I've been playing D&D on 'n off for the past...six years? I'm very glad I found it, but I've also just finished prepping my first one-shot using an alpha version of what I hope grows into the D&D killer. At the very least it is a much more fun game already, finally stripping out the weird war game legacy shit that never really made sense in D&D but would anger the grognards too much if it were removed from D&D. Personally, I just love the combination of narratively tense tactical battles and collaborative storytelling that keep me coming back to TTRPGs. It's just such a different medium to tell stories in than games, tv or film.

Matt Colville (of the aforementioned D&D killer) pointed out that there have been a bunch of cycles of interest, hype, excitement over new versions of D&D, only for it to grow stale again (or get superseded by WoW). The last years were definitely a new upswing for D&D that I rode along with, but I am also quite certain the inflection point is in the past and we're on a downward trajectory again. In no small part because Hasbro wants their properties to go bajillion-or-bust and D&D has never, will never be a cash cow the way Magic is, even if they manage to Netflix it up by making 6th Edition some kind of online tethered game. Kinda remarkable how varied and interesting the TTRPG space seems to be these days while simultaneously having D&D as the undeniable centerpiece.