I was hoping it's catching with kids,
but just adults..
The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
11–20 of 292 posts
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#12Is it unlikely? Board games were already growing fast. Even CCGs were growing fast, not only through video games but still as physical games too. People want to sit down and get offline and spend time with each other, _and_ people who used to do that want to get online and hang out with each other. All the RPG market needed was one publisher with good production values and broad distribution to discard a big chunk of…
> All the RPG market needed was one publisher with good production values and broad distribution to . Wizards was happy to oblige...
I think you can make a very good case that D&D 4e in 2008 was where they decided to “discard a big chunk of its worst, thorniest rules”, and that the big innovation in 5e, released in 2014, was less about discarding thorny rules and more about reconnecting the streamlined rules with the fiction, in a way to preserve (mostly) the mechanical streamlining of 4e while reconnecting with the feel of earlier versions (not just one of those, but supporting the different appeal of multiple of them.) Changes like swapping encounter and daily powers for powers recharging with a short or long rest aren't a big deal mechanically, but they are a shift from pure metagame balance to something that is better tied to actions in the in-game milieu.
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#13There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game. If there was a way to do that in the analog version as quick as the digital ones, then I would more willing to participate. Another thing might be "saving" the state between long sessions: you can use a camera phone for certain parts, but its more difficult for when there a…
Digital board games are superior in almost every way except face to face player interaction. For games with a high level of complexity, the analog version is always terrible. Forgetting to move a bit when the game state changes is always a sore point. Unfortunately, these games are generally more challenging to port to digital as well.
For more casual games, I prefer to play in person with a beer in hand.
(PS My day job is running a game store. If anyone needs a recommendation on a board game, let me know.)
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#14I was hoping it's catching with kids, but just adults..
Two of the photos in the article are of kids playing D&D, and there's mention of it in the text itself. Kids like D&D.
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#15Want to play but don't know how to get started? Try my guide! https://github.com/Miserlou/dnd-tldr
Thanks for Zappa!
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#16There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game. If there was a way to do that in the analog version as quick as the digital ones, then I would more willing to participate. Another thing might be "saving" the state between long sessions: you can use a camera phone for certain parts, but its more difficult for when there a…
> There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior
D&D is not a board game, though a grid and figures of some kind are a useful play aid for combat; and for that part, there are virtual tabletop (VTT) systems (and digital character sheets, both integrated with VTTs and independent of them.)
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#17If anyone is curious, I run a Pathfinder (D&D fork) campaign in the Santa Rosa, CA area.
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#18Not only Dungeons and Dragons, board games are making huge waves around the world. As a game store owner, I have observed a huge growth in tabletop games, including board games. So it's probably not a coincidence that the most highly rated board game (at least according to Board Game Geek) is an RPG based board game. At the time of its kickstarter, I think it raised the most money as well.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174430/gloomhaven
Speaking of kickstarter, I believe some of its most funded ideas were board games.
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#19There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game. If there was a way to do that in the analog version as quick as the digital ones, then I would more willing to participate. Another thing might be "saving" the state between long sessions: you can use a camera phone for certain parts, but its more difficult for when there a…
There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game.
Back in the 80's, a group of friends and I played Car Wars post apocalyptic vehicular combat game. (Think Mad Max from the 1st movie. We had the "Sunday Drivers" unmounted add-on.) We spent most of the weekend setting up, and got through 2 minutes of game time.
Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
#20There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game. If there was a way to do that in the analog version as quick as the digital ones, then I would more willing to participate. Another thing might be "saving" the state between long sessions: you can use a camera phone for certain parts, but its more difficult for when there a…
Digital board games are superior in almost every way except face to face player interaction. For games with a high level of complexity, the analog version is always terrible. Forgetting to move a bit when the game state changes is always a sore point. Unfortunately, these games are generally more challenging to port to digital as well. For more casual games, I prefer to play in person with a beer in hand. (PS My day…
This isn't entirely true: physical games allow house ruling, even to the point that the game could be considered a new game.
I also disagree that the analog version is terrible in high complexity games compared with the digital version, because for the groups I play in the overhead of the complexity causes analysis paralysis... the automation of a digital version doesn't really help that much in my experience