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Any chance you'll be covering the Updated 5e Core Rulebooks WotC is planning to release this year? I've seen almost nothing about these from content creators, despite them being the only update to the original core Player's Handbook, Dungeons Master's Guide, and Monster Manual since the game launched in 2014.
Dear D&D refugees, Pathfinder. You're welcome. P.S.Critical Role started out as a pathfinder group. Funny you forgot that, or just omitted it. Stop hatin'.
@@Schallazar You're referencing Pathfinder 1st edition, right? You're not calling someone out for 'omitting' something, and then being dishonest and purposefully forgetting to mention that Critical Role started out playing Pathfinder 1st edition, right? You wouldn't be dishonest like that, after trying to call out someone else, Right?
I remember having "the talk" with my Dad when he found out I was playing D&D with my friends in the 80's. Me: "Dad, all we're doing is pretending to be wizards and kill goblins. It's really not that evil." Dad: "Hmmm... well, are you guys like, summoning demons in the game or anything?" Me: "Nope. No Demon summoning whatsoever." Dad: "Ok well, if anyone ever tries to summon any demons, then I want you to stop playing." Me: "Got it." I mean, we *killed* plenty of demons but we never summoned any! Thank goodness no one decided to play a Warlock!
Wish my Dad was that chill Even after I've moved out he still goes off the rails at the slightest mention of DND The jokes on him though, his son is a hoarder and my current obsession is TTRPG books!
Well there was that one time, but that was completely accidental. But go figure, 1 accidental demon summoning and a burnt down church and nobody lets you forget it 😂
My mom LITERALLY burned my PHB and DMG in the fireplace. 🙄 She claims to not remember doing it...but they were birthday presents from friends...I sure as hell remember it.
When I first told my dad that I wanted to try DnD, he pulled up a pdf of the player’s handbook, and helped me learn the basic rules, and sent me a link to my school’s dnd club 🥰 Edit: I also forgot to mention that he also gave me a handmade D6 that he crafted by hand from resin when he was exactly my age ☺️ Because of this, my first character’s main weapon was a shortsword (the D6 is the damage die) that he got from his father.
"Executives that are actively giving themselves bonuses while performing layoffs". I wish FedEx got this kind of press. In the last 3 years they've had like 5 massive layoffs all while giving executives multi-million dollar raises.
The idea that d&d in the 80s could encourage kids to have sex is absolutely fricking hilarious to me. I was there, I gamed at those tables. No one in their right mind was letting us bump uglies with them 😂. There was no better contraception than telling someone you were into d&d
Warhammer, or any table top battle games, and DND are great hobbies to keep spouses happy. You don't get people questioning where you have been for 8 hours if you play these games! And quiet nights in painting can be nice and fun if you meet the right person.
My hope is that some healthy competition makes D&D even better, especially if it's swimming in a new golden age of RPGs. I doubt Hasbro leadership could begin to care about making a good product though.
Nah, they'll drop the ball. Sadly, not every Industry Leader is like the WWE. Shit, Disney isnt even doing it that well anymore in theme parks (as of this writting) as they have gone the route of pre-Eisner era by just cutting costs since 2018.
Hasbro is evil, but competition means fragmentation of the playerbase. Those who don't have a solid group of friends to play with will be damaged by the end of D&D monopoly, if that's a thing. At the same time WotC has to pay for its terrible policies, I'm willing to sacrifice the stability of 5e "golden age".
Do you have any knowledge of how Hasbro leadership feels? You do know that most executives in most large corporations make more money when their company does better, right? You do know the basics of capitalism, I hope.
@@kinjunranger140Factually inaccurate. Most CEOs make the most money from the "Golden Parachute". Generally, CEOs barely know what products they mak, let alone caring enough about them. Corporations under capitalism are driven to make the most cost effective products, not the best products.
@@kinjunranger140 Overall, corporation's aren't evil. They aren't good either. they just are. They want to make money because their investors and their shareholders want to make money. But the way they make money depends on the leadership. And man, that leadership the past few years was quite lackluster. But let's not pretend that DnD was all smooth sailing pre-OGL scandal. It had suffered through TONS of corporate missteps in nearly all of its existence. Gary Gygax completely fumbled around his shot during the 1e times. And during the 2e times, TSR was led by a completely out-of-touch boomer, which led to its downfall and it being sold off to WotC. 3.5E, which was created when WotC was bought by Hasbro, was and still is massively popular in certain circles.. Which shows that people in a corporate setting still can make good products. Then they released 4e and things went spiralling down again, and resulted in Pathfinder 1E happening, and even outselling 4E for a time. And then things went back upwards with 5e, and its popularity. And then the OGL scandal happened, and things went back down. Cynthia Williams is gone now. We may get someone competent, it's quite possible. But we'll have to see. We might actually get good products again, and the implementation of 3rd party content into DnD Beyond, as well as the co-operation between WotC and the people who make Foundry VTT right now are both pretty good olive branches. It may be possible things might also go back up in the DnD department. But overall, we'll have to see.
