from the would-you-play-differently-online? dept.
Wizards of the Coast, the parent company of Dungeons & Dragons, reported that 8.6 million people played the game in 2017, its biggest year of sales in two decades. That mark was eclipsed in 2018, when D&D sales reportedly grew 30 percent. All of those D&D consumers are snapping up the Fifth Edition, a new rule set released in 2014 that emphasizes a flexible approach to combat and decision-making. New players don’t need to learn as many arcane rules to get started, and sales of D&D starter kits skyrocketed.
Adding to the newfound popularity are thousands of D&D games broadcast on YouTube and the live-stream service Twitch. “Critical Role,” a popular livestream and podcast, features actors playing the game.
[...]What makes D & D[sic] different is that we can never forget about the human beings behind the avatars. When a member of my group makes a bad choice, I can’t look into his face and shout insults the way I would if we were playing online. He’s a person, and my friend, even if he also inexplicably decided to open an obviously booby-trapped trunk, get a faceful of poison and use up my last remaining healing spell.
My 50th-level Magic-User Ferrick the Magnificent scoffs at these neophytes...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:01AM (4 children)
Why not GURPS, though?
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:07AM
Because Steve Jackson's a Terrorist Hacker [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:03AM
Or anything more sophisticated than D&D. It was like Brazil (the movie), all the plumbing was exposed and visible, a whole pile of artificial artefacts added to make gameplay work properly, while 2nd-gen and later RPGs had them more or less hidden.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday April 09 2019, @04:18PM
Why not T&T [flyingbuffalo.com], which I assume is still a single-book resource to play and prided itself on not requiring anything else for a session but the base rules? Why not Talislanta [talislanta.com] which is completely free now? (Haven't played that one since 2E).
I'd guess that it's because:
1) WOTC flogs D&D stuff through Barnes & Noble. I'd complain if I didn't buy my first AD&D set at B. Dalton (or was it Waldenbooks?) At any rate, the hipster kids can come across it there.
2) Thank God the 'Danes and the Norms think D&D is the beginning and end of RPG's.
I gave most of my gaming stuff away to my nephew who's a gamer, but kept my dice (of course) and also my original Cyberpunk set and my Basic, Expert, and Advanced rules, even though I don't expect to play again necessarily. But I download stuff occasionally. This post made me think about Talislanta again, so now I'm off to download what I didn't have before.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:25PM
A few reasons:
1. Popularity and brand recognition. Like many hobbies, you enter the hobby with the most popular variant. Most people outside of gamers know Dungeons and Dragons, but GURPS or {insert system here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Role-playing_game_systems [wikipedia.org] } is unknown to a newcomer
2. Polish of rules. 5e is my favourite D&D system because the rules have been streamlined (ease of entry) and the published materials are high quality. WotC is a big company and was able to craft this latest version with lots of playtesting, and furthermore spend money on proofreading and publishing
3. Availability of open games. Thanks to the Adventurer's League finding an open game that you can join is much easier than in the past. Similarly, online tools like roll20 provide robust support for D&D if you don't want to head to your local game store
4. As the article says, livestreaming and recordings. I mentioned before 5e is streamlined and helps move the story along faster than Pathfinder or 4e (I don't know GRUPS myself). Critial Role actually migrated to 5e when they started filming because of the faster ruleset
(Score: 4, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:04AM (1 child)
<Bloodninja:> I put on my robe and wizard hat.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 4, Funny) by RamiK on Tuesday April 09 2019, @10:49AM
What the fuck, I told you not to message me again!
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:08AM (6 children)
I still play 3.5e, mostly out of inertia. I remember thinking it was weird that everyone would cling to 2e back in the day, but after the massive investment of time and resources into an edition, I can see why. It is hard ebough to work people's schedules out just to get a session in, so having to make everyone learn new rules is almost a nonstarter. On top of that, 4e was basically a Windows Vista-level fiasco and while most people seem content with 5e/"D&D Next" it has not done anything to lure me away. Honestly, if I could convince people to learn a new system, I would just go Palladium.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:13AM (1 child)
Yeah, when 4th Ed came out, my group switched to Pathfinder. We've stuck with it, though my son has just started playing with his friends and they have gone for D&D 5th Edition.
Pathfinder's rules are close enough to 3.5e that you'll have no trouble picking them up, and Paizo have a huge number of written scenarios and campaigns for those of us too busy to roll our own any more.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:00PM
Did a Pathfinder published campaign last year which had two major defaults : It assumed we'd stick to being lawful or at least good, and it kept assuming we'd go in through the front door.
Much fun was had.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:20PM (3 children)
Try 5e. Seriously. It doesn't really dumb down the math so much as optimize the equations so that the math gets the fuck out of the way of the story a little bit more. That's a bad thing for the folks who played ranger/clerics of Meilikki in 2e (min-maxing munchkins for the young whippersnappers) but a good thing for everyone else. It ain't perfect but then what is?
Personally, my favorite system was a homemade one that went with a game we called Bullethead. We had very basic mechanics, similar to 5e, and beyond that the rules more or less read "convince the DM".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Wednesday April 10 2019, @12:38AM (2 children)
Pretty much this.
