WotC Mike Mearls: "D&D Is Uncool Again"

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In Mike Mearls' recent interview with Ben Riggs, he talks about how he feels that Dungeons & Dragons has had its moment, and is now uncool again. Mearls was one of the lead designers of D&D 5E and became the franchise's Creative Director in 2018. He worked at WotC until he was laid off in 2023. He is now EP of roleplaying games at Chaosium, the publisher of Call of Chulhu.

My theory is that when you look back at the OGL, the real impact of it is that it made D&D uncool again. D&D was cool, right? You had Joe Manganiello and people like that openly talking about playing D&D. D&D was something that was interesting, creative, fun, and different. And I think what the OGL did was take that concept—that Wizards and this idea of creativity that is inherent in the D&D brand because it's a roleplaying game, and I think those two things were sundered. And I don’t know if you can ever put them back together.

I think, essentially, it’s like that phrase: The Mandate of Heaven. I think fundamentally what happened was that Wizards has lost the Mandate of Heaven—and I don’t see them even trying to get it back.

What I find fascinating is that it was Charlie Hall who wrote that article. This is the same Charlie Hall who wrote glowing reviews of the 5.5 rulebooks. And then, at the same time, he’s now writing, "This is your chance because D&D seems to be stumbling." How do you square that? How do I go out and say, "Here are the two new Star Wars movies. They’re the best, the most amazing, the greatest Star Wars movies ever made. By the way, Star Wars has never been weaker. Now is the time for other sci-fi properties", like, to me that doesn’t make any sense! To me, it’s a context thing again.

Maybe this is the best Player’s Handbook ever written—but the vibes, the audience, the people playing these games—they don’t seem excited about it. We’re not seeing a groundswell of support and excitement. Where are the third-party products? That’s what I'd ask. Because that's what you’d think, "oh, there’s a gap", I mean remember before the OGL even came up, back when 3.0 launched, White Wolf had a monster book. There were multiple adventures at Gen Con. The license wasn’t even official yet, and there were already adventures showing up in stores. We're not seeing that, what’s ostensibly the new standard going forward? If anything, we’re seeing the opposite—creators are running in the opposite direction. I mean, that’s where I’m going.

And hey—to plug my Patreon—patreon.com/mikemearls (one word). This time last year, when I was looking at my post-Wizards options, I thought, "Well, maybe I could start doing 5E-compatible stuff." And now what I’m finding is…I just don’t want to. Like—it just seems boring. It’s like trying to start a hair metal band in 1992. Like—No, no, no. Everyone’s mopey and we're wearing flannel. It's Seattle and rain. It’s Nirvana now, man. It’s not like Poison. And that’s the vibe I get right now, yeah, Poison was still releasing albums in the ’90s. They were still selling hundreds of thousands or a million copies. But they didn’t have any of the energy. It's moved on. But what’s interesting to me is that roleplaying game culture is still there. And that’s what I find fascinating about gaming in general—especially TTRPGs. I don’t think we’ve ever had a period where TTRPGs were flourishing, and had a lot of energy and excitement around them, and D&D wasn’t on the upswing. Because I do think that’s what’s happening now. We’re in very strange waters where I think D&D is now uncool.
 

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Well, while I enjoy playing all kinds of TTRPGs, and do not look down on my friends who got really into VtM TTRPGs and LARP, I have to say Zardnaar's comment got a LOL from me. Those who remember the pretension in some VtM communities in the early '90s get it. I just read Z's comment as similar to those poking fun at gatekeeping grognards. As a grognard, though not very gatekeepy (well, maybe I have a very low, decorative picket fence), I can take a joke. I'm sure most of our WoD Kindred can as well.

It's basically my default defense now on peopke that rag on D&D. "No one cares about your RPG and in 2 or 3 years you won't be able to find players ".

Assuming it's hot enough to begin with to attract some players.
 

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I think people should play the games they enjoy and stop worrying about what other people think. I don't see much point to going out of your way to tell people who like something how much you do not like that thing.
I agree, but you are ironically you are telling this to a guy who goes out of his way on this forum to talk about how much he dislikes 4e D&D.
 

I agree, but you are ironically you are telling this to a guy who goes out of his way on this forum to talk about how much he dislikes 4e D&D.

You can use my response if you like. Just replace Vampire with erm idk.

Makes it hard when I don't have a favorite edition. I don't care if you don't like whatever edition either it's your opinion and that's fine.
 


The attention span of pop culture is fickle and fleeting. Of course D&D is no longer “cool”, was it ever actually cool?

TTRPGs are about as geeky a hobby as you can get. We’re proud to be weirdoes of all stripes.

The only time I actually get embarrassed by my hobby is when I see members trying to act macho about their own tastes (eg “OSR is the manliest and most badass type of imaginary elf game”). Give me a break you nerds.
 


I think people should play the games they enjoy and stop worrying about what other people think. I don't see much point to going out of your way to tell people who like something how much you do not like that thing.
Tribalism is an interesting phenomenon. We fall into it pretty easily, and it can even be manipulated and exploited by others.
 


And it appears in even the most specific, insular groups.

Apparently model train communities, even ones at a very specific "gauge" or "grade" or whatever term they use for scale, have bitterly factional infighting.
Well that's just stupid, HO gauge is clearly the only way to go, even the youngest trainling knows that unless they're stupid-heads.
 

And it appears in even the most specific, insular groups.

Apparently model train communities, even ones at a very specific "gauge" or "grade" or whatever term they use for scale, have bitterly factional infighting.
There are hams who will go to their graves mad that you can now get a license - even an Amateur Extra - without knowing one dit of Morse Code.
 

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