Critical Role Wildemount has new subraces and reprints a ton of others

[teitan]

Four years is a long time away. People need to remember that while D&D is having a moment, it is just a moment and very likely will fade back to "normal" levels, which will mean WotC (or whoever owns it) will want to shakje things up again. None of us know how long streaming is going to be a thing, or if some other game is going to grab the streamers' attention. Imagine of the Critical Role crew decided to engage in a 2 year long campaign using a different rule set. Would the Critters follow them to that game and leave D&D fallow? Or what if the success of the new animated series means fewer and fewer streaming games happen as the cast members and Mercer spend more and more time doing different kinds of work. Will their fans still be playing D&D 6 months after the last Twitch stream?

I dated once to suggest that 5e would eventually start to taper off and a new game, similar to how Vampire & Pathfinder either overtook D&D or came really close, and someone demanded evidence that it would happen and a timeline. Basically berated me so watch out with some people suggesting such a thing. It was scary.

 

[teitan]

Or release 6th ed as a 50th anniversary edition.

mid they do it will be a mild change and more like a new edition of Cthulhu than an overhaul.

 

[MNblockhead]

One of the things that caused many and my generation (late 70s through the 80s, playing Red Box, 1e, 2e) to drift away was that as we went off to college, moved for work, etc. our gaming groups broke up, friends lost touch, and unless you really made a point to find and create new gaming groups, you met new groups of people and moved on to new things.

I think VTTs, video conferencing, and streaming services will change this. You'll still have many people drift apart, but far more will be able to keep their gaming groups going on-line or will find it easier to find games to join as they will not be limited to local gaming opportunities, or lack thereof.

Of course D&D's--and TTRPGs in general--popularity will wax and wane, but I don't think it will drop as much in popularity as it has in the past.