Average age of a BRP player?

[drohem]

I hit the big 4-0 this year, and I am rapidly approaching the next tick (May ).

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by tedopon

DnD is thirty years old as well. I'd say half the players of that game are under 25.

But D&D has been the most played system for over 30 years, and has continously been the system new (read young) roleplayers are exposed to.

BRP has not been a major player in recent years, so mostly older players have fond enough memories to do things like hang out on boards for unreleased games and buy pre-release copies.

The number of high school kids learning Stormbringer is probably pretty limited, and while CoC is popular there are many other horror alternatives these days and many young gamers probably don't realise it is part of a once proud (and hopefully soon to be again) stable of games united under the BRP name.

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by Rurik

Physical Age or Maturity?

Originally Posted by juhanfg

Number of years since you were born.

The maturity thingy cannot be measured properly.

A couple months shy of 38 then.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by tedopon

DnD is thirty years old as well. I'd say half the players of that game are under 25.

D&D has never been off the shelf, and been updated and revised at least 3 times since 1990. BRP has really been in limbo since the Chasoium breakup in the mid 1990s.

No RQ, very little Strombringer, some CoC, and very little else. I think that currently, CoC is better known that BRP.

I'm sure I can pull out other games from pre-2000 or pre-1990 that are good games, that younger gamers won;t know. I used to do this regular with one group I had. Some of the younger players would wish that there was an PG about "X" and I'd pull out something that they never suspected existed.

[tzunder]

Just run it, the age reflects when BRP was at the first peak. Once played with younger people the age will fall as they pick it up.

[Kloster]

I can't vote 2 times, but to lower the average age, my wife (RQ and CoC player) is 27. She discovered BRP 7 years ago. I plan to introduce my son (currently 3 1/2) in a few years.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[tedopon]

Originally Posted by tzunder

Just run it, the age reflects when BRP was at the first peak. Once played with younger people the age will fall as they pick it up.

I sure hope so, but I'm not holding my breath. I worked at the central library hub for a city of approx 200k for a few years. The rpg section was pretty diverse, but the only ones that any of the under thirty set checked out were DnD. Also, knowing Chaosium's track record over the last 20+ years, I expect this game will die another slow death.
I'm not trying to play Devil's Advocate and be overly pessimistic, but from the experiences we've all had over the last couple decades, we have a pretty good idea what to expect.
I also don't want to come off as a DnD hater. I'm not a huge fan of the game, but I still have a soft spot for it. I'd much rather see a group of kids playing DnD than one wasting hours a day on WoW or something similar.

So, I guess the question we should all really be asking, and which I doubt anyone at Chaosium is asking, is how do we push this game to younger people? One suggestion that I would throw right off the top of my head is an overhaul of Chaosium's website. That thing is an aesthetic nightmare.
Another thing I'm looking into is checking with some of the bigger third party publishers of DnD/d20 stuff. Whether you like it or not, people do judge the value of a product initially on brand alone. If we could somehow get one of these publishers to at least consider printing things for BRP, I think that would help.
Also, I've considered (even though I hate it) MRQ as an avenue to explore. I really have no idea how popular the game is, though. (Or if it is primarily played by older folk as well).

I guess I've rambled incoherently enough...I just think that this is something we as a community should take into consideration. I've loved this system for two decades now, and I want to make sure that someone two decades from now can look back on the good times they've had with it.

[Atgxtg]

tedopon,

Some good points. As for worries about BRP dying a slow death from lack of support, I think you hit on the secret fear of us all. A few people who bought BRP Zero did so just in case it died before the final edition was released!

As far as how to get young gamers into the game, that is worth it's own thread.

My suggestions would be:

1) a BRP-Lite or Introductory rules that can generate interest. (Jason was working on that)

2) Some intro adventures.

[Merak Gren]

There are some very insightful points comming out of this.

1. My secret fear of BRP dying unexpectedly has been outed. I seem to have spent the last 20 years waiting for releases that never happened or took too long. E.g. Corum in the early nineties. The postponing of release dates etc.

2. We're not getting any younger. I too hope to teach my 10 month son BRP but that won't be for a few years yet.

3. Hope for BRP in europe. Hope Chaosium realise this and get foreign language translations out quick. I seem to remember a post on the MRQ forum where some Spanish guys were asking about a Spanish translation. Get in there first.

4. As great as CoC is, it has limited appeal and it won't bring in as many converts as it deserves.

5. Chaosiums record with support doesn't bode well for the future. Will they do something different this time round?

Rather sobering. I agree that getting young blood in, deserves a thread of its own.

Not to keen on D20 myself, but I feel there are marketing lessons to be learnt there.

[rust]

Over the last weeks I have mentioned BRP in some RPG forums here in Germa-
ny. It seems that people are quite aware of the release of a "new BRP" and
many are looking forward to it. They seem to see it as an alternative to D&D
("mainly for youngsters") and GURPS ("mainly for mathematicians").

When asked what BRP would need to convince them, the usual desires are a
German translation and interesting settings, with the settings far more impor-
tant than the translation (over here we are used to play games in English).
For example, the interest in the announced settings (Interplanetary, Rome,
Vikings, etc.) is significantly higher than the interest in BRP itself.

One perhaps interesting point: Most of the RPGs and settings published here
over the last years were of the "Dark" kind, and people are getting tired of
that fashion, and would appreciate something more adventurous and colour-
ful. Any setting that does not look like a WoD-clone would probably have a
good start.