D&D (2024) Why are you still playing D&D?

[Distracted DM]

A lot of posters seem to fall on, "I'd prefer to play something else, but it's what my players want".

If I were still just running for my one table of friends, it'd be "they play whatever the GM wants to run because it's what the GM is excited about."

 

[The Soloist]

I think there are OSR plug-in modules that just add skill systems to games without them. I can't vouch for any of them, though, as we don't use them at my table.

Thanks, but no. My days of modifying RPGs with outside rules and fixes are long gone. Dragonbane does all I want without the need to change anything.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Beware, someone may throw that "fastest selling" statistic WotC provided right at your face.

People buy stuff they don't use all the time. I can't tell you how many RPG books I've purchased but haven't used over the years.

 

[FrogReaver]

I answered other because Some of my group don’t want to play anything but 5e. If it was my choice alone I’d probably be playing something with exponential character progression.

 

[Clint_L]

We're now ten plus years into 5th edition and I've heard various whispers of people commenting that it is starting to feel a bit out-dated, perhaps not unlike AD&D in the mid-to-late 90s, after Indie games had innovated in various ways. I could be reading this wrong, of course, or more likely it is a small minority of diehards who consume new games rather voraciously, but...it just seems that there isn't quite the buzz around 2024 that you might expect, even if sales are presumably robust.

Now we have not only the OSR and its descendants, but a variety of well-regarded fantasy games on the market such as the various games by Free League and several others. It even seems that with advances in self-publishing, we're in a bit of a golden era of RPGs, as far as diversity and quality - so it is arguably the best era to be into RPGs, as far as options are concerned.

Yet...D&D still holds a huge percentage of the market share. Other games have fan-bases, but it still seems that no other fantasy game is able to carve out more than a cult following - and of those, probably a lot of folks still play D&D as their main game, if only for convenience.

This thread is NOT meant to be a criticism of D&D or an under-handed way of saying it sux. I'm just curious why folks, especially for long-time players and diehards, are still playing D&D as their primary game, given the wealth of other options.

D&D has way too much inertia. That's not a criticism, just a fact.

I have zero interest in running a different fantasy TTRPG. Frankly, I think genre matters far more than the game system, unless the system is radically different (like, D&D vs. Dread different). I do not consider Pathfinder to be a different game than D&D, and the same goes for basically every other rules-heavy fantasy TTRPG. They're all just tinkering at the corners.

I already have a lot invested in D&D in terms of time and knowledge and money, so what's my incentive to switch to something like Pathfinder, or any other complex fantasy TTRPG (by complex, I mean a game approaching or surpassing D&D in complexity)? So I can buy a bunch of new rules, learn a bunch of new stuff, teach my players a bunch of new stuff, and spend a bunch of time to get basically the same experience? Hard pass.

I'll happily play in such a game, since playing requires so much less investment, but not DM. My time is way too valuable.

So when I run a TTRPG that isn't D&D, I'm not running fantasy. I'm running a different genre, and picking the system that fits best with my taste in that genre.

 

[TheSword]

This assumes that 5.5 will be widely accepted as a replacement for WotC's previous version of 5e by current 2014 5e players, who I assume will...just throw another $150 at WotC and move on? We cannot know how popular 5.5 will end up being yet, and there are already potential indicators of a lack of enthusiasm for moving on to a new set of rules, with new books to buy and new lore to accept. Meals has discussed this on this very site, and I have heard from multiple folks who feel the new version just isn't worth the squeeze.

So I guess we'll see.

It will be. What’s more most new players that join now will see 2024 as D&D. The pipeline is essential. There are players dropping out the bottom all the time because of work, family or health. Not catering to the new crop leads to withering on the vine.

Though remember most players won’t pay $150. They’ll borrow books, read stuff on online etc. A few might pick up PHB.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It will be. What’s more most new players that join now will see 2024 as D&D. The pipeline is essential. There are players dropping out the bottom all the time because of work, family or health. Not catering to the new crop leads to withering on the vine.

Though remember most players won’t pay $150. They’ll borrow books, read stuff on online etc. A few might pick up PHB.

Then please explain 4e to me. I don't recall everyone adopting that and abandoning the previous edition.

 

[DEFCON 1]

D&D has way too much inertia. That's not a criticism, just a fact.

I have zero interest in running a different fantasy TTRPG. Frankly, I think genre matters far more than the game system, unless the system is radically different (like, D&D vs. Dread different). I do not consider Pathfinder to be a different game than D&D, and the same goes for basically every other rules-heavy fantasy TTRPG. They're all just tinkering at the corners.

I already have a lot invested in D&D in terms of time and knowledge and money, so what's my incentive to switch to something like Pathfinder, or any other complex fantasy TTRPG (by complex, I mean a game approaching or surpassing D&D in complexity)? So I can buy a bunch of new rules, learn a bunch of new stuff, teach my players a bunch of new stuff, and spend a bunch of time to get basically the same experience? Hard pass.

I'll happily play in such a game, since playing requires so much less investment, but not DM. My time is way too valuable.

So when I run a TTRPG that isn't D&D, I'm not running fantasy. I'm running a different genre, and picking the system that fits best with my taste in that genre.

This is very much my feelings too.

I have five editions worth of material to draw on when needing to adapt stuff to a game I am running. Since it is all based around the tropes of Dungeons & Dragons (even if a number of the rules do not match up based on edition)... I have much less finagling to do to get this material into a useable shape. It also doesn't hurt that I have only the barest concern about the game mechanics themselves, so any changes do not really matter much to me nor do I need to go backwards or forwards to find some "sweet spot". There really isn't any "sweet spots" for me. All the editions have had good stuff in them, all the editions have had crap stuff in them, all of the editions have grown slowly less interesting over time the more they got played so changing things up every bunch of years has been fine. So I'll stick with what's current because it's new, it saves time, and if people outside the hobby find an interest in trying it out... it's easier to bring them into the current situation of the game where the books they may or may not eventually pick up are the ones they will find easiest on the shelves.

I'll let those players who actually care about the specifics of that stuff be the ones to keep Level Up, Tales of the Valiant, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Shadowdark, Draw Steel, Pathfinder 2E, Castles & Crusades, ACKs, 13th Age, Mork Borg, and Old School Essentials alive.

 

[The Soloist]

Then please explain 4e to me. I don't recall everyone adopting that and abandoning the previous edition.

ME! We enjoyed 4e. Stopped playing 3.5 immediately. Didn't go back, nor did we go into Pathfinder. I always abandoned the previous editions from D&D BX to 5.5.

 

[AlViking]

This assumes that 5.5 will be widely accepted as a replacement for WotC's previous version of 5e by current 2014 5e players, who I assume will...just throw another $150 at WotC and move on? We cannot know how popular 5.5 will end up being yet, and there are already potential indicators of a lack of enthusiasm for moving on to a new set of rules, with new books to buy and new lore to accept. Meals has discussed this on this very site, and I have heard from multiple folks who feel the new version just isn't worth the squeeze.

So I guess we'll see.

At a certain point I'm pretty sure it will switch over. There's no reason to rush into a new edition but as people wrap up new campaigns and more importantly as newbies join we'll likely see a shift. I'm not surprised if there was no rush to embrace the new even if we did because the rules needed a bit of cleanup but in the long run there's not a lot of reason to stick to the old for a lot of people.