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mach1.9pants
Hero
Jeez last 8 years? Um OK [MENTION=6704270]RPGUnited[/MENTION]
WotC DnD: In 08 4E was put out which was a big departure from previous editions. All classes have the same power set of at will powers, per encounter powers and per day powers. The launch wasn't that well done with a lot of slagging of 3E and the new OGL-lite (GSL) took ages to get out lost a lot of 3PP. 4E has a lot of positives (e.g. prep time, no LFQW) but also has a fair few negatives (combat grind the biggest for me, very minis focused) and when it was first released the maths was just plain wrong in some cases, as it stands the errata doc is over 100 pages of PDF for the books! So the poor PR, GSL, WotC pulling ALL PDFs and big changes started the Edition Wars, and people on boards were very vehement fracturing the fanbase. WotC also released DDi which is a series of online tools, some pretty cool (character builder & rules compendium) and some promised that were vapourware (virtual tabletop), it also included the electronic Dragon and Dungeon mags. DDi is on a subscription model and includes all rules with errata.
{full disclosure, I was big into 4E on release but got annoyed with the combat time, combat focus and lack of variety in classes. I still own pretty much every 4E book and still subscribe to DnDi}
5E or DnD Next: has been announced and is in Open BETA. WotC have dumped 4E, with all books published since the DnD Next announcement being either system neutral (Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms) or premium reprints of earlier editions (1E and 3.5E core books). DnDN is trying to make a simple core game that has the bits that everyone recognises as DnD that (with add on modules) will cater for all DnD fans of all editions and playstyles... good luck with that! Should be released next year, go to the WotC site to sign up and check out the BETA. It has a more traditional OS feel IMO, with a less rules centric core (rulings not rules). Funnily enough opinion is divided
{full disclosure: I like it with it's OS core and hope it will do what they aim too, but it is a long way to go yet}
Paizo: After losing the Dungeon and Dragon mags licence (which WotC put out in electronic form now, and that are not to the standard of Paizo, especially now that 4E is hardly supported) Paizo made a big decision to put out there own game to support their APs. They dropped 4E and (with a big open BETA) released the Pathfinder RPG. PF kills some of 3E probs (like specific spells, grappling) but, as it is designed with backwards compatibility, still has many of 3E's core problems like prep time, LFQW, min/maxers dream. Paizo has from strength to strength and has now taken over DnD as the biggest selling RPG. But Paizo's real strength is it's AP and Golarion world books, quality is generally very high. Pathfinder also has a very large 3PP product following.
{Full disclosure: I am a subscriber to Pathfinder and have a big chunk of all their products}
OSR: Not sure how big the Old School Renaissance was 8 years ago but it is now. there is a massive proliferation of 'retro-clones' (facsimiles of old DnD and other RPG rules using the OGL e.g. OSRIC, Swords & Wiz, Labrynth Lord) AND 'retro-feels' (my phrase cos there isn't one- rules that are more tidy and balanced than old rules but are aiming at the feel of the older game e.g. Castles & Crusades, Myth & Magic, Adventurer Conqueror King System, HackMaster). There are also ones which are old school in 'culture' but not aimed at any specific edition/ruleset such as Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and even Dragon Age RPG.
There is a list of OSR games here: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Old_School_Renaissance tho it is probably not complete.
Non DnD games are getting their OSR too with the British Dragon Warriors and Advanced Fighting Fantasy out again. There are Gamma World and Warhammer clones in the works, as well as a lot of retro-feels of many games
{Full disclosure: I own most of these too, and that is my preferred style ATM}
d20: Is not quite dead, the OGL is powering the OSR and there are other d20 games doing well. Fantasy Craft is a great d20 based tool set crunchy rules. There are others I am sure but I can't think off the top of my head.
{FD: I love FC! it is my fave d20 system}
Warhammer: Decided to do it's own 4E in it's 3rd edition, totally different from the old percentage based system it uses custom dice and cards to make a very cool, if fiddly system. But man it must have turned off the gritty OS warhammer fans, looking a lot like a board & Card game published by a board & card game company (Fantasy Flight Games). How it is doing I don't know, releases have slowed, but are still going. FFG also have the Star Wars licence and have just started releasing an RPG with the same core, tho it appears less fiddly. There is also a 2E retro-clone in progress and I can't remember the name.
{FD: I have 1E and 2E but only the core books as I was a DnDer BECMI onwards, I quite like WHFRP 3E and have a fair bit of it}
Runequest: Still going strong, the latest Runequest (6th E) is just another fine tuning of same system published by moon design, a nice book. Mongoose have put out their Mongoose Runequest 2 (a slight update which replaced MRQ) with the Glorantha bits taken out called Legend RPG after they lost the RQ licence. It was first called Wayfarers RPG until they found an earlier game called the same thing, which Mongoose now publish it's 2nd E which is an OSR retro feel. Moon Design just finished Kickstarting a massive 2 book Guide to Glorantha which will be pretty definitive on the world and system free. MRQ (not MRQ2) has an OGL and has a fair few d100 clones and based games out there.