As a Pathfinder2e content creator first and foremost (cause the D&D community already has FAR to many great creators such as yourself), I cannot wait to hear your first experience playing Pathfinder2e. It really is something special, and I would bet the closest thing you've experienced to it is actually Larion's personal franchise: Divinity Original Sin.
Something similar happened in the 80s/early 90s, when the company tried to play bully ball, the creators started making "campaign aides" which were not game specific, and could be run in any system. Some of the most classic D&D modules were created, and only became actual D&D modules in their 3rd, 4th 5th etc...publishing, but their first publish was not game specific.
I’m currently playing a Shinobi Kitsune from your Ryoko’s Guide, and it’s an absolute blast. I can’t say this enough: if D&D dies, it’ll be the 3rd party creators that keep it going.
"Those people who left [for pathfinder]... they're not coming back" The delivery of that line had me in stitches because it is so damn true, I have more pf2e books on my shelf than I have 5e books now. This game reignited my love for running TTRPG's and made it so much easier for me to do it too.
That is kind of true for me, except I left D&D after 3.5 and the process was more gradual have over the past decade or so, slowly eaten more of Pathfinder 1 into my 3.5 games. I very few hardcopy PF books, but more PDFs than me 3.5 books and *possibly* even more than my Rolemaster books. ... Maybe. PF2 was unfortunately never going to compete by the time I've written a nearly 200+ page 3.5/PF1 hybrid edition of my own; and 5E never got a look in to start with. (Though 3.Aotrs as I call, has nicked the odd idea from 5e, PFD2 and even 4E.)
I got a whole bucket load of PF2 books cheaply from Humble Bundle a couple of years ago and we're having a blast with the Kingmaker campaign. Can't see myself ever playing D&D again, really - even if PF2 pales after a while (which I doubt) the MCDM game looks like it will be awesome.
So, I was a D&D player since 1980. When I discovered non-fantasy ttrpgs, I branched out. I played cyberpunk 2020 , vampire the masquerade, mage, the Ascension, and others. I still played D&D at the time. But eventually I got bored with fantasy ttrpgs and stayed almost entirely in modern and near modern style games. BG3 brought me back to D&D. And then WotCi drove me away and I'm back to playing powered by the Apocalypse games, vampire, fallout, cyberpunk, and other similar non-fantasy games again.
Currently playing an old Star Wars Saga Edition that WoTC published about 20 years ago. Definitely enjoying the change in swtting and it's interesting to see a sort of snapshot of where the games were then.
@@inuendo6365 I don't particularly have a favorite system per se. But yes, vampire the masquerade V5 is one of my favorites. It's definitely near the top if not at the top. I'm currently really hoping that Mage the Ascension gets the WoD 5th edition makeover soon. I really like the 5th edition of World of Darkness and I do like the storyteller system a lot. Also, I do actually prefer mage over vampire, but I'm having a lot of fun with vampire while we're waiting for mage to go to M5.
@@Vampyre_Bytes I cannot agree more. I'm using V5 for my group now, and we're going to fold in W5 soon (sort of "side stories") with M5 as soon as it releases (given that Vampires were created by Mages in my campaign, I sort of need to see just how far I broke the rules :) ).
Here's the thing: Dungeons and Dragons, the franchise owned by Hasbro, may very well die soon. But Dungeons and Dragons the hobby will live on, well, maybe not forever, but for a very long time. Here's an illustration. A friend from work has a Pokemon D&D campaign that he ran a while back, making up a whole bunch of rules for it. Now, the rules are so different from standard D&D that I personally would call it a Pokemon D20 game. But, for many people who aren't immersed in tabletop culture, they see you rolling a D20 and think "Dungeons and Dragons". Yes, that would include Pathfinder. That is what I mean when I say Dungeons and Dragons will live on. Fifth Edition alone has so much potential that we can keep playing it and modifying it without caring what WotC is putting out, or even if they are putting out, or if there even is a WotC.
I recently DMed a couple games for my local boardgame group. When it was announced that I was going to run a game there was such an enthusiastic response that I had to run 2. Among the 11 people that participated only 3 had experience. Number them that wanted to play Pathfinder 0, Daggerheart 0, MCDMRPG (I offered it): 0 D&D 11. That is the realty outside the online/convention TPRPG bubble. I'm not saying that the competitors won't be successful but they have a long way to go to match D&Ds name recognition in the wider culture. It is way too early to sign D&D's death certificate. I wholeheartedly congratulate DnD Shorts for reach 443k subscribers it's amazingly but I recently watched a mobile phone review online and that channel had over 60 million subscribers even Critical Role only has a faction of that number. However, BG3 may have sold over 20 million units and hundreds of millions of people have seen D&D played on Stranger Things. The lifeblood of TRPGs are new players and those new players are coming into the hobby wanting to play D&D.
You ask them what they want? Lol. I just bring a copy of what I want to run and run it. Turns out newbies enjoy any system simple enough. Mausritter, Warhammer Fantasy, CoC, CP2020, as a DM you have the power to show them the variety of the ttrpg landscape.
