D&D 5E How Important is Stranger Things to the Success of 5e

[Kobold Avenger]

I think Stranger Things is important for the general public discovering that there are Metallica songs that aren't on the Black Album...

 

[darjr]

What’s the Black album? That running song?

 

[MGibster]

Something I've been pondering .... and no, this isn't going to be one of my giganto-historical-bizarro posts, just a semi-baked thesis and a poll-

Boo! We have expectations!

So I thought I'd throw it out there as a poll question and general topic. What do you think?

I think the exposure was mildly helpful, but I don't think it quite explains the success. I suspect YouTube has had more of an impact on the success of 5th edition than Stranger Things.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

IMO what has probably had the MOST positive influence on D&D is the new habit of people watching other people play games. Twitch and YouTube. It is led by video games, but things like Tabletop added board games, and then D&D (exemplified by but not limited to Critical Role).

My gut says that is the biggest reason for 5e's success.

(Though I think everyone would be surprised to find how much 5e's relatively slow book roll-out helped).

 

[payn]

IMO what has probably had the MOST positive influence on D&D is the new habit of people watching other people play games. Twitch and YouTube. It is led by video games, but things like Tabletop added board games, and then D&D (exemplified by but not limited to Critical Role).

My gut says that is the biggest reason for 5e's success.

(Though I think everyone would be surprised to find how much 5e's relatively slow book roll-out helped).

I think the lower barrier of entry to play of 5E and slow book release got the boulder up the hill. The internets and social media kicked it over the edge.

 

[Parmandur]

Though I think everyone would be surprised to find how much 5e's relatively slow book roll-out helped

How has that worked out for you locally? My local stores seem to do hopping business when new book hits, amd keep them in stick long term.

 

[Reynard]

I think the lower barrier of entry to play of 5E and slow book release got the boulder up the hill. The internets and social media kicked it over the edge.

The ability for folks to see what it was before trying to join a game was probably the single most important aspect for whether people chose to give it a try.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Closest I’ve come to Stranger Things / D&D in the wild I’ve seen, is explaining to some 5E folks (while talking about SThings with them) that they are playing AD&D and I’d be happy to show them that version.

And we did play 2E and they like it a lot.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

How has that worked out for you locally? My local stores seem to do hopping business when new book hits, amd keep them in stick long term.

Oh yeah. By this late in the game in 2e, 3e, and 4e, we were down to moving only a few copies of new releases. Even the worst selling book moves in the dozens. I mean, my store is bigger (both physically and in number of regular customers) now than it was then, and obviously D&D is more popular as well, but I can tell from word-of-mouth and experience that the books wouldn't sell nearly as well as they would if they pushed more of them. (Though I can feel it starting - they are getting up to, what? Six books a year now? And people who used to buy them all are starting to pick-and-choose. Still, old books still sell and new books still sell a lot, which is NOT the same as other editions at the same stage of their life.

Much like this discussion, the slow release is only one of many factors that have caused this, but I don't think it's insignificant.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh yeah. By this late in the game in 2e, 3e, and 4e, we were down to moving only a few copies of new releases. Even the worst selling book moves in the dozens. I mean, my store is bigger (both physically and in number of regular customers) now than it was then, and obviously D&D is more popular as well, but I can tell from word-of-mouth and experience that the books wouldn't sell nearly as well as they would if they pushed more of them. (Though I can feel it starting - they are getting up to, what? Six books a year now? And people who used to buy them all are starting to pick-and-choose. Still, old books still sell and new books still sell a lot, which is NOT the same as other editions at the same stage of their life.

Much like this discussion, the slow release is only one of many factors that have caused this, but I don't think it's insignificant.

They did 5 hardcovers last year, and this year we (thst we know of) 4 hardcovers, a slipcase with three smaller books, the new starter box set and the battle game. Definitely amping the pace up a bir, but still nothing like I remember in 3.x when I was buying nothing at least partly becaue I.had analysi paralysis constantly from the stream of new stuff.