Golden Ages of Gaming

[overgeeked]

Sometimes people talk about different eras in RPGs as "Golden Ages" for the hobby.

In some ways, the birth of the hobby was a Golden Age as immediately after the release of OD&D dozens of other games were released and the hobby blossomed.

Another Golden Age could be the Satanic Panic as it brought a much wider audience to RPGs than it previously had.

Another Golden Age could be the release of the OGL and the dramatic expansion of games using the d20 system. But that, of course, led to the d20 glut.

Another Golden Age could be the release of D&D 5E and the subsequent explosion of the hobby into the mainstream for a second time. But that, of course, led to a lot of people only playing 5E and refusing to even try anything else.

My personal Golden Age for gaming was between 1984 when I started and about 2014. There were lots of games to play, lots of players to play those game, time enough to play, and most importantly...lots of players willing to try different games. There was a brief window in the early 90s with the release of Vampire: The Masquerade where it eclipsed everything else, but that faded fairly quickly and it was back to anything goes.

What about you? Any other Golden Ages worth mentioning, either for the broader hobby or you personally.

 

[Thomas Shey]

While I value the current period heavily because people are doing good work both within and without the trad sphere, I'm kind of the mind that thinks the 1985-1995 period is what I consider the hobby at its healthiest. Arguably that's me showing my prejudices though, since its before the 3e era resurgeance of D&D began to quite so heavily drown the rest of the hobby.

 

[Deset Gled]

I always took "golden age" to be a period of extremely high prosperity. Following that logic, the "golden age" of RPGs would be the periods with the highest amount of sales, growth, and income.

Based on what I've read from Ben Rigg's numbers that would be a first golden age of somewhere around 1980-84, and a second golden age of approximately 2018-2023. It should not be a surprise that these approximately match up with the cartoon and HAT movie.

 

[CleverNickName]

The concept of "The Golden Age of Gaming" is what led me to do those D&D Edition Experience Surveys back in 2020, during the pandemic lockdowns. I went through all of the editions of D&D and asked folks if they had played it before and what they thought of it, and then invited discussion about what they enjoyed/didn't enjoy. It went great until a Certain Edition's turn came up...

Anyway. I've been thinking about repeating those surveys, but with different game systems instead of D&D editions. Like, "have you played GURPS before? and what did you think of it?" I believe that our hobby is a lot more multifaceted and varied than some would have us believe, and our community's experiences aren't limited to a single best-seller. It could be fun to see how many of us have fond memories of Vampire: the Masquerade or Shadowrun, or have tried the new Shadowdark or Daggerheart.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For me there are two: the period from 1989 to about 2000 or so, when the bulk of the game I have the fondest memories of flourished (AD&D 2e, Cyberpunk 2020, Marvel Superheroes, L5R, Deadlands, among others), and now, when so many great alternatives to WotC 5e exist.

 

[bloodtide]

*The Twilight of 1E--In the late 80's 1E had a odd place. The game was played by many groups, but in near secret. The age of where a couple of guys played a "secret game" and they let few join them. 1E books were few and far between. This was also the age of the crazy photo copies of the books. Also the age of handwritten copies too.

*The 2E bump---I still remember the late 80's comics with the "new D&D" adds, some of them famously upside down. Then everyone who could not find any D&D 1E stuff, got plenty of 2E stuff.

*The X Bump--Oh mid 90's ish, Starting with the X-Files and on to Buffy, Charmed and such, you got that bump of "horror". And games like Vampire and Werewolf were there to ride the wave.

*Gilded Age of the 2000's--D&D 3E was everywhere. Tons of new players. Wizards made one of those "web page things"...Gleemax and then eventually WotC. And they hosted live online gaming, just like today's Discord. Also the time of the Malls. A typical game store would have 10-20 tables of games going in the middle of the malls or the food court.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

*The Twilight of 1E--In the late 80's 1E had a odd place. The game was played by many groups, but in near secret. The age of where a couple of guys played a "secret game" and they let few join them. 1E books were few and far between. This was also the age of the crazy photo copies of the books. Also the age of handwritten copies too.

This feels very particular to your local area.

I was graduating high school at this point, and it wasn't hard to find D&D books in the local book store or to find game/comic book shops that had it. And there were people who had their AD&D core books in school, presumably to play during lunch or after school or to read under the table during class.

 

[GreyLord]

I always felt it was more like Comics...

You have your Golden Age, then your Silver Age, then your Bronze Age...etc.

In that light, I'd say the Golden Age of RPGs was 1976 -1999 with the specific Golden Portion being more between 1981 - 1984...perhaps expandable of 1980 - 1986. The most prolific period (though not the one with the biggest gross, which was probably during the time between 1989 - 1993...and then the drastic fall of that gross) was probably between those years with AD&D 1e and BX with BECMI.

The Silver Age I'd put as 2001 - 2007 with it being centered more around 2001 - 2005. This is the release of 3e and the massive revival of many old fans coming back to the game with a lot of others being introduced to it. 3.5 had a brief resurgence in sales, but led to slowly decreasing sales all along (till they felt they had to do a 4e).

The Bronze Age I'd put as currently occurring...or 2014 - 2026 (at least) with it mostly being centered around 2016 - 2022 as the specific Bronze Period of the biggest popularity and biggest sales. 5e has definitely had it's impact.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I always felt it was more like Comics...

You have your Golden Age, then your Silver Age, then your Bronze Age...etc.

In that light, I'd say the Golden Age of RPGs was 1976 -1999 with the specific Golden Portion being more between 1981 - 1984...perhaps expandable of 1980 - 1986. The most prolific period (though not the one with the biggest gross, which was probably during the time between 1989 - 1993...and then the drastic fall of that gross) was probably between those years with AD&D 1e and BX with BECMI.

The Silver Age I'd put as 2001 - 2007 with it being centered more around 2001 - 2005. This is the release of 3e and the massive revival of many old fans coming back to the game with a lot of others being introduced to it. 3.5 had a brief resurgence in sales, but led to slowly decreasing sales all along (till they felt they had to do a 4e).

The Bronze Age I'd put as currently occurring...or 2014 - 2026 (at least) with it mostly being centered around 2016 - 2022 as the specific Bronze Period of the biggest popularity and biggest sales. 5e has definitely had it's impact.

That would lead to speculation on what the Iron Age of RPGs will be like...

 

[dbm]

If we’re talking about a Golden Age in terms of the overall player base growing, then I would think the Satanic Panic is a good touch stone. Whether it triggered growth or just coincided with it is debatable but these things definitely coincided with the time D&D became more widely known in the UK, for example.

I suspect the vampire zeitgeist with Anne Rice, Vampire the Masquerade, and Interview with a Vampire (the film) generated another growth in the market overall. Certainly it seemed to be one of the few times when D&D wasn’t using up all the oxygen in the room. And conceptually it was a very different game than D&D, even if many groups played it as a power fantasy with gothic or angst overlays, so it may have widened the overall appeal of RPGs to the wider audience?

I think the next big uptick probably coincides with actual play becoming big on YouTube and people being exposed to what RPGs can be like.

So my personal take is those Golden Ages were moments where something in RPGs and the wider zeitgeist happened to coincide, meaning people became more aware of RPGs in general and a proportion made the jump to playing and a smaller proportion stayed.