An encyclopedia of pregenerated characters?  Simpler rules?  Faster gameplay?

Very tight core rules with broad possibilities presented in a colorful iconographic style.  Cool toy value in the box.  Less than ten minutes from opening the box to actually playing.

More social media poutrage. :mad: Oh, sorry, I think I misread the question...

(Honest answer, probably more mini one-shot adventures. That way people can fuck around in about 30 min. or less, like many casual competitive games, but still be an honest to goodness "uncompetitive" -- read: not PvP -- game. Make it less about PC power grinding and more about funky new adventures with setting relevant consequences, like a picaresque of film shorts.)

Quote from: Razor 007;1064621An encyclopedia of pregenerated characters?  Simpler rules?  Faster gameplay?

What do you mean? Everyday like a video game? A board game? A playground game?

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1064641What do you mean? Everyday like a video game? A board game? A playground game?

Dominoes, Uno, Checkers, Chess, or Poker; popularity wise.

A change in mankind :-) By this I mean that D&D (any RPG in fact) is not a "usual" game like those that have achieved mass-market fame. It requires 1 person as a judge/game-runner and the others as players. It requires 1 person (at least) to have a good imagination, and some level of descriptive or story-telling ability. None of the mass-market games require this. They just need you to be able to follow rules, think ahead and (in at least one case) bluff. A different skill-set completely.
D&D is more of a hobby than a game. So I'm not sure you can turn it into a game with the popularity of something Chess or Poker. I think that in order to do that you would have to change its fundamental character so that it was no longer an RPG.  

Just my 2p

Videogames/MMOs with super advanced AI acting as the DM. Also probably requires sci-fi full dive VR.

Or people being more social and active in their communities.

My money is on the Sci-fi option happening sooner than the fantasy option.

As a former Uno, Scrabble, Monopoly, Star Wars Escape the Death Star player, I'd say 'rules length' because a lot of special rules were never used or completely ignored at our family table because they were on page 3 or 4.

Quote from: David Johansen;1064623Very tight core rules with broad possibilities presented in a colorful iconographic style.  Cool toy value in the box.  Less than ten minutes from opening the box to actually playing.

You mean like Dungeon?

Quote from: Razor 007;1064621An encyclopedia of pregenerated characters?  Simpler rules?  Faster gameplay?

Not possible without changing its nature. I.e. OD&D versus Dungeon.

Simpler rules, ready-made dungeons with "estimated time" on them. Something like a simpler version of Heroquest.

Well, who knows.

"Dominoes, Uno, Checkers, Chess, or Poker" are all competitive games you can play with few people, sometimes two, and all play by the same rules (no player/GM). Not sure how RPGs would fit.

Quote from: Razor 007;1064651Dominoes, Uno, Checkers, Chess, or Poker; popularity wise.

Hmm.

I can see a future where everybody's dining room table is also a video screen (people currently have to DIY or purchase a flatscreen into an expensive structure). At that point you will be able to pop up a ready-to-play module, possibly with no GM, or an AI GM, or some simple process that enables the GM to do almost zero prep, and interactive character sheets that teach players as they go along.

The latter is the big divider between today and the experience you are asking about. Because the technology already exists (more or less), and the cultural appeal exists pretty much already.

What doesn't exist is a low barrier to entry (though it is much lower than it used to be) in terms of instant play. Chess can be taught in 15 minutes, the other games even faster. D&D and most other RPGs can't be.

It is, it's called World of Warcraft.

*ZING*

Quote from: estar;1064664You mean like Dungeon?

More like Hero Quest but with D&D rules.  So it's still d20 roll over target number to hit and stuff but there's a little picture of a d20 with the target number on it.  Weapons would show a picture of their damage die.  Personally, character creation and equipment purchasing are a big part of the game but there'd be a sack of plastic gold pieces and equipment cards showing the number of gold pieces.  You'd still have the narrative DMing aspect of the game otherwise it's just some bored game.  It might include miniatures, I'm big on miniatures as toy value but really, these days, lots of games have nice miniatures and the game needs to be affordable.  I do like the idea of buildable action figures, where you can add on armour and weapons accessories but that probably puts the game right out of the under $50 range.  Lets go with modular mapping tiles for dungeon and wilderness adventures instead.


So, my marketing plan goes like this:

Core booklet $10.  Everything you need to play but dice.  Maybe free on-line.

Adventure booklets $10.  With cool covers featuring demons and half naked women for shock value and to make sure you can't talk about D&D on TBP.

Boxed game $50 with core booklet, adventure booklet that's not available any where else, pouch full of gold pieces and gems, equipment cards, monster cards, and dungeon tiles.  Possibly include a dozen plastic miniatures but only if the quality and price point can be met.

Expert set boxed expansion set $50, with hexagonal wilderness cards, monster cards.

City adventure boxed expansion $50 with fold up buildings.

Ocean adventure boxed expansion $50  with two cardboard ships, island and ocean hex tile.

Blister packs with more gold pieces, equipment cards, monster cards, and miniatures.

Not possible, too many factors involved...

Time to play: most games indicated can be wrapped up in a short amount of time (exceptions being monopoly and chess, which can drag on forever)
Time to learn: as mentioned by someone else above.
Rules: most board games rules take up a single piece of paper, or less... which is why it takes longer to learn.
Cost: monopoly is a single unit ($19.99), dominoes are a single unit ($7.99), chess is a single unit ($12.99). there are no Player's Handbook (49.95),  DM guide($49.95), monster manual ($49.95), adventure packs, etc, just sit down and play.
Direct goals/competition: when playing traditional games, you have set goals... RPGs... players can make up the goals as you go along (nah, we don't want to rescue the princess, we want to sit in the bar and karaoke!)
Setup time: Unless the GM is really good, there has to be some amount of legwork to get a game together, either reading the module, or coming up with his own adventures. Traditional games, you just pull the pieces out and start playing at the the moment you decide to play.

that being said, it is already as popular as some of those games already, just not in the traditional sense