D&D (2024) I think we are on the cusp of a sea change.

[darjr]

This is true. Our best guesses of the community of players WotC cares about is the moves they make -- but that doesn't preclude them being just plain wrong, or chasing the wrong subgroup, or acting at the whim of corporate overlords, or whatever.

I think they are more likely to be right than any of us.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think I was watching a Matt Colville video recently, and he brought up a point that I agree with. 5e was designed and released before streaming really took off. The next iteration will address it in some capacity. It's the biggest shift in how the game is played and how it is viewed in society that we've ever seen. Bigger than AD&D 1e, bigger than WotC's purchase, bigger than Hasbro's purchase, bigger than the Satanic Panic.
How will that change it? I think it's going to be a lot less about rules and combat. More roleplaying to solve problems. Less dungeons and more urban/political intrigue.
Of course, culture changes quicker than books can be re-written and printed. The change is already here, but WotC just needs to address it in their books to further capture that market.

Yep. He talks about it in his most recent (and hundredth) Running the Game video. D&D 5e was built primarily on the back of nostalgia, and when its popularity blew up (as did streaming D&D and other TTRPGs) the target audience shifted. The core rulebooks were designed in a completely different style than a more modern audience would prefer, which is almost definitely why we're getting the revised Core Rulebooks in 2024.

The playstyle of D&D 5e has already shifted (and is still in the process of shifting, just as it always has been), and WotC is playing catch-up.

 

[Umbran]

Are you sure? I think people have noticed quite a bit.

Yeah, pretty much. Because the real changes aren't about the details of rules, or how they write up races. If folks cared about the change, they're arguing about the wrong things.

 

[Parmandur]

Ironically I think this influx may actually like some things some people consider "passé", particular highly-specific/themed classes rather than generic classes, and are highly likely to prefer race/class/etc. to points-buy-based or classless/few-broad-classes systems.

Change is never linear. Fashions are like a roller coaster (keeping things like Class vs. Point Buy at significant arms length from more social questions).

 

[Parmandur]

I think I was watching a Matt Colville video recently, and he brought up a point that I agree with. 5e was designed and released before streaming really took off. The next iteration will address it in some capacity. It's the biggest shift in how the game is played and how it is viewed in society that we've ever seen. Bigger than AD&D 1e, bigger than WotC's purchase, bigger than Hasbro's purchase, bigger than the Satanic Panic.
How will that change it? I think it's going to be a lot less about rules and combat. More roleplaying to solve problems. Less dungeons and more urban/political intrigue.
Of course, culture changes quicker than books can be re-written and printed. The change is already here, but WotC just needs to address it in their books to further capture that market.

I think they already have adapted, with how Adventures are formatted. 5E backed it's way into being optimized by streaming at the right time.

 

[Malmuria]

D&D's Lead Rule Designer Explains Why Actual Play Has Influenced the Game

Speaking as part of a recent press event, Dungeons & Dragons Principle Rules designer Jeremy Crawford tackled how the rise of actual play gaming has influenced the D&D team's adventure design—and how it helps even more people get into the game.

gizmodo.com

“The short answer is yes, it does influence us the way every type of D&D play influences us,” Jeremy Crawford, D&D’s principal rules designer, told press in a recent event for the reveals of the latest sourcebooks for Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition. “So we know that D&D is a big tent. We’ve talked about this again, going back to the D&D Next process [the playtesting experience that helped create Fifth Edition] that not only do people of many sorts play in the D&D, but also people of many tastes play D&D. We know some people really love heavy improvisational role-playing and other D&D players, for them, that’s all about the tactical nuances of D&D combat, and everything in between. We’re concerned about supporting traditional tabletop play well, but also the types of D&D experiences people have in streams.”

 

[Umbran]

WotC is playing catch-up.

This is a thing that folks repeatedly fail to understand. Generally speaking, while WotC is the market leader, economically, they accomplish this by following what the people want, not by discovering something new and telling folks they want it.

 

[J.Quondam]

D&D's Lead Rule Designer Explains Why Actual Play Has Influenced the Game

Speaking as part of a recent press event, Dungeons & Dragons Principle Rules designer Jeremy Crawford tackled how the rise of actual play gaming has influenced the D&D team's adventure design—and how it helps even more people get into the game.

gizmodo.com

From that article:

“And so the more bite-sized we can make things, the easier we can make it so that you can take even an epic adventure like Rime of the Frostmaiden, or now The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the more likely people are going to feel like ‘OK, even though I’ve had a busy week, I can still get a little bit of D&D in there with my friends and family.’ That, again, has been a very conscious choice on our part, not only because of what we observe in streams, but again to make it much easier for the brand new DM to get their feet wet in the wonderful pool of D&D.”​

This aim right here has heavily influenced how I've approached gaming for 20ish years, just out of necessity. Streaming notwithstanding, for me it's just a nice way to keep a campaign manageable for groups that have limited time, per session and/or per campaign. So maybe this isn't really a sea change so much as return of the tide.

Plus ça change....

 

[Umbran]

From that article:

This aim right here has heavily influenced how I've approached gaming for 20ish years, just out of necessity. Streaming notwithstanding, for me it's just a nice way to keep a campaign manageable for groups that have limited time, per session and/or per campaign. So maybe this isn't really a sea change so much as return of the tide.

Plus ça change....

The recognition that most folks just don't sit down and play for 8 hours at a stretch seems to have been a boon both to the older folk (who have jobs, families, and busy lives) and the actual play streamers...

And, really, the teens as well - there's so much competition for their time these days, that the long-session model probably doesn't work for them either.

 

[Stormonu]

Grumpy Old Man Here (as if you couldn't tell by the avatar...).

Witchlight and Strixhaven do seem to point to a shift away from Conan/Fafnr & Grey Mouser and other "pulp"/LotR mercenary gaming and more towards more modern YA fictions. Basically the stuff their target demographic has grown up and been influenced by, just as we were back in TSR days). Not just in the subject matter, but tone. I get a sense of less concentration on the "exciting fight" and more on the "interesting and unusual encounter/interaction", as well as "tell me a story" instead of "wander around this weird place and pull levers to see what happens". Doesn't bother me and I do enjoy it so far, so long as they don't start trying to insinuate that strapping on armor and delving into the local dungeon to kill monsters is badwrongfun.