ICv2 released their Top Five RPGs list this week and Dungeons & Dragons finds itself out in front. What does this mean for those of us entrenched in the OSR?
I see D&D 5e is a spiritual ally to the OSR as it certainly borrowed from the game's past to find a balance that appeals to the masses. Which really is awesome, as a rising tide lifts all ships and D&D 5e is certainly raising that tide.
My son's fiancee plays 5e (her first RPG) and has found herself interested in exploring the depths of the OSR. She can't be the only 5e player to do so ;)
Interesting that two of the top five are licensed properties with ties to blockbuster movie franchises. Sure, Adventures in Middle-Earth is licensed from the fiction books and not the movies, but the movies are definitely selling the RPG.
By 2018, maybe Bunnies & Burrows will be on that list?
ReplyDeleteI don't see it undermining the other franchises and furrociously climbing the charts, its only got one book to its name!
DeleteJust a clarification about licenses: I just checked my copy of The One Ring and it seems that Cubicle 7's license is from Saul Zaentz Co. (now Middle Earth Enterprises), the same license-holder behind the Jackson films: this license includes rights to The Hobbit and the LotR, but NOT, it seems, The Silmarillion or other works. So in essence Cubicle 7 is drawing on the same corpus as New Line -- and an incomplete one as far as the totality of Middle Earth lore goes!
ReplyDeleteSo that puts D&D into three of the top five spots: D&D5E, D&D3.P, and AiME which is D&D5E too. Neat.
ReplyDeleteTo me, Shadowrun is the big surprise on that list. I expect the new Star Trek rpg to bump it.
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