D&D seems a bit different lately…

Serious question here, because I'm not or ever have been a D&D player, but isn't it the case that this progressive stance has actually improved sales and player numbers?

GW appear to be slowly inching towards the same path as well. I think it's just a sign of the times. This is what a large part of the fan base wants.
Growth is driven organically through quality products like Baldur's Gate 3 and social phenomena like Critical Role. Not by making everything gay and diverse.

D&D tabletop has never been huge despite the popularity of the brand. Hasbro's Q4 numbers a few months ago showed 22% decline in Tabletop Gaming revenue relative to 2023. And total gaming revenue declined by 5%. They never call out D&D specifically because it's not big enough on its own like Magic The Gathering is.



The whole fantasy genre and nerd culture in general being completely hijacked by extremist Communist queers has been one of the saddest things for me to witness in the last couple of decades.
Yes, there are mega threads on dedicated tabletop forums about this and none of them are happy.
 
Last edited:
The whole fantasy genre and nerd culture in general being completely hijacked by extremist Communist queers has been one of the saddest things for me to witness in the last couple of decades.
It's what they do.

Media in general are ripe for it due to the nature of the product (lots of content, story, characters etc...), and a lot of the pink haired weird people have an academic or personal life skewed to that kind of content. They arent bankers or oil rig workers. So it all kind of fits together.

Then add in social media where they can promote it loud and free and there you go. That's how weve got here in movies, games and things like DND.

Best way to change it back is if people complain and dont buy their products. They'll get the message and change, similar to large fortune 500 companies dialing back DEI.

If that doesnt work and DND creators and management stick to their guns, then I guess hope is lost as they are willing to go down with the ship. And that can happen too. Looks at some of the game studios making junk and the studio closes.
 
New rule: every piece of fantasy art has to have at least one black woman with poofy hair, and another woman/nonbinary with side-shave haircut + zany unnatural hair color.
 
Last edited:
Serious question here, because I'm not or ever have been a D&D player, but isn't it the case that this progressive stance has actually improved sales and player numbers?

GW appear to be slowly inching towards the same path as well. I think it's just a sign of the times. This is what a large part of the fan base wants.
I doubt the "hyper-inclusive" aspect has boosted the needle much, if any. After all, that segment is pretty damned small.

Dnd rode the wave of podcasts and youtube sessions, as well as the rise in RPGs and digital versions of the tabletop game, which really lowered the barrier to play. Add in the well balanced 5e ruleset which was neither as crunchy as previous systems but not so free form as to just be a guided thought exercise, it harkened back to the fantastic and well-regarded 2e era and brought a lot of older players back into the fold. WOTC handled it all with well made books and accessories. But a few years in the 5e run you could see the reigns being grabbed by a small sub-segment that really really wanted to push the "we all want to be SEEN" narrative that started requiring that everything can be for everyone and midget orcs and giant gnomes are all possible. Which is true as its all "Fantasy", of course, but then they started shouting down the folks who wanted to keep a more traditional game setting as maintained for the past 40 years of content as being "alt-right XXX-ist/phobes", the typical ultra-left playbook. IMHO WOTC should have created a separate world for this kinda stuff and kept Forgotten Realms more rooted. But ultimately it's dependent on your game group anyway and all it really affects its the art shown in the supplements and maybe character bios, awful lot of gay tavern keepers and blacksmiths out across Faerun.

And fortunately things like Dungeon Crawl Classics keeps the old school "here is a dungeon, go loot it" vibe alive.
 
When the non-pozzed members of society grow a set of balls and finally realize that not everyone deserves respect, representation, or even to be included as part of society.

Not Bad Kind Of GIF by MOODMAN


They are an abomination that goes against God and have forsaken everything natural. Their lifestyles preclude them from reproducing traditionally, so they have to reproduce in the same method as parasites.

Invade. Corrupt. Multiply.
shocked ron burgundy GIF
 
The whole fantasy genre and nerd culture in general being completely hijacked by extremist Communist queers has been one of the saddest things for me to witness in the last couple of decades.

It is crazy how this just happens and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. We just have to sit by and watch these lunatic extremists ruin yet another thing we cherish.

Unreal.
 
It is crazy how this just happens and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. We just have to sit by and watch these lunatic extremists ruin yet another thing we cherish.