{FD: Quite like d100 RQ style games}
Basic RP/Call of Cthulu: Still chuntering away with lots of releases tho I am not big into these so can't help much
{FD: have the rules but my focus is fantasy}
Superheroes: I'll leave this to someone who knows about it, I know they are out there with new editions appearing but not my thing at all.
Indie Style/Narrative Style: not sure of the name of this! But games which are more narrative based, often giving the player's a big control of the world. There are a fair few of these such as FATE (which is Kickstarting a new edition ATM), Legends of Anglerre, Burning Wheel. A lot of them use things like aspects which, instead of defining the PCs Str or Dex, define their character like "Dashing Captain of the Guard" and "Girl in Every Town" (taken from L of Anglerre). Some use indie style to replicate Old School dungeon bashing such as Dungeon World!
{FD: have these rules too (yes I have a libraries worth!) and not really my thing but I like Dungeon World}
And that brings us to Kickstarting, the new in thing. By putting your project up on kickstarter.com (or less popular indiegogo.com) people can pledge money to your project. Each pledge level gets a reward and the creator gets your money up front to make sure it can be completed. There are heaps of RPG based KS out there, some recent very successful ones include Rappan Athuk (a Pathfinder and S+W re-issue of the 3E mega dungeon), Monte Cook's new game Numenera (far future fantasy), Order of the Stick comic reprints (1.25 million!), Complete Larry Elmore Art Book, Reaper Bones minis, Shadowrun Returns. There are many still in progress (such as the final release of Nic Logue's Razor Coast).
So there you go a personal and off the top of my head glimpse at RPGs over the last few years. Probably full of errors and omissions but heck better than nothing!
WotC DnD: In 08 4E was put out which was a big departure from previous editions. All classes have the same power set of at will powers, per encounter powers and per day powers. The launch wasn't that well done with a lot of slagging of 3E and the new OGL-lite (GSL) took ages to get out lost a lot of 3PP. 4E has a lot of positives (e.g. prep time, no LFQW) but also has a fair few negatives (combat grind the biggest for me, very minis focused) and when it was first released the maths was just plain wrong in some cases, as it stands the errata doc is over 100 pages of PDF for the books! So the poor PR, GSL, WotC pulling ALL PDFs and big changes started the Edition Wars, and people on boards were very vehement fracturing the fanbase. WotC also released DDi which is a series of online tools, some pretty cool (character builder & rules compendium) and some promised that were vapourware (virtual tabletop), it also included the electronic Dragon and Dungeon mags. DDi is on a subscription model and includes all rules with errata.
{full disclosure, I was big into 4E on release but got annoyed with the combat time, combat focus and lack of variety in classes. I still own pretty much every 4E book and still subscribe to DnDi}
5E or DnD Next: has been announced and is in Open BETA. WotC have dumped 4E, with all books published since the DnD Next announcement being either system neutral (Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms) or premium reprints of earlier editions (1E and 3.5E core books). DnDN is trying to make a simple core game that has the bits that everyone recognises as DnD that (with add on modules) will cater for all DnD fans of all editions and playstyles... good luck with that! Should be released next year, go to the WotC site to sign up and check out the BETA. It has a more traditional OS feel IMO, with a less rules centric core (rulings not rules). Funnily enough opinion is divided
{full disclosure: I like it with it's OS core and hope it will do what they aim too, but it is a long way to go yet}
Paizo: After losing the Dungeon and Dragon mags licence (which WotC put out in electronic form now, and that are not to the standard of Paizo, especially now that 4E is hardly supported) Paizo made a big decision to put out there own game to support their APs. They dropped 4E and (with a big open BETA) released the Pathfinder RPG. PF kills some of 3E probs (like specific spells, grappling) but, as it is designed with backwards compatibility, still has many of 3E's core problems like prep time, LFQW, min/maxers dream. Paizo has from strength to strength and has now taken over DnD as the biggest selling RPG. But Paizo's real strength is it's AP and Golarion world books, quality is generally very high. Pathfinder also has a very large 3PP product following.
{Full disclosure: I am a subscriber to Pathfinder and have a big chunk of all their products}
OSR: Not sure how big the Old School Renaissance was 8 years ago but it is now. there is a massive proliferation of 'retro-clones' (facsimiles of old DnD and other RPG rules using the OGL e.g. OSRIC, Swords & Wiz, Labrynth Lord) AND 'retro-feels' (my phrase cos there isn't one- rules that are more tidy and balanced than old rules but are aiming at the feel of the older game e.g. Castles & Crusades, Myth & Magic, Adventurer Conqueror King System, HackMaster). There are also ones which are old school in 'culture' but not aimed at any specific edition/ruleset such as Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and even Dragon Age RPG.
There is a list of OSR games here: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Old_School_Renaissance tho it is probably not complete.
Non DnD games are getting their OSR too with the British Dragon Warriors and Advanced Fighting Fantasy out again. There are Gamma World and Warhammer clones in the works, as well as a lot of retro-feels of many games
{Full disclosure: I own most of these too, and that is my preferred style ATM}
d20: Is not quite dead, the OGL is powering the OSR and there are other d20 games doing well. Fantasy Craft is a great d20 based tool set crunchy rules. There are others I am sure but I can't think off the top of my head.
