Re: D&D Resurgence
 

Hopefully, the flow into other RPG's will occur after D&D makes some decision that turns people away and they start looking at other games, or when the current crop matures a little.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

You could have said that 25 years ago…

D&D 4e put off a lot of people. But they're mostly playing Pathfinder, not GURPS.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

The decline of the FLGS doesn't help. There isn't really any automatic method that would cause people dissatisfied with D&D (but still interested in RPGs; a lot of people who are dissatisfied will just stop playing) to encounter alternatives.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

For what little anecdotal evidence it's worth, I came to GURPS 4E right after D&D made the transition from 3.5E to 4E.

It takes some degree of mental distancing to step back, critically examine the assumptions of your gaming rules, and also critically examine your own desired mechanics in an RPG system.

Even when I knew D&D 3.5 wasn't doing it for me, I spent a couple of years trying to convert it into a points-buy system. At one point I owned every single hardback 3/3.5E non-campaign book they'd put out, I was so desperate to find the "one supplement that fixes everything to my liking".

It's several important mental steps to expect of a gamer who's only ever known one system (and in fact for whom that single system may be a metonym for the entire hobby as a whole). Not everybody will have time to barricade themselves in a gaming store for two days like me, reviewing game systems.

If GURPS could advertise more on digital platforms, to spread the word of its strengths and flexibilities, it might reach more folks. Certainly these days, FLGS aren't doing so well and many people are trying stuff out online.

Has SJG ever gotten ad pixels on the big RPG sites? On Discord? etc.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

D&D 5E is probably the best researched RPG in terms of market research. 5E design process was heavily built on regular surveys about the latest drafts.

Add to that the advertising, the fact that it's the best known and best supported game...

Don't hold your breath waiting for D&D's new audience to go looking. Most who like D&D will stay playing it. It's the ones who try it, like the idea but not the rules, and goes looking for better rules... there's always that component, and the market overall seems to be growing, but not at the expense of D&D nor Pathfinder....

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

Most of the RPG market in North America is people who start out with some version of D&D but get bored with its limits and try something else. At some point, D&D 3e's marketing philosophy was based around entertaining players from about the age of 14 to 22 because so many people stop playing as much as their career and family lives get busier. In North America, as versions of D&D go so does the industry because people who like the basic idea of tabletop roleplaying are more likely to try a new system or product.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

Perhaps the options, resources, and communities on Roll20 and the rest will help.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

No, Most of the RPG market is D&D. Period. More units of D&D 5E core have sold than all other D&D editions combined, which is a frighteningly large market share.

I suspect you mean "Most of the non-D&D RPG market is ..." but even there, that's probably still wrong, because a lot of people playing other games aren't done with D&D.

Re: D&D Resurgence
 

I think Kromm said a while back that 90% of the RPG market is D&D, and 90% of the rest is other dungeon bashing games. (If I got this wrong I apologise; that's the way I remember it.) Those of us who play other stuff are weirdoes even by RPG-er standards.