Tyberious Funk
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- Joined
- Jul 14, 2020
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The discussion of OSR and D&D history has triggered an question I've often wondered about...
Why has D&D gone on to become such a dominant player in the RPG market? Not just recently with 5e, but throughout the history of the hobby. Yes, it's true... it was first, and that probably helped. But there are numerous instances of industries created by one company, but dominated by a follower. In fact, sometimes coming second is better because you can fix all the mistakes the first entrant made.
Take Traveller as an example... it was published only 3 years after D&D. It's a terrific game, with features that went on to become staples of RPG design for years to come. And it was released the same year as Star Wars, so interest in sci fi was pretty high at the time. It became pretty popular, but never toppled D&D. It's not like D&D was being produced by a smarter or more savvy company -- TSR was badly mismanaged at various times in it's history, and ultimately went bankrupt.
These days, being owned by Hasbro gives D&D pretty deep pockets to invest in product development, marketing, distribution, etc. So it's in a position to bounce back from setbacks like 4E. But pre-Wizards period... how come no-one could touch them? Better product? Smart business? Or did they just do a Bradbury?
Why has D&D gone on to become such a dominant player in the RPG market? Not just recently with 5e, but throughout the history of the hobby. Yes, it's true... it was first, and that probably helped. But there are numerous instances of industries created by one company, but dominated by a follower. In fact, sometimes coming second is better because you can fix all the mistakes the first entrant made.
Take Traveller as an example... it was published only 3 years after D&D. It's a terrific game, with features that went on to become staples of RPG design for years to come. And it was released the same year as Star Wars, so interest in sci fi was pretty high at the time. It became pretty popular, but never toppled D&D. It's not like D&D was being produced by a smarter or more savvy company -- TSR was badly mismanaged at various times in it's history, and ultimately went bankrupt.
These days, being owned by Hasbro gives D&D pretty deep pockets to invest in product development, marketing, distribution, etc. So it's in a position to bounce back from setbacks like 4E. But pre-Wizards period... how come no-one could touch them? Better product? Smart business? Or did they just do a Bradbury?