That is a problem with brand recognition - you say TTRPG, they think D&D Just like board games = Monopoly (for god's sake, DON'T play that garbage!) You just gotta introduce them to other systems, otherwise most people won't leave comfort zone of recognised patterns
Tbf I do believe WotC the company is deeply flawed, particularly with regard to executives treatment of workers and propensity to cover up controversy and listen to their employees. I also do not believe there is an ethical way to justify the salaries that they take. However not everyone, or even most people, who work there are “bad people” (I'm not sure I believe anyone is truly, deep down, an irredeemable person), and some employees are heroes who definitely shouldn’t be lumped in with the execs or people who perpetuate the abuse that goes on there. I wish they’d stop selling WotC their labour though; remember to unionise everyone!
@@DnDShorts exaclyIt is also very importent no to confuse workers and owners. Hot take! Game fans should have strong worker solidarity! The happier the labour, the better the game!
@@DnDShorts This 100%. Generalizing a large group for a witch hunt is never the way to go about it! Shareholders/Execs and the other Pit Fiends that run WOTC suck, not my boy Jeff down in the warehouse.
@@DnDShorts Unless those people working there have less IQ than an old shoe.. they are bad people aswell, cause they know that the company is rotten evil, but chooses to stay. Its like saying "not all nazis were bad, some were just working there" See how wrong that is ?
Cannot express how needed this video this is. Incredible stuff my guy. Also, I have no idea how I managed to get a mention amongst some of those names but it's great to be here
Don't sell yourself short mate, yours and Hamasamakun's content have both helped me expand my imagination for character conception. And as a non-DM, understanding the pains DMs can experience with very imaginative players
I think it was reported that WOTC came back to them and said "anything else you make we need to renegotiate our percentage" and it was something ridiculous like 30%+
@@verdurite yeah, no mate. Its directly as a result of WotC. AFter Larian discovered that almost all off the people they had worked with during bg3 had been laid off they changed heading.
Pathfinder 2E biggest change is the action economy. 3 equal actions. That allowed them to fix _so_ many issues that all fell back onto the action economy. There are other changes of course, but I think the action economy is the big one.
Huge agree. It allows you to choose if you want to move or not, how much to move around, and it also allows room for more strictly powerful moves to not be the automatic "right choice". Plus, it has a stupid amount of free (and legal) content! So many classes, with 4 more coming (Exemplar, Anamist, Commandeer, Defender) and Starfinder 2e being capable with its OWN 6 classes...frankly, PF2E has become my new TTRPG home.
I dunno. The 3 action economy is basically all 2e has going for it, imo. 1e is more easily picked up and learned by 5e vets, since it's essentially the same game, just without 5e's training wheels and kid gloves. But 2e, if you don't fallow RAW closely enough (i.e. use homebrew), you can very easily break its tight math (which is good if you play RAW/RAI). Yeah, 1e has its own 'math' problems, but it at least *allows* for those numbers to happen and still function, (you really just need to boost AC with To-Hit and Saves to avoid Rocket Tag)
@@Worthless-one I respectfully disagree. I think by using its most popular variant rule, Free Archetype, you enable downright incredible story through character build opportunities. Like my underground investigator who takes down criminal circles by infiltrating them and sabotaging them, and how it translates into gameplay with her focusing on control (trips, grapples, disarms, etc). But I also respect if that's just not your thing. I always disliked the whole "Bonus action vs Normal Action" thing myself, so I may gave bias here.
@@Worthless-one umm, no. PF2E is much closer to 5E in design than PF1E is. Both editions of Pathfinder are challenging to new players because of the complexity, but for a number of factors, PF2E is a bit easier to learn than PF1E is unless the student is already familiar with D&D v3.5.
My guy - the Satanic Panic may have been free promotion for D&D, but it was a BAD TIME for a lot of folks in the childcare business. A moral panic is not ALWAYS free promotion.
I can see it. I think most of the people that would play Pathfinder are probably already playing Pathfinder (either because they didn't like D&D4e, or they switched during the OGL fiasco, or whatever). A lot of Critical Role fans will likely switch to Daggerheart _soon_, which means that in a sense they are the "most obvious". I intend no disrespect to the CR dudes but I've never even watched their channel, so I'm not going to be switching to Daggerheart. That's fine though, let a thousand flowers bloom I say.
@@garysturgess6757 CR seems to have a lot of trouble with people leaving under unpleasant circumstances and it makes me not want to get into anything of theirs
3:45 how dare you say that punching children will not increase profits? I swear to god hasbro needs a new Public relations manager, because BY GOD how do you manage to fuck up the image of something that is older than internet itself and that made more money than some countries at a point where people see your company as a joke?
I'm so done with one player who only got into the game because of Critical Role and refuses to even consider anything not d&d. I DM'd for 3 years straight and said after I'd like to try something else and he immediately said he'll sit it out. When someone else started running d&d he was back in the group. He was more interested in the game then the world, story or group.
