[Ars Mysteriorum]

Originally Posted by FunGuyFromYuggoth

It's going to be an uphill fight to get pen & paper games back into the spotlight. Teens are typically distracted and pulled in different directions by overscheduling, console and PC games, part-time jobs, iPods, a new blockbuster every weekend of the summer, and the Internet to name a few. Pen & paper games depend on a level of focus that demands planning and preparation. See the rise of collective card games. Easy to sell, package, and play. No prep time needed and addictive (never liked them myself, but alot of others sure did). Also, faddish and ultimately people put them down as quickly as they picked them up.

Perhaps something in the mass media? Comic books have clawed their way back to the spotlight with movies based, but few pen & paper games translate well to cinema (see the D&D movie) and even a moderate level of collateral interest (see LOTR) the effect on the demographic may instead spark an interest in selling toys or video games, not pen & paper books.

I agree with Jason. If the big box stores had more GAMES in the shelves besides WotC products, people might actually flip through the pages and buy them. The problem is the price, but with video games hovering at around the $60 price point, perhaps getting them to buy a $40 book isn't as much of an issue as getting them to read it, convince their friends its worth spending a few hours with, and fitting it into their schedules.

Or not.

To be truthful, I think the future are the online MMORPG who have effectively moved into the heroic fantasy genre, science fiction, superheroes, etc.

What about college-aged kids? I think BRP has a certain aspect of maturity that kids of today's culture may not appreciate as much (I realize this is a broad generalization...). Would getting in contact with organized gaming groups in larger universities be a method of getting people to try out the system?

Perhaps Chaosium could create some quickstart rules with an introductory scenario (but what genre?) and pre-gen characters, like they have with CoC, to be run at conventions?