sevenbastard
Legend
Has it? These GI Joe ones are a little big but the price point is good.
What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?
- Thread starter SlyFlourish
- Start date
Has it? These GI Joe ones are a little big but the price point is good.
If you're putting out content for sale as a creator under your own company, you are an entrepreneur whether you like it or not. Any given creator doesn't have to do anything, obviously. If they are happy with the work they are putting out as a side gig or as a hobbyist, that's fine too. They want to write stuff for DMsGuild, have at it. They want to write stuff and put it out on DTRPG, go for it. But right there, they made a business decision. Why publish on DMsGuild Vs. DTRPG? There's benefits and disadvantages both ways. Congrats, they just made a business owner's decision. But I'll also point out this is why I think the term TTRPG industry is a misnomer. If there are only one or two companies where people can be fully, gainfully employed without having to have a secondary job, I question the value of terming it an industry.
Secondly, I'm not saying that either Perkins or Crawford have to do this - I'm agreeing that the need exists, and if it was provided by someone within the industry, who have overseen projects at a high standard of quality, that would be of value. Of course, I don't know specifically whether Perkins or Crawford have any interest in doing something like this. That's besides the point. The need exists, and the need to have someone with experience do it is important. It could certainly be someone else. But I will say, having yet another system is probably not raising the standard of living for people working within the TTRPG industry, it's just competing with everyone else for the same sliver of space that is vacated by WotC, that same 800 LB gorilla.
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TheAlkaizer
Game Designer
You're mostly right. But the thing is that Perkins and Crawford most likely didn't have to make any of these decisions at WotC. If we'd talk about someone like Kevin Crawford (Without Number games), there's no doubt in my mind that in addition to being a creative, he had to just go through it and make business decisions. And I also agree that many creative decisions ends up affecting business.
Also, just because you get to make business decisions doesn't mean you made them purposely with the appropriate knowledge, or that you even learn from them. The vast majority of people probably put their products on DriveThruRPG because it's where everyone puts it. You're right that by having done so, they have effectively taken a business decisions. But if asked them for insight, you'd probably get something like "well it's where I buy my PDFs, so I figured that's where I should put them".
Ultimately, I think you just described what most entrepreneurs experience whether they are into TTRPGs, or general contracting, or software development or pick an area. Entrepreneurs start out not knowing what they don't know, and it's up to them to assess what they need to actually build a business, regardless of how big that ultimately is going to be. It's no different from recognizing that IANAL so if I'm going to use any of these creative licenses, I better consult one first to make sure I'm doing it correctly. I've heard several creators talk about doing layout for their products - they realized quickly they didn't have the skill set, inclination or time to do so, so they needed to hire someone professional to do it.
Here is what I want to see:
- A really good D&D starter set. I have high hopes for the new set coming out this fall. It looks great.
- I would LOVE to see the design team at WotC take a lot more risks and really embrace D&D Beyond as a place where they can experiment with smaller, more focused products. Unleash the team now that the rules update is in the rearview mirror.
- Adventures designed from the experience of running things on a VTT. Design, iterate, and playtest using online tools. Never run them in-person. What changes? How does the design shift?
- More Mork Borg/Pirate Borg/etc-sized games, but with different esthetic, tone, etc. I love the feel of a new game that I can wrap my head around in an hour and jump into running after an evening spent reading and prepping.
- More of what I think of "adventure forward" designs. Back in the day, I was sold on Mothership because the adventures are creepy and awesome. I'd love to see more games that start with adventure concepts and then build a system to support them.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Agreed. My mistake was reading @Reynard 's statement as a request for the elimination of prep.
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Yeah. I absolutely love what are effectively one-and-done RPGs. Not necessarily only one book or product, but you have everything you actually need in one book. And the lighter the better. Pirate Borg is a gold standard as far as I'm concerned. The rules are basically summed up in the back end papers and the front end papers have the five most useful charts from the game.
Different perspectives and all that. I just see that as basic good game design. Designers starting from "what do I want game play to be like" rather than "okay, time to build yet another massive, sprawling game that will try to do everything."
You'd need to switch HP to something else or redefine zero HP as something other than broken or dead, but it could easily work. Maybe do that "get more powerful the more you get beat up" thing that so many people seem to want. Instead of dead at zero HP you power up at zero HP. Definitely drive a certain kind of heroic style of play.
ETA: Or you flip the script and you're normals fighting against superheroes a la Hellpower.
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MGibster
Legend
"Your game designers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcolm, Game Designer.
What would a zero prep game look like?
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