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 r

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...