What does it take for an RPG to die?

[Jd Smith1]

I agree with with your bolded part -- they're definitely dead as commercial products. Without that disclaimer, though, I definitely don't believe either game is dead in any meaningful sense.

More to the point, a game being considered dead or not makes zero difference to me, so if people want to define a game as being dead at a particular point, I guess they can, but I find the distinction meaningless.

Truth.

 

[Sketchpad]

"Dead" is probably a regional thing. I haven't seen a Champions game at a Con in years, and would be hard pressed to put a group together. But, I bet someone somewhere is turning potential players away from their Champions table right now.

I actually started a new Champions game at the end of last month.

No game is ever truly dead. Heck, Lord of Creation came up in my socials feed not too long ago and, for a brief second, made me wish I still had the books.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Champions is a weird case. Hero has not been particularly visible for some time now (I'm not sure when the last physical book(s) were produced) but there's an at least decent sized and well established fandom that keeps it pretty alive, albeit not necessarily in a very visible fashion.

 

[Sketchpad]

Champions is a weird case. Hero has not been particularly visible for some time now (I'm not sure when the last physical book(s) were produced) but there's an at least decent sized and well established fandom that keeps it pretty alive, albeit not necessarily in a very visible fashion.

Champions Complete came out in 2019 according to the internets. There's been some new third party stuff that's been fun, with some of it related to Hero's history.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Champions Complete came out in 2019 according to the internets. There's been some new third party stuff that's been fun, with some of it related to Hero's history.

I wasn't sure if any of the 3pp stuff was anything but PDFs.

 

[Sketchpad]

I wasn't sure if any of the 3pp stuff was anything but PDFs.

There's some POD stuff out there. Tiger Paw Press has been working with Heroic Publishing to make sourcebooks for the League of Champions comics. Two books out so far, with a third in the works.

 

[Thomas Shey]

There's some POD stuff out there. Tiger Paw Press has been working with Heroic Publishing to make sourcebooks for the League of Champions comics. Two books out so far, with a third in the works.

I wasn't counting POD since it isn't likely to show up in stores and as such, isn't any more visible than the PDF already is in practice.

 

[Gradine]

Are people still playing FUDGE? Were there a significant number of FUDGE fans out there who saw FATE, said "Nah, I'm good," and are keeping the dream alive?

 

[Stormonu]

I'm a bit broader in my definition, in that a game's dead when

1) No one's heard of it/there isn't a community for it
2) No company is making product for it
3) No one's picked up the ball to produce ongoing content

People can still be playing it if it's "dead", but if noone's making content for it, that's a good indication the community's dead and anyone whose playing it is single group or three.

There's several RPGs I own (and sometimes play) that I'd qualify as "dead" - Alternity, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Fading Suns, Spycraft, Star Frontiers, TSR Marvel FASERIP, Gamma World, FASA/Last Unicorn/Decipher Star Trek, WEG Star Wars, Rolemaster & Middle Earth Roleplaying (by Iron Crown) - just to name a few.

A few years ago, I'd have put Vampire & company in there, but they've come back to (un)life...

So there's been quite a few that have been brought back to life too, or in the case of famous IPs have changed companies and systems.

 

[MGibster]

Are people still playing FUDGE? Were there a significant number of FUDGE fans out there who saw FATE, said "Nah, I'm good," and are keeping the dream alive?

My doctor told me to avoid fudge. Something about my last blood test showing up as gravy. Holy cow, there's a game I haven't heard about in a while.

1) No one's heard of it/there isn't a community for it
2) No company is making product for it
3) No one's picked up the ball to produce ongoing content

#2 is the one I go by because it's the only criteria I can reasonably know for sure.

There's several RPGs I own (and sometimes play) that I'd qualify as "dead" - Alternity, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Fading Suns, Spycraft, Star Frontiers, TSR Marvel FASERIP, Gamma World, FASA/Last Unicorn/Decipher Star Trek, WEG Star Wars, Rolemaster & Middle Earth Roleplaying (by Iron Crown) - just to name a few.

Oh, wow. People who play dead games are actually necromancers!