Agamon
Hero
I see there's still confusion from Morrus posting that article for Gaming Tonic.
Ryan dancey hints that DnD will become a board game....
- Thread starter Layander
- Start date
I see there's still confusion from Morrus posting that article for Gaming Tonic.
kitsune9
Adventurer
I don't see WotC making D&D Next as a boardgame. If it came out as such (a la Castle Ravenloft, Descent, etc), I would get it to have on my shelf. If it came out as something like Arkham or Talisman, I'd still get it, but it came out like Cloak and Dagger or Chutes and Ladders no way.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
There are D&D board games. And a boardgame system. And you can use the system and put the games together and probably do a whole campaing. This is now.
There is a new D&D mini game coming out. There have been D&D dice games. There is a D&D MMO. As TDD noted, there was Dungeon. There were classic D&D video games.
There was a D&D CCG, and there only reason there isn't one know is MtG.
There have been several D&D starter sets that were board gamesque.
This has and will be done over, and over and over again. Every quarter there is some marketing guy who probably says "hey, can't you extend the brand".
But the one thing and the only that has been really big about D&D is the TTRPG.
I am sure that the WotCs would love for the adventure system games to reach the same level of success as the german classics. I think they have done pretty well, but not that well.
What has done well is D&D TTRPG. That has totally dominated the market. A smaller market then eurogames or CCGs, but unless they come up with the next Settlers, the biggest market they will have. In 4E (which is a good TTRPG) this was taken for granted, and now we have D&D Next.
The whole point of which is to dominante the TTRPG market.
There is a new D&D mini game coming out. There have been D&D dice games. There is a D&D MMO. As TDD noted, there was Dungeon. There were classic D&D video games.
There was a D&D CCG, and there only reason there isn't one know is MtG.
There have been several D&D starter sets that were board gamesque.
This has and will be done over, and over and over again. Every quarter there is some marketing guy who probably says "hey, can't you extend the brand".
But the one thing and the only that has been really big about D&D is the TTRPG.
I am sure that the WotCs would love for the adventure system games to reach the same level of success as the german classics. I think they have done pretty well, but not that well.
What has done well is D&D TTRPG. That has totally dominated the market. A smaller market then eurogames or CCGs, but unless they come up with the next Settlers, the biggest market they will have. In 4E (which is a good TTRPG) this was taken for granted, and now we have D&D Next.
The whole point of which is to dominante the TTRPG market.
Twowolves
Explorer
Like that's ever stopped them before.
Not aimed at anyone in particular, but I swear, some people would buy a cowpatty if it came in a pretty box that said "Dungeons and Dragons" on the lid.
A roleplaying game wouldn't have to a boardgame at all in order to be "more like a family game -- something that can be unpacked, learned quickly, and played with little prep work."Ryan Dancey said:
It wouldn't involve three intimidating tomes of forbidden knowledge to get started, sure, but it wouldn't have to be played on a board with extremely limited choices of "moves", etc.
keterys
First Post
Is that actually true? I'd be very curious to see some figures for how much various video games, particularly D&D Online, have done against the tabletop sector.
The cynical part of me wouldn't be surprised if D&D Online alone makes more than every TTRPG put together.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
If the unity-edition is distilling out a commonality between all editions that can bring most partisans together, then I can see a skeleton of 5e D&D rules that retains the essence of an "80/20" rule. You know, ditching the 20% of the "at the table" rules that add 80% of the complexity of the entire experience.
This skeleton of the Unity-Edition could reasonably be genericized and wrapped into any sort of flavor and put in a box that lets WotC introduce a para-RPG tabletop experience via boardgame to the mass market.
I foresee the same Doug Douglason elitist nerdrage in response to it as a dumbed down D&D for the unsophisticated.
This skeleton of the Unity-Edition could reasonably be genericized and wrapped into any sort of flavor and put in a box that lets WotC introduce a para-RPG tabletop experience via boardgame to the mass market.
I foresee the same Doug Douglason elitist nerdrage in response to it as a dumbed down D&D for the unsophisticated.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Well, it could be right now. But again, your are comparing one of many, doing so-so (the MMO) vs something that can totally dominate its market.
