LogFAQs > #900328011

I_Abibde posted...

Did 4th Edition fulfill that role, though?

I'd argue that it did, because just anecdotally/observationally, it seems like it brought a lot of players into the hobby who weren't roleplayers beforehand, and probably never would have come in at all if the game still ran the way 3e/Pathfinder did.

As much as older D&D players really don't like to admit it, the older rules sets tended to act as a huge barrier to more casual players. They'd take one look at the size of the rulebooks or all of the complicated references on a blank character sheet, and their eyes would glaze over. Yes, it makes sense and is easier to handle once you LEARN it, but if it's too discouraging from the start, newer players are never going to learn in the first place. Especially if there are other entertainment media constantly angling for your time.

I think 4e definitely brought new people in by virtue of being more simplified/more familiar to people already playing video game RPGs with spammable attacks and the like. And I think at least a fair number of those new people went on to be evangelists for the new edition once it came out.

Basically, I think that's a huge part of why 5e succeeded in catching on mainstream more than the game has managed in almost 40 years - because it managed to both retain the casuals they'd drawn in via 4e while also winning back older players who'd previously switched to Pathfinder but who preferred 5e's greater simplicity.



I_Abibde posted...

There are also players in the group who have not played at all prior to 5th Edition, but those tend to be munchkins who mostly blow huge sums on Magic: The Gathering.

Based on various online games, it seems like the vast majority of people currently playing 5e never played anything before 5e.

Nearly every online group seems to be based around a DM and maybe an extra player or two who have been playing since long before 3e (I don't think I've seen a single veteran say they started with 3e or Pathfinder - most of them have been playing since at least 2e), with the rest of the group filled out with players who've never RPed before their current game. And then most of those groups seem to get constant messages from people online who say "I've never RPed before, but watching you made me want to do it, so I started playing 5e."

I'm almost tempted to say that, if it were possible to poll every active or semiactive RPer in the entire world, you might actually find that more than half the people playing these days are people who started exclusively with 5e, outnumbering people who started playing in earlier systems. Certainly a large percentage of the more tech-savvy parts of the audience.


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