Dungeons and Dragons decrease I noticed

Hi everyone,

I had to take a break from GP for over a year as I prepared for the birth of my daughter and realized I was doing way to much on the site and needed a cold turkey reset.

Now that I am back on, I noticed that there are a lot less new games starting, and of those that are starting very few are dungeons and dragons compared to other systems. By all means that is a good thing as other systems need time to shine and be experienced. I can't help but notice that there are a lot less games to join unless you know these niche systems or are willing to learn about them.

Do you think this is likely due to the OGL scandal, or are people getting board of the system, or perhaps there are already a lot of games that are full so GMs are already at capacity?

I would say the OGL and general practices of WotC (Hasbro, really) have had absolutely nothing to do with my choices of games to run. And it's not even that I'm trying to give other games a chance to shine, since that ends up being a pretty 5e-centric thought pattern. I happen to enjoy these other systems, and so I run them.

As for why there are fewer game offerings in general, I can't say. I suspect it's coincidence at the moment, or perhaps we've reached a period of saturation—it's possible that so many people have ended up in longer-term games and therefore aren't looking to start anything new.

All I can say is... be the change you wish to see on GamersPlane.

I'm currently running a 5e module I've always wanted to run, and am playing in a 5e one shot that I'm not sure how long it will go. I don't want to run a 2nd game if I'm not part of a long term one as a player, so I'm not sure what change I can make at the moment. I'll just have to wait and see. Not putting pressure on anyone. I didn't know if stuff happened while I was gone.

cowleyc is not wrong :)

I was planning to run another 5e game, but got distracted. And I am still hoping to join an Eberron game in the near future.

I personally like rules-lite short runs. I can play (or run) them to completion, knowing that I’ll eventually look for (or start) something new.

To be fair, I never played D&D. C&C and Pathfinder are the only D&D-ish systems I’ve played. Once my 5+ year old Starfinder game ends, I will exclusively use pay rules-lite. The simplicity allows me to post my action and roll something, spend a token, etc., and not have to look up a grappling flow-chart or whatever.

Granted, I prefer silly over deadly.

I think the number of games on offer and the various systems show up in random cycles. Some months there are many, and others, less so. Sometimes, a few D&D games are up, other times, lighter fare. I haven't noticed any significant changes, and like cowley says, it might be a coincidence.

Or maybe Daggerheart actually killed D&D. No more D&D.

As Windy said. Activity and rate of new games/systems does peak and trough. There was a space of dnd a few months ago. There may be again at some point. I think it depends on who is free for running an ew game and what they fancy.

(Though inevitable a new wave of games/system I am interested in will always occur whenever I tell myself I am full on games)

We have gained an influx of peeps from Tavern Keeper so maybe some new ones will be started up shortly.

I agree with Windy about the ebb and flow of games here on GP. Real Life will be busy for me over the next few months, so I've put plans for games I'd like to run on the backburner, and I'm not joining any new games. At least, I'm going to try really, really hard not to give in.

As for D&D, I can't speak to how others feel, but I don't enjoy it anymore. I tried a couple 5e games—both outside of GP—and I found that I just didn't enjoy it. Bad DMs? Lame adventures? Possibly. But I don't enjoy the feel of the game or the rules. AD&D was my first TTRPG and I loved it. I've found through playing games here on GP that I still enjoy that old style that's been emulated (or copied) in the OSR community. And with so many gaming options out there (and so little time), I don't feel compelled to go back to D&D.

But I'm sure that I'm in the minority and that there will be plenty of D&D games again soon.

Oh and congratulations on the birth of your daughter!

I think it'd be the latter. But GP is so small that it's difficult to get enough data to establish a trend.

In my experience, D&D games are still filling up very quickly, so I think there's still very strong demand. If there is a trend, I think it'd be a supply-side thing. Perhaps there are fewer DMs running D&D games, DMs are running fewer simultaneously, or are less likely to advertise spots in the tavern. But I'm probably saying that because that's what I'm doing. I have no data.

Very much echoing what cowleyc said in his original post. I'd add that as far as my personal experience goes, I can always get some real life friends to play 5e, around a physical or virtual table, but it's harder to sell them on non D&D systems (except maybe for a one shot) as they tend to stick with what they know and are comfortable with. Part of my initial attraction to GamersPlane was having a chance to try out other stuff.