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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joerg Baumgartner" data-source="post: 9736678" data-attributes="member: 6893976">A Golden Age rpgs: for whom, exactly?Measured as income or growth for WotC as the market leader? I have no idea about 6e (or for that matter, 5e, last D&D I tried was 4e, and then some 13th Age).Measured in convention attendance: Sure, GenCon is the biggest event in the industry. There are plenty other big and local events catering to the general role-playing public, and in addition there are game- or publisher-centered conventions with attendance in the hundreds catering to hard-core fans and the curious. The local and genre-centered conventions have been my home turf for these last 40 years, alongside online activity.Friends in the industry tell me that the US market generates the lion's share of (English language) sales, mainly for D&D. There are markets for other languages, often including licensed translations, locally grown games and people playing foreign language games (mostly English).I have no idea about other anglophone markets for D&D and other major systems, and how strongly D&D dominates there.RPG sales and games actually played are two different figures, too. I have supported a number of successful rpg kickstarters that I still haven't played, and I have a physical library of rpgs and supplements that I have bought and read but not necessarily played or GMed. Digital documents complement that collection.The nature of the rpg hobby is that while companies generating sales from rules and rules updates and possibly new content helps getting people prepared for playing rpgs, they aren't really required. You could have a VTT with some other rules system that is familiar enough and play your own game, or independently published or distributed scenarios by other people, without any major game publisher involved. At your dinner table or your gaming club, all you need is a GM with either good creativity or a good back log of adventures, some dice, some ergonomically laid out sheets to track your character abilities and achievements, and players who show up and are willing to buy in. My own start into the hobby (and as a GM) used the 2D6 rules from "Warlock of the Firetop Mountain" books and some improvised gaming, first a (non-standard) dungeon and then a wilderness game. I had read a little secondary literature before trying this, but that was all that was needed.I tried a number of commercially available games, including translations the first two boxes of BECMI, before I gravitated to RuneQuest and its community - at first on a national level (at the time when the Avalon Hill edition temporarily faltered), then internationally and connecting through the (upcoming) internet. Playing a niche game/setting gives you a different perspective on the concept of Golden Age. Something about people you keep in contact with about the game and its setting, meeting them online or at conventions, even through times when there was little or nothing in the way of official support, roping in new faces while saying good bye to old travel companions. Having a thriving community content program certainly helps, as do collaborations of people in the community, or having communicators in the community. Fanzines or APA publications from back when now are community content or online formats.</blockquote>

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