Unreal.
Well, like film, all the original content is still out there. They even reprinted the og dnd stuff a while back and left everything in. It's all about the $$$, if enough fans bounce to other more traditional rpg systems then WOTC will have to course correct. Most of this stuff is purely performative anyway, I'm not sure they have gone so far as to have kingdoms ruled by two Queens or a pair of Kings, for example, real overt stuff like that, or some royalty that requires wacky pronouns (beyond the "royal we" in the first place).
 
New rule: every piece of fantasy art has to have at least one black woman with poofy hair, and another woman/nonbinary with side-shave haircut + zany unnatural hair color.

Also remember, if the art features some non human character make sure they look lame. They should under no circumstance look cool or badass or appear to be violent and/or threatening, the look we aim for these days is "hipster barista with pointy ears or horns or green skin".
 
Haha. Looks like all those gay ass cosplayers took over cover art.

Back in the day my bro bought this. He bought other sets too. We never even played this one, but it was just cool to check out the manuals and stats. This set was actually an advanced set for high level characters. lol

All of us got into playing CRPGs, but the foundation was actually D&D board games. Funny thing is even if you dont play DND, reading some of the $20 books back in the day like Monster Manual and Players Handbook are actually realy cool. It might be odd to flip through books that have to do with a game you'll never play, but just seeing the artwork and stats and nuances is actually cool.

TSR1013_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_-_Set_3_Companion_Rules.jpg


I buy sourcebooks and rpg stuff just to read. I like reading world building stuff and I enjoy seeing the mechanics various games use.
Haven't played an actual pnp rpg in over two decades though.
 
I buy sourcebooks and rpg stuff just to read. I like reading world building stuff and I enjoy seeing the mechanics various games use.
Haven't played an actual pnp rpg in over two decades though.
I do play fairly regularly but I still have a bunch of books for games I've not run and there's a decent chance I never will. Like you said, they can just be fun to read for their own sake.
 
Also remember, if the art features some non human character make sure they look lame. They should under no circumstance look cool or badass or appear to be violent and/or threatening, the look we aim for these days is "hipster barista with pointy ears or horns or green skin".
qunari-models-from-the-veilguard-vs-qunari-models-from-v0-hvf85suu9rod1.jpeg

That's right, fictional fantasy races are basically just a stand-in for non-white people and thus need to be portrayed in the most sympathetic + non-threatening way possible. Follow Veilguard's example.
 
Scrolling through the comments to that and ran into this one. If I could like a post a million times, it would be this one.

uVRB1ZX7Equaekfn.jpeg


Also, this proves, yet again, that a little "gatekeeping" is both necessary and healthy for most hobbies.
 
The whole fantasy genre and nerd culture in general being completely hijacked by extremist Communist queers has been one of the saddest things for me to witness in the last couple of decades.

I can see this in fantasy literature. It seems like almost all new fantasy books are romance/fantasy books written by feminists. Either that it has some 21st century political agenda shoved into it. Seriously becoming an easy genre to skip, which is a shame because it used to be my favourite.


Growth is driven organically through quality products like Baldur's Gate 3 and social phenomena like Critical Role. Not by making everything gay and diverse.

D&D tabletop has never been huge despite the popularity of the brand. Hasbro's Q4 numbers a few months ago showed 22% decline in Tabletop Gaming revenue relative to 2023. And total gaming revenue declined by 5%. They never call out D&D specifically because it's not big enough on its own like Magic The Gathering is.




Yes, there are mega threads on dedicated tabletop forums about this and none of them are happy.


I doubt the "hyper-inclusive" aspect has boosted the needle much, if any. After all, that segment is pretty damned small.

Dnd rode the wave of podcasts and youtube sessions, as well as the rise in RPGs and digital versions of the tabletop game, which really lowered the barrier to play. Add in the well balanced 5e ruleset which was neither as crunchy as previous systems but not so free form as to just be a guided thought exercise, it harkened back to the fantastic and well-regarded 2e era and brought a lot of older players back into the fold. WOTC handled it all with well made books and accessories. But a few years in the 5e run you could see the reigns being grabbed by a small sub-segment that really really wanted to push the "we all want to be SEEN" narrative that started requiring that everything can be for everyone and midget orcs and giant gnomes are all possible. Which is true as its all "Fantasy", of course, but then they started shouting down the folks who wanted to keep a more traditional game setting as maintained for the past 40 years of content as being "alt-right XXX-ist/phobes", the typical ultra-left playbook. IMHO WOTC should have created a separate world for this kinda stuff and kept Forgotten Realms more rooted. But ultimately it's dependent on your game group anyway and all it really affects its the art shown in the supplements and maybe character bios, awful lot of gay tavern keepers and blacksmiths out across Faerun.

