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<blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 444000" data-attributes="member: 697"><p>IIRC, D&D hit its fad phase from 1979 to 1983 or 84. That begins with the James Dallas Egbert case and extends up through the infamous 60 Minutes segment. It's worth noting that the chances of D&D ever becoming demonized to the same extent in the mainstream media are miniscule. At that time, we had (and though I am going to sound old, I'm only 27. I got into D&D when I was really young):</p><p></p><p>D&D Candy: Little boxes filled with minty orcs, trolls, and other monsters, with stats for a D&D monster on the back.</p><p></p><p>D&D Action Figures: Warduke, Strongheart, Northlord, collect 'em all! There was also a less famous line of plastic, non-poseable figures of generic monsters and characters.</p><p></p><p>D&D Model Kits: A model company (Revell?) made plastic dungeon kits with traps, monsters, and adventurers. IIRC, they were scaled too small to be used with 25mm figures.</p><p></p><p>D&D Cartoon: This one is actually semi-famous as a good Saturday morning cartoon. Heck, aren't Saturday morning cartoons on the major networks officially a thing of the past?</p><p></p><p>D&D Videogames, Handheld Electronic Games, Electronic Boardgames: They pretty much stuck the D&D logo on any game that had a dragon in it.</p><p></p><p>It was fad city, baby.</p><p></p><p>In the mid-80s, things slowed down quite a bit. Until Pool of Radiance came out in 1987 or 88, there was a four year gap in which D&D pretty much was confined to the game itself. With PoR, it exploded on to the computer RPG scene and developed into what we see today. There was also a few comics based on D&D settings, but I think those did not come along until the early 90s.</p><p></p><p>The interesting thing to me was the release of 2e. As far as I can tell, there was nowhere near the hype or excitement about it as there was with 3e. TSR at that time had developed a bad track record with products. You kids today with your errata... back in my day 3rd edition Gamma World came with a complete book of errata because they knew the product was already completely screwed up. And even the errata was wrong. The Castle Greyhawk module was, as far as I can tell, a giant middle finger extended by TSR towards EGG.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, 2e came out and didn't really do anything to fix D&D's problems while adding new ones. Demons and devils were taken out back and violently neutered. The half-orc, cavalier, monk, barbarian, and thief-acrobat were shown the door. The fighter still sucked compared to paladins and rangers. Thieves were still useless. Clerics were more powerful. The rules were still a train wreck. In essence, 2e expunged all the flavor and options from 1e without fixing any of the system's problems. The 2e DMG was the poster child for this. It was dull beyond comprehension and had little material of any use. I ended up giving mine away and stuck to my 1e DMG.</p><p></p><p>At that point, IIRC D&D supplements were all driven by a setting or were meant as generic resources like the complete books. I don't think there ever was an intro module a la Sunless Citadel ever made for 2e. The adventure that came with the DM's screen was for 5th (!) level characters, not exactly a useful tool for starting a campaign.</p><p></p><p>IMO, this is when the great 90s death spiral began. 2e failed to address any of the real problems with D&D while simultaneously lacked the product necessary to help transition players from 1e to 2e. It's worth noting that concurrent with 2e's release, the RPG industry as a whole saw quite a few games take off, Ars Magica, Shadowrun, TORG, and a couple others. My armchair analysis is that people were moving away from D&D and seeking alternatives, but an even greater proportion dropped it or simply stopped buying product. TSR shifted its focus to producing and supporting as many worlds as possible and paid the price for it. For whatever reason, they chose to turn their backs on the core values and game models that made D&D a success in the first place.</p><p></p><p>From the numbers I have seen, after a surge in sales with the release of 2e RPG sales entered into a steep decline. By the time Magic came along, RPG sales were already hurting. The market bottomed out when TSR went under, but began a slow resurgence with WotC's purchase of the game. 3e has re-energized the player base and the advent of d20 has allowed D&D to finally take advantage of its position as the foundation of the RPG business.