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2019-04-08, 12:54 AM (ISO 8601)
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"Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
From The New York Times today:
"Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons
Fighting the dragon queen Tiamat is a much more satisfying way to spend time with my friends than social media ever was.
By Annalee Newitz
Ms. Newitz is a science journalist and novelist.
I started playing Dungeons & Dragons right around the time I completely gave up on Facebook. It was a little less than a year ago, as the first stories broke about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I was sick of the social media idea of friendship, defined as likes or shares or “X knows the same 50 people you know.” So when my friend Kate suggested we start a game of Dungeons & Dragons, I thought, “Yes, I’m going to get together with people face-to-face, without any hearting or retweeting, and we’re going to eat chips and fight those damn cultists who are trying to resurrect the evil, five-headed dragon queen Tiamat.”
Until then, I had played a little D&D as an adult, but I hadn’t joined a group that met regularly. But I am basically the target demographic for “Stranger Things.” Like the characters on that show, I played D&D in the 1980s with a group of geeky guys every day at lunch throughout the sixth grade, slaying vegepygmies in a crashed spaceship and meeting the great demon Lolth in her sticky transdimensional web.
Kate became our dungeon master, the narrator of our adventure, who sets the scene using maps, dice, flowery language and silly accents. We were joined by seven other friends around my dining room table, eager to take on the roles of fighting monk, rogue, sorcerer, warlock, paladin, bard and cleric. As soon as Kate told us to fill out our character sheets, I remembered the feeling of sheer awesomeness that had drawn me to the game when I was 11. I was about to become an Aarakocra cleric, a bird person with a divine connection to nature who could call down lightning, raise winds, grow plants from the barren earth and heal the dying with a touch.
But D&D isn’t only about inventing a more badass version of myself, with wings and magic powers instead of sneakers and a laptop. I was also drawn to the idea of building a social group whose baseline assumption was that we’d see one another regularly. There’s a sense of purpose to the gathering.
Using a few maps spread on the table, we chart our course, explaining to Kate and one another what we want to do next. And when Kate leaves us on a cliffhanger, there’s no “Hey, I’ll text you later and maybe we can meet up.” Of course we’ll meet up again. The point of the game isn’t to win; it’s to go adventuring together.
Wizards of the Coast, the parent company of Dungeons & Dragons, reported that 8.6 million people played the game in 2017, its biggest year of sales in two decades. That mark was eclipsed in 2018, when D&D sales reportedly grew 30 percent. All of those D&D consumers are snapping up the Fifth Edition, a new rule set released in 2014 that emphasizes a flexible approach to combat and decision-making. New players don’t need to learn as many arcane rules to get started, and sales of D&D starter kits skyrocketed.
Adding to the newfound popularity are thousands of D&D games broadcast on YouTube and the live-stream service Twitch. “Critical Role,” a popular livestream and podcast, features actors playing the game.
This surge of interest is no doubt also inspired by shows like “Stranger Things” and the D&D-esque world of “Game of Thrones.” We want to escape into fantasy worlds where we know who the bad guys are and our spells to banish evil actually work. In this way, D&D is similar to online games like World of Warcraft, where people take on imaginary identities, form a guild and shout at one another using headsets while fighting orcs.
What makes D & D different is that we can never forget about the human beings behind the avatars. When a member of my group makes a bad choice, I can’t look into his face and shout insults the way I would if we were playing online. He’s a person, and my friend, even if he also inexplicably decided to open an obviously booby-trapped trunk, get a faceful of poison and use up my last remaining healing spell.
Annalee Newitz (@Annaleen), a science journalist, is the founder of the science fiction website io9 and the author of a novel, “Autonomous.”"
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2019-04-08, 02:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2008
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Yep, it's good that we are no longer shunned by regular society for our hobbies.
In memory of Evisceratus: he dreamed of a better world, but he lacked the class levels to make the dream come true.
Ridiculous monsters you won't take seriously even as they disembowel you
my take on the highly skilled professional: the specialized expert
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2019-04-08, 02:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2013
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- Sweden
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2019-04-08, 03:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2018
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
"the D&D-esque world of “Game of Thrones.”
Wow, I'd hate to be in a game George RR Martin ran. Decent stakes, but man does he have pet NPCs he kills in an instant, and his map makes no sense given the travel times involved.
