Recent content by pickin_grinnin

In the end, the one question I really want answered is how they are going to fix the OGL 1.0a - in a binding legal way- so that nobody can try to deauthorize it in the future. In reading the comments in the Bob the World Builder discussion on the issue, that appears to be one of the three...

I read the comic back when it came out, and enjoyed it enough to eventually buy the trade paperbacks, which I still own. I just haven't been able to get into the show, though. I didn't expect it to follow the comic religiously, but there is just something about the series that has kept me from...

It isn't that difficult to do. There are people who have put out system neutral or multi-system modules and seen success with it, typically through Kickstarters. It is more difficult to get one of the bigger companies (ex. WotC, Paizo) to pay you to do it, though, since they tend to target...

I use Savage Worlds for games that tend to be more action-based or pulpy in feel. I use a version of Basic Roleplaying / Call of Cthulhu for horror and historical games, and OpenD6 for most other things.

The only one I use with any regularity (as a DM or player) is the Player's Handbook. There are bits and pieces of things I use from the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and a few other books...

Though it probably isn't as simple as a GM/player divide, my experience is that most people who buy a lot of books have at least some experience as GMs, and (as you said) that a lot of books that get purchased are never used in-game, for various reasons. That is pure conjecture, of course...

Board games are a different market, though, with different dynamics, for a lot of different reasons. They also have a larger customer base, and are stocked in more brick-and-mortar stores than non-D&D ttrpgs. Board games are things that you can play in a few hours (or a long evening) and...

Using your example, I think it is optimistic to think that there are 100,000 potential new customers out there who are going to start buying ttrpg products, particularly on an ongoing basis, if you could put better targeted advertisements in front of them, or match them more closely with vendors...

These days, though, YouTube and other online venues have increased the reach of independent musicians and provided far more opportunities for potential customers to discover their work. Various YouTube channels do that for ttrpgs, as well, as do other online forums and marketplaces (like...

That was how I read the post, as well. My point is that I don't think the potential market for that sort of thing is really that much larger, even if it was a lot more visible to the general public. There might be for other types of games, or even for "solo rpgs" (which I'm not really...

When it comes to tabletop rpgs, at least, I'm not sure that the potential customer base is really that much larger than we are already seeing. No matter how many different types of rpgs you are able to put in front of potential customers, and how closely you can match that with some of their...

You couldn't just do it via polls, though. It would take a much more in-depth study that captures actual behavior. A lot of people will claim to be willing to pay more for goods and services (in polls, surveys, and discussions) to support higher wages or social causes, but their actual...

"What the market will bear" is, ultimately, the only real answer to that question. You can spend all day debating what an rpg designer "should" make, or what is "fair," but in the end it is limited by market forces. I don't know if many people realize that a pretty significant percentage of...

It would be difficult for my players to do much metagaming. In 40+ years of playing and GMing, I have never run a module or published adventure. I run campaigns set in worlds and settings of my own devising. I do my own statblocks for the creatures inhabiting the world, most of which are...

Ah, good point. I tend to spend a lot more time reading about earlier periods in the Ancient Near East, so when I hear "Assyrian" my mind tends to jump more to Early Period Assyria, rather than the Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empire stuff.