And fortunately things like Dungeon Crawl Classics keeps the old school "here is a dungeon, go loot it" vibe alive.

Thanks. Looks like this progressive change has hurt sales. I'm not shocked. Didn't they add trigger warnings in the new edition as well?
 
That was the exact example I was thinking about lol.

Also

5r%20orcs.jpg

The one with the axe probably doesn't let her kid read Harry Potter.
I've seen that pic before. Looks retarded. Not just the character design, but also there's something wrong with the setting too. Why so some of them look like they are on an Indiana Jones adventure like it's the year 1930?
 
Well, like film, all the original content is still out there. They even reprinted the og dnd stuff a while back and left everything in. It's all about the $$$, if enough fans bounce to other more traditional rpg systems then WOTC will have to course correct. Most of this stuff is purely performative anyway, I'm not sure they have gone so far as to have kingdoms ruled by two Queens or a pair of Kings, for example, real overt stuff like that, or some royalty that requires wacky pronouns (beyond the "royal we" in the first place).
This is the way.

In my opinion, D&D peaked with 3.5E anyway. 4th Edition and onward tried a bit too hard to mimic the MMO trend.
 
Also, this proves, yet again, that a little "gatekeeping" is both necessary and healthy for most hobbies.
Gatekeeping is another term the left has misused, just like "Nazi." Gatekeeping is bad when it means being rude to newcomers or making them feel unwelcomed. But it is healthy and necessary when it's about preserving a hobby as it was intended and keeping it interesting for those who truly enjoy it.
 
D&D, Magic The Gathering, Warhammer. Is there anything left for the table nerds.
play classic AD&D (1st edition, or 2nd, or go with the Basic/Expert series which grew into its own thing and has plenty of cleaned up clones out in the OSR scene)

it's always great, no need for feminized, committee led corporate trash products
 
Last edited:
There, there, Drizzt's daughter.


I've seen some generally decent, non-woke people on Twitter trying to defend Salvatore, but he sold out a long time ago.

It may not be completely woke slop, but it's going to be slop nonetheless, and given that it's related to D&D it will likely be woke slop.
 
After seeing what happened with D&D and MtG i still can't believe people in the rpg and tabletop fandom are against harder gatekeeping.

40k is now the prime war zone, all FB groups are in constant warfare calling the other group of fans tourists. I'm sure 40k will fall and go through the gayfication process. They lost a lot of edge already, opening to the masses will end badly for the og fans without mental disorders.
 
After seeing what happened with D&D and MtG i still can't believe people in the rpg and tabletop fandom are against harder gatekeeping.

40k is now the prime war zone, all FB groups are in constant warfare calling the other group of fans tourists. I'm sure 40k will fall and go through the gayfication process. They lost a lot of edge already, opening to the masses will end badly for the og fans without mental disorders.
Dude I got banned from a Facebook miniature painting group because I did a laugh react to a CerberusXT post about some weird and niche ridiculous LGBTQ flag. He's got one for every damn flag and was even posted in white dwarf. The mind virus already infected 40k

 
I get the colorful, whimsical art being a bit...offputting for a setting like D&D, especially for us old greybeards that find us permanently eye-rolling at everything these days.

But I'm also reminded of what it was like back in the early days of board gaming and even video games where WE were the dorky uncool ones on the fringes of society that weren't being accepted. Suddenly you have these avenues of escapism where you can be what you want how you want without the judgement you were getting in your normal life. There's nothing wrong with expanding that by appealing to other groups that want that same kind of adventure as an addition to what we have now.
 
Old~
nCfK567b5jHlVRIg.jpg


Modern~

Same energy :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Erotic until you realize hes prob staring at 43 layers of undergarments




As for the DND art...this is why you should gatekeep your passions. These artists just latch on to this stuff to force their point and throw it in your face. I learned this working in the game industry, they literally get off on your anger. DND is dead, make a new thing, make it like DND was and make it better.
 
Last edited:
Dude I got banned from a Facebook miniature painting group because I did a laugh react to a CerberusXT post about some weird and niche ridiculous LGBTQ flag. He's got one for every damn flag and was even posted in white dwarf. The mind virus already infected 40k


I'd ask which one, but there's just one or two where you won't be banned for wrongthink. The rest are openly progressive or "neutral" but filled with the usual suspects.
 
Top Bottom