ADND in the new.. POSITIVE that is!!

[garhkal]

Saw this over on dragonsfoot and MAN did i love reading the article..

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultu ... nd-dragons

Brought a tear to my eye...

[JadedDM]

It makes sense, though. The kids who played D&D are now grown up. So it's not seen as a 'kid's game' anymore. The newer generations are less religious (broadly speaking), so the whole 'Satanic scare' is no longer an issue. "Nerd" stuff in general has become more mainstream. And 5E is very welcoming and easy for newcomers to learn, thus bringing in tons of new people into the hobby.

We really are at kind of a new renaissance for the franchise.

[JadedDM]

I was in Target today, and while passing through the toys section, I saw the starter kit for 5E D&D.

In Target! I've never seen a big retail store carry D&D products before (aside from bookstores).

The hobby really has become mainstream.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

Not to be the party-pooper, but I don't think becoming mainstream is a good thing. Any time you take a generally niche market and try to make it "mainstream", we get what we see with 3E/4E/5E, comics, etc. A watering/dumbing down. Catering to the masses by default means dumbing it down.

[JadedDM]

I, for one, am glad that kids today can openly play D&D without being shunned, bullied or treated like losers for it.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

In my day, no one I know was shunned, bullied, or treated like losers for it. In any case, none of that impacts the fact that when you try to appeal to the larger masses, you have to, by default, water/dumb down the thing you're marketing.

You know, reading your post again, it sounds as if you're implying that in your neck of the woods you had to hide your identity and meet in secret to play the game! I'm getting the picture of you and a bunch of friends scurrying around in cloaks and face masks, ducking and hiding from the bullies who would give you noogies and throw your books on the ground. I seriously doubt that ever happened to anyone, anywhere.