4 ms·

Dungeons and Dragons somehow became more popular than ever

32 points by petethomas 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
lostgame 8y ago
Somehow? ‘Stranger Things’ had nothing to do with this?
- jvanderbot 8y ago
  I'd believe that Stranger Things was influenced by the second coming of D&D rather than the opposite.
  - jhbadger 8y ago
    Well, "Stranger Things" seems to be part of the current nostalgia wave for the 1980s, or rather nostalgia for 1980s pop culture, and the kids in E.T. (one of Stranger Things' inspirations besides the works of Stephen King) played D&D too.
- wrinkl3 8y ago
  Geeks (rightfully) diss it, but The Big Bang Theory played a huge part in popularizing DnD in the mainstream, too.
toyg 8y ago
This has a lot to do with the demographics of Hollywood. The generations that grew up with D&D now are at the helms of the mainstream content factory, and have turned it into a respectable activity. After all, pen&paper RPGs promote storywriting, storytelling, general creativity, and acting — all valuable key skills in Tinseltown.
s_m_t 8y ago
I think the best explanation for the rise in popularity of dnd in the US are videos of people actually playing the game online. Reading the rule books doesn't really tell you how to actually play or what to expect when you play, it mainly just sort of tells you how to make a character and calculate dice rolls. I tried dnd in highschool with a starter set but none of us really knew what we were doing so it just seemed like a board game with vague rules. Japan has had a huge tabletop rpg (which they more suitable call tabletalk rpgs) explosion due almost entirely to the development of "replays". Replays are the transcriptions of actual game sessions into a book for people to read. Multiple prominent japanese trpg designers were introduced to the scene by randomly picking up one of these books. They sell for something like $4 new and easily be bought for $1 used so it is something that is very easy to buy on a whim. Video replays are also very popular, ironically enough, they are usually made by putting the transcription of a session through a text to speech generator...
CM30 8y ago
Wonder how much of this is down to simple awareness that the game exists, and the role culture (and especially the internet) has had in promoting it? Because in my childhood, I had no idea what Dungeons and Dragons was at all, nor that it even really existed. Hell, the only things I knew about it came from the odd TV show that featured the characters playing it in a random episode (in this case, probably Dexter's Laboratory). And I suspect a lot of people were in that situation. They just never came across it in day to day life, perhaps because the company behind it didn't do much in the way of mainstream advertising. The internet fixed that. Now people can easily come across forum or social media discussions about it, read up on sites and wikis about it and get a general idea what it entails from fiction based around it. Which is pretty common with webcomics now, since many use Dungeons and Dragons esque rulesets for their worlds, or apply them to other media (see the Order for the Stick for an example of the first, and DM of the Rings and Darths & Droids for examples of the latter). TV Tropes may have had an effect too. Loads of tropes there are based on concepts from Dungeons and Dragons (like the alignment system), and works based on it are extremely popular on the site. Oh, and to a lesser degree, it got more respect due to 'geek culture' going mainstream too. I suspect among those who had heard of it (especially in the US) people either assumed it was something only geeks/nerds/whatever would play or (if they were of the Jack Chick esque moral panic persuasion), the work of the devil. This has obviously turned around a bit, especially when actors and other celebrities have mentioned playing the game (and other tabletop RPGs) online.

32 points by petethomas 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

lostgame 8y ago

Somehow? ‘Stranger Things’ had nothing to do with this?

jvanderbot 8y ago
I'd believe that Stranger Things was influenced by the second coming of D&D rather than the opposite.
- jhbadger 8y ago
  Well, "Stranger Things" seems to be part of the current nostalgia wave for the 1980s, or rather nostalgia for 1980s pop culture, and the kids in E.T. (one of Stranger Things' inspirations besides the works of Stephen King) played D&D too.
wrinkl3 8y ago
Geeks (rightfully) diss it, but The Big Bang Theory played a huge part in popularizing DnD in the mainstream, too.

toyg 8y ago

This has a lot to do with the demographics of Hollywood. The generations that grew up with D&D now are at the helms of the mainstream content factory, and have turned it into a respectable activity. After all, pen&paper RPGs promote storywriting, storytelling, general creativity, and acting — all valuable key skills in Tinseltown.

s_m_t 8y ago

I think the best explanation for the rise in popularity of dnd in the US are videos of people actually playing the game online. Reading the rule books doesn't really tell you how to actually play or what to expect when you play, it mainly just sort of tells you how to make a character and calculate dice rolls. I tried dnd in highschool with a starter set but none of us really knew what we were doing so it just seemed like a board game with vague rules. Japan has had a huge tabletop rpg (which they more suitable call tabletalk rpgs) explosion due almost entirely to the development of "replays". Replays are the transcriptions of actual game sessions into a book for people to read. Multiple prominent japanese trpg designers were introduced to the scene by randomly picking up one of these books. They sell for something like $4 new and easily be bought for $1 used so it is something that is very easy to buy on a whim. Video replays are also very popular, ironically enough, they are usually made by putting the transcription of a session through a text to speech generator...

CM30 8y ago

Wonder how much of this is down to simple awareness that the game exists, and the role culture (and especially the internet) has had in promoting it? Because in my childhood, I had no idea what Dungeons and Dragons was at all, nor that it even really existed. Hell, the only things I knew about it came from the odd TV show that featured the characters playing it in a random episode (in this case, probably Dexter's Laboratory). And I suspect a lot of people were in that situation. They just never came across it in day to day life, perhaps because the company behind it didn't do much in the way of mainstream advertising. The internet fixed that. Now people can easily come across forum or social media discussions about it, read up on sites and wikis about it and get a general idea what it entails from fiction based around it. Which is pretty common with webcomics now, since many use Dungeons and Dragons esque rulesets for their worlds, or apply them to other media (see the Order for the Stick for an example of the first, and DM of the Rings and Darths & Droids for examples of the latter). TV Tropes may have had an effect too. Loads of tropes there are based on concepts from Dungeons and Dragons (like the alignment system), and works based on it are extremely popular on the site. Oh, and to a lesser degree, it got more respect due to 'geek culture' going mainstream too. I suspect among those who had heard of it (especially in the US) people either assumed it was something only geeks/nerds/whatever would play or (if they were of the Jack Chick esque moral panic persuasion), the work of the devil. This has obviously turned around a bit, especially when actors and other celebrities have mentioned playing the game (and other tabletop RPGs) online.