Dragonstar?

[Crothian]

Grimm is getting its own system, in fact the book should be out about now according to the Catalogue they sent me.

 

[KaosDevice]

I wonder how FFG would feel about opening up the Drangonstar 'verse for publishing via pdf for indy types...

 

[Neo]

But the reason they pulled the plug, at least on DragonStar, is that they couldn't afford to keep putting out supplements for it - not enough people were buying it.

Ive never quite bought into that as being the reason.. FFG's RPG settings number among some of my favourites, Dragonstar especially..yet despite word from FFG that no more releases for it would be released after the essential collection they never really explained why.

Not enough sales doesnt seem likely to me as I still own/moderate the DSD20 dragonstar yahoo that has remained active throughout with people who own, play and love the setting..even now all these months since the last release came out. But I cant believe we would still have almost a thousand people on a list still posting daily with regards to a setting they wouldnt buy books for if more were released.

It is most likely as mcrow indicates that they maybe just dont have enough ready capital to support/expand on them further I dont know? but then if that is the case you tend to end up with a difficult sitch.. whereby there beloved settings remain internal as they may some time down the line get to do something with them themselves again.. so they choose not to license them out and as a result they likely get sat on inactive for a long time.

I think I can say in all honesty that support is just unlikely, I know for my own part and many I know have bought all the midnight releases, horizon books, dawnforge, dragonstar etc.. and most people I tend to talk too online tend to have all of one or more of them also.

Shame really as FFG is one of my top 4 "happy to buy without need of prior review or research" publishers.

 

[mcrow]

FFG has not release much on Grimm yet except that it is definitly no d20 and I don't think it will be OGL either.

 

[kenobi65]

I wonder how FFG would feel about opening up the Drangonstar 'verse for publishing via pdf for indy types...

Based on what I've heard, I wouldn't count on it.

A group of Living Dragonstar players (the RPGA campaign using the setting), working with a small Australian game company, tried to get FFG to license the setting and rules for use in continuing the Living campaign; nothing's come of it (no news on the LDS Yahoo group on the subject since November).

My understanding is that FFG wants to hang onto the IP for potential future projects, and not dilute it by letting others use it at the moment.

 

[kenobi65]

Ive never quite bought into that as being the reason.. FFG's RPG settings number among some of my favourites, Dragonstar especially..yet despite word from FFG that no more releases for it would be released after the essential collection they never really explained why.

I think low sales were a big part of the reason...I suspect that another reason was that FFG never got 3.5-complient versions (or conversions) of the Dragonstar books out there, and that may well have sapped their ability to bring in new players.

 

[kenobi65]

AFAIK, yes. For a while now too.

IIRC, the announcement was made almost exactly a year ago. RPGA and FFG jointly pulled the plug on Living Dragonstar a few weeks after, and the final Living Dragonstar modules premiered at GenCon Indy last August.

 

[philreed]

Ive never quite bought into that as being the reason.. FFG's RPG settings number among some of my favourites, Dragonstar especially..yet despite word from FFG that no more releases for it would be released after the essential collection they never really explained why.

I'm willing to bet that low sales was exactly the reason. A company does not end support of a line that is selling well unless there is some larger reason. FFG is in a position to support what sells and they're smart enough as a company to drop what doesn't sell.

Example? Look at the growth of their board/card game division compared to their RPG division. Which side do you think is selling more product?

 

[mcrow]

FFG makes WAY more money with their boardgame/CCG divisions than the RPGs do. They are much more well known for their high quality boardgames.

 

[trancejeremy]

I suspect in FFG's case, "low sales" would be a lot more sales than just about any other d20 company (save the usual suspects, like WOTC)..

Still, there was a definite slide in quality after the 2 hardcover books - the races book and the gear book were quite mediocre at best. So it wouldn't surprise me if sales spiraled downward after those were released.