Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jaeger" data-source="post: 8231322" data-attributes="member: 27996">The beatings continued, and then morale improved... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f633.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":oops:" title="Oops!    :oops:"  data-smilie="10"data-shortname=":oops:" />D&D had two VERY powerful qualities going for it early on:1: It was First2: It was Good EnoughWe see this effect muted in countries that D&D was slower to get a translation to like Germany and Japan where they had to compete with native versions from the get go. The Dark Eye in Germany, and in Japan Roads to Lord, and now Sword World have always been the #1 fantasy rpg's in their respective countries over D&D.Largely because they were able to appeal to their native audience with a comparable product that copied a lot of the things that D&D did right.D&D, especially in its B/X incarnations (which really made D&D IMHO) - Gets a lot of things right for a mass market RPG...So this is my take...While discussing with some friends why D&D never had a real challenger until a series of WOTC own goals led to pathfinder...It became clear, that whether by accident or design, D&D just got certain things right pretty much straight out of the gate. That led to them being virtually unchallenged for over 30 years.D&D had two VERY powerful qualities going for it early on:1: It was First2: It was Good EnoughThe 5 points that Secured D&D's dominance:1: Easy PC creation: You could make a character and begin play in a matter of minutes. A selling point for new players.2: Graspable Rules complexity: The first levels are not rules heavy. The mechanics were understandable. New players gradually got introduced to any additional complexity, easing the gateway for new players.3: Easily grasped Default play mode: The Dungeon, an easy to understand and grasp mode of play. New players knew what they were gonna do right away. Explore a forgotten crypt, kill things and take their stuff.4: Easily understood and relatable implied setting: Common fantasy tropes of 'Tolkienesque" Elves Dwarves, Halflings/Hobbits, Fighting evil Orcs, Trolls, monsters, etc...  And Dragons! New players could easily imagine the kind of medieval fantasy land their PC's were adventuring in.5: Straight-forward reward mechanism: The leveling mechanic is a great 'gratification' reward for killing things and taking their stuff. New players unambiguously knew how many XP they needed for the next level, and what to do to get it.Yes you can point to the rules bloat of AD&D 2e and 3e, and legitimately argue that some of those points got stretched more than a bit. But at the time it just didn't matter as D&D had already cemented its market position.And during the 1eAD&D era B/X was acting as the ultimate gateway drug.What is particularly interesting is that when you really think about things, virtually all of D&D's early US competitors failed miserably on more than one of these points.In almost every case, D&D was delivering a more newbie accessible, better overall Game than any of its potential early competitors..</blockquote>

Verification