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"The Current Age of D&D Players is..." Topic


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Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian20 Jul 2022 4:20 a.m. PST

You were asked – TMP link

If you are currently playing D&D on a semi-regular basis (or were before the 'Rona), what age range do you fall into?

Average result: 50 to 59

Choctaw20 Jul 2022 5:25 a.m. PST

I played a couple of nights in college but couldn't drink enough to really get into it.

sgt Dutch20 Jul 2022 6:09 a.m. PST

73 not the norm

pzivh43 Supporting Member of TMP20 Jul 2022 6:18 a.m. PST

Some kids never grow up! 👍😁

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP20 Jul 2022 8:57 a.m. PST

Actually, the current age of a plurality of D&D players who also participate in TMP polls is 50-59. These days the average age of people who play the game currently sold as Dungeons & Dragons is much, much younger.

I'm willing to bet the various editions will skew into their own age groups according to the edition corresponding to the player's age at 12-21, with outliers for wargaming hobbyist who were already adults when Gygax and Arneson first began pitching the game among the wargaming community.

So if you were 12-20 in the late ‘70s, and still play today, you probably play a version of either Original D&D (or a clone)— that is, the trio of booklets and supplements first introduced in 1974, OR Advanced Dungeons & Dragons aka "1e" originally published in 1978.

If you were 12-20 in the early ‘80s and still play, again you are probably playing the "Basic" boxed set editions from Moldvay, Marsh, Cook and Mentzer OR are playing AD&D 1e.

If you were 12-20 in the late ‘80s and still play, you are probably playing AD&D Second Edition, aka 2e— though you might be a holdout for 1e.

If you were 12-20 in the ‘90s and early 2000's you probably play the first version of Dungeons & Dragons published by Wizards of the Coast— the version called 3e or 3.5e— or you play the clone, Pathfinder.

Nobody still plays 4e.

If you were 12-20 from 2014 on, you probably play the current WotC/Hasbro edition of D&D, aka 5e.

There is overlap throughout the above.
Well, except for 4e. As I said, nobody plays that. wink

(For the record, I am an outlier, as I began at 14 with Holmes Basic and AD&D 1e, but as an adult switched to Mentzer Basic boxed sets.)

Kropotkin30320 Jul 2022 11:47 a.m. PST

I live in a seaside town in the UK where there are three game shops that host games. I have met a couple of the local DMs who are in their late twenties and the groups that they run, sometimes in pubs, seem to have teenagers to middle aged people playing together. Listening to people I know at work there seems to be a curiousity amongst some people in their twenties about D&D. These people are not wargamers just sociable people out to have a goodtime. Anecdotal but there you go. I guess people like playing games. Certainly the DMs are very enthusiastic helping others dip their toes.

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