Survey Link Here

One of the big yearly events of the wargaming world is the annual Great Wargaming Survey, a way to research and gather information on trends and player behaviours which is then available for smaller wargame developers and publishers to use in order to drive their business decisions and present to banks in order to obtain loans.

This allows the smaller developers to compete on a more level playing field with the bigger developers, as they do not have the funds available to pay for market research.

Something like this does not exist for tabletop roleplaying.

With this, that will change.

The Great Tabletop Roleplaying Survey is a 20 section survey that should take you between 10 and 15 minutes, depending on how much detail goes into your answers. There is also a much shorter section for people who are interested in tabletop but who have not yet gotten into the hobby.

The survey will run until it has hit 1,000 responses (as of this post, the survey has been up for 8 hours and has 100 responses) or the start of February 2024, whichever is first.

This blog will host analysis of the survey, and all non-personal data1 will be available upon request for small developers and publishers.

It would be greatly appreciated if people would share this far and wide, as the hope is that this will benefit everyone in the long run. If you have any communities that may be interested in this, please post this there.

The survey link is here.

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The survey currently has just over 900 responses. The survey will be running until the beginning of February. I was originally going to close out the survey once it hit 1k responses, but I have been talked out of it for the time being.

You can keep updated at my blog as well. Check my signature for a link.

Done.

Taken.

QuoteIf you would like, please select gender identity, and tick all that apply.

Any demographics derived from this survey question will be meaningless. Unless maybe "What do you identify as?"

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 11, 2024, 01:30:57 PM
Done.

Appreciated!

Quote from: Ratman_tf on January 11, 2024, 01:50:08 PM
Taken.

QuoteIf you would like, please select gender identity, and tick all that apply.

Any demographics derived from this survey question will be meaningless. Unless maybe "What do you identify as?"

I asked a friend what was expected from that sort of question nowadays, and that is how he told me to answer.

It means, "What do you identify as?" but that question caused some form of offence I was not capable of understanding.

Working on the survey, but some of the questions are inadequate or poorly worded.

On GM vs Player, the survey wants to know what you are currently acting as, not what you are. (I'm a GM learning to be a Player - but I don't currently GM.)

Other questions are in adequate. How prevalent do I want combat? It depends. In Traveller, I want it as seldom as possible, so the character doesn't die. In D&D, I want it much more often.

It doesn't let me put 0 for paper copies. We don't buy paper.

I've been thinking on the wording of the combat question.

Combat should always be an option, but never required. Our Traveller GM had a situation where he was sure we were going to go into combat. He was all setup and ready, looking forward to it.

We did everything possible to avoid that combat - successfully.

But if we wanted to use violence, that should be allowed, we just have to accept the consequences.

Quote from: Scholarch on January 12, 2024, 08:02:48 AM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 11, 2024, 01:30:57 PM
Done.

Appreciated!

Quote from: Ratman_tf on January 11, 2024, 01:50:08 PM
Taken.

QuoteIf you would like, please select gender identity, and tick all that apply.

Any demographics derived from this survey question will be meaningless. Unless maybe "What do you identify as?"

I asked a friend what was expected from that sort of question nowadays, and that is how he told me to answer.

It means, "What do you identify as?" but that question caused some form of offence I was not capable of understanding.

I'm glad you're aware of it.
If you use the survey information to attempt to derive "How many women play RPGs?", or "How many men play RPGs?" You'll have to answer the question "What do you mean by man/woman?"

Done. Interested in seeing the results

I did it.  I wonder if they will actually listen or if they are just looking to collect numbers to self justify.

Quote from: Tod13 on January 12, 2024, 09:01:40 AM
Working on the survey, but some of the questions are inadequate or poorly worded.

On GM vs Player, the survey wants to know what you are currently acting as, not what you are. (I'm a GM learning to be a Player - but I don't currently GM.)

Other questions are in adequate. How prevalent do I want combat? It depends. In Traveller, I want it as seldom as possible, so the character doesn't die. In D&D, I want it much more often.

