What game Could "Be" D&D, Culturally?

[dragoner]

Interesting. So you don't think there is an inherent quality of D&D that made it the zeitgeist in the last 5 or so years? (I'm not arguing, just curious.)

It's self-referential enough to have its own cultural "inertia" if you will. Like any other IP, though it does a lot of great things, all the separate classes for each person to be special, the art is awesome, and peripherals such as dice. Though I don't think most of it is inherent to D&D, though it would be difficult to reproduce in another IP.

 

[AtomicPope]

Having played lots and lots of different RPGs, including most of the ones you mention, I don't agree with any of this.

Glad you shared your wrong opinion.

 

[MGibster]

To be fair, TSR didn't really understand why it was so successful so I'm not sure we're going to be any better and figuring it out.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I mentioned it earlier, but my big question in all of these hypotheticals is, does Nu-RPG, whatever it is, get off the ground and with the same traction as D&D before 1977? Because if not, I think the creative energy behind RPG design would radically shift following the release of Star Wars.

In an earlier post of mine, I pointed out that Traveller and Star Wars both released in 1977, but did Star Wars have any influence at all on the sales and/or popularity of Traveller? And the very first sci-fi RPG, Metamorphosis Alpha, was released in 1976. Did Star Wars do anything for it's popularity?

 

[MGibster]

In an earlier post of mine, I pointed out that Traveller and Star Wars both released in 1977, but did Star Wars have any influence at all on the sales and/or popularity of Traveller? And the very first sci-fi RPG, Metamorphosis Alpha, was released in 1976. Did Star Wars do anything for it's popularity?

I've always been surprised that Star Trek wasn't a more popular gaming franchise in the 80s and 90s. I would have expected more overlap between Trekkies and gamers but I found that there really wasn't. Most die hard Trekkies I knew weren't at all interested in RPGs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've always been surprised that Star Trek wasn't a more popular gaming franchise in the 80s and 90s. I would have expected more overlap between Trekkies and gamers but I found that there really wasn't. Most die hard Trekkies I knew weren't at all interested in RPGs.

I knew quite a few in the Greater L.A. and Bay Area areas, albeit this was the 70's and 80's.

 

[dragoner]

I've always been surprised that Star Trek wasn't a more popular gaming franchise in the 80s and 90s. I would have expected more overlap between Trekkies and gamers but I found that there really wasn't. Most die hard Trekkies I knew weren't at all interested in RPGs.

FASA Trek in '83, it was big, a lot of people played it.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I agree with whoever mentioned World of Darkness just in terms of inertia.

Part of what makes it hard to imagine is that so much of whats come since has been reactive to DND (even while DND is semi reactive to it) that its hard to even say what sort of value system that market would have. Its actually very possible you would have had a multiway split of DND 'child systems' that all try to deliver what DND did to take its place-- especially since those systems would potentially be designed by the people who had been working at TSR in the first place or the people groomed by them. Like Chris Perkins was writing for Dragon Magazine in 1988 when he was young, even though he joined WOTC in 1997, and remembers the feedback and encouragement he was given by people who were working on the magazine back then. James Wyatt has the same story previous to being hired by WOTC in 2000. Cook was already at TSR at the time of the takeover and again, primarily had a background in fantasy RPGs.

So you still have a bunch of the people who were behind 3rd edition and set the tone for later DND puttering around, a market hungry for heroic fantasy, and further stimulation coming from DND's other heirs in the video game market. I think the only real effect it would have if the DND name was forcibly taken off the market, is split it between a number of other companies created to capitalize on the void. But since none of them would have had the original street cred, you'd probably see something like the OSR, with people cloning TSR systems to prove themselves before the surviving companies finally start innovating to differentiate themselves.

 

[Reynard]

I agree with whoever mentioned World of Darkness just in terms of inertia.

Hadn't WoD's star faded even before TSR went under?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Hadn't WoD's star faded even before TSR went under?

No. It was in 2004 that White Wolf went from World of Darkness to Chronicles of Darkness/Vampire the Masquerade to Vampire the Requiem/etc. And then in 2006, everything was bought out by CCP Games. In 2001, the WoD games were 2nd in sales only to D&D, 4 years after WotC bought TSR. White Wolf had a great 10-12 year run and then destroyed itself with the new versions of the games.