D&D General GenCon TV: Celebrating D&D


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A year ago I would never had said this BUT, I'm ready for D&D to have mana points based magic.

WotC is bending over backwards to keep some form of Vancian Magic system but they just need to take that last inch and eject it.

They dabbled with spell points back in 2E. Might be easier to make it work now but I liked the concept better than the implementation.
 

A year ago I would never had said this BUT, I'm ready for D&D to have mana points based magic.

WotC is bending over backwards to keep some form of Vancian Magic system but they just need to take that last inch and eject it.
Same. I love the idea of mana points instead of Vancian casting. It seems like such a leap forward to make that switch. So much easier to handle.
 

I'm watching the 5E panel discussion and there's a lot of insights to 4E along with 5E. It's really interesting.

Two parts really stand out so far. Making the game more accessible and the sales talk.

For accessibility, it's pretty straight forward. Make the game less complex, with opt-in and opt-out complexity so that more people can play and enjoy the game. And magically, that worked. Hint: it wasn't magic. Also weird that so many other companies and designers insist on repeating the mistake of increasing complexity. That just shrinks your potential sales. Maybe put out an even lighter version of 5E instead of the 20th heavier version of 5E.

I love the bits around the 1 hour mark where Mike is talking about sales.

Year One. July 2014-July 2015. Sales were good and it was well reviewed. Big sigh of relief.

Year Two. July 2015-July 2016. Sales shrank only 10%. They expected a 50% drop in sales because that's what prior editions had done.

Year Three. July 2016-2017. Sales beat year one. That had only ever happened with AD&D and the blow up due to James Dallas Egbert III and the Satanic Panic. D&D was a pop culture phenom/fad again.

Critical Role started streaming in March 2015.

Stranger Things started streaming in July 2016.

For anyone who cares about accuracy, that's pretty clear.
 


The stream was a ton of fun, glad people enjoyed it.

Thinking about the success of the game, I think it's easy to overlook how much of it came from D&D introducing the game to other people. TTRPGs don't grow in a vacuum. They need DMs/GMs that are eager to bring new players into the fold. I think Stranger Things and Critical Role were important, but at the end of the day it's people taking the time to start campaigns, wrangle schedules, and teach TTRPGs to others that drove everything. If you don't have that, CR and ST are irrelevant.
 

The stream was a ton of fun, glad people enjoyed it.

Thinking about the success of the game, I think it's easy to overlook how much of it came from D&D introducing the game to other people. TTRPGs don't grow in a vacuum. They need DMs/GMs that are eager to bring new players into the fold. I think Stranger Things and Critical Role were important, but at the end of the day it's people taking the time to start campaigns, wrangle schedules, and teach TTRPGs to others that drove everything. If you don't have that, CR and ST are irrelevant.
Of course. Likewise, without CR and ST introducing the game to a dramatically wider audience than just already entrenched RPG players 5E wouldn’t have hit the stratosphere. 5E was destined to take back the #1 RPG spot. It was CR and ST that showed the game to the wider world and ballooned the player base beyond the confines of the niche hobby. They were the James Dallas Egbert III and Satanic Panic moments for 5E.
 


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