We need a unified optional game system or this hobby's gonna die

[malladin]

I don't see the problem. There are plenty of good, successful, well supported games out there, SW, nWoD, GURPS to name a few, and people able to find groups and play them, me included, in fact looking forward to starting Sundered Skies for SW this week. Sure they may not be as big as D&D, but the hobby survived well enough before 3rd ed and will carry on fine no matter how people love or loathe 4th, hell D&D isn't even played by plenty of gaming groups. Unfortunately, as a D20 centric site the idea of D&D as the hobby is fueled here, but check out somewhere like RPGNet and it's evident that there's plenty of choice and vibrancy in the hobby and it doesn't need one or two games to survive.

Nigel

 

[carmachu]

Sooner or later the Pathfinder grognards show up.

Oh look, the haters put it down. SHock and suprise.

 

[Shazman]

Although, companies not producing 4E compatable material are making a smart move by not signing the new licensing stuff, I think this hobby is in the works for some new game systems.

I know there are good ones out there, but nobody seems to be talking about them and there dont' seem to be any heads turning and if there are neither of those things, likely there's not much play of those sytems anymore. I don't think that bodes well for the hobby. We're down to only a few choices:
1. 4e
2. 3e with dwindling "membership"
3. Other game systems that don't have much interest or players out there
4. Quit this crap and become a xenophobic, basement, headset computer gamer.

Just surveying the discussions here and at other groups, I worry that even if a smattering of new companies come up and produce another 18 new game systems, that therein lies the problem. You either have THE ONE (D&D) or micro-brew games.

What the "OTHER" game companies need to do is GET TOGETHER AND COME UP WITH A DIFFERENT SYSTEM. I'm not talking about rehashing 3e. WHy can't GR, Necro, and the others get together and develop THE OPTION TO D&D and start putting out their own stuff? ONE SYSTEM (besides D&D), multiple companies. No licensing gimmicks.
Any other option just leaves us with dwindling player bases. BTW, there isn't even a category for NON-D&D games here at enworld.

Thoughts?

jh


It's already happened. It's called Pathfinder, made by a little company called Paizo.

 

[carmachu]

I am not sure why you seem to be assuming I in any way agree with the opinions put forward by the OP.


There is no way in my estimation any new universal system can corner a majority of the market. I do not even think that a sizeable amount of D&D3/D&D3.5's popularity was due to it attempting to be a universal system.

Sorry, seemed like it.I Agree. Doesnt matter if its Paizo or all the 3PP combined on a project. Wotc holds the crown, an unless they seriously screw up(and perhaps not even then) , they hold the crown.Doeesnt mean there wont be inroads in the market. But there is no chance any one, or all combined, can unseat wotc.But I'm just amazed by teh original poster: create a new game....like 4e was? Thats what caused a grumbling and spilt to begin with. I'm not sure what he's thinking.

 

[GreatLemur]

Herein lies the problem. Too many other systems. We need 3rd parties to come together and have the equivalent of the d20 system and support it TOGETHER, but without all the stupid licensing gimmicks. Then lazy D&D players like me don't have to waste money on "neat games" that will never have enough players in my area to ever bother with.

See, this is kind of an odd statement, to me. It suggests that we--gamers--relate to RPGs as if they were political parties (which we're either a member of or not) rather than toys (which we can pick up and put down at any time). I know there are diehard loyalists out there who'll only play D&D or World of Darkness or--God help us--Palladium games, but I'm pretty much only aware of them through boards like this. In my own experience, a you can get people to try anything.

The group I'm in has a monthly Amber game, and a weekly slot that's gone from old World of Darkness (mostly Mage content), to D&D, back to WoD, then to Spirit of the Century. Next we'll do Call of Cthulhu, possible with a little In a Wicked Age in between. And we also tend to play board games in between RPGs. I don't really see the need for half the gaming population to rally around one single alternative to D&D before I can play it.

That said, I would really, really love to see a recurrence of what happened with World of Darkness back in the 1990s. Now that brought some new people into the hobby. I don't think you really need a new or non-D&D game to produce a phenomenon like that, but if I was gonna design one--yeah, I'm taking the low road, here--I'd probably go anime. Worse, I'd go licensed properties. Some kind of Shonen Jump multi-property thing, marketed with a few TV commercials and anime con events, could probably change the gaming landscape the way BESM never did. We old bastards would hate the new kids for about a decade, but the hobby would be better for it in the end.

Alternatively, Hasbro could go and make a new D&D cartoon. Ever look at a year-of-birth poll here on EN World and notice the tremendous spike of members who were aged ten or eleven when the old D&D cartoon was running? It ain't rocket surgery, folks.

 

[RedPriest]

In the last year alone, RedPriest has happily participated in games of the original Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, Rolemaster Classic, D&D 4e and Dark Heresy.

Let's see, that's 8 games from 6 different companies. No game had fewer than 4 players, a couple had 6 and one had 9.

What's the problem?

 

[The Little Raven]

ONE SYSTEM (besides D&D), multiple companies. No licensing gimmicks.

Not going to happen. Any company (or companies) that put their money and time into a game system are going to have a license associated with it. Paizo has already expressed that they are going to do so.

BTW, there isn't even a category for NON-D&D games here at enworld.

Because this is a D&D fansite, not a general RPG fansite.

 

[malladin]

Because this is a D&D fansite, not a general RPG fansite.

However, this is the General RPG section, have you read the title and whats underneath it? Now in practice its generally all D&D, that doesn't mean it has to be and I'm pretty sure Morrus isn't trying to drive away non D&D discussion, he's free to correct me if I'm wrong, I won't argue you get a better and more varied discussion on other games at different sites, which takes me back to my earlier point about false impressions over how healthy the hobby is without people needing to play D&D due to this sites focus on D20.

 

[Desdichado]

We need a unified optional game system or this hobby's gonna die

Thoroughly disagree. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that this is the case; in fact, there have always been moderately successful other systems besides D&D.

 

[Negflar2099]

We have always had plenty of other systems. We just need the die hard "D&D only" crowd to look around and spread their RPG wings for the first time ever.

For some reason 80%+ of D&D gamers are happy with just D&D.

Imagine people actually liking D&D! The shock! The horror!

I'm sorry if you don't like it, if you've moved on, but you really shouldn't disparage other people's choices.

Leaving aside the fact that a lot of D&D people have spread their wings on other systems and games (heck I know a lot of people who started on other systems before D&D) and still prefer D&D, the fact is it's ridiculous to be elitist when your primary hobby is a pen and paper game. After all most non-rpg fans, that is to say most of the people in the world, would look down their noses at our entire hobby.

It's amazing to me that no matter how unfairly disparaged a group of people can be you can always find groups within that group that disparage other members.