When it comes to the world of tabletop RPGs, there's Dungeons & Dragons, and then there's everything else. Indeed, Dungeons & Dragons' dominance of the market is so complete that you could argue that most D&D players don't even realize that there is an alternative--similar to Pokemon and its imitators.

However, in recent weeks, D&D brand owner Wizards of the Coast has done nearly all it can to incense and repulse the players and partners that support it--and according to one report, it apparently took a wave of canceled subscriptions to finally convince the company to reverse course. So, what was the source of the conflict, and why were so many loyal D&D fans ready to jump ship to lesser-known competitors like Pathfinder and 13th Age? As usual, it has to do with money and market dynamics, and for a lot of D&D players, it might be a case of too little, too late.

Humble beginnings

When Dungeons & Dragons was introduced in 1974, it was the world's first commercially available tabletop role-playing game, and it made the most of that head start. While some things have changed over the years, D&D has always enjoyed a massive slice of the market, and its 5th edition (now almost a decade old) has seen the largest boom of popularity in the hobby's venerable history. Late last year, when Wizards of the Coast announced the follow-up to 5e, titled "One D&D," some fans worried that Wizards would take a more proprietary approach to licensing third-party D&D content in order to drive more revenue to parent company Hasbro.