D&D research: Data shows how the tabletop hobby has transformed over the years

You have until the end of the year to complete the tabletop RPG survey for 2021-2022. There are prizes on offer.

It’s run by recent alums Games for Learning & Digital Media Design for Learning students from New York University (NYU) and tracks the impact of COVID, how TTRPGS are being used in education, the differences in online and in-person and future technologies.

You can see results so far, which date back to the 2019-2020 survey, on this notion dashboard. There’s also the D&D Research site.

It shows that while over 90% of respondents have tried online tabletop RPGs, the most popular way to visualise the game is still a feature of the mind. 2D images, as you’d find from the current market leaders in the VTT space, come next, with 3d digital used only by a few.

Theatre of the mind and online play? I was expecting to see Discord responsible, and previous research from the group gave Facebook Messenger a large chunk of usage too.

There might be sighs of relief if this trend continues; more players are trying their hand at being GM. In 2019, 48% of tabletop gamers had been both a DM and a player; in 2020, that figure was much higher at 65%.

There is a generous collection of prizes on offer this year, and worryingly for D&D Research no apparent geographical restrictions (I fear shipping will be expensive). The catch? You’ve 24 hours to respond to your winners’ notification, or you forfeit! As a site that often runs competitions, I can confirm that there will be many forfeits!