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[Theory] Why D&D is Popular
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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2457303" data-attributes="member: 14159"><p>I think there is some truth there. Among all my gaming friends and acquaintances, I knew of several who bought MERP books and materials, none of them ran MERP games, they always ran D&D, even if they ran a campaign in Middle Earth, it was with house-ruled D&D. One said he tried to run MERP as a game once, but he found the system dense, impenetrable, and clumsier than D&D, so that campaign didn't last beyond one session.</p><p></p><p>When I first got into gaming, upon hearing there was a game made around Lord of the Rings, I immediately asked my fellow gamers about it, and was quickly disabused of any idea of ever playing it. I was warned, by more than one group I knew, that it might have interesting source material, but the rules were dense and confounding, and it seemed more like an overcomplicated D&D clone with Middle Earth superimposed than a game actually made to support the Middle Earth setting.</p><p></p><p>So, from my own admittedly anecdotal evidence, I know that people played D&D because it was the rules they knew, were used to, and could find other gamers for, and that other systems on the market for Fantasy RPG's were largely percieved as highly niche products for people burned out or upset with D&D. If you play fantasy, it's D&D, other systems were for other genres (admittedly, I knew one girl from a group who only played GURPS, no matter the setting or genre, it was GURPS, but we had trouble gaming with her because she steadfastly refused to learn any other system, and they used <strong>all</strong> the GURPS rules, like having to know calculus to determine the statistics for a vehicle (calculating it's full surface area), so other gamers joining their group had a daunting learning curve, which kept them isolated from the rest of gamers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 2457303, member: 14159"] I think there is some truth there. Among all my gaming friends and acquaintances, I knew of several who bought MERP books and materials, none of them ran MERP games, they always ran D&D, even if they ran a campaign in Middle Earth, it was with house-ruled D&D. One said he tried to run MERP as a game once, but he found the system dense, impenetrable, and clumsier than D&D, so that campaign didn't last beyond one session. When I first got into gaming, upon hearing there was a game made around Lord of the Rings, I immediately asked my fellow gamers about it, and was quickly disabused of any idea of ever playing it. I was warned, by more than one group I knew, that it might have interesting source material, but the rules were dense and confounding, and it seemed more like an overcomplicated D&D clone with Middle Earth superimposed than a game actually made to support the Middle Earth setting. So, from my own admittedly anecdotal evidence, I know that people played D&D because it was the rules they knew, were used to, and could find other gamers for, and that other systems on the market for Fantasy RPG's were largely percieved as highly niche products for people burned out or upset with D&D. If you play fantasy, it's D&D, other systems were for other genres (admittedly, I knew one girl from a group who only played GURPS, no matter the setting or genre, it was GURPS, but we had trouble gaming with her because she steadfastly refused to learn any other system, and they used [b]all[/b] the GURPS rules, like having to know calculus to determine the statistics for a vehicle (calculating it's full surface area), so other gamers joining their group had a daunting learning curve, which kept them isolated from the rest of gamers. [/QUOTE]
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