Upper_Krust said:
But I think the overall sales of my idea would far eclipse PnP 4E, given that we would be tapping the mainstream to some extent AND boardgamers AND miniature gamers AND card gamers AND collectors.
Rather, I think that what would happen is collectible card gamers would take a look at the game and say "This isn't a collectible card game" and not like it, roleplaying gamers would definately take one look at the game and say "this isn't a roleplayng game" and not like it at all, and mainstream boardgamers would take a look at it and say "this is too complicated for a board game" and not like it.
It would be trying to be too many things at once, sacrificing far too much character creation and roleplaying to be a roleplaying game, sacrificing too much of the mathematical combinations aspect to be a CCG, and mixing in too many outside things to be a successful board game, and at the same time it would be severely pissing off and alienating the existing RPGers who want to actually roleplay. Mainstream people aren't going to be any more interested in D&D just because it's some boardgame/card game hybrid. To them it will still be that weird and geeky game that only nerds play, no matter what the rules are.
I know that if I want to play a board game, I will play a board game. When I want to play a roleplaying game (which I want to do far more often than I want to play a board game) I play a roleplaying game. I
do not want to sacrifice the majority of the reasons I play RPGs instead of board games for some esoteric idea of "getting more playing done."
I think this might be the problem with your idea that you don't see. To me and everyone I have ever gamed with, character creation, management, and bookkeeping are almost as much an enjoyable part of RPGs as rolling dice and killing monsters, and I think that you'll find that to be a not uncommon attitude. This must not be the case for you, I guess, but you have to realize that while what you are describing may be a more enjoyable game
for you, it's stripping away almost everything that the majority of us find enjoyable about RPGs as opposed to board games.
Ive asked everyone I game with or know who games, and shown them your proposal, and
not a single one of them has any interest in playing the kind of game you've described. This is 15 people. This tells me I am not alone in my aversion to a new edition of D&D being a board game/card game hybrid, even beyond what th poll here says. And, as I said before, not matter
what you do with the rules, to the mainstream masses D&D will be D&D no matter if it uses cards and a board or computers and laser pens. Hell, most of my friends who don;t game
already think that D&D uses a board like Monopoly.
So, maybe you'd be attracting a small percentage of existing casual gamers who don't want to be bothered with learning the rules to an actual real RPG or doing character upkeep or making choices, but at the same time you will be alienating the
vast majority of existing gamers, but what you
won't be doing is attracting new gamers from mainstream society, because mainstream non-gamers don't give a flying fig what the rules for D&D are like, it's still always going to be D&D to them.
When you try to make something do too many things at once, you almost always end up doing none of them well.