I played many games with school friends while walking around at lunch/recess, travelling in the car, etc. All because of the simple ‘GM is always right’. Our usual GM guy always a die with him that I’m sure he just pretended to use. But playing basically systemless lead to many fun games unencumbered by awkward mechanics. We’d see a movie, and afterwards we’d basically be characters in the universe of the movie. Or even the characters themselves. Great memories.
We’d also play AD&D (1st edition back then). And we’d bend and rewrite rules almost always.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @09:10PM (1 child)
From 4th grade to 9th we did RPGs using only a rotating DM, basic Greywolf style inventory lists (usually made after a few games had occurred and everybody agreed to carry over characters, which usually didn't happen except on long trips.) Part of this was because D&D was *BANNED* at school, to the point of confiscation of materials if you were discovered with it. Jack Chick did a great job scaring that stuff away, which was even more ironic since one of the teachers was reading JRR Tolkien in class to be rebellious (he since turned into a religious nut ranting his views to gradeschoolers and abhorring the magic and pagan aspects of Tolkien's world. I just happened across a friend of a friend whose children went to two of the same schools I had.)
The most frustrating thing to me with RPGs was reading pre-written campaigns that said the GM/DM should force the characters to go a certain way and 'throw rolls' to ensure they succeed or fail. At the point where the GM becomes arbitrary decision maker of the session you no longer need rules to begin with. Rules are only there to ensure everyone has, in theory, an equal and fair chance of success. In practice unless the adventure is tailored to your characters and you have some idea of what trials you might come across, many characters will either be munchkinned, too specialized, or too generalized for a randomly chosen quest for the right level of characters (or skillpoints for games that chose to eschew levels, like WEG's D6 system.)
The only RPG materials I have bought in the past 15 years have been consignment books for systems dating to the 1990s. Outside of Games Workshop there were still companies both small enough to be responsive to the playerbase while also big enough to hold major licenses. In the years since it has turned into an ever increasing churn of material (Whether FASA derived games, D&D derived games, or other systems both old and new) going from 5-10 years between major core rules changes to a few years tops. When I collected books in the 90s, I purchased between ~1994 and 2001. Battletech Boxed Set 4th Edition, Mechwarrior 2nd Edition, WEG Star War's Rulebook (eventually lots of other books as well as what adventure journals I could collect.) and later AD&D 2nd Edition, the later black covers.
By far the best of those products was the Star Wars Adventure Journals. They combined all the fun of Short Story Magazines with all the stats, pictures, maps, and campaign ideas of an RPG magazine but with polish more similar to one of their sourcebooks. They published quarterly including shorts from all the major Star Wars fiction authors of the day, Zahn, Stackpole, Hambley, Anderson, you name it.
I'm not sure if a point came across, or even what it once might have been. But like the woolly masses popularizing D&D, I think the best days of pen and paper RPGs are long since past, and while playing around a table can still be run, wasting money and time on arbitrary rules that will change at a whim might instead be better spent on reading/sharing stories for a universe you all want to role play in, and either rotate game master duties, or have faith in the game master you school without binding things up in stuff rules. If you really need a die roll or coin toss to make things tense, a gm can just as easily decide an arbitrary one for the difficulty as can someone digging it out of a rulebook. And unlike the rulebook example there is no need to waste time making sure it is correct, because the game master can always adjust it next time if it is too easy/hard.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 12 2019, @10:34AM
We never had that problem. The DM cussed as often as the players and quickly learned to think on his feet since "Yet again the GOP1 triumphs over a carefully crafted DM plot," was so often heard around the table.
1 We had a strong tendency to explore dungeons by always turning right.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:10AM
Peter Griffin made that mistake on Family Guy [youtube.com] (NSFW)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Tuesday April 09 2019, @11:19AM (4 children)
As always, the cool kids are busy getting laid.
As for the success of D&D, I'm guessing there's a large population of smartphone-raised kids that can't move into age-appropriate PC or console games so throwing a dice in an RPG is as close as it gets for them... Better than nothing I suppose.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @01:00PM (2 children)
D&D has gotten someone laid... probably.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @01:20PM (1 child)
...6 feet under, out of their job or with another boy most likely...
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:21PM
Try inviting a chick or two once in a while. They aren't all going to say no and it leads to a more entertaining game on account of it not being a sausage fest.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by mobydisk on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:38PM
What happens in Nentir Vale stays in Nentir Vale.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by ShadowSystems on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:35PM
My son & I trade off DM roles as we send each other through various adventure sessions.
Last time I was a Half Elven Ranger in a land full of Kobolds, trying not to get my guts handed to me on a platter while I worked as a Trail Guide shepherding my charges from point a to point b.
I've just started him off as a Kobold Bard who will be trying to keep his head down in a world full of Kobolds that want to kill him for being a silver scaled freak, & I intend to have my previously mentioned Ranger make cameos as an NPC.
We keep lists of adventure ideas to run the other through, then implement the next idea on the list when it comes our turn to be DM.
