I was too young to witness the 1st explosion of the Tabletop RPG fad of the early 1980s as I was born in '79. I witnessed the Collectible Card Game craze of the early 1990s in middle school.
So what will be the next gaming fad with even mainstream appeal? Or are we living in it with the current explosion of board gaming?
When do RPGs make a comeback? Most of the growth seems to be adults in their 30s and 40s with disposable income rediscovering their interest in gaming.
Comeback from what? More people play RPGs than ever.
>>43563324
This.
It's just that they're spread out across dozens of systems and games instead of all being funneled through 2-3 megatitans.
Yeah, tabletop gaming in general is in the middle of a renaissance. We've never had it so good.
>>43563304
It's all moved to software based play
>>43563324
A comeback to general popularity. Widespread playing by non gaming demographics.
D&D was widespread enough in the early 1980s (among young people) that it was featured in the movie ET as the opening scene with no explanation given. Friday night pizza, soda pop and D&D was recognizable to 13 year olds then.The current resurgence is because those gamers of 1983 are nearing middle age with disposable income and kids of their own.
Are 13 year olds playing RPGs when dad isn't making them?
Can table top compete with vidya?
>>43563423big bang theory already bastardizes it, you got your wish anon
You don't meet up with your irl friends as much anymore but it's a lot easier to play games with people online through stuff like roll20.net or whatever website you wanna use.
>>43563423
Tabletop can't compete with vidya but it doesn't have to really. If your friends would rather play vidya you could play tablestop stuff who actually like the setting and game instead of your cousin's roommate who kinda sorta feels like trying a game out.
When ET came out it didn't need to be explained in the opening scene that the kids were playing a tabletop RPG. The youth audience was presumably familiar with RPGs in the early 1980s.
Now kids only know vidya. There is no youth RPG market. The current rise is the pinnacle because those 80s kids are adults now in their prime earning years with plenty of disposable entertainment dollars and a sense of nostalgia.
Today's 13 year olds won't be finding a RPG renaissance in 20 years. We are fucked. RPGs will be one a slowly shrinking niche hobby.
>>43563448
My wish is more young people play RPGs.
>>43563324
This. Almost everyone I know has experience with PnP gaming. Either they used to play, dated a player, have a son who plays etc.
I recently started up a game, and instantly had a player base of fairly experienced players. It was pretty swank.
As a whole they're better role-players then some of the grognards I've been playing with for years.
>>43563535
Young people are only interested in watching people play video games on youtube
>tfw I am rotting away in the nursing home and only my son comes to play Runequest with his old man. You know just to humor him.
Enjoy your linear vidya RPGs. All aboard the plot Railroad. Choo choo!
It's more popular than ever these days. As others said, they're just spread out amongst many games and systems now, online games, IRC, roll20 and other systems, Skype, real life, etc. They even have several gaming shows dedicated to tabletop gaming. Even pen and paper games. Critical Role, Rollplay, etc.
So it seems more thin. But they still exist and there's more games and a system for whatever the fuck you wanna do or play. But I don't think it'll ever replace video games. It never has. A lot of people, especially today, don't really want to use their imaginations to play a game and have to imagine beating the big bad guy. They wanna see shit blowing up as they kick ass. It'll always be a niche thing because of that. But that's not really bad. It's just how it is and allows the kind of close knit communities that you do see.
There's always gonna be people who just want to play a game with a handful of dice, some imagination, and some friend with a good DM who can make a world really come alive.
ET movie D&D scene in question:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7pABfm1HQ
>>43563562
I hate saying it, but fucking THIS
I remember talking about D&D to some of my more retarded "fellow" classmates
Demons and Dragons? Is that a video game?
>>43563423
>A comeback to general popularity. Widespread playing by non gaming demographics.
Where did you ever get the idea this was even a thing before the 2000s?
>>43563423
You are completely misunderstandings the fucking point of that scene.
A lot of people knew OF D&D in the 80s because it was the go-to nerd stereotype of the pre-video game age. The point of that scene wasn't to show kids doing a normal thing kids did at the time, it was to show "these kids are fucking dorks."
There was NEVER a point prior to NOW that RPG were ever considered generally popular or played by a widespread audience. It was generally known, yes, but it was known as "that thing that sad pathetic dorks do."
>>43567446
I'll chime in as I seem to be the only one actually alive and old enough to remember ITT. I was 10 years old in 1979.RPGs were popular but there was really only 1 generally known. D&D was THE RPG.
D&D was widely sold at main stream book store chains and toy and comic,hobby shops, Toys R US and Kay-Bee Toys. You could buy D&D books from Sears department stores (mail order).
There was a Saturday morning cartoon with the full court press of merchandising.There were action figures, coloring books, bed sheets and lunch boxes.
There was the Tom Hanks movie Mazes and Monsters. There was a anti gaming TV movie too iirc.