Then put this words in to play. If you want to me to dm something, then I'll dm something I'm interested in. You are welcome, but I'm also a player and I want to try new games, systems and see what this hobby has to offer. You can join or no. It's your choice not mine. Also you are complaining about reading at most 45 pages prior to sesión 1. I read and prepare a session for about 4 hours a week. So stop bitching about stupid things and read something for a change ( you can change the las phrase or remove it)
Yeah.. I scoffed at learning Pathfinder. But I adapt, its decent. Its more packed but streamlined more in others. Though I prefer the swedish Dragonbane and norwegian Dragonbreath and Kvad. Solo play even co-op play is a huge + importance when there not enough or no interested players
I run RPGs professionally, and the amount of alternatives I've been able to run is really exciting. Sure, I still run 5e (although I'll shift to ToV when the books arrive) but I also run Marvel Multiverse, Avatar Legends, Monster of the Week, City of Mist, Cyberpunk Red, Farflung, Vampire the Masquerade, Dishonored, and so many more. It's fantastic.
I don’t intend to leave 5e, but that’s mainly because I spent a long time learning all the rules and it’s the system I already know. I don’t have any love for WotC and don’t intend to ever give them my money again.
I just want to say that most systems are easier to learn than dnd5e even more in my opinion pathfinder2e, system significantly more complex is slightly more difficult to learn if not the same; and after you learn the rules it is way easier to run
Of course you can play whatever you like, but honestly dude you're doing yourself a disservice. I know it can be hard to get a group to try something new - goodness knows I had to drag my group kicking and screaming into a RuneQuest game - but the reward is worthwhile. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.
In spite of all of this, I'm STILL seeing people playing D&D. It's also worth noting that while Honor Among Thieves didn't make box office revenue that equals the MCU, bear in mind that the movie came out at the EXACT same time the OGL issues started to happen. As a result, I've seen many people proclaiming they would NOT go to see the movie out of "protest" against the OGL issue. At the same time, many people (mostly reactors I've seen here on RU-vid) have said the movie is actually great and a lot of fun to watch. Sure some purists found issues with some of the movie's elements, such as Chris Pine's character of Edgin not showing off any REAL Bardic skills. But I side with them in saying the movie was and is a great watch. So, while I agree that D&D might be struggling; it's not dying in the sense that it will be gone for good. As long as RU-vidrs will continue to make new campaigns, fanmade music videos, short films and even Kickstarter projects; I suspect D&D will continue to fight on
Let's not forget the imbecilic comments from the director about "emasculating" male leads. That garbage didn't help. And yes, I joined the boycott--WotC was begging for the kick in the teeth. A shame really; caught the film on streaming and was far better than I expected.
And you probably always will - much like when Citadel decided to bin the entire old world (at least for a decade) and folks kept playing the game anyway. Same with the old versions of D&D that still have a following. There is no reason to stop playing a game you and your friends enjoy, especially if you can do so without giving any money to a company who's recent actions you dislike.
@@homebrewisthebestbrew5270 As far as "emasculating" the male leads is concerned, I took it as the crew trying not to make the males look like Dave Bautista-style heroes in terms of physical strength. The only male who didn't seem that masculine was Simon...but he's an awkward low-level sorcerer, he was supposed to be that way. Regardless, I hope there will be another piece of D&D media on TV or film someday
@@foldionepapyrus3441 Thanks to the recent release of the D&D Lego set, it gave me the hunch that people might break out their old figures from past Lego iterations. This way, until they come up with more things to add, players can make their OWN settings and minifigs however they want. I've actually seen a couple of users create whole fantasy armies using pieces from Hobbit, LOTR, Harry Potter, Ninjago, Star Wars, Chima and even Marvel and Chima Lego sets. Two of these users are ByBeezon and Brad's Brick Post
Now that we're crossing the D&D/fantasy divide, I hope the fantasy/sci-fi divide is next! There are so many great sci-fi settings out there. Traveller, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Mothership, Star Wars Genesys, Lancer, Eclipse Phase, Blue Planet...
There are a bunch of problems with D&D right now, including but not limited to: 1. Increased prices for their products 2. inconsistent quality (spell jammer was a fucking disaster) 3. A desire to capitalize on nostalgia and references to classic content combined with a seeming disdain for the conventions of the lore. 4. Books being released with broken content (looking at you strixhaven). 5. WotC engaging in incredibly bizarre business decisions.
The strixhaven feats were good, but the biggest sin imo for the strixhaven book was giving up on making the subclasses work, that was cool, and was a good way to make the magic school premise feel coherent
D&D RU-vid was a static camera pointed at a man in his early forties who talked about D&D for an hour at a time. Oh those long lost days. Praise be the web.
