If D&D didn't exist

[messy]

if d&d didn't exist, i would invent it.

it would be my homebrew system, and nobody would buy it because it's so strange.

 

[El Mahdi]

If D&D didn't exist...

I'd play Gurps.

 

[Mercurius]

If D&D didn't exist, two things would for sure be certain:

1) I'd be many thousands of dollars wealthier.
2) I'd feel an aching and unexplainable void in the depths of my being.

Oh, and:

3) I'd probably play Ars Magica, Talislanta, Pendragon, Everway, Savage Worlds, or some other game with a fantasy feel, perhaps with a dash of sf thrown in. And thus:

4) I'd be just as poor, and
5) The void would be filled with the joyous clatter of dice and inspired imagination.

 

[David Howery]

Weirdly enough, this exact same question came up as a 'what if' on an alternate history message board I hang out on. I mentioned that it would have made my younger years a lot more boring, as I was deep into it back then. Turned out that several people on the board recognized my name and already knew that I had been a writer for TSR's magazines back then. And I thought I'd kept my dreadful secret from them so well...

 

[Tortoise]

Had D&D not come along I would have been primarily into board games, war games, and chess.

 

[David Howery]

Had D&D not come along I would have been primarily into board games, war games, and chess.

I was into all that before RPGs came along, so yeah, me too. If RPGs had never been invented, then I imagine that board wargames would have remained high in popularity for a while longer. Maybe Avalon Hill and SPI games would still be around today...

 

[Umbran]

Backgammon.

Yeah, but you'd be pretending to play it against a demon for someone's soul, or something.

Okay, so assume no D&D, but somehow the industry and all the other games are developed, regardless?

Well, I've never been a "one game" kind of person. Soon after I picked up D&D, I got marvel Superheroes, then Shadowrun, then d6 Star Wars, then White Wolf games...

Right now, I'm running Deadlands, and playing a Star Wars Saga Edition, and the occasional live-action game, so lack of D&D isn't a big deal, to me.

 

[Stormonu]

If D&D had never existed, I'd be be playing video games.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I think the RPG would have been invented but Star Wars or Battletech/Gundam/Robotech/Gatchamon based games may have probably been first.

Pretend heroes slaying monsters would have happened eventually.

 

[fba827]

this question makes me sad.