</p><p></p><p>As for D&D's future, I have no idea. I don't think we'll ever see the basic form of the game change. As long as companies, especially WotC, continue to produce product people want, need, and use, I don't think the game is in danger of dying out. IMO, D&D fills a very basic human need to tell stories, create, and socialize. The game took root despite an utterly arcane set of rules that were almost utterly incomprehenisble. Despite bad media coverage, poor business decisions, and other missteps, the core D&D audience has always been there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mearls, post: 444000, member: 697"] IIRC, D&D hit its fad phase from 1979 to 1983 or 84. That begins with the James Dallas Egbert case and extends up through the infamous 60 Minutes segment. It's worth noting that the chances of D&D ever becoming demonized to the same extent in the mainstream media are miniscule. At that time, we had (and though I am going to sound old, I'm only 27. I got into D&D when I was really young): D&D Candy: Little boxes filled with minty orcs, trolls, and other monsters, with stats for a D&D monster on the back. D&D Action Figures: Warduke, Strongheart, Northlord, collect 'em all! There was also a less famous line of plastic, non-poseable figures of generic monsters and characters. D&D Model Kits: A model company (Revell?) made plastic dungeon kits with traps, monsters, and adventurers. IIRC, they were scaled too small to be used with 25mm figures. D&D Cartoon: This one is actually semi-famous as a good Saturday morning cartoon. Heck, aren't Saturday morning cartoons on the major networks officially a thing of the past? D&D Videogames, Handheld Electronic Games, Electronic Boardgames: They pretty much stuck the D&D logo on any game that had a dragon in it. It was fad city, baby. In the mid-80s, things slowed down quite a bit. Until Pool of Radiance came out in 1987 or 88, there was a four year gap in which D&D pretty much was confined to the game itself. With PoR, it exploded on to the computer RPG scene and developed into what we see today. There was also a few comics based on D&D settings, but I think those did not come along until the early 90s. The interesting thing to me was the release of 2e. As far as I can tell, there was nowhere near the hype or excitement about it as there was with 3e. TSR at that time had developed a bad track record with products. You kids today with your errata... back in my day 3rd edition Gamma World came with a complete book of errata because they knew the product was already completely screwed up. And even the errata was wrong. The Castle Greyhawk module was, as far as I can tell, a giant middle finger extended by TSR towards EGG. Anyway, 2e came out and didn't really do anything to fix D&D's problems while adding new ones. Demons and devils were taken out back and violently neutered. The half-orc, cavalier, monk, barbarian, and thief-acrobat were shown the door. The fighter still sucked compared to paladins and rangers. Thieves were still useless. Clerics were more powerful. The rules were still a train wreck. In essence, 2e expunged all the flavor and options from 1e without fixing any of the system's problems. The 2e DMG was the poster child for this. It was dull beyond comprehension and had little material of any use. I ended up giving mine away and stuck to my 1e DMG. At that point, IIRC D&D supplements were all driven by a setting or were meant as generic resources like the complete books. I don't think there ever was an intro module a la Sunless Citadel ever made for 2e. The adventure that came with the DM's screen was for 5th (!) level characters, not exactly a useful tool for starting a campaign. IMO, this is when the great 90s death spiral began. 2e failed to address any of the real problems with D&D while simultaneously lacked the product necessary to help transition players from 1e to 2e. It's worth noting that concurrent with 2e's release, the RPG industry as a whole saw quite a few games take off, Ars Magica, Shadowrun, TORG, and a couple others. My armchair analysis is that people were moving away from D&D and seeking alternatives, but an even greater proportion dropped it or simply stopped buying product. TSR shifted its focus to producing and supporting as many worlds as possible and paid the price for it. For whatever reason, they chose to turn their backs on the core values and game models that made D&D a success in the first place. From the numbers I have seen, after a surge in sales with the release of 2e RPG sales entered into a steep decline. By the time Magic came along, RPG sales were already hurting. The market bottomed out when TSR went under, but began a slow resurgence with WotC's purchase of the game. 3e has re-energized the player base and the advent of d20 has allowed D&D to finally take advantage of its position as the foundation of the RPG business. As for D&D's future, I have no idea. I don't think we'll ever see the basic form of the game change. As long as companies, especially WotC, continue to produce product people want, need, and use, I don't think the game is in danger of dying out. IMO, D&D fills a very basic human need to tell stories, create, and socialize. The game took root despite an utterly arcane set of rules that were almost utterly incomprehenisble. Despite bad media coverage, poor business decisions, and other missteps, the core D&D audience has always been there. [/QUOTE]
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