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The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#21

Post by sudosteph »

tareqak wrote: post #7

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. 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…

Yeah, back when I was playing competitive card games I was trying to figure out a way to put nfc chips or something in card sleeves and scanning them with my phone as a way of rebuilding game state later when you have to pick up and leave. Didn't really get past the idea phase, and I imagine scanning 60 cards would get pretty tiring anyhow.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#22

Post by nihil75 »

floren wrote: post #14
nihil75 wrote: post #11

I 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.

The kids are playing with their parents: "it didn't take too much convincing to get the whole family to play, including his 73-year-old grandmother."

The surge in Twitch and podcasting is adults: "One of the most popular live-play Dungeons & Dragons web series is Critical Role, featuring a core group of eight professional voice actors adventuring through custom campaigns written and led by dungeon master Matthew Mercer. "

Why you diss me man

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#23

Post by emasirik »

Mizza wrote: post #9

Want to play but don't know how to get started? Try my guide! https://github.com/Miserlou/dnd-tldr

I like this a lot; I'll be trying it on a few victi--er, boardgamers I think might be able to appreciate tabletop RPGs but are pushed back by both social stigmas and a belief that the rules are more complex than they are.

It solves the latter problem, at least. :)

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#24

Post by teach »

ergothus wrote: post #10

The article undersells the whole story. The Open Gaming License of 3rd edition D&D was definitely open source inspired (despite my personal beefs with it) and kicked of a huge burst of new game developers, and that bubble collapsed right on the tails of the CCG collapse, which caused a big churn in the industry. This led to a spike of online offerings, and the crowdsourcing era has meant that while the last 10 years…

I play D&D in person using a paper character sheet and physical dice, but I created that sheet using D&D Beyond. And most of the rest of the party uses D&D Beyond on iPads.

Holy hell is that more convenient for tracking spells and subtle rule interactions than what I used to have to do as a kid.

In my eyes, it's letting technology do what it does best -- get details right -- and frees up slightly more casual players to do the fun roleplaying part without being so bogged down.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#25

Post by usmannk »

nouveaux wrote: post #13
tareqak wrote: post #7

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. 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…

I'd love a recommendation on a starter game (or a few!) if you find yourself with a minute! I play with a group who, including myself, are novices when it comes boardgames. Between 3-6 players most of the time. We found ourselves getting really into Puerto Rico and recently tried Terraforming Mars but didn't _love_ it. I think TR would be better on a second playthrough when we actually know the rules though :). I played Battlestar Galactica once as well and found it great! Looking at boardgamegeeks is a bit intense with the selection there so I'm hoping you might have a narrower range to suggest.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#26

Post by tetha »

tareqak wrote: post #7

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. 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…

Those are actual board games. The setup of a p&p like D&D or call of cthulhu consists of me getting our 8 sheets of paper, 4 pencils with rubbers and 2 dice.

The worst part is finding a time slot with 3 - 5 people.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#27

Post by cordonbleu »

IRC is loaded with channels where games are occuring. mostly closed channels but very rich and real world complex espescially if you have a channel of players roleplaying NPCs in character vs a channel of characters playing the adventure. also echo dot understands what to do if i say echo roll 6d6.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#28

Post by egypturnash »

tareqak wrote: post #7

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. 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…

While you can fool around endlessly with miniatures and terrain and whatnot if you wanna, setting up a game of D&D mostly consists of emptying out your bag of cool shiny polyhedral dice onto the table, throwing in a few bucks for pizza, and pulling out your character sheet.

Mostly it's just about making up a story with the other players, with a handful of rules and dice to put some randomness into the outcomes.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#29

Post by JoshTriplett »

dragonwriter wrote: post #12
trynewideas wrote: post #5

Is 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…

It's not just that. 4e greatly simplified the rules, which made it far more accessible and playable, but it made many classes feel very much the same; every class had daily powers, encounter powers, and at-will powers. 5e managed to make every class feel unique again, and brought many of the classic D&D players back.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#30

Post by scroot »

nouveaux wrote: post #18

Not 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/b…

Pandemic Legacy is some of the most fun a person can have!
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