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The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#191

Post by mcv »

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…

It's not so much that Pathfinder was too late; Pathfinder has been incredibly successful and has even outsold D&D in a couple of years. But D&D has and will always have the biggest brand recognition outside the hobby, and will therefore always be the game with the largest number of new players. And the largest number of old players too.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#192

Post by jsjohnst »

afarrell wrote: post #170
justinjlynn wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can confirm. I have a condition which makes it hard to see in sharp detail more than 8ish meters away. My wife has the same, as do many others in my family to some degree. There is a very robust industry producing adaptive devices for nearsightedness. I've even heard things like contact-lenses-as-a-service advertised on general interest podcasts.

There’s even this thing where they use lasers to burn away chunks of your eyeballs, because yeah, losing unnecessary weight and all makes you see better. I had it done a few weeks ago and it’s life changing!

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#193

Post by [deleted] »

kochikame wrote: post #128
stcredzero wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. A friend of mine used to say, "Sometimes you just have to get offline, get real, and face each other over a tabletop with some dice." Sh…

I mean, a haunted house is undeniably "real life" in the "IRL" sense, but it wasn't like she used her new skills to actually save a life, or find a way out of hostile territory, or uncover lost artworks or something. Not trying to be a downer, just saying that this is kinda stretching the definition of "real life application of game skills" for me. More like "applying a board game skill to a different kind of game"

[deleted]

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#194

Post by mcv »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #158
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…

Yeah, there's a resurgence going on; Warhammer is getting more popular too again, even with the youth. I want to like it, but I can't bring myself to shell out €50 for a starter kit which looks like some plastic figures and a cardboard box on the back (some assembly required).

Warhammer (Fantasy Battle and 40K) is a beautiful but incredibly expensive hobby.

But Cubicle7 Games has just published the 4th edition to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, so that aspect of Warhammer is back too.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#195

Post by mcv »

smaili wrote: post #50
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…

Speaking of CCG's, any collectors who happen to be coders? I haven't met too many at the local shops I stop by so I always figured collecting cards wasn't very popular amongst engineers.

Back when I was in university (during the 1990s) everybody in the CS department played Magic: the Gathering. There were always people playing in the coffee room, we held plenty of tournaments.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#196

Post by kriro »

ajuc wrote: post #174
kriro wrote: post #155

In Germany there's at least one other big P&P RPG called "Das Schwarze Auge" (sold in the US as "The dark Eye" iirc and not very successful). I think it's a good system and the lore is pretty nice (even though compared to my child-self I now realized a lot of it is heavily influenced by real world history/cultures). Which makes me wonder...what are other native language systems that are popular in the country but mig…

In Poland there were Krzyształy Czasu (Crystals of Time) - a generic high fantasy system made by people from Magia i Miecz magazine (pioneering magazine about RPGS in Poland - it was the only such press for decades). There was also "Wiedźmin - Gra Wyobraźni" - an RPG based on Witcher franchise and targetting new players reoughly at the time that Witcher was first adapted as movie and TV series. It wasn't very good me…

Very cool, I never realized that the boardgame Neuroshima Hex! (very recommendable, recently also "reskinned" as Monolith Arena) is actually based on an RPG :D

Poland is a great boardgame nation, Ignacy Trzewiczek is one of my favorite developers :)

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#197

Post by Wildgoose »

kriro wrote: post #155

In Germany there's at least one other big P&P RPG called "Das Schwarze Auge" (sold in the US as "The dark Eye" iirc and not very successful). I think it's a good system and the lore is pretty nice (even though compared to my child-self I now realized a lot of it is heavily influenced by real world history/cultures). Which makes me wonder...what are other native language systems that are popular in the country but mig…

There is a fabulous (but sadly not well-known) RPG in the UK called "Clockwork & Chivalry" set during the English Civil War in an alternate 1640s.

This pits the clockwork machinery of Parliament's New Model Army against the magick of the Cavalier-Alchemists commanded by Prince Rupert (of the Rhine) fighting for Royal Absolutism.

Clockpunk Fantasy in a world of gunpowder, political machinations and fanatical righteousness.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#198

Post by weavejester »

shemnon42 wrote: post #38
dragonwriter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

4e wasn't “discard[ing] a big chunk of its worst, thorniest rules”, it was a re-write to sell splat books and accessories, to try and turn it into pen and paper World of Warcraft, and make it a miniature focused expensive game. It failed. It was D&D in name only and an abomination to those who really cared about it. 5e was the streamlining and modularization that was needed so you could play it like it was 2e, or 3e/…

I'd disagree that 4e was far from D&D's roots. D&D evolved from miniture-based wargames, and it remains a combat-focused P&P system. In my view 4e had two primary problems: combat was complex took a long time to resolve, even by D&D's standards, and it was different to what people were used to.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#199

Post by simonh »

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…

The OGL was a big deal and hugely beneficial to the pen and paper RPG community as a whole. A lot of small publishers got their start publishing OGL supplements and then branched out into their own original games. That plus cheap digital publishing, and a one-stop-shop to buy PDFs in the form of DrivethruRPG, Kickstarter, plus the rise in geek culture generally through things like Comic Con has lead to a huge resurgence in gaming. It's never been better.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#200

Post by kriro »

ekianjo wrote: post #162
kriro wrote: post #155

In Germany there's at least one other big P&P RPG called "Das Schwarze Auge" (sold in the US as "The dark Eye" iirc and not very successful). I think it's a good system and the lore is pretty nice (even though compared to my child-self I now realized a lot of it is heavily influenced by real world history/cultures). Which makes me wonder...what are other native language systems that are popular in the country but mig…

L oeil Noir! Surprised to know it still lives on. Is the scene very active?

It's still very popular in Germany with new adventures, boxes and also a lot of novels set in the universe being released.

As an aside: I also really like the old PC games "Das Schwarze Auge: Die Nordland-Trilogie" (Realms of Arkania in English iirc) but it's a very unique/strange adaptation. It's very close to the game system but has been criticized quite a bit for the gameplay content (I actually liked the storylines). When you selected the complex rule system it was very fun to just level the characters and try all the spells etc. The round based combat was also very unique/interesting (imo)

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