Does Anyone Care? (Cosmere RPG)

[plecostomus]

The main thing that indicates is that the RPG has not yet reached the full potential of juat Sanderson fans: which makes sense, the Stormlight novels alone have sold over 10 million copies, which divided by 5 is still representing something like 20 times greater than the number of people who backed the Kickstarter.

The even more successful "Secret Projects" novel Kickstarter got national news coverage, and Sanderson says he constantly meets people who love his books who say they never heard about the Kickstarter...and those books actually sold more copies in bookstores than they did in the crowdfunding.

Just because your DM didn't jump on the bandwagon doesn't speak much to the quality of the game, maybe more his not really hearing about it or maybe being skeptical about the results.

But we have the books now, and as game rules they are great.

Oh yeah, I did not mean to suggest anything about the quality of the game. I was more looking at that title question and the game's prospects- Does anyone care? Well my DM certainly doesn't. And that to me is really strange, because he loves ttrpgs and he loves Sanderson books. So something about this project has not spoken to him despite that.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh yeah, I did not mean to suggest anything about the quality of the game. I was more looking at that title question and the game's prospects- Does anyone care? Well my DM certainly doesn't. And that to me is really strange, because he loves ttrpgs and he loves Sanderson books. So something about this project has not spoken to him despite that.

I'd look at that the opposite way: that means the RPG hasn't maxed out it's audience yet before hitting retail. Maybe your DM just hasn't bothered really looking yet, but when the books are on the shelves of the FLGS...he might take a look.

 

[Thomas Shey]

IP games are generally a flash in the pan with fans buying them and that’s it.

Its hard to see to what degree that's really true, because the truth is a lot of rpgs are flashes in the pan. I'm not sure IP focused games do any worse than the hobby as a whole here.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Its hard to see to what degree that's really true, because the truth is a lot of rpgs are flashes in the pan. I'm not sure IP focused games do any worse than the hobby as a whole here.

I suspect very strongly that, were someone sufficiently motivated, they could compare the amounts of money/numbers of backers IP-focused games made/had in their KS-type campaigns, and then look at where those RPGs were now, and look at non-IP-focused RPGs in the same ballpark, and see how many of them had just vanished into the mists of time.

I think what you'd find (and you'd have literally pay me to actually do the research, because it would take hours to do right, maybe days, and be incredibly boring) is that actually, yeah, IP-focused games tended to have extremely successful KS-type campaigns, but then a few years later, there were basically forgotten, just not a game people were playing, and also most of them would have very few or no support products, probably only the ones created in the KS. And it's fine for a game to not have support, but that + no evidence of anyone playing it? Probably means no-one is playing it.

There will be exceptions too, whilst I think Mothership is gradually supplanting it, the Alien RPG seemed to do pretty well for a while. And I don't think any Star Wars RPG has been a total flop or vanished without a trace (unlike certain Marvel ones!).

 

[Hermes_Alexandria]

IP games are generally a flash in the pan with fans buying them and that’s it.

I’ve had the Walking Dead starter via Kickstarter for a long while now and have yet to even read it.

I'm bullish on the long-term success of the Cosmere RPG, and the prior success of the Star Wars RPG shows us why. Brotherwise Games hired talent from the Star Wars RPG team, and the Knights Radiant are, at least in part, a spiritual successor to the Jedi.

The Star Wars RPG thrived because, despite some clunky dice mechanics, it was supported by a fantastic line of products for every era. Brotherwise can replicate this model. While the Cosmere isn't as big as Star Wars, it is likely that Sanderson's name can fuel annual $10M+ Kickstarters and get the game into big box stores. All signs point to a promising long term future for the game.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm bullish on the long-term success of the Cosmere RPG, and the prior success of the Star Wars RPG shows us why. Brotherwise Games hired talent from the Star Wars RPG team, and the Knights Radiant are, at least in part, a spiritual successor to the Jedi.

Pre-Prequel Star Wars, the 90s novel and WEG RPG era, are a significant influence on the Cosmere as a literary project. Sanderson played WEG Star Wars in his youth (his group apparently got the main cast of the movies accidentally killed in the first session, and spent years hustling to "fixing the timeline" which is how he hopes people treat his canon at the table: make it their own and have fun with it), and he enjoyed the way the puppy novels handled a shared continuity while still being "in the moment" and not being tightly connected Soap Operas. So the Cosmere novels are all connected...but honestly you have to ne deep in to notice that.

The Star Wars RPG thrived because, despite some clunky dice mechanics, it was supported by a fantastic line of products for every era. Brotherwise can replicate this model. While the Cosmere isn't as big as Star Wars, it is likely that Sanderson's name can fuel annual $10M+ Kickstarters and get the game into big box stores. All signs point to a promising long term future for the game.

Interestingly, Dragonsteel Press and Brotherwise Games have no intention to run another Cosmere Kickstarter: the first one set them for 5 years of research and development with the intention of everything after Mistborn (at least White Sand, Warbreaker, Elantris, and "Worldhopper", exact order TBA) will go straight to retail.

Thougu based on what they are laying down at the Plotweaver RPG system website, Plotweaver Roleplaying Game , it seems they plan to run a Kickstsrter for the "generic" version of the game sometime after the SRD drops around GenCon next year (based on recent statements by Johnny O'Neal).

 

[SkidAce]

...My loyal book-shieldmate, who often reads the same books as me, and who managed to get to like book 5 or 6 of Terry Goodkind (a horrifying feat no man should attempt, I couldn't get past the first one), ...

I really liked the 1st one, but good grief you are so correct about the rest of the series.

Admitting this may be damaging to my rep...but I made it to book four before i popped smoke, jumped out of the airplane, threw away my chute, and flapped my arms to gain acceleration towards ground impact.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I really liked the 1st one, but good grief you are so correct about the rest of the series.

Admitting this may be damaging to my rep...but I made it to book four before i popped smoke, jumped out of the airplane, threw away my chute, and flapped my arms to gain acceleration towards ground impact.

Four? Yeesh. I only finished the first because by the time it had gone from mere excrement to runny, decayed excrement, I was so many pages into it that the road home was through Berlin. (Today I occasionally throw a book in the (metaphorical) trash on the basis of the first chapter. Or paragraph.)

 

[Parmandur]

I really liked the 1st one, but good grief you are so correct about the rest of the series.

Admitting this may be damaging to my rep...but I made it to book four before i popped smoke, jumped out of the airplane, threw away my chute, and flapped my arms to gain acceleration towards ground impact.

I made it to 7 or 8 before I realized "Oh, hey, these books are actively evil and anti-human" which is me being slow on the uptake, but I was like 16 so...

The Stormlight Archives books, on the other hand, are thick and meaty and it is, actually impossible to explain what is happening by Book 3 (my wife would scream in frustration before I read them because she would be mind blown by some development but couldn't even begin to discuss it with me), but they are actually rather pleasant to get into and rewarding in the end, IMO.

 

[Divine2021]

So, has it been determined that yes, people care about the Cosmere rpg?