Quote from: RPGPundit;479949I think you can make an argument that D&D is the top game because it was first; while Fantasy is the top genre (in terms of number of games and settings available for it) because of that unconscious weight.  

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I think there is something to this as well. At first I dismissed it because TV shows are by and large set in the modern world and cover pretty mundane subject matter (to the extent that we now have reality shows). But the more I thought about it, I realized gaming is a very different experience and I think there may be more of a mythic draw to it. It may also be that gamers as a group just have more of an attraction to the "unconscious weight".

Quote from: RPGPundit;479949I think you can make an argument that D&D is the top game because it was first; while Fantasy is the top genre (in terms of number of games and settings available for it) because of that unconscious weight.  

RPGPundit

Really, I think this is it.  It's not that it's "more popular", so much as D&D is more popular than everything, so it dominates the discussion.

If Gygax had been a SF nerd instead, we might all be playing "Spaceships and Supernovas" and wondering why SF is so much more popular than other genres.  

And amusingly, that would put it more in tune with the mainstream, because the truth is, SF still sells at the box office, whereas fantasy rarely does unless it's LOTR or for kids.

Modern vehicles are death to RPGs, because the mediums of roleplaying and boardgames are ill-suited to recreating the thrills of high velocity combat.
 
I've tried to love games with fast vehiclular combat (Judge Dredd, Star Wars, D&D with horses, and Gurps Vehicles: the punchline) but it's just too much work to have characters fighting in their proper 5' squares and then have someone race up in a vehicle at 200 MPH (i.e. move their gargantuan sized X-wing starfighter 59 squares per six-second round.)  Not to mention the tremendous amount of damage a vehicular collision creates, even before you get into awsome destructive power of lightspeed kamakazi autopilots.
 
Honestly I don't know of a good Roleplaying or board game for Harry Potter style broomstick races. I could enjoy it, but I wouldn't say to anyone else here: this game makes you feel like you're really playing Quiddich. I've enjoyed Star Wars RPGs but the best I can offer is to narrate a story about flying quickly or, let them move their miniature 8 squares every five miniutes or so. I don't have anything in my RPG/boardgame repertoire that really gives the experience of flying.
 
I also blame dragons that stand and fight on this. If we had a perfect roleplaying game engine dragons would fly in combat.

Quote from: J Arcane;479958Really, I think this is it.  It's not that it's "more popular", so much as D&D is more popular than everything, so it dominates the discussion.

If Gygax had been a SF nerd instead, we might all be playing "Spaceships and Supernovas" and wondering why SF is so much more popular than other genres.  

And amusingly, that would put it more in tune with the mainstream, because the truth is, SF still sells at the box office, whereas fantasy rarely does unless it's LOTR or for kids.

I agree.

My caveat woudl be that I really do think table top RPGs appeal more to bookish types than movie types and fantasy books outself SF but a factor of 10 (number made up based on trip yesterday to waterstones and smiths)

Quote from: Malleus Arianorum;479975Modern vehicles are death to RPGs, because the mediums of roleplaying and boardgames are ill-suited to recreating the thrills of high velocity combat.
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In my experience a good set of simple rules for dealing with vehicles can manage this okay. Where I think the feel gets lost is when the rules go into too much detail (calculating speed on turns that kind of thing).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;478832Is it simply because people come to RPGs through dungeons and dragons?

Yes. Compounded by the fact that D&D developed a default form of play which is easy to design, easy to DM, easy to generically support, and easy to play. This form can be easily adapted to other fantasy games, but often runs into problems when attempted in non-fantasy settings.

In addition, the genre of "fantasy" paints with a very wide brush. The World of Darkness can be easily described as urban fantasy, but it's significantly different from D&D fantasy.

Top 5 RPGs in Q2 2011: Pathfinder, D&D, Warhammer 40k, Dragon Age, Shadowrun.

That's two versions of D&D, one fantasy game, and two science fantasy games.

Pretty soft scifi, at that.

Quote from: Peregrin;480033Pretty soft scifi, at that.

That is why it is called science fantasy. It is closely related to space opera in that it uses the trappings of science fiction, but only gives lip service to the science. Both Star Wars and Star Trek fall into this category, which might help to explain their popularity.

Quote from: jeff37923;480052That is why it is called science fantasy. It is closely related to space opera in that it uses the trappings of science fiction, but only gives lip service to the science. Both Star Wars and Star Trek fall into this category, which might help to explain their popularity.

Hmm, don't think I would classify Trek as Space Opera.  There were many episodes that were classic "science fiction" in the original meaning - posit a new technology and examine what effect that could have on humanity.

In a lot of cases, the science was just there as both cause of the problem and deus ex machina, but not always.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;479954I think there is something to this as well. At first I dismissed it because TV shows are by and large set in the modern world and cover pretty mundane subject matter (to the extent that we now have reality shows). But the more I thought about it, I realized gaming is a very different experience and I think there may be more of a mythic draw to it. It may also be that gamers as a group just have more of an attraction to the "unconscious weight".

TV shows and film also have certain budgetary limitation that would sometimes make pure fantasy very difficult.  
Also, yes, certain people may be more drawn to the symbolic weight of folklore; coincidentally, many of these will also be drawn to the symbolic power of Sci-fi; though these will be a subset of the former.  Ergo, there'll be more fantasy nuts in general than sci-fi nuts in particular.

RPGPundit

Quote from: J Arcane;479958Really, I think this is it.  It's not that it's "more popular", so much as D&D is more popular than everything, so it dominates the discussion.

If Gygax had been a SF nerd instead, we might all be playing "Spaceships and Supernovas" and wondering why SF is so much more popular than other genres.  

I doubt it. I think a more likely scenario is people would be asking why is it that there are more successful fantasy RPGs than sci-fi RPGs, and people on forums would be going "Well duh, obviously because Spaceships and Supernovas is so big that only a few other sci-fi games can have a viable place in the hobby".

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