I'm from Austria too :-) My "main" systemsare D&D and to a lesser extent Call of Cthulhu. I want to get into pathfinder though, especially as I am really deep into the technical details with character building. Will probably start with Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous :-)
Great video. I love how a lot of the creative projects are becoming more system agnostic, where people can enjoy stories and content without having to choose between 5e, pathfinder 2, one d&d, or any other walled garden. When everyone is free to create, the best ideas always rise to the top :)
ah yes dnd shorts, quite awesome indeed. 1:06 "it was pushing kids to murder [...] . I dont know about you, but a game that can do all that sounds awesome!"
My worry is that by now only a massively better TTRPG can ever actually hope to trump DnD for good or even simply be a real threat. It cant be slightly better or just slightly different, it must be decisively both otherwise there will be little reason for the majority of people (who really only care about having an excuse to play with their friends) to make the change and leave behind the massive amount of content and potential player pools offered by DnD’s community
@@clintonbehrends4659 it being better in your opinion isn’t enough lmao (i personally heavily disagree as much as i enjoy both). It has to be decisively and unquestionably better, almost to the point of objectively being such otherwise it just wont topple the convenience of DnD’s assets
@@clintonbehrends4659 Pathfinder in general. 1e is oft forgotten about, but it's really an easier transition from 5e than 2e is, imo. 2e changed so much that it's basically a whole new game /system (players often complain about not wanting to "learn a whole new system" as a way to not transition, so 1e offers an easier 'Path to Find' er away from 5e)
@@crystallxix1493 I feel like in the ttrpg field nothing is going to "objectively better" as their highly centered around subjective imagination overall I don't think anything is going to replace 5e or out compete it but I do think if more ttrpgs get attention the more people will play other ones besides dnd giving wotc less of a monopoly they will still be on top but it will be more of a hill than a mountain, at this point it's a matter of whether enough other games can use this dip in dnd's popularity to draw enough attention breaking a monopoly is a slow process but at least thiers ground now to do so
My party are a few sessions away from finishing our D&D campaign, when we do we’re going to spend the rest of the year trying new systems and then at the end we’re going to vote on if we want to go back to 5e or one of the systems we tried. It’s really easy to assume D&D is the best system for you when it’s the only system you know.
I feel the name "Dungeons and Dragons" is just too popular for Hasbro's effective monopoly to get uprooted. Unless some serious marketing is done on the parts of the competitors, D&D is always going to be more popular.
Correction: Terrible for Hasbro/WotC, great for TTRPGs in general and actually for DnD Competence is healthy and 'they' wont be able to go after 3dr party creators for a while
At this point, I'd almost say the best move that WotC has left is actually to go the opposite direction. Create a small team dedicated to checking for continuity and rules balance once the new system is out, and then opening up to 3rd party content. Instead of fighting that become the curator of it with an official stamp of approval system so that creators can make a thing, submit it to the review team, tweak and adjust as needed and then they get a stamp of approval, put on to DnD Beyond and WotC gets a small cut of all versions sold and a slightly larger cut for purely digital content sold that they manage through their digital infrastructure. That's the only way I can see them reconsolidating the community at this point. It wouldn't work one hundred percent but it would be the best recovery they can manage. Especially if they want to get out of the publishing space. They still have to maintain the value of the DnD brand to get those licensing deals they want after all. Only way to do that is to keep new DnD content coming out. This way they can just outsource it while maintaining some through line of continuity/game balance by having a team specifically dedicated to it.
My playgroup finished our year-long d&d 5e campaign and now we're looking into other systems. So far we've tried Daggerheart, Heart: City Beneath, and our own custom system. We've realized quickly that we're still having fun without 5e, so we'll probably not be going back to it.
Great video! A little surprised by only a token mention of Pathfinder though, since it's the most "established" of the dnd rivals and - this could be purely anecdotal here - but I've seen a lot more people interested in the system through Wrath of the Righteous after BG3 put crpgs back in the public eye.
Definitely with you on this! Initially wasn't interested but the more I read into it the more I love the system. I feel like it's got much more depth for original and unique character creations, and seems much better to balance around. Even setting wise, Golarion is great.
@@mushuableas I say, 1e is 5e with the training wheels and kid gloves taken off. 2e is its own beast (which would a a good example of "learning a whole new system"). Plus Pathfinder content is free online at Archives of Nethys and d20pfsrd (including a lot of 3PP)
I started looking into PF 2e a few months ago, and I just don't really see how it is better than D&D 5e? The only differences that I can tell it has is how action economy works and the different levels of history proficiency.