(I guess it's true but it's weird to think of a fantasy thing being automatically D&D-esque, since D&D kinda has its own niche as the old pulpy fantasy novels but in game form, whilst a lot of fantasy nowadays is far removed from the Eric of Melbourne or whatever style stories)OI YOU! Join this one Discord where people talk 3.5 stuff! Also chicken infested related things! It’s pretty rad! https://discord.gg/6HmgXhUZ
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2019-04-08, 09:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
All the cool kids were smoking too at some point. No one with half a brain should take the guidance of "the cool kids" and thus this writer did it wrong in the article.Read the actual article? Pff, nobody's got time for that.
Founder of the Fanclub of the (Late) Chief of Cliffport Police Department (He shall live forever in our hearts)
CATNIP FOR THE CAT GOD! MILK FOR THE MILK BOWL!
Shameless shill:
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2019-04-08, 09:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2018
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
I sense bias. The kids are playing video games; the old kids play D&D. But, like, it's all cool, man.
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2019-04-08, 12:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- Corvallis, OR
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Dawn of Hope: a 5e setting. http://wiki.admiralbenbo.org
Rogue Equivalent Damage calculator, now prettier and more configurable!
5e Monster Data Sheet--vital statistics for all 693 MM, Volo's, and now MToF monsters: Updated!
NIH system 5e fork, very much WIP. Base github repo.
NIH System PDF Up to date main-branch build version.
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2019-04-08, 12:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2014
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2019-04-08, 12:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Puff piece or not, if the takeaway is that D&D is being seen as more mainstream, that's probably not a bad thing.
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2019-04-08, 02:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2009
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2019-04-08, 02:47 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2008
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
I'll admit that I don't have the strongest sense of what exactly is and isn't cool, but I'm willing to say that "science journalist and novelist" are questionable credentials at best here. This is standard NYT opinion pages drek.
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2019-04-08, 06:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
if we really want to explore that tangent, there are no "cool kids". there are just different kids.
I think I speak for you too when i say that if we were to hang up with the "cool kids", we'd be bored, because they don't share ur interests.
But I was taking it as a less literal meaning of "playing D&D no longer makes you a social outcast"
on the other hand, by the comparison with the social media, it seems that it's not us who went up, it's the rest of the world that went down. But seriously, I never figured out what non-gamers people find so interesting to talk about for whole evenings. Well, possibly science, but talking a whole evening about science is pretty much the opposite of the stereotyped "cool kid".
Well, I guess I just don't understand how normal people entertain themselvesIn memory of Evisceratus: he dreamed of a better world, but he lacked the class levels to make the dream come true.
Ridiculous monsters you won't take seriously even as they disembowel you
my take on the highly skilled professional: the specialized expert
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2019-04-08, 08:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2019
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2019-04-08, 10:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2018
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- Space Australia
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
But I don't want to play D&D with the cool kids...
... I want to play with the people who would be there even when the hobby is considered 'uncool'.
Well, ok, I do want to cool kids to play also. I'm happy to welcome people to my games regardless of their cool status. I just prefer people who are there for genuine interest and enjoyment. To go in with the assumption that it's the 'cool kid's game' just strikes me as the wrong mindset for reasons I can't quite put into words.
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2019-04-08, 11:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Everything I've heard - particularly about 5e's success in the market - suggests table-top gaming is on-trend, or at least more than it has been in several decades. I've seen a lot of adult-oriented entertainment focused more on creative self-expression and cooperative experiences - from guided DIY projects to more preformative experiences like Escape Rooms - and board-gaming especially has seen a spike in popularity in recent years. Table-top RPG gaming is in the cross-section of what a lot of people want from alternative entertainment sources now.
Basically, people outside the traditional gaming market are more open to the idea of what they can do with their free time, and D&D is highly visible and very accessible now to be that thing their money and time can go into.Last edited by Kitten Champion; 2019-04-13 at 03:12 AM.
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2019-04-09, 10:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2011
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
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2019-04-09, 10:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
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2019-04-09, 12:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2016
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
As people are less able to afford "eating out" as a form of entertainment, the much cheaper RPG/boardgame scene explodes with people doing that instead (seriously any nerdy physical game aside from wargames or TCGs cost less than a round of drinks and last a lot longer than half an hour).
