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

[payn]

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.

No reason folks cant step up and promote the things they love themselves. Of course you will have a disadvantage in the algorithm (unless you are a dink about it) and wont have a massive ready to go fanbase, but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

 

[Thomas Shey]

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.

While that's made the problem worse, its not like D&D wasn't dominant well before what we'd think of as "content creators" was really much of a thing.

 

[Thomas Shey]

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.

I'll just note that I think to have significant impact would require more marketing funding than the vast majority of participants in this market could approach affording.

 

[Micah Sweet]

While that's made the problem worse, its not like D&D wasn't dominant well before what we'd think of as "content creators" was really much of a thing.

That's true, but my subjective experience in the 80s and 90s tells me that other RPGs had a bigger piece of the pie prior to now.

 

[Thomas Shey]

No reason folks cant step up and promote the things they love themselves. Of course you will have a disadvantage in the algorithm (unless you are a dink about it) and wont have a massive ready to go fanbase, but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

The usual problem is where to promote it that it'll make even a dent.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That true, but my subjective experience in the 80s and 90s tells me that other RPGs had a bigger piece of the pie prior to now.

Probably true (I was there then too, after all), but I'm just suggesting that certain modern elements have accelerated a trend that was already present in 1980 rather than being the primary cause.

 

[payn]

The usual problem is where to promote it that it'll make even a dent.

Wherever you can. Folks doing it all on their own out of love. Here is a great example;

 

[Micah Sweet]

Probably true (I was there then too, after all), but I'm just suggesting that certain modern elements have accelerated a trend that was already present in 1980 rather than being the primary cause.

One of the things I enjoyed about old Dragon magazine was that everything in it wasn't hyper-focused on D&D, or even TSR, or even RPGs. It had a book review column, a mini review, articles about other company's games, general advice...we have definitely lost something precious.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Wherever you can. Folks doing it all on their own out of love. Here is a great example;

The key phrase is "make even a dent". There are enough YT videos out there that unless you already have an audience, its pretty likely you're not going to reach any appreciable number of people. Assuming the YT algorithm even brings it to your attention.

That's the problem with any sort of private pushing of a system you like; if they only people who see it are the ones already looking for it, you're only going to get a very limited amount done.

 

[payn]

The key phrase is "make even a dent". There are enough YT videos out there that unless you already have an audience, its pretty likely you're not going to reach any appreciable number of people. Assuming the YT algorithm even brings it to your attention.

That's the problem with any sort of private pushing of a system you like; if they only people who see it are the ones already looking for it, you're only going to get a very limited amount done.

IDK, the only community I have control over is the one i'm engaged with. What I put in is what I get out.