Were the 80s really the Golden Age of D&D?

[Glyfair]

(Yes, I realize this introduces more characters into the printing process, resulting in higher costs, which might have been a real concern. OTOH, the book itself occasionally uses phrases like "Any character with a social standing of B (11) or greater..." which adds even more characters to the process. Is it a wash? I can't say, and I'm certainly not going to track this character by character from Book 0 to Book 9.

The savings is in the brevity of statblocks. Books that were heavy with statblocks could fit in a lot more data. Weren't their books that were mostly collections of characters?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The savings is in the brevity of statblocks. Books that were heavy with statblocks could fit in a lot more data. Weren't their books that were mostly collections of characters?

Honestly, I don't recall- I've got my classic books handy, plus some later versions of the game, but I don't have a complete collection of the original stuff anymore.

Brevity is a valid concern, but so is clarity. When considering "777B77 vs 7*7*7*11*7*7" (or whatever symbol you use as a divider), the latter isn't that much bigger, but is clear enough that the learning curve is going to be virtually instantaneous.

The first time I saw that "777B77," I thought it was a typo for "8."

 

[Jhaelen]

A few surprises for me here: The popularity of Palladium games (almost a quarter of D&D?!); the lack of Mage on this list; the relative unpopularity of GURPS, considering all of the supplements out there.

Well, I don't know how wrong it would be to extrapolate the total numbers of rpg players worldwide from this US survey, but I'm very sure that the popularity of the various rpg systems would be quite different.

I'd love to see such a survey for different countries. E.g. here in Germany Palladium is all but unknown and DSA (The Dark Eye) would most probably be the most popular (easily beating D&D). Shadowrun had a huge following here, as did the WoD games. But today? I cannot say.

Thinking back to the mid-eighties, I'd guess as much as 10% of my generation played rpgs at some point.

 

[Garthanos]

the relative unpopularity of GURPS, considering all of the supplements out there..

That is deceptive I have seen many from many people claiming regular purchases of GURPS supplements for use with other games... instead of playing GURPS.

 

[TerraDave]

/me slinks in to bring this up again....

talented amateurs working mostly independently to create works that follow some fairly similar general lines.

As I noted in the other thread, this is the complete opposite of the truth: artists from that period where profesionals with years of training who used large workshops. Nobody who has say seen art in a museam would say postmodern/contemporary art is any way better, or even remotely comparable, by $ terms or any other measure.

And it is just a poor analogy all the way around.

Now back to the thread.

 

[Hussar]

Terradave - where did I make any point about quality? That one era was better than another. Your notions of judgement are your own, not mine.

As far as Rennaissance artists working in large workshops, collaborating together, it was always my understanding that the term "Renaissance man" referred to someone who could do everything himself. Who did Da Vinci work with to paint the Mona Lisa? I was unaware that Michaelangelo collaborated with other artists to create the statue of David.

I'll admit my art history is somewhat fuzzy, but, it was my understanding that art in the Renaissance was generally through patronage where a single artist would be commissioned for a work. I was completely unaware that teams of artists would work together.

 

[catsclaw227]

If anything, the 80's were an age of disappointment, an age where lawyers made the Hand of the Law weigh heavily upon the enthusiasts with the command Cease And Desist! When the Arduin Grimoire and Alarums & Excursions and all their amatuerish ilk were extinguished. And for what? An "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" that was less original and less playable than that which it displaced.

Not sure about you, but I got my first AD&D 1e DMG and PHB in 1978.

How are you asserting that AD&D came out in the 80's?

 

[catsclaw227]

Dannyalcatraz, yes, we have established that a little thing like A, B, C in place of 10, 11, 12 freaks you out more than an ocean of rules. I did not for a moment imagine that you really cared about the accuracy of your statement -- but I take it as my prerogative to care.

I get it! You are being facetious.

I asked everyone in my family if they could translate the series of hexadecimal numbers as base 10: 48F3A9C09AB4D

None could do it.

Seriously, the hexadecimal thing was a big deal for my group when we started our Traveller games oh-those-many-years-ago. Andy my dyslexic friend got really frazzled by it.

I would say that this one "little thing" troubled more than a few players. Why else would they use a corrective notation - B (11) - in the book?

I gotta agree with DA on this one. (BTW, you're response to him was fairly condescending too, but that's between the two of you.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just an FYI, posted here because of the prior discussion of D&D getting bad press because of suicides & murders...

At this very moment (12:03AMCST), TruTv is airing an episode of Forensic Files in which D&D is supposedly going to be one of the factors "blamed" in a murder...though, from the teaser, the police eventually discard that idea.

Going off to watch it!

PS: the episode title is "Holy Terror", and as of this point, the 2 main suspects in the bombing are 2 D&D playing teens.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[]ARGH!

Barring a revelation later in the show, apparently, its a case of gamers shooting the hobby in the foot!

The 2 boys who were suspects implicated each other. Then, while being questioned, another bomb went off.

Since they pretty solid alibis, the cops asked them why they implicated each other. Their response was that it was because they were playing D&D, and thought it would be fun to RP their way through the interrogations.

MORONS![/]