The D&D YouTubers I still watch are all reporting DMs Guild sales are massively down, and the best support they see is from their own storefronts. Still, the heyday of the 5E market is long over, and we are in the decline phase of the system's lifecycle.
D&D, in general, feels post-prime.
This is now a "brand and franchise," and it has lost its special appeal. D&D used to "unlock the worlds of fantasy and magic," and now it is a side-brand to Stranger Things and Rick and Morty, or any other pop-culture phenomenon that comes along, allowing them to hitch the D&D wagon to leech relevance.
The death of an IP occurs when it becomes a "leech brand" and is only used in cross-promotional marketing. Nobody eating Pop-Tarts? Link them to Star Wars. Your brand needs to be the one the leech brands come calling to, not the other way around.
And the slow death of 5E D&D is taking down the rest of the market. Interest in roleplaying in general is slowly dying. The clearance sales, the demise of dice companies, and branded junk appearing on Amazon are already evident signs. A new edition of anything won't save a dying game; it only puts a fresh coat of paint over it and hopes to delay the inevitable.
People still play 5E, and the community remains huge. 5E will continue to be played for decades to come, so if you still enjoy it, keep having fun. I would like to support Open 5E, but that is a tough call due to the need for computerized character creation. Either Tales of the Valiant or Level Up is a great choice.
That said, many are dumping 5E and returning to the niche games they loved before 5E came along and became "the only place to play." There is a resurgent OSR crowd, and First Edition is gathering interest. GURPS is still doing what it does, which is everything. Mythras is gathering "walk away" fans who want a more serious game.
Some of the games I see as waning in my interest levels are ones like Traveller, Shadowdark, or Dungeon Crawl Classics. These are late-cycle, bloated, library games that have become harder to play now that I have two shelves of books for each. I need to cut these libraries down to save these games. DCC is frankly losing my interest in comparison to the following three games:
Old School Essentials still does everything DCC does, but faster and easier. You don't have all the charts and special mechanics, but the essence of the simple, fast-playing, zero-reference game is there. This game stays out of the way; you are not constantly going back to the books for a table, and if I have to reference something, it happens in a few seconds rather than minutes.
Also, OSE does the entire "5E thing" with the various "race plus class" combos the best, and it has all the classic and new options that you will find in today's version of the game. OSE is the "5E Lite" that Shadowdark wants to be, but with the classic hireling and stronghold play intact. Shadowdark is still a fantastic game, but it is not as expansive and campaign-supporting as OSE.
Stay out of my way, get rid of all these charts. I don't need the board game scaffolding, and let me play the game as it was back when it was good.
Adventures Dark & Deep is the best First Edition game on the market, supported, and it has a sane license that allows for third-party support. Do not play or support the reprinted games that can't be supported by third parties! You are hurting the community of creators and continuing an unfair practice of supporting a game that can't be supported by the fans. The Lite version seamlessly transitions into the whole game and serves as an ideal entry point for the First Edition hobby.
Even For Gold & Glory is a wonderful reimagination of the Second Edition of the game. If your memories of the game date back to the 1990s, this is your new home, and the art is flat-out terrific, featuring public domain selections that add to the experience. Granted, there is not that much difference between First Edition ADAD and Second Edition FG&G beyond the former being a rules-expanded 1E and the latter being a clone of 2E.
Generally, opt for FG&G if you prefer a streamlined experience and don't need extra options. You want to recreate the classic Second Edition feel, along with 100% compatibility with Second Edition books and adventures. With the reprint of the Monsterous Compendium and the Outer Planes Appendix, you have a complete 2E game.
Plus, the FG&G PDF is free to download and redistribute. Nobody needs to buy anything to play or referee the game. It is one of the best values in gaming.
Go for ADAD if you want an expanded First Edition with numerous rule improvements.
The more detailed First and Second Edition games compete with GURPS, which is becoming my "everything else" game. Once you learn GURPS, there is little else you can't do. Everything from hyper-realistic, gritty fantasy to science fiction opens up, and I am not buying and collecting boxes of games that will go into storage.
GURPS is my only "library game" that holds up to having a large number of books and maintaining my interest. Other games, like Pathfinder 1E, Traveller, DCC, Shadowdark, and others? I get the feeling the more books I have, the worse it gets. GURPS holds my interest, and it gets better with more books. You don't need 95% of them for any genre, as they are just references.
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