk and such, but it really feels a lot more geared toward Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. I would definitely like to try out Stars Without Number at some point, but I highly recommend White Star. I played it at a convention, and it was a total blast!

EDIT: Maybe "focused on" is the wrong way to put it. Perhaps "geared toward" is a better phrase.

Yeah, it is more hard sci fi than White Star's Space Opera feel.
10 levels, 4 classes. Human centric.
AC works as a modifier either plus or minus on your die roll. It uses OSR descending AC. You need a 20 to hit someone or some... thing.
It is very sand boxy, and glorious.
I've played it, died in it, and run a couple of one shots. It's fun.
It has a campaign setting that gives you enough of a frame to build in, but not finish things for you.
Star system creation is fun, as is all the other tables included to build encounters, npc's, beasts and so forth.

The base game is free, I think the only things you get with the purchase copy are Mech rules, and maybe a few more GM side things.

For a free game it is a must. Sin Nomine is one of my all time favorite publishers. I almost have all their physical titles, and and at least all of them in pdf form.

 

[mrm1138]

AC works as a modifier either plus or minus on your die roll. It uses OSR descending AC. You need a 20 to hit someone or some... thing.

I was about to ask if it gave an ascending AC variant the way White Star does, but looking at the free rules, I see that it would throw the combat system out of whack. 1d20 + target's AC + combat skill + attribute modifier + attack bonus seems a bit more complicated than it needs to be. Not that I wouldn't try it, but that seems like the sort of thing that might be distracting.

 

[sefnerr]

I don't see AD&D 2E unless that's included in AD&D.

Looks like 1e and 2e get grouped together.(smaller print under AD&D) Seems like they should get separate stats since they use different sheets on Roll20. ;-(

 

[jhilahd]

No worries, to each their own, right?
For what it's worth, I don't think its not any more complicated than ascending. An AC of 7 gives you a +7 to your roll against it.
And you're rolling to hit 20 or more. That's it.
Roll 1d20.
Add the target's Armor Class. (say a 7)
Add your combat skill(if any). (+1 I'm trained in pistols)
Add your attribute modifier. (+2 dex)
Add your attack bonus. (+1 for 1st level)

I know I need a 20 to hit the Blitz-soldier heading toward me, with just the info above I have an 11. Without knowing his ac, I still have a 4.
Either way, I roll a d20, I get an 8. Plus 11, 19. I narrowly miss the on coming white armored soldier. Lucky for me, they miss alot.

It's couple of more numbers to figure out ahead of time, but you can write those out and just add the AC - then viola!

 

[Morlock]

jhilahd

*squints* "...you know, that almost looks like...nah. never mind. It's nothin'." *spits*

 

[mrm1138]

jhilahd

*squints* "...you know, that almost looks like...

Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

nah. never mind. It's nothin'." *spits*

Kiteo, his eyes closed.