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2019-04-09, 03:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
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2019-04-09, 08:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
I blame "Stranger things" morea then GOT.
After that show came along a bunch of cool, beautiful and trendy people showed up in our group interested in playing D&D.
Critical rolls also helped with the younger kids.
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2019-04-09, 09:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2008
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2019-04-09, 10:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2010
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
It is a sad day indeed when roleplayers are now being held up as examples of sociable people. I mean, its still good we're not being shunned but there is uh...something I can't quite put my finger on
and yeah, I don't get how "normal" people entertain themselves either. but then again I'm diagnosed autistic/aspergic, so I don't get a lot of things about society that I'm trying to figure out and learn to fit in, even as an adult.
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2019-04-10, 01:34 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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- Norway
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
D&D has always held the potential for mass appeal, the problem is that it was packaged in a lot of obscurity and layered in myths and bad stereotypes.
I reckon shows like Critical Role kinda revealed to people how accessible it actually is and imo that is a good thing. Far too often these days I see gamer types go about gatekeeping, as if there's some kind of badge of honor to hold a hobby to themselves. It made them feel smart or something for "figuring it out", buying all of the rulebooks or knowing them inside out.
But fact is, D&D was always a social hobby and each and every one of us were introduced to the hobby somehow, even if it was just word of mouth or playing video games where the rules feature and then buying the books and figuring it out from there. More people to play with means more experiences we can share with and the hobby can evolve to some degree.
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2019-04-10, 02:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2008
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Now, I wouldn't be so drastic. Roleplaying is actually a very social activity. You have to spend time with a group of people regularly and you have to take decisions and get along. Heck, just yesterday I saw a conference where an entrepreneur told my students how it is important that they can fit in a working group once they go out of school, and roleplaying can actually be an excellent training for that - you have to learn to juggle the different expectations of every member of the party.
I think roleplaying got shunned because it involves lot of gaming, and gaming is considered an asocial activity. So ignorant people who never knew better decided that roleplaying was not cool. It does not help that gamers themselves tend to not be the most sociable of people.
Which led to the paradox that rolplaying games became one of the most social activities while being practiced by some of the most antisocial people.
As an added bonus, roleplaying let gamers be more social. turned out many of them didn't bond with others only because they lacked other like-minded individuals.
Also this sums it up.In memory of Evisceratus: he dreamed of a better world, but he lacked the class levels to make the dream come true.
Ridiculous monsters you won't take seriously even as they disembowel you
my take on the highly skilled professional: the specialized expert
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2019-04-10, 07:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2018
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
Citation needed.
Normal people talk about recent events in the real world, other people who they know, and their own life. Note that these aren't the only things that people talk about, but are common topics. Generally they perform activities within their social group. I. E, watch movies, play vidya, sport, whatever."You... little... *****. It's what my old man called me, it's like it was my name, and I proved him right, by killing all the wrong people. [And], I love ya Henry, and I'll never call you anything but your name, but you gotta decide; are you gonna lay there, swallow that blood in your mouth, or are you gonna stand up, spit it out, and go spill theirs?" - Unknown
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2019-04-11, 04:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2015
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- Berlin
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
The interesting part is the last paragraph of the article. Playing a TTRPG at a live table is a very social affair and a direct interaction between human beings. It´s very much removed from the toxic swamp that anonymous digital media has devolved into and can therefore really be called a place for the "cool kids".
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2019-04-11, 06:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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2019-04-12, 02:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
There's also places on twitter, youtube and others where similar sentiments are popping up. Also a bunch of disgusting memes popping up. I'd link them, but frankly I think it's better not to.
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2019-04-12, 12:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2011
Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
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2019-04-12, 03:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2008
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Re: "Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons" - New York Times essay!
well, there is some truth to it. as a niche hobby becomes mainstream, they generally remove a lot of complexity because the main public does not like to put too much effort.
too bad it's laced in sexism, prejudices, generalization and general dickishness.
I wonder who would try to use that image to persuade anyone of anything - except maybe of being a prejudiced bigotIn memory of Evisceratus: he dreamed of a better world, but he lacked the class levels to make the dream come true.
Ridiculous monsters you won't take seriously even as they disembowel you
my take on the highly skilled professional: the specialized expert