Yesterday, it was all over the RPG Twitter feeds of those involved that there will be a new spin on watching others play D&D, DnD Sports[EDIT: Name changed to RPG Sports]. While this might come as a surprise about this new thing, it all ties in with current trends in online RPGs. 

Why The Unexpected Should Not Surprise Us

A few months ago, the CEO of Hasbro, parent company of WOTC, the current makers of D&D, mentioned the rise of watching others play D&D online. Most figured it was Magic: The Gathering (MtG) card game that was getting the eSports treatment. Few expected it to be D&D. While D&D appears to have entered this new arena first, MtG will most likely follow soon. The CEO announced more crossovers of ideas, such as settings from MtG to D&D. That happened with the upcoming Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

Many video games are inspired by D&D and other RPGs, which led to competitive play of video games. This first foray into competitive D&D/RPGs is capitalizing on the abundance of well-watched online shows. It’s under the WOTC/D&D banner, so it is WOTC’s attempt to bring more of the audience who watch others play D&D to watch them do it competitively. [EDIT: DNDBeyond and Encounter Roleplay organized it.] There’s obviously money involved since Critical Role took their show and made a whole business out of it, in L.A. of all places. By that, I mean, California isn’t a cheap place to live, let alone run a business.

Competitive play isn’t new as their have been D&D and other RPG tournament modules, like the much maligned Tomb of Horrors [Affiliate Link], from back in the day. Few, if any, early RPG tournaments were recorded via audio or video, so we may have no record of how those went beyond written accounts. Also, tournament modules had a role playing aspect, and unlike the RPG Sports, was not directly player verses player.

Original RPG tournaments were teams of players going through the same module and competing to complete the core adventure, and as many side tasks as possible in the shortest amount of time, with the fewest character deaths.

A Different Light

RPG Sports is kicking off November 1st and is a combat elimination, basically gladiatorial combat in a dungeon setting. It will use the 5th edition rules and there will be rules of tournament play that have been play tested. According to this article, there will be four teams of four players that will pick from 16 pre-generated characters. The rules for tournament play will be released once play testing is complete.

Encounter Roleplay is a group of players that have been on Twitch for years and have been teamed up with DnDBeyond to make this happen.

Encounter Roleplay was started by DM Will Jones. Fellow DM & player, Sydney Shields is the Community Manager for RPGSports. Fellow player, Mytia Zimmer will be a caster for the first ever tournament on RPGSports.

It will use Roll20 for the Virtual Table Top (VTT). This may explain why the sudden change in Roll20 handing their subReddit over to non-employees to moderate after their customer relations nightmare a few weeks ago.

For more information and the November Schedule of games, see RPG Sports.

My Thoughts

While I find some of these shows entertaining to watch, and have friends who are a big part of it, I can’t watch regularly for a few reasons. First, I don’t get it. I know they’re really playing and having fun, it just isn’t as fun for me to watch, I’d rather play. Second, it’s a huge time sink and I’ve got too many things on my plate already.

However, no matter what you think of watching online play, the huge popularity of it has led to a great lifting of the stigma those in my generation endured. Grognards who don’t like it should keep their grumbling under their breath and be happy that those who love RPGs can make a living at it. While I’m not sure combat is the best way to do this, I haven’t seen the tournament rules as they haven’t been made public yet.

Much of this is a generational thing. And with all hobbies, there are those who would rather watch others have their fun than do it themselves. For many, this is also their gateway into RPGs. Converting more of them to customers is the smart thing for WoTC and any other RPG publisher to do. WoTC just had the best financial results for D&D ever, they want to continue that trend for as long as possible. Following the masses in this new market potential is only reasonable. 

I expect in years to come, we will see D&D experienced in ways we don’t expect. That or the technology to experience it in ways that are currently science fiction will become reality. 

I also expect that this is a strategy to ensure the longevity of 5e as they currently have the rules “right” as far as buy in and regaining their market share lost to Paizo. This will also hamper Paizo’s efforts to make a big splash with their second edition, now in the works. While the audience for RPGs is huge compared to ever before, it won’t enlarge the share of the pie for other companies if nearly all eyes are on D&D. For many newer fans of D&D, RPGs and D&D are the same thing. 

For this reason, gaming grognards should not complain. At some point tastes will change and gamers will want something else. Be open and accepting of that and welcome them. I have seen many younger gamers wanting lighter rules and checking out the styles of play loved by the OSR. I don’t have hard numbers on that, but I’ve ran old games for people in their 20’s and they had a blast.

As with everything in life, just wait, things will change.