D&D General D&D's Utter Dominance Is Good or Bad Because...

[Wolfpack48]

Just to make it clear, I'm talking about D&D players in the 70's mostly; early on, the only people not in those two categories to be at all likely to even be aware of D&D, were people who were in close contact with people in those groups. The modern period is a very different beast.

Sure but I also want to clarify that my RQ ad in the game store was in 2021. I got good response in today’s environment.

 

[Hussar]

What's an "APA"?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sure but I also want to clarify that my RQ ad in the game store was in 2021. I got good response in today’s environment.

That's fine, I just wanted it to be clear I was not referring to modern exposure to RPGs which is a very different beast.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What's an "APA"?

Amateur Press Association zine. Basically, the thing that closest resembled fora and Discords in early fandoms. You wrote up your thing, printed it (or in a few cases, paid the editor to print it) and it was bundled together. Included a lot of mutual commentary, reviews, and sometimes other material dependent on the purpose of the APA. In RPG land two of the most well known early ones were The Wild Hunt and Alarums and Excursions (the latter, I believe, is still around).

 

[Hussar]

Amateur Press Association zine. Basically, the thing that closest resembled fora and Discords in early fandoms. You wrote up your thing, printed it (or in a few cases, paid the editor to print it) and it was bundled together. Included a lot of mutual commentary, reviews, and sometimes other material dependent on the purpose of the APA. In RPG land two of the most well known early ones were The Wild Hunt and Alarums and Excursions (the latter, I believe, is still around).

Ah, fanzines. I'm thinking that the number of people who actually participated, beyond reading anyway, of things like this were still a very tiny percentage of the total fandom. Even in the 70's.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Ah, fanzines. I'm thinking that the number of people who actually participated, beyond reading anyway, of things like this were still a very tiny percentage of the total fandom. Even in the 70's.

That's why there was a "maybe" on that part. It was an alternate for people who were really into a fandom but not social enough to want to deal with con organizing or helping run a club.

 

[MNblockhead]

Ah, fanzines. I'm thinking that the number of people who actually participated, beyond reading anyway, of things like this were still a very tiny percentage of the total fandom. Even in the 70's.

I think fanzines were most important with the first generation of gamers, carrying on the tradition of the wargame zines of the 60s and 70s.

Among my generation in the 80s, it was pretty much Dragon and White Wolf. Polyhedron was a distant third and then you hit the long tail of small zines that acted more like blogs. Some had active and long-lived fan bases, but it seems to have been a very small percentage of the TTRPG fandom who subscribed to, read, or were even aware of any gaming magazines beyond Dragon and White Wolf.

 

[Lalato]

There is one sense that 10 years of 5e dominance has been a good thing. A lot... almost too many... people have gone out and created content for 5e. There are 100s of campaign settings (over 360 by my current count) and long form adventures out there. I don't really follow crunch/splat books, but there is a ton of that too. It's been an incredible wellspring of creativity for a lot of people.

I think that some of those people will eventually find D&D too limiting for their creativity... and we'll see a lot of new games come out of this crop of newly minted game designers. We're already seeing some of that as people branch out into OSR/OSE style games. Or launch Kickstarter campaigns for entirely new systems.

Honestly, it's the best time to be alive if you're a TTRPG fan.

 

[Reynard]

I'm probably just being grumpy today due to non game related stuff, but I really, really want D&D to stop dominating the hobby, industry and community surrounding TTRPGs. I don't want it to go away but I would love it if it was just one of many well loved, well played, and well.covered games. I partly blame contebt creators because they feed the vicious cycle of "everyone talks about D&D because D&D is dominant because everyone talks about D&D" but I also totally understand the desire for engagement.

Anyway, end rant.

 

[GrimCo]

And to end that vicious cycle, other games need to step up. Invest in marketing. Reach to broader audience. Show them how good they are, how fun they are.

D&D is mainstream. Love it, hate it, but that's where it is. In the open and accepted by "normies and casuals". Like board games, which are gaining more and more traction with "non geek" crowds. Sadly, i don't see other ttrpgs going out there and trying to capture that same wide casual crowd.