A Seventh Era (7E) RPG...a call for all the non-Hasbro RPG companies to join together to fight D$D5.1, by creating a shared house system

[Dungeonosophy]

What I'd like to see is all the 'big' and mid-sized OGL publishers—and possibly even non-OGL-oriented publishers such as Pinnacle Entertainment and Steve Jackson Games—meet for a secret summit soon, in the next few weeks.

Picture: Kobold Press, Paizo, EN World Publishing, Free League, Goodman Games, Green Ronin, Malhavoc Press, Modiphius, Troll Lord Games, and possibly dozens of others, in a dimly lit room together, at a vast table.

And, they make a solemn pact....the Alliance of the Seventh Era...whose sole will is to design a next generation, irrevocably open Seventh Era (7E) RPG, which would not only do battle with HD$D (Hasbro D$D), but would serve as the primary house system for all of these companies. 7E would be a meta-RPG which is so modular that various subsets and configurations can result in such variants as:

• Pathfinder 7E (all the contents of PF1 and PF2 as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules; in other words, PF3)
• 13th Age 7E (all the contents of 13A1 + what was going to be Kickstarted as 13A 2E, as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules; in other words, 13A 3E!)
• Adventure Game Engine 7E (the next generation of AGE, as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Castles & Crusades 7E (C&C as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Cypher 7E (the next iteration of the Cypher System, as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Dungeon Crawl Classics 7E (the next iteration of DCC, as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Gumshoe 7E
• GURPS 7E (GURPS as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Level Up 7E (nuff said!)
• Modiphius 7E (next iteration of the 2d20 system, as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Old School Essentials 7E (OSE -- i.e. BX D&D-style -- as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• BRP 7E (Basic Roleplaying as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Powered by Apocalypse 7E (The next iteration of PbA, expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Savage Worlds 7E (The next iteration of Savage Worlds, expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Traveller 7E (Traveller as expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• Year Zero Engine 7E (The next iteration of Year Zero, expressed through a modular subset of 7E rules)
• and so forth...

It can be done.

Start with the vision of Peter Atkinson's Envoy system, and fully flesh it out.

For example, like with the Envoy system (and like the Powered by Apocalypse system), there'd be stylistic synonyms for various attributes. So that each company can still use iconic attributes and terminology. But it'd still be a meta-unified RPG.

Heck, ask Peter Atkinson and Ryan Dancey to head the Alliance of the Seventh Era!

And together, we overcome the lingering domination of an untrustworthy corporatist behemoth--an existential threat to our game--once and for all. For the love of True D&D...and for the love of our RPG community. It can be done.

-Travis Henry
Twelvefold Works Publishing

 

[dave2008]

Sounds fun, but it probably still wouldn't scratch my D&D itch.

 

[ersatzphil]

Matt Colville actually just announced on stream that MCDM is starting on their own game next week.

 

[payn]

Sounds fun, but it probably still wouldn't scratch my D&D itch.

The D&D itch sounds like having crabs.

 

[xiphumor]

Tantalizing, but having a single RPG system that everyone was beholden to got us into this mess in the first place. It might be better to scatter the stones of Babel.

 

[payn]

Tantalizing, but having a single RPG system that everyone was beholden to got us into this mess in the first place. It might be better to scatter the stones of Babel.

The market cant float scattered stones, but could a couple of giants.

 

[xiphumor]

The market cant float scattered stones, but could a couple of giants.

Operative phrase being “a couple.” I’m happy with that. But there’s no reason everyone needs to peg themselves to a unified system.

 

[kenada]

No.

 

[Umbran]

....would serve as the primary house system for all of these companies.

I... no. Aside from the inappropriate ask of having them all give up their current lines of development and design and start new, that doesn't yield a gaming community that I want to see.

7E would be a meta-RPG which is so modular that various subsets and configurations can result in such variants as...

This is the problem. That's kind of like saying you have one meta-instrument that both flutists and guitarists can play.

It can be done.

It can be done... if you are willing to give up the distinctiveness of individual systems that don't operate on the same core assumptions.

Multitools have their place in the world, sure. But every tool on your Leatherman has design constraints to allow it to coexist with other elements of the multitool. That is a major restriction, and generally means that nothing on the multitool will be better than a well-designed version of the thing that doesn't have to cohabitate.

 

[Clint_L]

Why they gotta meet in a dimly lit room, tho?

Seriously, I like how you kinda framed it like an RPG encounter. You're speaking my language.