I've got a semi regular sessions (Play By Email) with another group & I'll often use my son as a sounding board for various situations in that game.
As in, I might find a box I'm supposed to open but can't figure out how, so I'll bounce ideas off him to brainstorm ways my character might accomplish his goal.
(My DM has given his approval of this tactic as long as I don't overdo it.)
My son has a regular gaming group he gathers around a table to play, and he often retells the session details to me via email.
(I'd rather be there in person, but we live 2.5 hours drive away.)
He bounces ideas off me as well, or asks for advice on how to mess with their heads.
He's a K~6 teacher & has often used D&D as a means of teaching his students to think creatively, critically, & out of the box.
He creates adventures appropriate for their ages, non violent & as educational as possible, to capture their hearts & minds.
(I was especially proud of the "You're all a bunch of detectives trying to find out who stole Idaho." adventure where he taught them the States while getting them to research all the different ones. He actually had students from other session-tracks coming in after school to ask if he would do something similar for them!)
I play 3.5E, he does 3.5E with his table session & 5E with the kids.
We've both played Pathfinder, I even encorporate some of the various races in some of my adventure ideas for him.
I also play ShadowRun 4th edition.
The son of my last GM is starting his own PBE game & asked me to join.
I'll be drawing up an SR4 character later today in preparation.
RPG's like D&D & SR are great ways to foster creative, critical, imaginative thinking & should be encouraged as much as possible.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday April 10 2019, @11:26AM (3 children)
In addition to Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS, Pathfinder, and Palladium (most famously known for Rifts RPG) there is also FATE (Dresden Files RPG among mothers), Mutants and Masterminds (superheroes), Atomic Highway (post-apocalyptic), Conan by Mophidius, Numenera, The One Ring (a Middle Earth RPG), Deadlands (horror old west), Dungeon World (thematically similar to DnD), Savage Worlds (generic system, simpler than GURPS), Shadowrun (magic + cyberpunk), Iron Kingdoms (thematically similar to DnD), and countless others.
If anything, I'm annoyed DnD has such a giant hold on the market. I think many of the other games are flat out better in any way except being DnD-like. (And even then, depending upon what you want from DnD then GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, Pathfinder, Dungeon World, Iron Kingdoms, and a few others might still scratch your itch better than DnD itself.)
My own two favorites are relatively obscure games, D6xD6 RPG and Radiance RPG. Your mileage may vary.
...and I'm married with four kids, so as long as you don't tell people you meet about the time you had a +3 sword and rolled a 20 while fighting Bugbears, it's still possible to get dates.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @09:29PM (1 child)
They had other game worlds based on the D6 'Hero' system, but this one by far had the most content and during the late 1980s through the late 1990s when their parent company folded (a shoe company that didn't spin them off independently causing them to collapse during the parent's bankruptcy proceedings, despite being profitable!) leading to D&D3E in Space (Star Wars D20 RPG was D&D classes with Spelljammer tacked on for the space components.)
WEG's SW RPG had its own downsides, but the basic skill/stat system wasn't one of them. It allowed you to infinitely customize your character, and made it so no character would ever be complete. There was always another quest or storyline you could send characters on that their character lacked skills to dominate, leading them to having to coordinate with another player (maybe even a newbie who had that ONE skill, but was otherwise a naive newcomer) or up against a galaxy spanning criminal organization, the empire, the CSA, BoSS or a jedi/sith. Furthermore it tied together all the extended universe fiction of that era, provided stats for characters, equipment, and vessels, and generally tied everything together. It had some downsides, like the initial modification rules, and the later spaceship equipment stats weren't very well thought out (many ships were unbalanced, and replacing engines or other equipment didn't really take the relative size differences between ships in the same size category into account.) Having said all that, no RPG system since has both tied in so directly to the story world it was representing, nor produced as many diverse and varied races, equipment, or vehicles. D&D has it handily beaten on NPC creatures, but it also relies on the xp from killing creatures to level up, whereas WEG's system was always about inproving skills/stats as a result of experience gained during quests with increases based on finding innovative solutions or usually finding a non-violent path to an otherwise violent confrontation.
For those curious who aren't respectful of copyrights on abandoned works, there are torrents available of almost all material from the 1980s to the final Far Orbit Project and Adventure Journal #14 before the company shut down.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:10PM
The West End Games D6 system that underpinned their Star Wars game went to a separate gaming company. They lost the rights to use the Star Wars game, but it's not hard to take what they have now and rename a piece of gear to lightsaber and package a set of psionic abilities as "Jedi Powers". https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20447/D6-Space [drivethrurpg.com] ($3 for the PDF).
The D6 system, like Fate RPG, Savage Worlds, Deadlands, and many others doesn't really have a Dungeons and Dragons level system. So just as you said, characters could develop in any way. The marksman character can take up music, the musician can take up magic, the magician can take up pickpocketing. It's one of many reasons I like them all better than DnD.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 12 2019, @11:46AM
Yeah, FATE/TDF is a blast. Very light on the mechanics that get in the way of storytelling.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.