D&D General What if D&D 5E Was Released in 1974?

[Jacob Lewis]

Well this is an interesting thought experiment, but I can't think of any reasonable assertions to make me think it would be more (or even as) successful as it is now. The biggest reason for this is exposure and accessibility, and nothing to do with the rules or aesthetics.

In 1974, the internet was not available to everyone; it was mostly limited as intranet at some colleges and some private or government institutions. So there was no streaming, no youtube, no podcasts, etc. Even television was limited to 3 major broadcast companies and some public broadcasts. Starting out, it would rely mostly by word of mouth.

Regardless if it were the best rpg ever invented, it would still be the first of it's kind. Thus, everything that followed or imitated would have evolved and improved on 5e as the genesis of origination.

Assuming word of mouth led to the expected rise and success of the game for being what it is, it would still flourish. By today's standards, the rules for 1e and basic D&D are considered archaic, but still enjoyable for many. To me, that suggests the idea of what a fantasy roleplaying game represents at the time was at least as interesting as the rules themselves, if not more.

But D&D would still need to face the controversies of the time. Religious conservative groups made their protests, and as expected, it just made everyone else want to do the exact thing they were protesting about. Funny how some things never change, am I right?

I think the important thing to understand is that 5e wouldn't be what it is if D&D hadn't gone through everything that it did. 5e evolved from mistakes learned and trials faced. And even if it had the internet and all the other tools to help get the exposure it has now, it would still rely on its fanbase to promote it further than it could on it's own. That requires one more thing that didn't really exist at the time: an open license.

There's a lot more to this, I'm sure. I am looking forward to reading more thoughts in this thread!

 

[Willie the Duck]

Less. As @Minigiant stated, the current game is built upon the shoulders of everything that came before it and would be much too much for an entire new game to gain any traction. Maybe if we were talking ONLY the Basic Rules it might be a better argument... but even just seeing dragonborn, tieflings, gnomes and drow as racial options in 1974 would make people question just what this thing was. The basic D&D of '74 was very much a product of the Tolkien times, which is why it had a more solid foundation and doorway into gameplay for fantasy enthusiasts of the mid 70s.

1974 feels way too early -- there it was still trying to get the war gamers on board, and wouldn't have had the money to do anything like the AD&D core books for production values yet.

I wonder if they broke it up by level like the Basic, B/X, or BECMI sets, snuck it past EGG, and put it out in 1981 instead of Moldvay or 1983 instead of Mentzer, if it might have eaten AD&D's lunch.

I think what would work fine would be a game set that ostensibly looked like B/X, but included a lot of the stuff in 5e (point buy or 3BestOf4d6 for attributes, max hp at L1, unified experience table, no racial level limits, proficiency bonus, skills system) instead of the rules that oD&D had. Even then, you'd have to start out with some simplifications ('why does my fighter get/need these extra abilities like action surge and second wind?'), a few re-names (5e use of hit dice), and bring things back to mostly Tolkien-based races and the more obvious-role classes.

And yes, this would all have to be in a world where someone other than Gary was running the show (or, as Cadence suggests, slipped past him in the basic game once he'd turned his attention to AD&D).

 

[Plaguescarred]

What about 1978+ with more complex rules ?

 

[Willie the Duck]

What about 1978+ with more complex rules ?

Can you clarify:
1) was oD&D released in '74 before 5e was released in 78+?
2) more complex than what? current 5e?

 

[aco175]

Would have made this scene in E.T. a lot better.

Think about all those kids that would have been saved from lead poisoning if we were not forced into the wargaming aspect.

 

[Oofta]

You'd probably need to release the current free PDF version using dead trees as a "basic" version, but after that I don't see that it would make that much of a difference. There's nothing magical about any edition. Of course it would take a while to gain steam and recognition - just like the original versions of D&D did.

But maybe I'm reading the poll wrong. Would it be as successful or more successful than the original brown box? Yes. Would it be as popular as 5E today? That's a different question altogether.

 

[R_J_K75]

About the same is my opinion, regardless of the version released in 1974. At its lowest common denominator, 5E is still a TTRPG so it most likely would have still attracted the same initial following it did, the game would progress/digress with trends and technology as the years went on. 5E is a more complex game than the original release, but the concept was new so those wouldn't be a barrier for entry into the hobby for those that were interested. I'm sure there would have been lows in highs like those seen from 1974-2022. Basically, I don't see anything really different taking place other than the current version of the game being a lot different simply because the starting baseline would have been a more advanced and complete game.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Can you clarify:
1) was oD&D released in '74 before 5e was released in 78+?
2) more complex than what? current 5e?

AD&D 1st edition, which is more complex than OD&D

 

[overgeeked]

Following the News Piece 1981 thread, it got me thinking, taken the huge success that D&D had when it was released, in the shape or form it was published back then, what do you think its success would have been if 5E had been instead, with all the differences both mechanically and esthetically, that exist between it and the early editions of the game?

The success you see in that video is after seven years on the market and 2-3 years into the pop-culture behemoth that was AD&D. The D&D cartoon is two years away from hitting national TV, but it’s already being planned, written, cast, etc at this point.

Compared to what? OD&D as it was published in 1974 or 5E today? I suspect more popular than OD&D but wildly less popular than 5E today.

 

[HammerMan]

Following the News Piece 1981 thread, it got me thinking, taken the huge success that D&D had when it was released, in the shape or form it was published back then, what do you think its success would have been if 5E had been instead, with all the differences both mechanically and esthetically, that exist between it and the early editions of the game?

I said it in another thread. IF you took 5e back to 197X it would flop. If you brought 1e forward it would flop.

The exact scenero I imagined was taking an adventure book from this year... Witch light of Strixhaven and changed mechanics to 1e mechanics and put it back in 1981 and no one would know what to make of it.