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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5246550" data-attributes="member: 58197">I like fences.My initial impulse was to agree with Umbran. D&amp;D is the tide that lifts (or lowers) all boats in the RPG world. There's a strong case to be made for that.And yet... I'm hesitant to embrace that position fully, because we've never had it any other way, and D&amp;D's status as the &quot;gatekeeper&quot; for the gaming community may be limiting us in ways we don't realize. I remember back in the '90s, when Vampire: The Masquerade was pulling in a lot of people who'd never played D&amp;D and weren't particularly interested in elves and dwarves and dungeon crawls. I don't think it's a coincidence that V:tM's rise came at the same time as TSR's death spiral.The &quot;Big Boy, Little Friends&quot; model works, but it breeds dependence. To survive and thrive, the Little Friends must tailor their designs to the types of people who were attracted to the Big Boy in the first place. When the Big Boy is on his deathbed, the Little Friends have to go out and find their own players... and some of them may find they can pull in players the Big Boy never reached.But is that enough to grow and sustain what has long been a desperately niche hobby? Or is &quot;Big Boy, Little Friends&quot; the only workable answer despite its shortcomings? I don't know.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5246550, member: 58197"] I like fences. My initial impulse was to agree with Umbran. D&D is the tide that lifts (or lowers) all boats in the RPG world. There's a strong case to be made for that. And yet... I'm hesitant to embrace that position fully, because we've never had it any other way, and D&D's status as the "gatekeeper" for the gaming community may be limiting us in ways we don't realize. I remember back in the '90s, when Vampire: The Masquerade was pulling in a lot of people who'd never played D&D and weren't particularly interested in elves and dwarves and dungeon crawls. I don't think it's a coincidence that V:tM's rise came at the same time as TSR's death spiral. The "Big Boy, Little Friends" model works, but it breeds dependence. To survive and thrive, the Little Friends must tailor their designs to the types of people who were attracted to the Big Boy in the first place. When the Big Boy is on his deathbed, the Little Friends have to go out and find their own players... and some of them may find they can pull in players the Big Boy never reached. But is that enough to grow and sustain what has long been a desperately niche hobby? Or is "Big Boy, Little Friends" the only workable answer despite its shortcomings? I don't know. [/QUOTE]

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