Welcome to our latest controversial non-controversy in the TTRPG sphere.
Slaying the Dragon: The Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons author Ben Riggs posted an article on Facebook and elsewhere on social media titled: The Golden Age of TTRPGs is Dead. You can find Ben’s website here. I think he has an interesting blog and a lot of great takes on the TTRPG hobby. I highly recommend checking out the article and Riggs’ website for the full story.
I have a lot of love for everyone in the TTRPG hobby. I don’t care if your game of choice is Dungeons & Dragons 5E all the way to the most obscure reality-bending one page space game on Itch.io. If you play, GM, write, layout, create art, or sell TTRPGs, you’re my friend, part of my “tribe,” and part of the #ttrpgfamily. I talk about this a lot on here.
Now, that having been said- no, we don’t always agree on every single thing. I have lots of love for plenty of people and we don’t necessarily agree on much of anything. Y’all are still #ttrpgfamily. I’d still call you “friend.” I’ll still sit down to game with you.
There have been a lot of different but interesting takes on this Ben Riggs post. The term “Golden Age” means a lot of different things to a lot of people. Some one say it’s a more personalized term. I think Riggs’ probably intended it as more of a historical take. My first thought was, “I love the Golden Age of comics. The Siver Age was pretty sweet, too.”
We always have to address the freakin elephant in the room.
Riggs’ had to mention Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons 5E. I don’t wish to belabor the discussion of WotC and their bullsh🦆t or give them any more space than I have to. But, D&D is still the most recognizable, largest producing, financially viable game with by far the biggest player base in the industry. Some reports say D&D is larger than the rest of the industry combined. I dunno if I believe that, but feel free to look into it.
I think we’re all getting burned out on talking about The Great D&D Open Gaming License Debacle of 2023. However, we still have to mention it because it spun off a half dozen or so new and upcoming TTRPGs. Riggs talks about the many new TTRPGs coming because of the OGL Debacle and how it may very well fracture the industry. It might divide the fanbase. There are other OGL repercussions that may herald the end of TTRPG’s Golden Age.
D&D turns 50 this year. I suspect this is why we’re hearing this story now given Riggs is a D&D historian. Given this retrospective, maybe it does appear the end of 5E and the beginning of this new abomination WotC is dropping in 2024 does mean D&D’s golden years truly are ending. Then, logically if 5E’s golden age is ending, so must the rest of the hobby follow.
The TTRPG Community is a house divided at times.
Riggs and a score of YouTubers have pointed out that the many new TTRPGs coming as a result of the OGL Debacle are going to fracture the D&D 5E fanbase. I’ll say, “good. Let it.” Riggs says something similar about finding a new game that will surpass D&D or just plain wreck the new edition in terms of sales. Any time we can spread the prosperity and wealth around within the TTRPG industry is a good thing in my opinion.
On the other hand, we were already behind hundreds of different games and editions of games before. We’ve got people who haven’t tried a new edition of D&D since 1st Ed AD&D came out. Heck, some of these guys haven’t even tried a new game since B/X Moldvay. How do affect a player base that straight up doesn’t even care that Gygax no longer owns the company?
Looking at a broad picture, there are hundreds of TTRPGs just in my library. D&D only occupies about a third of that space at most. I can point to a half dozen other games that meant more to me in their prime than D&D ever did. Was that my “Golden Age” of roleplaying?
Just because D&D is on my shelf doesn’t mean I’m not still 100% invested in other game systems and other game products. At one time I had upwards of six campaigns running for other games and played in a weekly D&D game. On top of that we would pull out D&D as a pickup game randomly when a bunch of us were hanging out. It was just fun.
Yes, I played D&D alongside Cyberpunk, Star Wars, Rifts, Vampire the Masquerade, Deadlands, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Toon. That might have been my personal “Golden Age” when I was trying to run five or six campaigns and play in two more. That was back in the day before I had kids of my own.