@theunikronus7204 not everyone will enjoy Pathfinder more. It is a far crucnhier system but that's what some people love about it. The rules make sense, it is a very balanced game outside of dual class. It allows for a varied style of builds and encourages teamwork. Again it wont be everyone's favorite game but for people who want your skills to be more than flavour beyond perception, do cool things with weapons and varied spells beyond just blast and have defined class roles pathfinder could be for you
I think this Is related to the fact that this video linda refuses to talk about the thousands of smaller non DND like ttrpgs that have Always existed, and what impact the monopoly break Will have on them
I absolutely love how well scripted your videos are. They don't waste time, they are getting the right points across. I am so done with people doing the bare minimum and just rambling to the camera, then editing the silent parts away to make those choppy vlog edits. Keep up the awesome work
as someone who first started playing D&D back in 2011-ish playing 3.5 with my friends who were already familiar with the game, the thing I loved the most was the MASSIVE library of books and material to work with. You had everything ranging from the Core books to the Complete handbooks to the environment themed books like Frostburn to actual setting guides for planes like Forgotten Realms and Eberron when 5E started and they released the first few books, I was excited to experience this again with new books adding new stuff. But then they suddenly stopped after half a dozen books over as many years compared to the 60+ books they made for 3.5 in the same amount of time Now I'm helping groups like Loot Tavern and Ghostfire Gaming make their own supplements for 5E because WotC sure as hell isn't making any more of their own
That ad for a new dungeon book struck me as kind of ... OK, I met DnD in like 1977 when a friend came back from training in Wisconsin and had been playing with Gygax ... we all built our own dungeons ... Yeah, I'm old. Haven't played since the late 80's when a friend took everything RPG and made his own version ... I had small children ...
13th Age, Cypher System, Gumshoe, Vampire... D&D has always had competition. The explosion of new gaming systems has played out again and again. The only way D&D will fail is if they stop being the standard for gaming systems. With OneD&D coming out and the brand deals they have, they'll still hold that title for several more years.
D&D never had a monopoly on TTRPGs. There has always been TTRPG competitors. Flying Buffalo's Tunnels and Trolls, ICE's Arms Law/Claw Law, Chaosium's Runequest, GDW's Traveller, FGU's Space Opera, Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, the list goes on and on. The only people who thought D&D held a monopoly on the TTRPG world were Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, and people who came to D&D after watching Critical Role.
With all respect, a TTRPG system that as a household name to the point or replacing the term “tabletop rpg” in many people’s minds is, for all intents and purposes, a monopoly, and more than close enough to be referred to as such.
@@Delmworks People who have been playing TTRPGs since the late 1980s/early 1990s don't use the D&D to replace the term TTRPGs because we know that there are A LOT of TTRPGs other than D&D and a lot of different systems/game mechanics. Some of those Systems/Game mechanics are much better than D&Ds clunky game mechanics, so D&D is not a good blanket, term hence TTRPG. The only people who use D&D as a blanket name to cover all TTRPGs are Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, and people who came to D&D after watching Critical Role.
@@seanpatrick7041 Except that to plenty of people who don't play or otherwise interact with TTRPGs, D&D _is_ a blanket term. Like, if you say "I'm playing a tabletop role playing game" to the average Joe with no concept of what goes on in a TTRPG, they probably won't know what you're talking about. But if you say "It's like Dungeons and Dragons," it sinks in...even if they may get the immediate and unfortunate belief that you're running around in bad costumes pretending to cast spells and fight imaginary monsters.
@@seanpatrick7041As someone who's been playing since 1982 D&D has always been dominated over all of those other games and to say otherwise makes you look ridiculous. 😂
@@seanpatrick7041 Sure, but that's pretty much the over 30 or even over 40 crowd (nothing wrong with that, I'm 52 myself). For a lot of younger players, a lot of the classics have been out of print (e.g. Traveller) or poorly marketed (RuneQuest, Shadowrun) for quite some time, and there are probably lots of teens/20s that haven't played much other than D&D. That's not on them; we older players could have done a better job of passing on the hobby (certainly I have done very little other than occasionally playing with my nephews... and we played D&D5e, just because it is a lot easier to say "hey, shall we play that game you saw on Netflix or RU-vid" than "hey, shall we play this role playing games about trolls with cybernetic arms?" - and I say this as someone who would happily play Shadowrun exclusively).
I wasn't really surprised when they annocunced that D&D ang Magic wouldn't be more publiched here in Brasil. Happly, whe have Tormenta and Paranormal Order to substitute it, in a certain way
I do find it quite funny that everyone has sort of agreed to talk about Tales of the Valiant in a kind of "oh yeah, you're here too" kind of way. MCDM and Darrington Press have really pushed forward with the angle of "what do we dream it could be", while it feels like TotV is mostly a pretty uninspired spite piece.
My table has always played 5e we've been playing 5e together for almost a decade now, but last year we just finished our first V:TM campaign and now my eyes are open and I want to try everything
My best friend and I homebrew our campaign using elements of whatever we think might be fun, and we still work from 3.5e rules. We got my daughter in on a session with us, and her character is an inquisitor from Pathfinder 2.0. It's absolutely badass.
I've been so happy with all my Kickstarter stuff I can't even imagine waiting for the "new" Vecna stuff to come out. Its release is months away and I'm already getting all kind of WOTC promotion of it.
@@josukex42 Dang... my bad. I don't know why I got it in my head that it was in July. I kept wondering... why we are talking about this? LOL Thanks for the correction!