D&D was never mainstream or cool but it was easily accessible and even a briefly popular for a time amongst tweens, teens and college kids.
We all like to laugh about the Satanic Panic now, but I believe it set the hobby back for a time.
So no D&D was just for dorks. Not in 1980. It was a totally new game, there was nothing like it. If you wanted to play a video game you had to go to an Arcade. The first home systems either weren't out or were expensive and not widespread. Arcades were still a big deal.
Imagine a world where there was no vidya to compete with.
>>43568590
So we must kill the video machines?
>>43568959
Why would you want to? We don't NEED tons of people in the hobby. If people join, good. If they don't, that's fine too. We're not exactly lacking in people to play with. They're two separate kinds of games and aren't typically vying for the same players.
>>43569079
I agree too much popularity is a bad thing. Look how dumbed down some versions of the same game is on a console games vs. PC games. Plus in general console games are just made to appeal to low IQ. But seriously I didn't come to bait the console peasants.
The problem with Tabletop gaming not being more widely popular is ya gotta know a guy. My theory is a lot of people and esp young people are only vaguely aware it exists. My nephew who is 11 asked me "is it like Final Fantasy" (I cringed what has my sister done to these poor kids!) when I ran a session of Heroquest (Milton Bradley Boardgame) for him and his friends. The kids loved it and beg me to bring it everytime I visit. I got him his own used copy for him this year. The young vidya zombies crave social story telling. The electronic altar is all they have every known.
Back when there was general military conscription (draft) in the US you had a better cross section of the population in the military. You had people exposed to the military that would have never served if it was all volunteer and many decided to stay after their mandated commitment.
I'm 27 and new to tabletop gamess in general. Got a group of normie friends to start up a DnD campaign together. Just casually mentioning wanting to play and explaining some interesting things about it got them fired up and wanting to try it out. I think more and more people like to sit around and play games, talk, drink/smoke, have a good time, and tabletop games just adds an exponential amount of flavor to the evening.
>>43563562
I'm 27 and I've always enjoyed watching people do stuff more than doing stuff myself. If I do something, it'll turn out shit. Why would I want that? I'd rather watch funnier or more talented people do it instead.
>>43569706
I used to think the same way about writing.
Now I've already published a book. May not be the best, but it's mine damnit.
>>43569706
Watching someone else play a game isn't that fun. It's meant to be played. Unless it's an esport or something meant to be watched, why not play it? The only time I ever look up anything like that is for tips on how to get past certain hard parts. Or if the game is really complex and won't get spoiled by watching a playthrough like chess, Go, AI War, etc. If the game has shittons of replayability and won't get spoiled, by all means feel free to watch it. But linear games (not necessarily bad, Half Life is linear as fuck, but I love it same for Hotline Miami and tons of others) like most games these days? Or the CoD shoot em up fests? That's meant to be played and the magic is gone if you just watch it all played by someone else.
>>43563304
Sure, if a CME melts all the power transformers and the world is plunged back into the dark ages
>>43567328
From the early 80s. D&D was MASSIVE. You have no idea. >>43568590 remembers it, and so do I.
The current renaissance is great, but it's not that big in comparison.
>>43569706
Talent is just practice over time. Don't let your fear and self-loathing stop you from developing a talent. Pick something and do it until you're good at it.
>>43571603
The reason we have the rennisance of today is because of the shear number of young people RPGs attracted back in the day. Plenty of people played D&D as teens and gave it up as they grew up. A game from their childhood,nothing more. The Grognards are really just lost boys.
>>43569706
>funnier
>more talented
I fucking wish. My younger sister watches youshitters all the time. At least she likes playing my boardgames from time to time. I can't imagine her playing rpg like a normal person for a very long time if ever.
>>43568590
>Imagine a world where there was no vidya to compete with.
Yes, but also imagine a world without video games to introduce people to role-playing paradigms. Tabletops are much more accessible to people these days, because most everybody has played something associated with them in some shape or form.
Mr Chick was treated as something other than a demented, hate filled fool in the 80s early 90s.
I don't want to go back to that time.
>>43571603
I'm only a few years younger than >>43568590, and from my perspective, Tabletops are much bigger than they used to be, at least in terms of the number of people who have played them (I can't speak for the total number of game-hours played).
>>43563304
As what others have said. RPGS are bigger than ever, just spread out between various choices rather than the all devouring TSR or White Wolf.
The Digital Age has been an improvement for them as well. So many gaming tools and games played online has both broadened the appeal of these games but also driven them deeper so to speak. They don't really need to advertise themselves so much since the communities themselves seem to recruit interested people for them.
>>43563498
>>43568590
>>43573994
Am I the only one who doesn't think that tabletop RPGs and video RPGs are in competition? They fill different niches. Always have, always will. I think the impression that they're opposed is in part a result of video games growing in popularity hitting the mainstream.
