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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8419305" data-attributes="member: 59082">Yes, all good thoughts. I didn't forget the "media blitz," although I guess I probably should have mentioned it in the "rise of 5E" part as a major factor. I wasn't as much describing the factors involved, just the phenomena. But I imagine the single biggest media influence has been Stranger Things, which probably brought in new, young fans, and also some older folks bit by the nostalgia bug.I think you're probably generally correct on the last two paragraphs. I think a key point is that even though "old-timers" represent a diminishing percentage of the total fan-base, they still have substantial buying power. If we take the demographics for the 50 million estimate, probably about 15% are carryovers from pre-3E eras (most of the 13% of 40+ and some of the 18% of 35-39 group, minus a few older folks who only just started playing).Another factor is simply WotC making good use of their creative legacy--not to preserve tradition for traditions sake, but because it would be wasteful not to. I mean, think of that fertile period of the late 80s to mid-90s in terms of settings: Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Planescape, and Birthright all came out in a pretty short period of time.So it isn't simply a matter of "old people like old stuff, and new people like new stuff." But it may mean that older stuff will be re-calibrated for a newer, younger demographic, at least to some extent. As much as the "setting purist" in me dislikes the idea of dragonborn in Athas, that might be inevitable (actually, they'd probably fit in quite well, although might need to be re-skinned a bit, so as not to dilute the coolness of the Athas dragons; tieflings seem a bit more incongruous with the setting, though).Or with Planescape, I imagine the very Gen X 90s aesthetic will be ironed out a bit (to be honest, I hope so!), and Dragonlance art will likely do away with mullets and perms (someone will need to talk to Elmore and Easley). And, of course, WotC will almost certainly continue to offer narrative pathways that don't always involve solving everything through violence, and we'll probably never see Tika's boobs again, unless WotC starts an OnlyFans for her.But I think, all joking aside, most of these worlds will continue to live within the D&D canon, and some of them will be actively nourished, even if in a somewhat different presentation. This will make some old-timers grouchy, but I think they'll be a minority.</blockquote>

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