So how long till D&D kills everything else? Because newbies certainly aren't ever gonna play anything else

So how long till D&D kills everything else? Because newbies certainly aren't ever gonna play anything else.

I've never seen an advertisement for any ttrpg, and D&D has the benefit of decades of pop culture and controversy. It's literally not their fault they're so popular

That's always been the case. Even during 4e's downturn years, people were playing Pathfinder, a D&D clone.

Doesn't really anwser my question. How long until the industry goes caput? Other RPGs arent really sustainable.

And D&D continues to swallow players everyday.

Never. It has always been a niche industry. If anything, tabletop games in general are more popular than ever thanks to Kickstarter.

But how? The numbers for everything else arent growing and the only thing making strides is D&D

Never. People move from DnD to other rpgs, not the other way around. The number of DnD players has no impact on players of other games.

The costs for everything is lower these days, and it is easier to sell RPGs than ever because of Kickstarter, RPG Drivethrough, Amazon, ect. What said. People aren't quitting other RPGs in favor of D&D.

>Fearmongering

What you are seeing is the hobby growing, not shrinking. Each new edition of D&D brought with it a surge of new players into the hobby, as well as a general increase in interest in the hobby as well.

I certainly havent seen a rise of new people interested in the hobby with 5e. They all just stick to that and pretend nothing else exists.

Nice anecdotal evidence you have there. Here's mine. Every single person in my Shadowrun Anarchy group used to play D&D 5E with one exception (That being myself). Now we largely play Shadowrun and don't play D&D of any sort, though I have been pitching ACKS to them.

Actually, 5e is gathering a fair amount of converts from other non-D&D games. There's no reason to panic or anything like that though, largely because it's not like every person is exclusively tied to playing only one system.

I personally don't think D&D overtaking other RPGs is an issue. A group I've been with for a year or so Used to use 5e and pathfinder a bunch, but after I joined them doing 40k and started bringing up just hacking WFRP or Only War/Dark Heresy they don't want to go back. Now this is an online group, but with the size of my 40k group at the LGS (Mostly Xenos and Chaos players, cool guys) they probably would have fun with Black Crusade and such.
To quantify it, D&D feels too autopilot in terms of advancement, morality is treated as objective rather than a character thing, there's alot of rules that feel arbitrary, and the alternatives tend to be much easier to learn and work a character concept into.
And the Warhammer systems enable my adoration of witch hunter characters

My group started with D&D but we've played Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, Werewolf The Forsaken 2nd Edition.

>people still use Roll20 for gauging interest in a system
>the service that has only a fraction of the character sheets for available games out there, and no support for systems with unusual game mechanics (i.e. Special card draws, unique character movement or elevation,etc)
>the service that will remove your game ad if it's too extreme, too political, or too exclusionary towards crybabies who want to join
>the service that is pretty much in bed with Wizards and nobody else
Maybe if the average Veeky Forums user would actually go out into the world, they'd see there's actually a decent variety of games out there instead of just the same shitty 5e and Pathfinder ERPs.

>too political

Never. There's always going to be some special snowflake who doesn't want to play X because X is popular and wants to plays something else. Then they'll probably start saying X is shit and Y is a better game but be pissy they can't find as many people to play Y with so they'll spend a lot of their time shit posting.

I would have never guessed that Pathfinder has the same amount of players as 3.5 and that both have only double the amount of 4th.

Figured both PF and 5th would have much much higher numbers compared to everything else on there.

>not live in america
>D&D is just one of multitude games played, perhaps not even most popular, and even if (possibly, counting all the editions together) it would be #1, still would be just a relatively small slice of the cake
Feels good man
Though, on the other hand
>While many relatively BIG non-D&D games thrive, smaller indie games are virtually unknown since no local shops sell them and shipping costs for direct orders from rpgdrivethru or the publisher itself are intreasing the cost twofold in extreme cases.
Feels bad man

>Pathfinder has the same amount of players as 3.5

One player is counted for multiple games.

Since 3.PF is basically 3.5, a person playing one will 99% of the time also play the other, meaning that the numbers will be close/the same.

I kind of disagree with the one system part. Groups are extremely nervous about moving on to anything oter than their current system.

And outside of cities groups are slim pickings so many players are kind of stuck to one system

You've got it the wrong way round. Despite its current dominance, D&D is actually at a low ebb in its popularity. D&D, Pathfinder and its other clones make up about 2/3 of book sales, which is a lot, but the indie RPG niche is growing, not shrinking.

>So how long till D&D kills everything else? Because newbies certainly aren't ever gonna play anything else.

Since literally the 70s? DnD has always had the lion share of the market. At best you have a brief period when vampire masquerade took over in the 90s.

You might as well be asking how long until DC and marvel take over the comic book industry.

OP, you're an idiot.
There's been a healthy rpg industry since 1980. DnD is doing well because it's the market leader that non-gamers are aware of. But other games do fine, and frankly newbies brought in by 5e tend to graduate to other games.
I have also never played in a group that's tied to only one system. People play whatever catches their attention. 5e is fashionable at the moment, that's all.

What do you mean? As in online platforms and shitty e-books and supplements and miniatures based on an old outdated business model? Yea and thank fuck it's dying. The only reason D&D is leading and not sinking is, as others said, because of pop culture and simili monopoly.

When D&D goes bankrupt, will TTRPGs die? Of course not, plenty of games and new innovative material made all the time by hobbyist and small projects or kickstarters. I just cant believe people think the old business model is still viable. Even TCGs are struggling, kids arent interested in them as much as before with all the new stuff and online card games like Hearthstone or Gwent or Faeria.

I want the old TTRPG world to fucking die because it is shit. On the other hand, we have a LOT to look forward to.

When it comes to D&D, business model isn't really relevant.

Hasbro took their shot at making D&D a big earner with 4e. It failed, hence 5e's shoestring budget and tiny development team. At this point the product only exists to occupy the license, the real money comes from tie ins and secondary products linked to the brand, like board games, video games or the talk of another shot at a D&D movie.

Yea, because they are shifting with the times. Grognards were an obstacle in truly shifting the system in 5e, but now you see D&D taking over Youtube culture, a real effort to keep things digital and dynamic with Unearthed Arcana on steroids AND the natural push from emerging gaming platforms like Roll20 - I still remember when expensive buggy (old, back then) fantasy grounds was the only option.
No new D&D video games, cuz they know the infinity engine games are a nostalgia bomb and made the field too risky. On the other hand, games like Numenera get made. The whole industry is growing, free from all the bullshit that made it a stinky nerd niche. It is still a niche, but a sexy one. And D&D does not control this shift, they can only follow along.

5e type DnD is a containment system for casuals. Kind of like WoW is for MMOs.