Oh God, there's soo many other great TTRPGs. I would need to take an entire day off from work to list them all and describe why they're great. DnD 5e losing some ground is the best thing that can happen to TTRPGs in general. Although I'm of course aware that DnD is still to this day the reason players and GMs are getting into the hobby in the first place... Oh.. perhaps some honourable mentions: Crown and Skull, The Electrum Archive, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Forbidden Lands, Mutant Year Zero, Symbaroum, Mutant Crawl Classics.
I just came in to mention that I'm surprised to hear mention of Mutant Year Zero, I never see it anywhere, and while I technically played a bit, I never really got to play it, but I've really wanted to from everything I've seen, it's a pretty cool system, even if it's very much a system made for a specific campaign first and foremost
My group enjoys 5e but none of us have bought a WoTC product in years. We have supported 3rd party creators/publishers and mostly created our own things for use in our own games. Interest is high in our extended group for alternatives and for entirely different games.
I just saw a post on reddit that you can't buy individual items for your campaign anymore. Like feats, subclasses, etc. Now you have to buy the entire book to get anything and I can't understand how that will make them more money at all.
I love that most are simpler than dnd, and quicker (anything WoD that I tested was like that). If I can recommend: - Changeling, you are a person with fairy soul, you can use magic based on very generic rules to make whatever you want, like using an art that transforms water into fire to turn a water pistol into a flamethrower It is about lose of wonder, they eat/use wonder of people and themselves as fuel for magic, but in the current world its scarce. For example, My computer can make excel sheets, calculate a lot of variables in a instant and quickly show/organize and share with a person on the other side of the world. Its amazing, wonderful, but when Im doing an excel sheet I dont feel wonder, just boredom from a task that needs to be done. - Mage Your objective is to reach omnipotence (what is kinda easy) and debate philosofy about what means to have absolute power. You can do ANYTHING, mages magic is about changing reality, but reality doesnt like that so it generates paradox (a violent counter response to the change) - Vampire for cool powers and intrigue - Werewolf for combat and fighting a lost war (they fight for the spirit of Gaia, mother eart, but well, she is kinda dead/dying, so you need to decide if you abandon your cause or double down). (the most combat centric, and besides VERY FEW damage types (like silver) you will regenerate your health to full on the beggining of the next turn)
In scale, not even close. But in concepts and original ideas, absolutely. DC20 is presenting options that make D&D PCs feel dull in comparison. Anecdotal but I'm starting a new 5e campaign with few friends and i wanted a martial pc. Had to choose the battlemaster just to be able to replicate the versatility that any martial has in DC20 from the start
@@GutisFive I've personally grown to hate 5e more and more mainly for its bloat. I wish something could usurp it and win over its player base. But no system on kick-starter is going to do it. Even MCDM. They make a good amount of cash but its only 30k customers from a player base of millions.
@@GutisFivetry it out level up's advanced 5e, if I ever get back to DND I will be playing that. It have a source for fighters called effort, which they use doing martial maneuvers, yes everyone that doesn't have spells have a spell like list of martial maneuvers from many different styles.
Your next coffee is on me then 😆 I think any games that will eventually be “up there” will need to start with a Kickstarter. It’s the ONLY way us small folks stand a chance at publishing. So shadowdark, ToV both doing over 1 million was huge, MCDM over 4 is nuts! I see all these smaller game systems growing, as DnD shrinks. BUT I’m not trying to be a “top dog” myself, I am just trying to make the best version of a TTRPG I can and try to address issues and innovate as much as possible 👍🏼
This is why I've started working on my own TTRPG system. The drama that went on was pretty bad, but I honestly was just never able to get everything I was looking for from D&D. Now, here I am a year into designing and I'm honestly having more fun creating this world than I thought I would (despite the absolute migraine solo-designing an entire new system is when you suffer from being a perfectionist that adds way more work to do than you probably should or even need 😅).
yeah, Hasbro is noticing it too, Cynthia Williams is stepping down from the position of ceo, if that is a good or a bad thing in the long term is yet to be seen.
To be honest, the main reason I wish to play dnd is because there is a large community. It helps and if wotc harms the community too much there is no point anymore.
The ttrpg scene is really growing and it shows. I'm working on a Shadowdark video and im really excited about it, especially after GMing it for my husband and a friend last week. The downside is non-D&D content doesn't bring in views. My Pathfinder lore videos have less than 600 views combined but my drag queen D&D videos easily break 800+. I'm a small channel, so those views mean a LOT. I'be been working with my husband on a Drag Race module for D&D so people can run a Drag Race "campaign" so to speak, but I've also considered just making a system from scratch for it and releasing it for free. It's an interesting time to be a fan and creator of ttrpgs.
I've made so much hombrew stuff for my own game. Races themed around the four horsemen of the apocalypse, spells, varient features, backgrounds, and my plyers love it. They also absolutely adore the 3rd party stuff I use like Ryoko's and Fools gold. And with how we have wikidot5e we don't actually need to official books.
