d20 sales VS everyone else [ot]

[Alaska Roberts]

Ok, I have to explain to non-gamers, the difference between D20, and the rest of the RPG World, for sales purposes. So when I have them sell Book of Vile Darkness, they know what it is, etc.

I started to write something up but it didnt seem right, so I came to the one place that I knew I could get help!
ENWorld Message Boards!!!

Thanks in advance

Alaska

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What I'd say:

d20 is the core mechanics behind the Dungeons & Dragons game that is considered "open" so that anyone can publish a book using them. Kind of like having a chess set with a football theme. The pieces look like football players instead of regular chess pieces, but the rules are pretty much the same.

Where this is innacurate:

The rules can, indeed change and there are legal restrictions on use of the license. But most people's eyes glaze over when you tell them you play a game with 200 pages of rules, so I'm not so certain you'd get that far.

 

[Piratecat]

The big selling point of d20 is that the vast majority of players already know the rules; this makes finding new players MUCH easier. Sort of like buying software for a Windows machine vs. other operating systems.

 

[Alaska Roberts]

I like that Geek, and Piratecat, both very good anologys, that most of these knuckleheads might get. What about other RPG's, besides WW who has a large following, what can I do to push these types of products.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I like that Geek, and Piratecat, both very good anologys, that most of these knuckleheads might get. What about other RPG's, besides WW who has a large following, what can I do to push these types of products.

deciding which ones to push would be the first step! Have you seen this recent thread yet?

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22165

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What about other RPG's, besides WW who has a large following, what can I do to push these types of products.

I'd do it just by asking them if they wanted to play an RPG that had fewer silly rules and was more about the story (White Wolf, Atlas, others). Or perhaps they'd like to get away from the dumb story and get down into juicy combat (Warhammer, GURPS, Shadowrun).

But I wouldn't really "push" anything. Take bocci ball. A lot of people play bocci ball. They think bocci ball is fun. I do not think bocci ball is fun. The only lawn sport I like is vollyball. I only play croquet to be nice. So it doesn't matter how much someone tries to "push" bocci ball on me; I'm not going to like it. I've played the stupid game far too often when I could have been spending my time more effectively lying in a coma.

IMHO, of course.