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

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think our current landscape would have come sooner, in fact, because people wouldn't have had to fight 10 years of the d20 glut for ideas like PbtA or FATE to appear.

And yet these alternate systems are a tiny drop in the bucket of RPGs. Sometimes these types of systems feel like the hipster, cool, anti-mainstream games that only certain types of people "get", let alone play. And yes, a lot of them only exist in a way that does not bankrupt the creators because of the internet and sites like Kickstarter, which did not even launch until 2009.

 

[Reynard]

And yet these alternate systems are a tiny drop in the bucket of RPGs. Sometimes these types of systems feel like the hipster, cool, anti-mainstream games that only certain types of people "get", let alone play. And yes, a lot of them only exist in a way that does not bankrupt the creators because of the internet and sites like Kickstarter, which did not even launch until 2009.

The biggest RPG Kickstarter in history thus far was a PbtA game.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The biggest RPG Kickstarter in history thus far was a PbtA game.

I have so little interest in all these oddball game systems that I still don't know what that stands for.

 

[Reynard]

I have so little interest in all these oddball game systems that I still don't know what that stands for.

It seems strange then that you would categorize and judge them and make sweeping statements about their capacity to build large fanbases.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I think WoD was already off the throne before TSR fell, wasn't it? It's "reign" was exceedingly short lived (but very influential).

You could be right, I do not really remember. So WoTC never buys TSR, The WEG D6 system would have been in with a shout via the Star Wars implementation.
There is a lot to be said for a d6 based system., there were a few good ones knocking about,

 

[Aldarc]

I have so little interest in all these oddball game systems that I still don't know what that stands for.

Powered by the Apocalypse. It refers to any game inspired by Vincent and Meguey Baker's Apocalypse World game. In general the game action is propelled by player characters whose actions may trigger Moves, which require rolling dice (2d6 + mod), which in turn may generate success (on a 10+), a partial/complicated success and a GM soft move against them (on a 7-9), or a failure and a GM hard move against them (on a 6-).

 

[Mezuka]

At the time, if TSR went under and no one picked up D&D, there was Dragonquest, Role Master, Runequest and Ars Magica. My bet would have been on Dragonquest.

 

[innerdude]

Going back to the parlor game alt theory --- the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that it would have been the genesis of the RPG movement.

When I look at Ironsworn, for example:

• It doesn't make any assumption that there's anyone serving in a GM role, and provides strong guidance if that is the case (though it fully supports GM-led play as well).
• It uses minimal dice --- d6 and d10 only --- but could have gone even simpler with the basic 2d6 like its PbtA predecessors.
• Its main asset cards are already meant to be used as cards handed out to the players. The entire game is meant to be played with a single sheet of paper and 3 asset cards.
• It's very, very clear about how to handle narrative structure as a shared imaginary space.

And maybe that's why I like it so much, even though I still enjoy traditional RPG play. Ironsworn looks very much like an RPG might look if it was deconstructed in reverse from outside of D&D's assumed wargame background.

 

[GreyLord]

A Final Fantasy RPG...a TTRPG based on the video game. Maybe Sword World?

I'd prefer it to be a Warhammer FRPG combined with a 40K RPG myself...as that's one of my major fallbacks for RPGs without D&D.

 

[Neonchameleon]

D&D not existing leads to vast holes in the timeline including foundational video games like Colossal Cave Adventure, Wizardry, Ultima, and from them DragonQuest and Final Fantasy. It possibly also sweeps the legs out from under Games Workshop who initially grew from the makers of hand crafted wooden boardgames when they got an exclusive license as the D&D importers.

It's such a huge hole I'm going with "If Gygax & Arneson hadn't published D&D in 1974 then something equivalent would have happened".