Way back in the days of old video RPGs, like Rogue and Wizardry, there was a pretty big overlap in the playerbase of those games and the meatspace games they were based on. When video games hit the mainstream, the "vidya only" half of the Venn diagram grew proportionally, but that didn't mean the overlapping portion shrank at all, just that it was proportionally smaller.
>>43575455
This. They're not in competition at all. RPGS are traditionally a totally different ball game than Video games. Hell, part of the reason why I love RPGS so much is that with the sheer creative freedom, you can entertain yourself and your friends in so many different ways. With that flexibility, computer games still have a long way to catch up, if they ever can. They just can't account for all the possible player choices and reactions.
Are gamers older now?
I've noticed D&D went from a 10+ game to a 12+ game (with some supplements like miniatures being 14+, however that works).
I also remember reading some kind of retrospective about how most D&D players were teenagers or college students, but the demographics fizzled out at around 22-23.
Yet whenever I see or hear about a group of people playing D&D, Pathfinder, whatever, it's usually a bunch of twentysomethings. Maybe with the occasional teenager or a handful of older people. I can't imagine a group of 10-year-olds sitting around playing the game.
>>43575455
I don't desu. The SR games were a gateway drug to get friends into Shadowrun and other cyberpunk games. I've had friends get interested in post-apoc games after playing Fallout and Wasteland 2. I've had friends wonder about tabletop D&D after roleplaying in MMOs and playing the D&D games.
Video rpgs have incredibly wide appeal and a ridiculously broad playerbase (e.g. it's the overall genre that tends to attract the most women). And it's a gateway drug for the tabletop stuff especially since there's always someone who knows about this stuff.
>>43575703
That's true of most leisure activities in the first world. The younger generations are enjoying a longer adolescence than ever before in history, and devoting serious energy and money to playing with toys well into their 30s and 40s.
>>43575703
My first RPG Was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness by Palladium Books. I was 9 or 10 years old.
As a new father myself of a 1 year old I can understand older people with families not having as much time to play elf games. I get in 2 online D&D B/X games a week but they are short only 3-4 hours and played late at night. Because of travel for my job (sales/consulting) this is the only option.
>>43575932
I'd argue that it is pretty hard to sped "serious money" on elf games. Even over priced Warhammer products are downright paltry when you compare proper "adult hobbies" like buying boats, cars, vacation homes etc.
>>43576058
>proper "adult hobbies" like buying boats, cars, vacation homes etc.
Those are rich people hobbies, though. There are cheaper hobbies, like chess (which is obviously a /tg/ hobby too, but still more "proper adult").
>>43574036
Well sure, the number of people who HAVE played them at some point is higher now, but you've got to account for the fact that RPGs hadn't been around for 30+ years back then.
I'm pretty certain that the number of people actually playing them (versus "I joined a game in high school one time") is a lot lower today.
>>43576058
This. I have enough elves to fill a small country, and the total expediture would be a footnote on my fencing equipment bill.
>>43576738
>Well sure, the number of people who HAVE played them at some point is higher now
Yeah, that was poorly phrased. I meant sometime in the not too distant past, like, say, in the last 5 years. I didn't want to say "the number of people who are currently playing them", because it's been a while since I've been in a campaign, but I'm very much a role-gamer.
>I'm pretty certain that the number of people actually playing them (versus "I joined a game in high school one time") is a lot lower today.
I disagree, though I do think that more people have a casual experience with RPGs these days (which would include that guy who played once in high school, but also folks who have played a bit more too). In terms of number of hardcore, dedicated gamers then and now, I really wouldn't know how to begin to estimate that. Maybe they're the about same for all I know.
>>43576593
There's also fantasy football, for folks who want to do something imaginative, but without all the annoying imagination involved.
>>43563423
But I don't want to be the Elf....
>>43576593
Those are not rich people hobbies. They are American middle class hobbies. Get out of the city anon.
I am a mid 30s blue collar tradesman (elevator construction) making around 50K per year (not counting over time) my wife is a teacher who makes about the same. We own a modest 3 bed room $150k suburban home outside a small US city in southern "fly over country". I have a truck my wife has a jeep. I own a boat, 2x ATVs and a small deer lease with small cabin. I just added a solar panel to the cabin last summer. Everything but the house is paid off.
Been playing D&D, Runequest HârnMaster, and MERP with the same 4 guys since high school. Have dabbled with Shadowrun but everyone I know prefers fantasy.
>>43577036
I'm just going to point out that the two of you combine to make about twice the median household income in the US. I wouldn't say that makes you rich, but you're better off than most folks. I'd say you're probably also significantly more outdoorsy than most folks living in the suburbs (though living outside a small city rather than a big one can be conducive to that kind of thing).
