Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Afaik D&D is the ttrpg game that has the biggest market share, more that 50% iirc. It's the only one known to the general public with several forgettable movies (one more soon), many games, and a lot of references in other cultural creations (such as the successful serie stranger thing) and was on the top of the wave created by the recent renaissance of boardgames/ttrpg.

As for the OGL license, you have to understand that ttrpg companies are usually very small (some people, sometimes only one) so they can't really spend a lot on exploring what is the best license or publicize a new one. So they take the license that is the most used in their domain which is the OGL



I understand D&D is the "Windows" of RPGs. I understand the market- and mind-share it enjoys. (Those movies: not many people remember or know about them though!). Obviously when Paizo forked D&D 3.5 and started Pathfinder, they were riding on the popularity of this particular RPG. Also evident is why there is a cottage industry of third-party modules, campaigns and gadgets for D&D: it makes sense to make these for the most popular system.

The thing is, it's much harder to implement "vendor lock-in" for RPGs than it is for hardware or software which has business uses. The cost of switching to another RPG system is very low: all it takes for a group of friends to start a new RPG is for the geekiest of them to buy a rulebook and evangelize it, there's almost zero cost (but the rulebook(s), of course).

I find videogames are a red herring as an argument for D&D, since most people playing CRPGs based on D&D don't even need to understand the rules; the computer does everything for them. And people will buy a flashy CRPG regardless of the underlying engine, all that matters is that the game is fun, hyped, has nice graphics, and friends are playing.


Don't forget there is a new movie coming very soon and I've just read a TV serie is in preparation.

IMHO WotC is pursuing a double strategy. On one side they try to pull a marvel, meaning becoming big in the media industry with movies, series and videogame (I expect to see many D& D games in the future if the movie is successful). On the other side they will try to create a subscription based walled garden in the RPG world.

you're right that for the moment switching to a new system isn't really expensive, it may change if wotc manage to create this walled garden




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: