D&D 5E Dungeons & Dragons Boom!

[Zardnaar]

I'd hardly call VTT's "cutting edge" in 2008. Maptools, for example, was programmed in Java, and Fantasy Grounds was a dinosaur even back then. Roll20 and other browser based VTT's were still a pipe dream at that point.

But, no, VTT's have never been "cutting edge". Closer to "Kludge of old code that folks cobbled together to create a barely functional platform"

They existed but online D&D has taken off yes?

Hell computer RPGs technically existed in the 70s but it was the 80s they gained much traction, 90s before there could be called mainstream.

 

[Hussar]

They existed but online D&D has taken off yes?

Hell computer RPGs technically existed in the 70s but it was the 80s they gained much traction, 90s before there could be called mainstream.

I'm sorry, I've lost the point you're trying to make here. I was simply commenting on the "cutting edge" thing for VTT's. VTT's have always been badly kludged together programs created by hobbyists. About the closest we've seen to a professionally developed VTT would be the rather short lived one from WotC for 4e. But, in any case, no, VTT's are not even close to "cutting edge" in technology.

I mean, the biggest innovation coming to VTT's will be the forthcoming Fantasy Grounds Unity. And it's built on the Unity engine, and that's fifteen years old. VTT's are a lot of things, but, "cutting edge" they are not.

 

[happyhermit]

So in other words, the main reason for Dungeons and Dragons's rise in popularity is the rise in streaming and social media?

They conducted a massive playtest, getting tremendous amounts of feedback from their fans to produce a game that didn't alienate most of them and gave them what they wanted from a new version of D&D.

Then they released one of the most intuitive and easy to pick up ttrpgs (IME) that still managed to keep casual and not-so-casual players happy, they even had a very well regarded starter set to kick it off.

And, they released it into a highly receptive market that enjoyed the game, letting social networking and new media amplify that success.

There are a lot of possible 5e's out there that wouldn't have approached the popularity that we have now, for a multitude of reasons; complexity, bloat, jargon, ability to play Totm, etc. Heck AP podcasts and such were a thing back at the launch of 4e, but it wasn't a good system for that format by any means, so it never really could have benefited to the extent 5e has.

There could of course be universes out there where they did the giant playtest and research, released a game like 5e and it sunk, but there are probably even less where they released a game that went in opposite directions and it flew higher.