Growing the Hobby

It’s taken me a while to get here, but this is the final post of the 30 days of GMing Challenge, and fitting that this question falls on/around the 40th anniversary of D&D (and the hobby). At least it does for me because of the length of time it’s taken me to get to this last question!

Growing the hobby is something that comes up in every niche activity that I’m aware of, and it’s important!

But only a little.

The thing is, I don’t think that “the hobby” is in any danger. I am seeing new people join in on G+ regularly, I see old blogs die off, and new ones start up, I see posts about families playing together, I see new adventures, new rules sets, new everything in such volume that I can’t keep up.

And that's just in our little corner of the hobby, and ours is a little corner! The OSR (and by this I mean anyone playing OD&D through 2nd Edition or a game derived/based on those rule sets) is a vocal minority when compared to the numbers playing Pathfinder and even 4e. I can’t even guess how it compares to the non-D&D side of the hobby.

Given that Pathfinder is still publishing, that there is no slowdown of DCC products, that the new edition of D&D comes out this year, I think the hobby is doing just fine.

If you really are interested in growing the hobby, there’s two things you need to do:

1. Enjoy the hobby (aka PLAY!)

2. Talk about the hobby - find new players, then go back to #1.

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A big thank you to Kat over at Triple Crit for putting together this set of questions.