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The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#131

Post by tapland »

ajross wrote: post #33
JoshTriplett wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's the enthusiast perspective. I think closer to the truth of the article (which is talking about broad market share among non-geeks) is the fact that 5e made D&D accessible to kids again. I've been suckered into running a weekly game for a gaggle of 10 year olds. They seem to love the game, but have absolutely zero interest in rules crunch. They're very happy having to be reminded about which die to roll and whi…

When 5e launched my local store started hosting dungeon nights, and they started to fill up eventually competing in space with the MtG-players.

It was great and not heavily relying on maps and figurines makes it so smooth.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#132

Post by rixrax »

3R3130R wrote: post #3
luongdukdong wrote: post #2

massive data hordes for D&D too.

Where? i see only an article about it being popular. please tell me where this data is to be found?

Archive.org also appears to have some old TSR AD&D manuals available as a pdf[0].

URL: https://archive.org/search.php?query=tsr%20manual

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#133

Post by meekins »

rb666 wrote: post #115

Ironically, the best way to actually play D&D is...online, using Fantasy Grounds software. This saves on an incredible amount of time and micromanagement, creating time for actual RP and gameplay. Highly recommended, plus you can actually include your non-local friends.

Roll20 is awesome as well

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#134

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

usmannk wrote: post #25
nouveaux wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pla…

If you like Puerto Rico you are probably past the gateway stage. Similarly strategic games I can recommend

  - Concordia, 5 players. 6 with Venus expansion.
  - Lords of Waterdeep. 5 players. 6 with expansion iirc
  - Istanbul. 5
  - Power Grid. 6.
  - Dominant Species. 6.
  - Eclipse. 6.
  - Dead of Winter. 5.
  - Tiny Epic Galaxies. 5. Filler game.
  - Agricola. Current edition is 4. 6 with expansion.
  - 7 wonders. Up to 8 iirc.
  - Scythe. 5. 6 with expansion.
  - Viticulture. 5.
  - Pandemic. 5.
Just stick to the top 100 until you know what you like. Anything in the top 100 is good even it’s not particularly to your taste. You’ll get a good taste of what makes a good game.

But once you have a good idea, you’ll find games you enjoy in the top 1000 or so.

Edit for formatting.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#135

Post by sudosteph »

_the_inflator wrote: post #120
sudosteph wrote: post #8

Paradoxically, tech has actually made DnD much more accessible to the masses. When my friends and I first started playing 3.5 in middle school, we pooled our money for a single player's handbook (they were pricey back then!) and would constantly be passing it around any time anyone needed to do anything, which really slowed down the pace of the game and made it hard to get intimately familiar with the rules. Eventual…

Yep, what also adds in my point of view to its popularity is that due to highly successful DND inspired PC games and cosplay DND is generally not considered some weird thing. Also people tend to be ok with the fantasy part of DND. When I started playing DND in the early 90th you were considered a creep with too much fantasy. :D

Funnily enough, the reason I had to pool money in the first place (rather than just asking for the book as a bday or xmas present) is because my church-going Dad bought into the "Dungeons and Dragons leads to devil worship" myth! He knows better now, but even in the 2000s many people had some very odd opinions of people who played RPGs. I do agree though that video games and big budget fantasy movies have brought the whole genre closer into the mainstream though.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#136

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

dragonwriter wrote: post #110
ajross wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG, we're actually having an edition war on HN! D&D really has broken through! Pathfinder beat 4e to market in a technical sense, but it absolutely exists because WotC announced it was moving away from 3.5e and the OGL with a new edition. Paizo never intended to release it to compete directly with 3.5, and it would have been insane to do so.

> OMG, we're actually having an edition war on HN! D&D really has broken through! Are we? The disagreements seem to be about details of why various editions succeeded or failed, not about their superiority.

Well, we expect HN to have a slightly higher level of discourse right? :)

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#137

Post by [deleted] »

justinjlynn wrote: post #117
tuesdayrain wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a good thing to me. It would be unfortunate if going blind was more common

The more common a disability becomes, the less of a disadvantage it becomes - with some lag, of course - the world does tend accommodate for the (visible) average.

[deleted]

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#138

Post by simonh »

cordonbleu wrote: post #107
r00fus wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain the story mechanics of the “resurrection”? Is it more like the player is forced to switch PCs on death?

no not switching PCs unless you like. suppose a character "dies" they have an afterdeathexperience, a fireside chat with god so to speak. and are told some things about why the world exists the way it does, why the PC is so special, and perhaps a deal is made with a deity of some sort to fix the world [carry out the dietys plans] and they are ressurected perhaps as per the ressurection spell? or better/worse having a…

Interesting, I’ve been doing that in my Runequest games for years, but then the setting (Glorantha) has a really rich mythology that provides great context for things like that. I shouldn’t be durprised though. Rob Heinsoo the chief designer of 4e is a long time Glorantha and Runequest fan.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#139

Post by crooked-v »

c22 wrote: post #129
hellepardo wrote: post #61

My friends and I play D&D because we have no real other option. We used to play Minecraft and other collaborative building games as a group, but then one in our group went fully blind. There is a complete lack of good multiplayer computer games for entirely blind players (admittedly that is quite a challenge), but D&D requires only imagination, which all of us still have. Highly recommend if you have friends with vis…

I used to have several blind friends who were very successful in text based MUDs. It's possible finding one with an active userbase is getting harder and harder.

These days, the number of non-pay MUDs with an average of 100+ people on them at a time can be counted on two hands.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#140

Post by yiransheng »

ilaksh wrote: post #58

I think that D&D is interesting in terms of the contrast with computer roleplaying games. In a way it does a good job of showing both the current strengths and weaknesses of computers. Managing the rules and stats by hand can be fun, but I have seen many recorded sessions where it is obviously a burden that a computer would be perfectly suited for. On the other hand, aspects of D&D like face-to-face interaction and l…

I would recommend check out urealms[1]. It is a improv/role playing show running on rules similar (but simplifed) DnD rules. The format is a group of twitch personalities steam their gameplay for a live audience, contents including improv jokes, pre-planned dramma, pre-made animation cut scences and at the center of it, dice-roll based table top game play.

The primary tool used for the show is tabletop simulator[2], which is a game designed for any tabletop games: cards, dices, chess etc. and can be customized quite a bit. It's mostly a low-tech solution, replicating physical acts of throwing dices, moving pieces and shuffling cards on a virtual table. In addition, the creators of URealm also invested in other custom softwares and artwork. However, the show is a for-profit project seeks to provide entertainment value for an audience rather than purely for the enjoyment of participants.

[1] https://www.urealms.com/ [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator...

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