Is the hobby as good as it was going to get before a major decline?
I would argue that we’re on the verge of another major uptick in the gaming industry. The new not-new 2024 D&D is going to sell to thousands of fans right alongside Shadowdark, Pathfinder 2E, Tales of the Valiant, and dozens of other titles. In my opinion, this looks like another rallying point in time much like the early 1990s or 2000s with the launches of other new editions of multiple games.
It’s true that D&D 3.5 with its OGL brought in tons of new business in the hobby. Publishers went nuts with it and the industry swelled for a time. Obviously the same thing happened with 5E and that’s why the OGL Debacle of 2023 was such a huge deal. If anything, I think the OGL only pushed creators away from open licenses and toward new, brilliant creative endeavors. Look at Vagabond RPG, Shadowdark, and Candela Obscura.
For crying out loud, we’re seeing million dollar TTRPG Kickstarters all throughout 2023 and the beginning of 2024. MCDM RPG, (which isn’t even the final title,) raked in over $4 Million. That’s a lot of cabbage for a game that isn’t even fully developed yet. It’s proof that we aren’t tied to one game or even one system any more. Sure, D&D might be tanking, but the rest of us are just getting warmed up.
The division in the TTRPG hobby is purely a mental construct.
The Riggs article points out that the newest edition of D&D along with the OGL mess is somehow going to fracture the community. I disagree. Again, my copy of Daggerheart will probably go on the shelf right next to my Level Up 5E books. I’m kind of a TTRPG addict, though. Right now, I’m choosing to make a lot of new content for the Shadowdark RPG because I like the system, the open license, and the wide open freedom to use it in creating worlds, monsters, new classes, etc. (*I get hyped up when talking about Shadowdark.)
I think there’s a notion that this edition of D&D, the giant of the industry, is going to be like the wet fart flop that was 4th Ed D&D. Pathfinder caught a break and actually overtook D&D briefly in sales during the 4E era. Yes, it could happen again with any number of games, but it’s not going to cause a major upheaval in the TTRPG industry.
Social, economic, and political upheaval aside, I think conventions will keep going strong. We’ve seen dips because of the Icky Cough-Coughs when people went mostly to online cons and gaming. We’ve definitely seen times when convention numbers dipped because of economic issues. So, what if D&D fills fewer seats? Those chairs will fill with other games.
Was the hay day of TTRPGs over the last 10 years?
Yes, Critical Role brought a ton of new D&D players into the hobby. Hooray for that. I think Baldur’s Gate 3 might bring a few more into the tabletop space, too. If Critical Role fans switch to Daggerheart, will they have the same massive draw to another game? I don’t know what kind of contract CR has with Wizards of the Coast to continue to run at least one show with D&D.
I disagree with Riggs about the “Golden Age” of TTRPGs. I don’t think it’s passed us by yet. And besides, I like the Silver Age of comics as much as I like the Golden Age. The TTRPG industry will survive, continue, and thrive again; weathering any and all storms as it goes. (*Sorry, I get hyped up thinking about superhero games, too.)
There’s one small hitch in the giddyap that needs to be addressed.
Riggs said in relation to the article on X (Twitter,) “Simultaneously, the splintering of the D&D 5E community will make it harder for new designers to break into the industry…”
I think he’s right. It’s going to be a rough year to break into the TTRPG industry as a writer or designer. I think it will be especially tough for new writers wanting to fulfil the dream of working for a large company like WotC, Paizo, Kobold Press, Monte Cook Games, Renegade Studios, Troll Lord Games, etc. The “big” companies in the industry are a pain to get hired by in the first place.
I’m going to end my rant about getting hired in the TTRPG industry here. We’ll hash that out some other time. I have very strong feelings about getting hired or not getting hired, rather. I will say between the layoffs at WotC in December and the mass of new games coming out, companies might not be hiring as much for writers. Editors, artists, and production managers might have it made.
Thank you for being here today. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy today.
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