D&D General What D&D reflects today, media wise...

[overgeeked]

I saw someone mention in another post that D&D no longer reflects LotRs (and Conan). Society has moved on and now D&D is or is expected to lean more into DOTA and The Witcher (funny enough is based heavily on classic fairy tales like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, etc etc)

I found the poster choosing DOTA and Witcher really odd choices. If anything I'd say more like MMOs and Anime...

Yeah, exactly. MMOs, anime, superheroes. But there's a fair amount of DOTA there, too.

Anywho, it got me to thinking while LotRs is far far more widely known period, what younger D&D fans may care about more now-a-days is Pokemon or Warcraft. Should D&D reflect the more current modern popular fiction? A monster hunter that catches Beholders in special magic balls?

We already have things almost like that in D&D today. There is a big section of companions and pets in Tasha's and the pet classes were reworked because they were unsatisfying.

Would it even be D&D anymore if you pushed to the side Halflings, Elves, Dwarves, etc?

D&D is whatever the IP owner decides to slap the logo on. It's wouldn't be a D&D that I recognize or would want to play, but it would still be D&D.

Does D&D NOW reflect current media as opposed to the old and dusty LotRs (What Amazon tv series?).

Absolutely. It's old media (LotR, Conan, etc) influenced by new media (superhero movies, anime, pokemon, etc).

What do you think it should reflect?

It should reflect both its own tradition and what's popular now. Kinda like it is. But, that's not going to be attractive to older fans. I'm not sure a perfect balance is possible in one game line.

Lean back into more MMO play like 4th ed?

I think it's big enough to afford at least two supported game lines. Something like Basic and Advanced from the 80s. Make Basic the lighter, more story and character focused line and Advanced the more crunch and combat focused line.

 

[Yora]

I wouldn't be surprised if in 6E Elves Dwarves an Halflings etc got dropped for core and replaced with Tabaxi, Goliath, and Goblins

looks at my PC races list for my new homebrew setting

Don't do it on my behalf. I'm fine with the default races in the PHB.

 

[Morrus]

D&D is pretty much it’s own genre. It doesn’t model other genres.

 

[Malmuria]

I don't know if I really buy the premise here. LotR is still extremely popular, especially through the films. As is the low-magic fantasy series game of thrones, which was a pop culture phenomenon until it imploded in the last season. It's less a shift in culture and more additive, with other varieties of fantasy influencing how people might approach dnd. Often these are dnd-inspired, especially through video games: Zelda, Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Dark Souls, Witcher, not to mention games directly within the dnd IP (baldur's gate, neverwinter nights, etc). But then, dnd was never just LotR-inspired, was it? There was always elements of science fantasy, superhero fantasy, horror, etc, that worked their way through various modules and settings.

 

[Malmuria]

I behind there is a 0% chance they are going to drop elves, dwarves or halflings from the core.

Gnomes, though, we can only hope.

See this is why I need prop bets on the 2024 edition! If I only I could place a bet on whether dwarves and halflings would be replaced by Tabaxi, Goliath, and Goblins (spoiler: they will not).

 

[DarkCrisis]

I behind there is a 0% chance they are going to drop elves, dwarves or halflings from the core.

Gnomes, though, we can only hope.

Gnomes weren't core in 4E, if I recall.

 

[J.Quondam]

Tally one more for the "it's its own genre" crew.... and it's always been it's own goofy genre. Just look at those old houserules in the "Original Known World" thread: aside from the fantasy and mythology influences, there are call-outs to supers, sci-fi, spy thrillers, and so forth. It's not straight LoTR or S&S by any stretch.

D&D is gonzo, always has been.* If it feels "different" now, it's only because there's more pop-culture easily available to reference, and a wider diversity of gamers to reference it. But it's still the "same" in the sense that it freely sucks in whatever tropes it wants to make for a fun game.


* Gamers (like me!) with "boring" setting sensibilities notwithstanding.

 

[overgeeked]

Gnomes weren't core in 4E, if I recall.

"Rar! I'm a monster."

 

[Reynard]

I think it's big enough to afford at least two supported game lines. Something like Basic and Advanced from the 80s. Make Basic the lighter, more story and character focused line and Advanced the more crunch and combat focused line.

Lol. We recently had this discussion on this board and folks by and large came down on no, it isn't (even though I think it is).

 

[el-remmen]

D&D has always had a wide variety of influences on it from popular culture of its time and the recurring influence of pulp fiction/weird fiction that predates it by decades (and the current view of that stuff at any given time). This is true both for people's home games and for the modules and supplements that TSR/WotC/3rd party companies put out for it.

D&D is (and should be) a "big tent," including a diverse range of possible styles and aesthetics and preferences - and I am not that worried about "what direction it goes" or what it reflects - I can keep playing/running the D&D I want regardless of what the common media influence happens to be at any given point and I can always find some degree of inspiration from whatever that happens to be, even if generally they don't match my style. Heck, one of the biggest influences on my current game is The Wire not any particular fantasy setting or genre. Furthermore, ever since Gygax decided to include Tolkienisms in the game, despite Gygax not being that big fan, GMs have made use of inspirational sources even when they would not be what that GM would choose to read/watch when they sat down with free time.

Finally, I want to reiterate my usual position, which is that WotC does not own D&D. D&D exists among the communities that play it. It is good and convenient that we still have a company putting things out and revising rules, etc. . but that is absolutely not a necessary part of continuing the (diverse) tradition(s) of D&D games.

Edit to add: I had to google what DOTA was, because I had no idea.