What Does a "Successful" RPG Look Like?

TiQuinn said:

So here’s a question - do you see people independently of MCG running Numenera at cons? MCG is one of those companies that puts out lots of stuff that seems really interesting but I never, ever see it “in the wild”.

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I've run 2 multi-year campaigns and the online GM groups were active. It's not huge, but it's there.

Simple.

It has a community of fans, and it’s still worth messing around with for creators after it’s initial release.

TiQuinn said:

So here’s a question - do you see people independently of MCG running Numenera at cons? MCG is one of those companies that puts out lots of stuff that seems really interesting but I never, ever see it “in the wild”.

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Two of my four players knew about it and had played Numenera, when I asked them if they wanted to play a Cypher system rpg campaign. On our Solo rpg FB group, several people are using it for their adventures. It is known and played, just not talk of the town.

SlyFlourish said:

So what, to you, does a successful RPG look like? How do you judge whether an RPG has caught on or not?

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It's ironic, but a successful RPG addresses the problematic success/failure mechanism. Successful has no successes.

Or, successful is a game 1) without grammatical flaws that 2) is a smooth role-playing experience from beginning to end of session.

For me, social media presence is not a good metric to evaluate success. Shadowdark on social media like YouTube is gargantuan, you would think millions are playing it regularly. Not the case.

The Soloist said:

For me, social media presence is not a good metric to evaluate success. Shadowdark on social media like YouTube is gargantuan, you would think millions are playing it regularly. Not the case.

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Why would you think that? You can just look at the views and get a good sense of what kind of strong following it has on YouTube. For example, if you look at Dungeon craft just as an example, popular videos have 300-500 views, and their Shadowdark video has 100K views: good, but not in a range that would make one logically think that SD competes with D&D.

Active conversations about a game are very much a component of its success, IMO. The fact that lots of youtubers talk about SD is very much an indicator that it has been a successful game.

Reynard said:

Why would you think that? You can just look at the views and get a good sense of what kind of strong following it has on YouTube. For example, if you look at Dungeon craft just as an example, popular videos have 300-500 views, and their Shadowdark video has 100K views: good, but not in a range that would make one logically think that SD competes with D&D.

Active conversations about a game are very much a component of its success, IMO. The fact that lots of youtubers talk about SD is very much an indicator that it has been a successful game.

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I'm saying views and numbers of videos don't translate to direct sales. I was being hyperbolic.

For example, Firefly has a huge presence on YouTube, and an uninformed viewer could think it's the number one hit on TV right now. It's not.

It's still relevant 10 years after launch. The company that published it provides steady employment for its employees (even if just a one man publishing house) producing content for it without big boom and bust swings.

In other words, it is to paper what Stardew Valley or Skyrim is to video games.

There is a short list that meet that criteria. CoC and D&D are certainly on it. Traveller might make the cut. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, maybe? Castles & Crusades is starting to get to that point.

WEG D6 might have made the cut with better management. It's certainly still relevant, but I don't think anyone is making money on it. Probably the biggest surprise missing from the list though for me is VtM. Is that even still a thing? It was huge there for a while. Now it feels irrelevant. Deadlands too was the hotness for a few years. Now people have barely heard of it.

If I had to guess at games that are current that may get there, Blades in the Dark has a good shot at it.

People keep saying that you can't outsell D&D, but I'm confident that my upcoming ruleset, Oubliettes and Otyughs, will do so easily.

Nightfly said:

People keep saying that you can't outsell D&D, but I'm confident that my upcoming ruleset, Oubliettes and Otyughs, will do so easily.

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