It doesn't let me put 0 for paper copies. We don't buy paper.

Sadly there are pretty heavy limitations on using Forms for surveying. I will probably try to find a better one to run this under next year.

Quote from: DataDwarf on January 12, 2024, 09:47:27 AM
Done. Interested in seeing the results

Thank you very much.

Quote from: BadApple on January 12, 2024, 11:42:52 AM
I did it.  I wonder if they will actually listen or if they are just looking to collect numbers to self justify.

Appreciated!

I mostly wanted to satisfy my own curiosity. When I started to hunt for numbers on stuff, I could not find anything worth using.

The worst criticism I have gotten so far is, "It does not really include a lot of detail on narratively driven games."

But then when I ask for what questions they would like asked, "I should not have to do your job for you."

I am doing this for free.

Quote from: Scholarch on January 12, 2024, 01:18:53 PM
But then when I ask for what questions they would like asked, "I should not have to do your job for you."

I am doing this for free.

I'm sorry, but that's pretty predictable. It's easier to complain than to be constructive.

I have completed the survey.

My only gripe is what the least I would pay for a .pdf I had to put in $1.00 because it wouldn't let me put in $0.00.

I dont use or buy .pdfs and I never will.   It's either print or nothing for me.

Done.

Quote from: GhostNinja on January 12, 2024, 02:08:26 PM
I have completed the survey.

My only gripe is what the least I would pay for a .pdf I had to put in $1.00 because it wouldn't let me put in $0.00.

I dont use or buy .pdfs and I never will.   It's either print or nothing for me.

Same here.

Quote from: Scholarch on January 12, 2024, 01:18:53 PM

Quote from: Tod13 on January 12, 2024, 09:01:40 AM
Working on the survey, but some of the questions are inadequate or poorly worded.

On GM vs Player, the survey wants to know what you are currently acting as, not what you are. (I'm a GM learning to be a Player - but I don't currently GM.)

Other questions are in adequate. How prevalent do I want combat? It depends. In Traveller, I want it as seldom as possible, so the character doesn't die. In D&D, I want it much more often.

It doesn't let me put 0 for paper copies. We don't buy paper.

Sadly there are pretty heavy limitations on using Forms for surveying. I will probably try to find a better one to run this under next year.

Quote from: DataDwarf on January 12, 2024, 09:47:27 AM
Done. Interested in seeing the results

Thank you very much.

Quote from: BadApple on January 12, 2024, 11:42:52 AM
I did it.  I wonder if they will actually listen or if they are just looking to collect numbers to self justify.

Appreciated!

I mostly wanted to satisfy my own curiosity. When I started to hunt for numbers on stuff, I could not find anything worth using.

The worst criticism I have gotten so far is, "It does not really include a lot of detail on narratively driven games."

But then when I ask for what questions they would like asked, "I should not have to do your job for you."

I am doing this for free.

The down side to a survey is that it's a lot like a bikini, it's very revealing but it hides crucial spots.

One of the series of questions was on crunch.  The thing is, a game needs to be as crunchy as needed and no more.  Different mechanics can provide different feels for different kinds of experiences and that requires different levels of granularity and therefor crunch.  Most players I've played don't mind crunch if the game feels right and plays smoothly.  The biggest problems I see with most crunchier games isn't that it's more technical but that there is either a lack of flow and not all the submechanics fit smoothly or there is a flaw that doesn't readily appear while reading the rules but becomes glaring when you start rolling dice and testing it.  This all comes down to one basic problem, lack of testing and QA.

The next biggest beef I have with so many RPGs is that their core books are sloppy as hell and it's really hard to learn a new game because you first need to sort the book out.  The D&D 5e PHB is poorly organized but it gets much worse.  The 2D20 Conan book (a good game IMO) is so bad I needed to watch youtube videos to figure out how it was suppose to work.  I really believe that if they had written a core book people could understand then it could have been a much bigger part of the market. 

I'm not sure how you could have gotten either of those two opinions out of me with a survey unless you already had the opinion to ask about.