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

[Thomas Shey]

The worst part is that some people want to overtake D&D or whatever the market leader is and replace it with a competitior that they want to actively not appeal to the masses.

A niche top dog who doesn't care about the whole community is a quick path to stagnation and death of the hobby.

Someone has to be the top dog, my dawg.

Maybe so, but if you've got ten competitors in the market, there's a big difference if one of them is 20% of the market and one is 90%.

 

[TheSword]

Of course, I include myself in that. I thought my example of me enjoying something unfamiliar to me was making that clear.

I simply take issue with the fact that familiar is better. When that is patently and clearly not always the case with so many things.

People talk about money, but in truth money is rarely the reason people don’t try new RPGs. Often the DM/person-trying-to-persuade has already bought and paid for the rules. Or the rules are pretty darn cheap. I maintain that easy routes of access is the biggest issue.

The challenge is that it is hard to conceive of something different until you’ve tried it. In the absence of an easily accessible taster/first few sessions/first campaign - people have to rely on their imaginations which almost always paint a worse and riskier image than reality.

 

[Corinnguard]

Not saying you will like it, im saying you wont know if you dont TRY.

True, but this sometimes requires you to step outside of your comfort zone, and not many people are willing to step outside of it on their own. It might require a leap of faith to try out something new and land on your own two feet.

 

[Minigiant]

Maybe so, but if you've got ten competitors in the market, there's a big difference if one of them is 20% of the market and one is 90%.

But again.

Someone has to be the big dog.

Can't have a little dog acting like the big dog.

TTRPGs is a hobby of many little dogs and one big dog. If you take out the current big dog, one of the little dogs gotta level up.

Because no one does, industry dies.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The challenge is that it is hard to conceive of something different until you’ve tried it.

Counterpoint-

I was able to conceive of the taste of a Malört Old Fashioned (an Ört Fashioned) before I made it.


Unfortunately, and disastrously, my conception completely matched the reality. The dark, dark, dark reality.

 

[Thomas Shey]

But again.

Someone has to be the big dog.

Can't have a little dog acting like the big dog.

TTRPGs is a hobby of many little dogs and one big dog. If you take out the current big dog, one of the little dogs gotta level up.

Because no one does, industry dies.

That ignores my point. If you had five companies that, collectively, had half the reach D&D does, I fail to believe that would leave the industry dying. Because D&D itself didn't have that reach at some points in its history.

 

[TheSword]

Counterpoint-

I was able to conceive of the taste of a Malört Old Fashioned (an Ört Fashioned) before I made it.


Unfortunately, and disastrously, my conception completely matched the reality. The dark, dark, dark reality.

I’ll revise that to ‘difficult to conceive of something accurately’

I was able to conceive of my Birthright campaign as an heroic political dynastic epic… reality can definitely get in the way.

 

[Xenolith234]

Counterpoint-

I was able to conceive of the taste of a Malört Old Fashioned (an Ört Fashioned) before I made it.


Unfortunately, and disastrously, my conception completely matched the reality. The dark, dark, dark reality.

The taste of fermented shoes.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

Of course, I include myself in that. I thought my example of me enjoying something unfamiliar to me was making that clear.

I simply take issue with the fact that familiar is better. When that is patently and clearly not always the case with so many things.

People talk about money, but in truth money is rarely the reason people don’t try new RPGs. Often the DM/person-trying-to-persuade has already bought and paid for the rules. Or the rules are pretty darn cheap. I maintain that easy routes of access is the biggest issue.

The challenge is that it is hard to conceive of something different until you’ve tried it. In the absence of an easily accessible taster/first few sessions/first campaign - people have to rely on their imaginations which almost always paint a worse and riskier image than reality.

I didn't say that familiar is better. My point was that if a person were to listen to every song ever played and grade each on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how much they enjoyed it they would rate most as a 6 or worse. If they tried every type of food ever made they would rate most as 6 or worse. If they played every RPG ever made they would rate most as a 6 or worse regarding their personal enjoyment. So if a person enjoys D&D as an 8 or above the odds are that they will enjoy another game significantly less. And since free time is limited, it is perfectly reasonable to decide that trying other games isn't worthwhile, especially if someone doesn't enjoy learning new rules.

 

[Minigiant]

Even if technically someone has to be the top dog, there is zero need for that someone to be orders of magnitude bigger than anyone else.

No.

But in the economy of multimillionaires, someone has to be the multimillionaire.

Is there anything stopping TTRPGs from having 3-5 huuuuge corporations/companies?