Why D&D is slowly cutting its own throat.

[Mokona]

As others have pointed out, the elements of the D&D brand have grown into a lot of areas besides RPGs. I suspect that D&D-related novels continue to outsell RPGs by orders of magnitude.

Doesn't WotC claim that 6 million people currently play D&D? If that many people were actively buying WotC fiction then those novels would be #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list every month.

As an anecdote, no D&D gamers I know buy WotC books but most buy at least the Player's Handbook.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are a few gamers in my group who buy the D&D novels.

I'm not one, and probably never will be.

 

[diaglo]

There are a few gamers in my group who buy the D&D novels.

I'm not one, and probably never will be.

i own all of them. from the first one printed to the most recent.

 

[Pramas]

For example, its entirely within the realm of possibility that Malhavoc's or Green Ronin's products could eventually depart from D20 to the degree that say 3rd edition Iron Lore or Blue Rose is not a D20 product.

Blue Rose is already not a d20 product. It's a stand alone RPG that strips down the D&D rules considerable and departs from them in some major ways.

What then is to stop future gamers, ten years from now from coming back exclusively for the non-D&D products?

The fact that the lion's share of the D&D audience never moves beyond it.

 

[diaglo]

The fact that the lion's share of the D&D audience never moves beyond it.

and some of us never leave the One True Game.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Heh. You should have been here for the rule zero argument in the rules forum. You would have gotten a kick out of all the people claiming that RPG's were about the rules - adventure and imagination be damned. Or maybe not. The very best RPers I've had the priviledge to referee were people who learned who to play the game a long time before they learned the rules. To some people, that's a contridiction. I doubt you see it that way, and I expect you'd be a very entertaining player or DM.

Whoa, there...

If the published adventures are the game, then I have never played Dungeons and Dragons. Oh wait, I have played Dungeons and Dragons. Published adventures must not be the game. Unless it is your ascertation that I only think I've played it, but actually havn't.

I have never bought a module. I never will buy a module. I write my own adventures. And, I like D&D. I don't care if Keep on the Borderlands is highly acclaimed by everyone here. I look at it and I simply see a dungeon crawl that doesn't interest me in the least. I cannot fathom how these old bare-bones modules are the game. The game is the Core rulebooks. I can play D&D with them, and I can't play it without them. That's like saying you arn't playing D&D unless you're playing in a published campaign setting. I can't imagine anyone saying that with any serousness.

I'm all for modules for the people that want them. Just not for me. I play D&D 3E after all these years (instead of, say, Vampire), so there must be something beyond the modules keeping me here. Perhaps its the fact that the rules are *gasp* good?

 

[Orius]

I'm looking for the "The Ranger is Broken" thread. I took a left turn at "Senseless Gnome Racial Revisions Through the Years," then got off on "Half-Dragon Templates Applied to Dragons" ... And lost sight of the Interstate within just a few blocks.

My wife made me stop for directions.

Anyone? Anyone, please?

Take a left at the next alignment thread....

 

[The_Gneech]

Watch out for the "DM has it in for my paladin" thread, it's full of plotholes.

-The Gneech

 

[Celebrim]

Whoa, there...

I could say the same to you.

If the published adventures are the game....

I think I will. 'Whoa, there.'

If I had meant 'published adventures' I would have said published adventurers, or even modules or something. What I said was that the game was adventures and not a set of rules (or at least not a fixed set of rules). What adventures that those happen to be doesn't really matter to me.

The game is the Core rulebooks. I can play D&D with them, and I can't play it without them.

See, there is were we actually disagree. I don't care what campaign setting you are using - homebrew or published. But as long as we are looking at hyperbole, I can't imagine anyone saying with any seriousness that the game is the core rulebooks, but then there it is. That's like saying that you aren't playing D&D unless your playing with the official published rules, and how bizarre of a notion is that.

 

[diaglo]

That's like saying that you aren't playing D&D unless your playing with the official published rules, and how bizarre of a notion is that.

i'll say it.

you aren't playing D&D unless the referee is using the 3 booklets.

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.