For me is a matter of accessibility and property, and money. Pdfs are almost cheap for me, but I have to limit myself to 1 each month. Physicals books are almost prohibitive due to shipping costs. I like to own what I buy, and see Hasbro as a flimsy company with more debt than resources. So I'd never buy anything on sites like D&D beyond. That gave me the opportunity of trying different games and introducing them to my group. I also GM D&D from the SRD because I don't need anybody to teach me the game and how to GM, and I bought exactly one book from Wizards, Eberron, Rising from the Last War, which I'm a fan of and once I saw the content Richard Baker was putting on his blog I feel in love with the setting. That single book cost me more than 2 to 6 PDFs (depending on PDFs cost) but it was so worth it.
Remember in the 90s when DnD wasn't THE ttrpg. But instead this little ttrpg about vampires became a massive influence on the genre and even had its own show on Fox?
I started my gaming life in my sophomore year of high school. That was 1980. In my time playing TTRPGs I have seen other competitors to D&D. Palladium (sp?) the role playing game comes to mind. I was a fan of that entire system which included the Rifts system and all of their RPGs were compatible.
I am very much looking forwards to DC20. Seems like the right fit for my group, whenever it's ready. It's a bit too early for me to implement in a real campaign yet but I am eagerly looking forward to switching to it.
As many others have pointed out, I'm surprised you didn't point out the best "contender" to 5e that is Pathfinder 2e. Amazing setting, extremely original and unique character creation and progression, much more based on group dynamic than strong individuals, easier to balance around... I could go on
Though Paizo is not much different than WotC. Both have experienced a lot of negativity that "modern" gamers are sensitive to. WotC's missteps are just a bit more visible to the community than Paizo's due to the coverage. I wouldn't give my $$$ to either of them.
Paizo's probably done things wrong as well but we're really not talking about the same thing comparing both companies. I feel like what they've done with the orc license to secure third party is a good example. Also I find their products and books to be of higher quality, and everything is officially available on Archives of Nethys. After the OGL, what they're envisioning with DND beyond and the communications Hasbro made about the game, I'd 100% prefer give my money to Paizo than WoTC.
Feel like one of the reason it's not getting a call out is being it's own corpo garden (even if paizo generally is better than wotc) and pf/sf infinite not being that widely known so the 3P/indie scene that Shorts is engaging with thinks they don't have a room there.
"I haven't played Pathfinder, but those who did, aren't coming back." Yeeeeep that is me. Trying to convince the group I am currently in to have a go at it as well. (DMing a short campaign atm and will be making a longer one later)
The changes today with them forcing to buy full books instead of the things I actually want is enough for DnD beyond to lose my custom for life. I just got into DnD this last year or so, and I'm gearing up to DM a big ass campaign next year, got myself Dungeon Alchemist and made a start on buying feats and races on DnD beyond, but I regret that now.
I agree that Hasbro/WotC has definitely eaten a lot of their own feet lately, no question. But I do feel like there's a certain attitude that some people have now, al la, "I tried another game after the OGL, and I liked it, so DnD is bad now and was always bad and I always hated it." I don't think that's true for most of us. My feelings about the corpos don't at all change the genuine happiness and love I've had and still have for DnD. I think it comes from a desire to avoid the cognitive dissonance of "this crummy company made a thing I like." That's why I appreciate the nuanced and thoughtful voices like yours, sir! Keep making great stuff!
I am surprised no one mentioned Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It's an awersome game, a real alternative to d&d, and it deserves more love from the community.
Another thing that goes overlooked in the way people moved away from D&D WotC during the OGL thing is how it gave people more freedom to experiment. We keep poking at Pathfinder, Daggerheart, etc. but they're all pretty much boil down to your flavor of fantasy TTRPG. Like people also played with other systems a bit more too, Vampire the Masquerade or Monster of the Week for me, and groups like Critical Role were happy to poke at the paranormal with Candella Obscura. But there's sci fi games out there too, horror games, adventure games outside of the fantasy scape. And when D&D isn't the end all be all anymore people get to try some new things.
Don't forget the Stormlight Archive TTRPG coming out later this year. Brandon Sanderson fans who want to play D&D, like myself, are pretty much guaranteed to at least see if it's good.
Honestly, the D&D movie was actually really good. The stuff that happened felt like the kind of stuff that might happen in a campaign (especially the DMPC paladin). My only real gripe with D&D is that it overshadows a lot of other games that people would probably enjoy more if they tried playing them.
Imagine if a few years ago they reached out to the community and content creators and were like « yeah we can publish that if you want it in the game »
I signed up to DnD Beyond last week, I fully expected to buy a bunch of PDF's for books so I could use it. To both my suprise and horror, I had no desire to buy anything after looking at the store for THREE DAYS never have I done that.
It took me like a year to properly adapt to pathfinder's logic, but now I strongly prefer it to 5e. I still think D&D is a good entry point into the hobby, but you can find games that cater to your needs better once you are comfirtable general concept of roleplaying. The next game I will definitely run is the MCDM rpg. It sounds perfect for my gaming style.
A well-presented video! Thank you for a fantastic overview of the last few years. I'm old enough to have played first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons while it was still being printed. I'm so happy there are other games, other systems, other ways to enjoy this hobby!!
