The World of Old-School RPG's is Entering Its Twilight

[GreatBear]

Valid comments all. I would have to say that 90% the "revival" project are nostalgia driven and probably won't bring any number of new young RPGers to the table. You don't get a second chance to impress a gamer and most of these games require a big investment in time and gray matter before there is a pay-off in satisfaction. Re-presenting 80s games in all their tedious, table-driven, die roll modifying pre-home computer/video game/MMORPG glory just doesn't cut it. It's preaching to the choir.

Some few old games are still playable and I class BRP as the most straight forward and accessible of all. Does it have a chance of becoming the next d20? sadly no - Chaosium just doesn't have the resources to promote it.:deadhorse:

[Saving Throw]

Originally Posted by GreatBear

Re-presenting 80s games in all their tedious, table-driven, die roll modifying pre-home computer/video game/MMORPG glory just doesn't cut it. It's preaching to the choir.

Some few old games are still playable and I class BRP as the most straight forward and accessible of all. Does it have a chance of becoming the next d20? sadly no - Chaosium just doesn't have the resources to promote it.:deadhorse:

I don't want to agree with you but I do.

ST

[Shaira]

To be honest, I do think that all this "we gotta get the young 'uns on board" approach is a piece of bogus youth-cult marketing.

If I was selling cars, or hi-fis, or designer clothes, I'd be quite happy with my target demographic being "grown-ups" with a significant disposable income. RPGs have a gradually aging demographic, which to me just means keener gamers with more money .

I'm quite sanguine about leaving the task of trying to recruit "young gamers" by dragging them away from their mobile phones and playstations to companies with a marketing budget to do so. BRP will be (re)entering a pre-existing client base (which includes all of us), and its job will be to garner new gamers from amongst them. It already has a solid rules base which is intuitive and easily expandable - it now needs some "killer app" settings and scenarios to follow up and induce *existing* gamers to give it a go.

Also, RQ/BRP/etc has always had an older demographic than D&D et al. This is probably due to it always being more interested in game background than D&D, which has more or less stuck to its vanilla "go down a dungeon, kill a bunch of critters and take their stuff" approach. If I was going to present a "BRP Lite", I'd bundle it with exactly that type of easy-entry dungeon-crawl scenario, and make some more thoughtful stuff available online.

RPGs entering their twilight? Not IMHO. Certainly the way *I* play RPGs has changed since I was 12, and rightly so . But that doesn't mean it's the end of the world as we know it. IMHO RPGs are still a young hobby - and of course computers are changing the "round the table" nature of the games. Computers aren't yet sophisticated enough to enable the smooth flow of round-the-table gameplay, but they will be - which will be an added option (and eventually probably the default option) for play. Apps like Neverwinter Nights (with the GM option switched on) and KloogeWerks point to an RPGing Brave New World, and I - with my Insane Messianic Hat on - look forwards one day to strolling virtually through Beast Valley in my chainmail bikini and my broadsword over my shoulder, with my best allied spirit by my side...

The one certain thing about life is change.

Cheers,

Sarah

[AikiGhost]

Originally Posted by Ars Mysteriorum

Am I being negative? Am I overreacting?

Please give me your thoughts.

Yes you are over reacting. As long as there are people willing to play BRP will never die, I fully intend to be playing BRP in 20 years time.

[RosenMcStern]

Well, time for a lurker like me to add my two bolgs to this discussion.

It is sadly true that Chaosium does not have the marketing resources to make BRP the #1 in RPGs as it deserves. I could add that SJG had even less resources when it launched GURPS many years ago, and it was a mistake on Chaosium's part not to merchandise BRP as the best "generic" RPG, like Jackson did, but GURPS did by no means become the "standard" RPG in the years like SJG hoped, so this is not a point.

The point here is that this time, with the new edition, Chaousium could exploit the OGL mechanism to reach a larger audience without the need to commit big financial resources to marketing. But will they do so?

As for the "killer application", we already have one: Call of Cthulhu!

[rust]

[deleted because of Gygax thread]

[hdrider67]

Originally Posted by Shaira

I'm quite sanguine about leaving the task of trying to recruit "young gamers" by dragging them away from their mobile phones and playstations to companies with a marketing budget to do so. BRP will be (re)entering a pre-existing client base (which includes all of us), and its job will be to garner new gamers from amongst them. It already has a solid rules base which is intuitive and easily expandable - it now needs some "killer app" settings and scenarios to follow up and induce *existing* gamers to give it a go.

...


Cheers,

Sarah

dcell phones, PC games, and related junk are what led me to dust of an ons D&D book (Shhh don't tell!). A Week later, I bought d20 (MRQ was months from release) and I set about stealing my kids from the omnipresent distractions. After saving the frontier, I introduced them to MRQ (finally released) I'm not a great GM but they went on a quest to earn their names, got sick eating the pumpkin off a Jack O' Bear (silly).

I have added two player to the next Generation. I know three other dads with five kids total doing the same. Some form of RPG playing is a popular form of entertainment night around Acworth.

I do think it's going to change, maybe for their better buy gaming isn't going anywhere soon.

Especially if you guys get out there and have little trollkins for the games of the future.

[Mithras]

Agreed. I'm running games for my young ones, I tried the goodness that is RQ2 but it was a tad too difficult and I had to abandon in mid game! So I'm saving BRP for a glorious future, and sticking with Fighting Fantasy, OD&D and various homebrews for now. THey're 12 and 9, so there is time yet. But they will be BRP players ... they will!

[Shiba Homer]

Originally Posted by Shaira

said some things I don't agree with.

Sarah

Unfortunately gamers die and unless they are replaced with other gamers then that game dies. I know it won't affect people as old as you and I, but I for one would like BRP and other RQ related games to continue after the death of the 35somethings that make up most of the current player base (see the two recent polls).
to be unconcerned with bringing new young players in to the hobby is to drag the fat lady on to the stage when she has a sore throat and is having an asthma attack.

I shudder with horror at the thought of playing all my RPG's in cyberspace or whatever virtual epithet people want to give it. I love computer games and NWN is a great idea, but you are playing in someone elses imagination, not your own and that to me is a big deal.

[sinisalo]

As for Chaosium not having the resources to promote BRP - everywhere there is D&D for sale I see Cthulhu too. OK it doesn't have the shelf space but it is there.