Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Does D&D Have an Identity Crisis?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9109044" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I would say no, 2E has a dissimilar identity crisis, in that it took a "Let a thousand flowers bloom" approach to settings, and thus put them out in a pretty scattershot way, but this approach did land them some direct hits (notably the first Dark Sun and Planescape, but also things like Ravenloft 2E and Birthright), for the relatively small sales of the era. Tonally, they weren't as scattered as they might be - all generally had a slightly "teen and up" tone, whereas D&D, which was still being made, was aimed more at younger kids (rather ineffectually, admittedly).</p><p></p><p>3E didn't have an identity crisis apart from in it's clumsy, failed, attempts to "bring back Greyhawk" (which nowhere near enough people wanted to actually happen). Otherwise tonally and in terms of output they were pretty together, and it continued to be very much "teen and up".</p><p></p><p>4E created a weird crisis for itself by doing the reverse of having an identity crisis, and picking a very specific identity with new lore for the entire D&D universe, which never quite worked out but gave us a lot of great stuff (not least the Shadowfell and Feywild). Tonally it was probably more together than any other edition. Again teen and up.</p><p></p><p>5E started out as an "apology edition" and was initially taking a "Let a small and safe number of flowers bloom exactly once" approach with a slow, steady release cadence and zero support for settings beyond the main book or mostly Forgotten Realms-ish adventures. The inevitable WotC attempt to bring back Greyhawk inevitably completely failed (guys, no-one cares about Greyhawk! Sorry to the three people who do!). Tonally it was barely different until it started getting bigger, and since then we've seen the shift towards increasingly child-friendly content.</p><p></p><p>I don't think this decision was made at the level of the designers.</p><p></p><p>I think this decision was made at the corporate level. I think WotC had deluded themselves into thinking that, if they made Strixhaven child-friendly and soft enough, it'd do amazing and bring in a ton of Harry Potter-ish players and so on. Because that's what HP fans are looking for, right, a soft, comfortable setting where nothing bad happens? That sure describes Harry Potter's horror show of a life...</p><p></p><p>But the resultant settingventure was a bit of a nothing. All the cool ideas got given up on, and it was neither HP enough to attract that crowd (who are, in fact, mostly in their 20s and older at this point - some are about 40, not kids), not much like the MtG setting.</p><p></p><p>Also WotC clearly lost confidence in it if they ever had any, because it wasn't aggressively advertised, and it really should have been. I know a bunch of HP fans who play D&D, and not a bloody one of them had heard of Strixhaven from anyone but me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 9109044, member: 18"] I would say no, 2E has a dissimilar identity crisis, in that it took a "Let a thousand flowers bloom" approach to settings, and thus put them out in a pretty scattershot way, but this approach did land them some direct hits (notably the first Dark Sun and Planescape, but also things like Ravenloft 2E and Birthright), for the relatively small sales of the era. Tonally, they weren't as scattered as they might be - all generally had a slightly "teen and up" tone, whereas D&D, which was still being made, was aimed more at younger kids (rather ineffectually, admittedly). 3E didn't have an identity crisis apart from in it's clumsy, failed, attempts to "bring back Greyhawk" (which nowhere near enough people wanted to actually happen). Otherwise tonally and in terms of output they were pretty together, and it continued to be very much "teen and up". 4E created a weird crisis for itself by doing the reverse of having an identity crisis, and picking a very specific identity with new lore for the entire D&D universe, which never quite worked out but gave us a lot of great stuff (not least the Shadowfell and Feywild). Tonally it was probably more together than any other edition. Again teen and up. 5E started out as an "apology edition" and was initially taking a "Let a small and safe number of flowers bloom exactly once" approach with a slow, steady release cadence and zero support for settings beyond the main book or mostly Forgotten Realms-ish adventures. The inevitable WotC attempt to bring back Greyhawk inevitably completely failed (guys, no-one cares about Greyhawk! Sorry to the three people who do!). Tonally it was barely different until it started getting bigger, and since then we've seen the shift towards increasingly child-friendly content. I don't think this decision was made at the level of the designers. I think this decision was made at the corporate level. I think WotC had deluded themselves into thinking that, if they made Strixhaven child-friendly and soft enough, it'd do amazing and bring in a ton of Harry Potter-ish players and so on. Because that's what HP fans are looking for, right, a soft, comfortable setting where nothing bad happens? That sure describes Harry Potter's horror show of a life... But the resultant settingventure was a bit of a nothing. All the cool ideas got given up on, and it was neither HP enough to attract that crowd (who are, in fact, mostly in their 20s and older at this point - some are about 40, not kids), not much like the MtG setting. Also WotC clearly lost confidence in it if they ever had any, because it wasn't aggressively advertised, and it really should have been. I know a bunch of HP fans who play D&D, and not a bloody one of them had heard of Strixhaven from anyone but me. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Does D&D Have an Identity Crisis?
Top