Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
When D&D Was a Toy
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7753092" data-attributes="member: 3285"><p><em>Dungeons & Dragons </em>is so popular these days that it tops best-selling book lists, but there was a time when D&D was viewed more as a toy than a book. So which is it?</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]111861[/ATTACH]</p><h3><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">A Toy?</span></strong></h3><p><em>Dungeons & Dragon's </em><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3457-Who-Was-D-D-Meant-For" target="_blank">original target audience was wargamers</a>, which co-creator Gary Gygax knew well. As the game grew in popularity its audience expanded, accelerated by the release of <em>Basic Dungeons & Dragons. </em>Dr. J. Eric Holmes <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/holmes/holmes-on-the-basic-set" target="_blank">contacted Gygax with a proposal</a>:</p><p></p><p>This decision paid off. By 1976 TSR has sold ten thousand copies of the basic rules, with the likelihood of ten times that thanks to sharing and photocopying. Shannon Appelcline explains just how well it was selling by 1978 in <a href="https://amzn.to/2KWmLoI" target="_blank"><em>Designers & Dragons</em></a>:</p><p></p><p>That "mass market" included toy stores in the early 80s D&D was carried by toy stores, <a href="https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-484748.html" target="_blank">as explained on a RPG.net thread</a>:</p><p></p><p>D&D would go on to create its own toy franchise, announcing its Toy, Hobby & Gift Division in January 1983 at the Hobby Industries of America Show.</p><h3><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">A Book?</span></strong></h3><p>D&D didn't just appear in the now-defunct toy stores like KB Toys and Toys R' Us, but also in defunct book stores like Waldenbooks. TSR negotiated an exclusive book with Random House, as Ewalt explains in <a href="https://amzn.to/2NPCfc8" target="_blank"><em>Of Dice and Men</em></a>:</p><p></p><p>Just as the company branched out into toys, it also branched out into fiction, and had come to increasingly rely upon sales of its fiction line to prop up the rest of the company. It worked for a while, until the downturn in 1996:</p><p></p><p>Appelcline picks up the thread:</p><p></p><p>When TSR fell behind on its payment to its logistics company, they locked down all of TSR's products and refused to print more. TSR was in debt without enough product to buy its way out. These losses eventually ended up causing TSR to sell to Wizards of the Coast. The book trade, that had so massively expanded TSR's reach, nearly destroyed it.</p><h3><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Does it Matter?</strong></span></h3><p>The book industry has changed since TSR was sold. The few remaining bookstore chains, like <em>Barnes & Noble, </em>have expanded their tabletop game offerings considerably, including board, card, and miniature games. But however D&D may be found in bookstores, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4732-How-Did-D-D-Become-a-Best-Seller&p=7300048" target="_blank">sales data suggests the game sells well</a>. D&D books has topped the <em>Wall Street Journal's</em> non-fiction best-seller list, Amazon's Science Fiction & Fantasy category, the <em>New York Times' </em>Games and Activities list, <em>Publisher's Weekly's </em>hardcover non-fiction list, and <em>USA Today's </em>best-selling books. <em>Xanathar's Guide to Everything </em>became the fastest-selling D&D book in the game's history.</p><p></p><p>Given all these accolades, it's easy to surmise that D&D is more book than toy. And yet, <a href="http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/dungeons-dragons" target="_blank">the game was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2016</a>:</p><p></p><p>In the end, D&D is more than just a toy or a book, fiction or non-fiction. It's all these things and something else entirely that "actually changed the nature of play."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="talien, post: 7753092, member: 3285"] [I]Dungeons & Dragons [/I]is so popular these days that it tops best-selling book lists, but there was a time when D&D was viewed more as a toy than a book. So which is it? [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="dungeons-and-dragons-group.png"]111861[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [HEADING=2][B][SIZE=5]A Toy?[/SIZE][/B][/HEADING] [I]Dungeons & Dragon's [/I][URL='http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3457-Who-Was-D-D-Meant-For']original target audience was wargamers[/URL], which co-creator Gary Gygax knew well. As the game grew in popularity its audience expanded, accelerated by the release of [I]Basic Dungeons & Dragons. [/I]Dr. J. Eric Holmes [URL='https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/holmes/holmes-on-the-basic-set']contacted Gygax with a proposal[/URL]: This decision paid off. By 1976 TSR has sold ten thousand copies of the basic rules, with the likelihood of ten times that thanks to sharing and photocopying. Shannon Appelcline explains just how well it was selling by 1978 in [URL='https://amzn.to/2KWmLoI'][I]Designers & Dragons[/I][/URL]: That "mass market" included toy stores in the early 80s D&D was carried by toy stores, [URL='https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-484748.html']as explained on a RPG.net thread[/URL]: D&D would go on to create its own toy franchise, announcing its Toy, Hobby & Gift Division in January 1983 at the Hobby Industries of America Show. [HEADING=2][B][SIZE=5]A Book?[/SIZE][/B][/HEADING] D&D didn't just appear in the now-defunct toy stores like KB Toys and Toys R' Us, but also in defunct book stores like Waldenbooks. TSR negotiated an exclusive book with Random House, as Ewalt explains in [URL='https://amzn.to/2NPCfc8'][I]Of Dice and Men[/I][/URL]: Just as the company branched out into toys, it also branched out into fiction, and had come to increasingly rely upon sales of its fiction line to prop up the rest of the company. It worked for a while, until the downturn in 1996: Appelcline picks up the thread: When TSR fell behind on its payment to its logistics company, they locked down all of TSR's products and refused to print more. TSR was in debt without enough product to buy its way out. These losses eventually ended up causing TSR to sell to Wizards of the Coast. The book trade, that had so massively expanded TSR's reach, nearly destroyed it. [HEADING=2][SIZE=5][B]Does it Matter?[/B][/SIZE][/HEADING] The book industry has changed since TSR was sold. The few remaining bookstore chains, like [I]Barnes & Noble, [/I]have expanded their tabletop game offerings considerably, including board, card, and miniature games. But however D&D may be found in bookstores, [URL='http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4732-How-Did-D-D-Become-a-Best-Seller&p=7300048']sales data suggests the game sells well[/URL]. D&D books has topped the [I]Wall Street Journal's[/I] non-fiction best-seller list, Amazon's Science Fiction & Fantasy category, the [I]New York Times' [/I]Games and Activities list, [I]Publisher's Weekly's [/I]hardcover non-fiction list, and [I]USA Today's [/I]best-selling books. [I]Xanathar's Guide to Everything [/I]became the fastest-selling D&D book in the game's history. Given all these accolades, it's easy to surmise that D&D is more book than toy. And yet, [URL='http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/dungeons-dragons']the game was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2016[/URL]: In the end, D&D is more than just a toy or a book, fiction or non-fiction. It's all these things and something else entirely that "actually changed the nature of play." [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
When D&D Was a Toy
Top