{FD: I love FC! it is my fave d20 system}
Warhammer: Decided to do it's own 4E in it's 3rd edition, totally different from the old percentage based system it uses custom dice and cards to make a very cool, if fiddly system. But man it must have turned off the gritty OS warhammer fans, looking a lot like a board & Card game published by a board & card game company (Fantasy Flight Games). How it is doing I don't know, releases have slowed, but are still going. FFG also have the Star Wars licence and have just started releasing an RPG with the same core, tho it appears less fiddly. There is also a 2E retro-clone in progress and I can't remember the name.
{FD: I have 1E and 2E but only the core books as I was a DnDer BECMI onwards, I quite like WHFRP 3E and have a fair bit of it}
Runequest: Still going strong, the latest Runequest (6th E) is just another fine tuning of same system published by moon design, a nice book. Mongoose have put out their Mongoose Runequest 2 (a slight update which replaced MRQ) with the Glorantha bits taken out called Legend RPG after they lost the RQ licence. It was first called Wayfarers RPG until they found an earlier game called the same thing, which Mongoose now publish it's 2nd E which is an OSR retro feel. Moon Design just finished Kickstarting a massive 2 book Guide to Glorantha which will be pretty definitive on the world and system free. MRQ (not MRQ2) has an OGL and has a fair few d100 clones and based games out there.
{FD: Quite like d100 RQ style games}
Basic RP/Call of Cthulu: Still chuntering away with lots of releases tho I am not big into these so can't help much
{FD: have the rules but my focus is fantasy}
Superheroes: I'll leave this to someone who knows about it, I know they are out there with new editions appearing but not my thing at all.
Indie Style/Narrative Style: not sure of the name of this! But games which are more narrative based, often giving the player's a big control of the world. There are a fair few of these such as FATE (which is Kickstarting a new edition ATM), Legends of Anglerre, Burning Wheel. A lot of them use things like aspects which, instead of defining the PCs Str or Dex, define their character like "Dashing Captain of the Guard" and "Girl in Every Town" (taken from L of Anglerre). Some use indie style to replicate Old School dungeon bashing such as Dungeon World!
{FD: have these rules too (yes I have a libraries worth!) and not really my thing but I like Dungeon World}
And that brings us to Kickstarting, the new in thing. By putting your project up on kickstarter.com (or less popular indiegogo.com) people can pledge money to your project. Each pledge level gets a reward and the creator gets your money up front to make sure it can be completed. There are heaps of RPG based KS out there, some recent very successful ones include Rappan Athuk (a Pathfinder and S+W re-issue of the 3E mega dungeon), Monte Cook's new game Numenera (far future fantasy), Order of the Stick comic reprints (1.25 million!), Complete Larry Elmore Art Book, Reaper Bones minis, Shadowrun Returns. There are many still in progress (such as the final release of Nic Logue's Razor Coast).
So there you go a personal and off the top of my head glimpse at RPGs over the last few years. Probably full of errors and omissions but heck better than nothing!
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Thanks, great roundup of information!
Do you guys think that a site like ours would be used in the future? As we have to do the re-database of everything before we can auto update with new products etc. (over 100 hours of work
) So far we have focused on TSR/WotC, White Wolf, Games Workshop, D20, Iron Crown, KenzerCo, Steve Jackson Games etc. products .. What would be the most important producers/products to add to this archive if we are to go on?
Specially the old TSR books we have in our archive, if anyone sees anything missing here, or have further information about one of the old products, please let us know. We want those as complete as possible.
Do you guys think that a site like ours would be used in the future? As we have to do the re-database of everything before we can auto update with new products etc. (over 100 hours of work
) So far we have focused on TSR/WotC, White Wolf, Games Workshop, D20, Iron Crown, KenzerCo, Steve Jackson Games etc. products .. What would be the most important producers/products to add to this archive if we are to go on?Specially the old TSR books we have in our archive, if anyone sees anything missing here, or have further information about one of the old products, please let us know. We want those as complete as possible.
Thanks, great roundup of information!
Do you guys think that a site like ours would be used in the future? As we have to do the re-database of everything before we can auto update with new products etc. (over 100 hours of work
Specially the old TSR books we have in our archive, if anyone sees anything missing here, or have further information about one of the old products, please let us know. We want those as complete as possible.
Your problem is that in the 8 years you've been gone, other sites are now doing what you did. You're now 8 years behind them. RPGnet and RPGGeek spring to mind as a pair of sites with product directories.
Yes, those sites have lots of different information and is a good edition of giving the RPG fans the info they seek.
We will never have everything like these have. But we like it simple and easy to browse. Are these shops as well?
8 years is a lot of time, and i can see based on the norwegian RPG shops, that the interest of buying RPG books to play with must be fading. The shops have 1/4 of the products they had 8 years ago. But looks like the miniature games are still going strong.
We will never have everything like these have. But we like it simple and easy to browse. Are these shops as well?
8 years is a lot of time, and i can see based on the norwegian RPG shops, that the interest of buying RPG books to play with must be fading. The shops have 1/4 of the products they had 8 years ago. But looks like the miniature games are still going strong.