D'karr
Adventurer
Once again he did not say board game, he said family game. A family game should be something I open and start playing within 10-15 minutes of opening the box. It requires absolutely NO system mastery, and should require the bare minimum of effort to start playing.
World of Warcraft has a board game with bunches of fiddly bits. The first time I played it was a disaster. It had nothing to do with the fiddly bits, it had to do with the extensive rules book. That is not a family game.
If a family game can't be played with minimum effort within 30 minutes it's a failure in my book.
Imagine if you will the following.
D&D The Boxed Set.
Includes: Dice, 2 page Quick Start Rules, 6 Pregenerated Characters, battlemat, tokens or miniatures, (2) Easy to Follow 16 page Adventures, Players Guide, Campaign/DM Guide, character sheets.
When you open the box you go grab a pregenerated character, read over the quick start rules and follow one of the adventure. You are up and running in the time that it takes to open the box, select a character, and read the Q/S rules.
When you finish the adventure, you can play the second adventure or you can go look at the Player's and DM Guide for the expansion rules of the game (Character Creation, Creating Adventures, Monsters, etc.). When you finish reading those books you should have had time to run both adventures and have enough materials to adventure for a few levels. Make additional adventures available for sale or through DDI, maybe even a solo adventure.
You market the "crap" out of this boxed set, and that is how you "hook" a new generation of players to the game.
The highest hurdle in introducing anyone to this game has always been "what do I need to get started?" With this format you can have people start to play right out of the gate, without having to spend 30 minutes or more searching for how to build a character.
Get them started immediately, then expand from there. There is no reason you can't have a PHB, DMG, and MM for sale, but for the love of the game, get people playing first and foremost. If you do a good job with the initial "hook", and people like your game, the sales for the other supplements (PHB, DMG, MM) are easier.
As long as you make the game cryptically difficult to start playing you will have issues in getting people playing. None of what is included on that boxed set makes it a board game. D&D has always been a game of the imagination, capitalize on that.
World of Warcraft has a board game with bunches of fiddly bits. The first time I played it was a disaster. It had nothing to do with the fiddly bits, it had to do with the extensive rules book. That is not a family game.
If a family game can't be played with minimum effort within 30 minutes it's a failure in my book.
Imagine if you will the following.
D&D The Boxed Set.
Includes: Dice, 2 page Quick Start Rules, 6 Pregenerated Characters, battlemat, tokens or miniatures, (2) Easy to Follow 16 page Adventures, Players Guide, Campaign/DM Guide, character sheets.
When you open the box you go grab a pregenerated character, read over the quick start rules and follow one of the adventure. You are up and running in the time that it takes to open the box, select a character, and read the Q/S rules.
When you finish the adventure, you can play the second adventure or you can go look at the Player's and DM Guide for the expansion rules of the game (Character Creation, Creating Adventures, Monsters, etc.). When you finish reading those books you should have had time to run both adventures and have enough materials to adventure for a few levels. Make additional adventures available for sale or through DDI, maybe even a solo adventure.
You market the "crap" out of this boxed set, and that is how you "hook" a new generation of players to the game.
The highest hurdle in introducing anyone to this game has always been "what do I need to get started?" With this format you can have people start to play right out of the gate, without having to spend 30 minutes or more searching for how to build a character.
Get them started immediately, then expand from there. There is no reason you can't have a PHB, DMG, and MM for sale, but for the love of the game, get people playing first and foremost. If you do a good job with the initial "hook", and people like your game, the sales for the other supplements (PHB, DMG, MM) are easier.
As long as you make the game cryptically difficult to start playing you will have issues in getting people playing. None of what is included on that boxed set makes it a board game. D&D has always been a game of the imagination, capitalize on that.
Yes. Dancey didn't say "The next edition of D&D will be a boardgame." Dancey seems to me to be speaking in eventualities, not in immediacy.
EVENTUALLY, you may see a D&D boardgame being more commercially successful than the TTRPG. That doesn't mean tomorrow.
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