DnD Shorts final video

[demoss]

I don't disagree about the business side, but every time the military made me change bases during that era, I was able to find a group to play or DM for.

Would be interesting to dig up convention numbers from the period.

 

[Clint_L]

By 1993 the player base had largely settled into a long-term and fairly stable holding pattern largely left over from the 1e era: not that many new people coming in, but also not many leaving.

Then Magic was released in 1993 and became huge in 1994. Because of this, by 1995 the D&D player base had eroded away to a small fraction of what it was just a few years earlier; but TSR didn't catch on to this and kept churning out product at the same rate as before. Combine those two things and yes, TSR ran hard onto the rocks and the game - and, arguably, the entire RPG hobby - was on life support by 1997.

Slaying the Dragon documents the collapse of TSR and its subsequent acquisition by WotC and is an excellent read for those interested in this topic; I highly recommend it (along with Game Wizards, which documents the initial rise of TSR until the ouster of Gary Gygax).