Fantasy Flight Games Discontinuing RPGs?

Back in January, it emerged that FFG was laying off a lot of staff, including RPG staff. Now, GM Chris over at d20 Radio is reporting that the company is discontinuing all RPG development, including Star Wars, Legend of the Five Rings, and its relatively newer Genesys universal system.

He says that all currently announced products will be produced, but in the long-term the RPG production is ending. There's some speculation regarding sales of companies to each other (FFG's owner is Asmodee, which is owned by PAI Partners who bought it from Eurazeo), but it's only conjecture. More info at the link below!

Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development - d20 Radio

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020. We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed [...]

www.d20radio.com

FFG's Katrina Ostrander appears to have confirmed the news:


Back in January, FFG laid off over 14 staff, and shut down Fantasy Flight Interactive. Reports were that the tabletop RPG department had been "shuttered" -- reduced to a couple of full timers. It sounds now like the cut is more severe even than that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Played a one shot if WEG Star Wars a few weeks ago.

Picked them up for a $1 back in 2004, postage was $8.

The SWSE stuff I bought at the time. Those books are pricy.

Fan made character sheets from REUP.

Close up character sheet.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Played a one shot if WEG Star Wars a few weeks ago.

View attachment 118586

Picked them up for a $1 back in 2004, postage was $8.

The SWSE stuff I bought at the time. Those books are pricy.

View attachment 118587

Fan made character sheets from REUP.

View attachment 118588

Close up character sheet.

Nice books! But, uh, what’s that have to do with the discussion? Did I miss something?

 

[Zardnaar]

Nice books! But, uh, what’s that have to do with the discussion? Did I miss something?

Doesnt matter if the games not supported anymore as long as you can find players.

There's been an active uptick in fan made mods and material for Star Wars games. Some of them are HD remake mods and entire core rulebooks.

I never got into FFG SW due to gimmick dice and had 5 previous editions of the RPG to play. 6 if you count 2E revised D6.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Doesnt matter if the games not supported anymore as long as you can find players.

There's been an active uptick in fan made mods and material for Star Wars games. Some of them are HR remake mods and entire core rulebooks.

I never got into FFG SW due to gimmick dice and had 5 previous editions of the RPG to play. 6 if you count 2E revised D6.

Ah, gotcha. I think it can be really different from area to area. In my area people won’t even consider playing or investing in a game if it isn’t available at an LGS.

 

[KatherineWhite]

I also think that if it's the overall license for tablet games, FFG will still have it

 

[Ravenbrook]

At first LotR, now SW. It looks like RPG companies are better off using their own proprietary settings or settings/themes that are in the public domain (e.g. Sherlock Holmes, most Cthulhu Mythos stuff).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe in the past a famous franchise was a good hook, but today with internet things have changed. Today if you are a player and want more fluff/lore/background you don't need spending money when you only have to read the fandom wikis about videogames, books or teleseries. And if you want crunch you will want buy the sourcebooks of the most popular games.

And if you create a new franchise from zero your creative freedom is total, and even you could make money with a future adaptation for some multimedia project, for example videogames, miniatures, comics or novels.

 

[Mournblade94]

I have no sources at all, only I use the pure logic. If you are Hasbro/WotC you should have plans for future no-medieval fantasy TTRPGs, maybe adaptation of other franchises, G.I.Joe and Transformers, for example. Hasbro knows the best advertising to sell more toys are the media, movies and cartoons but if paying royalties for lincenses is too expensive, then better you create your own multimedia franchises, sometimes starting from zero. You can bet WotC CEOs would love a d20 superheroes but this system isn't ready yet. And Muntant & Mastermind isn't compatible with D&D. Think about that. If Hasbro has got agremeents with Blizzard or Epic Games... why not a d20 Overwatch or a d20 Fortnite: Save the world? Let's use psychology and try to imagine how is the CEOs' minds to think about future market strategies.

After Spelljammer the next step should be Gamma World because it a setting with high-tech but where usually you would rather to fight hand-to-hand to save ammo for the hardest enemies, like spellcasters with Vacian system. My suspects is really the videogame studios are who are designing the next d20 Future. If it works they could buy forgotten videogame franchises.

Other theory (by me) is they want to create a d20 Mass Battles, for miniature wargame, but also for some Real-Time-Strategy videogame, maybe set in Birthright. And a open door for musou games (one-man-army against troops).

* Legend of five Rings will not be sold to WotC because you can guess this would change the lore too much, adding new PC races and mixing with elements from Korea and China. And after Kara-Tur maybe WotC would rather to start his own version of Wuxia fantasy. I suposse if Asmodee goes bad, then it would be sold to a publisher with experencie in card and TT games.

If Hasbro tried to buy or merge with Mattel, maybe one with Asmodde/FGG is possible if now the business doesn't go too right. It wouldn't be the first time Hasbro has bought other companies of board games. And until now Asmodee was the second best tabletop games after Hasbro.

Before 5e, I spent alot of time reading Hasbro quarterly reports. I still do. D&D is mentioned NOW. It was not at all mentioned until it became a streaming sensation. RPG money is insignigicant to these executives. Dungeons and Dragons the premier roleplaying game was barely ever mentioned by Hasbro, and it only is now, rarely, because it is more mainstream. Dungeons and Dragons though is mentioned as a BRAND and not a game.

I don't think any one of these companies outside of WOTC want to dedicate resources to RPGs. I don't think Hasbro wants to allocate WOTC resources to a TTRPG that is not Dungeons and Dragons. The money most table top games bring in is not worth it for the big companies. Even a d20 fortnight. The return would be too low. The assumption is being made that the kids playing FOrtnight are going to instead sit around a table and play it as an RPG. I don't think they will.

Disney as a company probably is not worried about an RPG license wavering.

 

[Acolyte of Zothique]

Doesnt matter if the games not supported anymore as long as you can find players.

There's been an active uptick in fan made mods and material for Star Wars games. Some of them are HD remake mods and entire core rulebooks.

I never got into FFG SW due to gimmick dice and had 5 previous editions of the RPG to play. 6 if you count 2E revised D6.

WEG d6 2nd Edition Revised (the one with the Millennium Falcon on the cover) was THE Star Wars RPG - I played in and ran that game for years and still have many books for it. Nothing else came close and I played WEG 1st Ed, 2nd Ed, WotC D20, D20 Revised and Saga. Some of the most memorable roleplaying ever came from that game - a stone cold classic.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hasbro CEOs wouldn't worry about D&D and other TTRPGs but WotC should have got other point of view. Hasbro knows the power of the brands to sell more, and they know the future is linked to the media production, not only streaming services but also videogames.

Hasbro should notice the TTRPGs are the right product for teenages who don't play with toys anymore, and where brother and sisters can play together, with the parents or other members of the family. Maybe they have tought for TTRPGs something like the Magic:tG cards with a number code to get the digital version in Magic Arena, and this code would be sold with miniatures or sourcebooks. (Yes, it is speculation by me but you should open your minds about somebody to be possible). Maybe its plans aren't for the paper printed version but more about digital adaptations, the videogame industry. Why do you think they are working is many coming soon titles? The money is there now, and in the streaming media services.

You could bet there is a open door for a d20 system adapted to the high-tech age, to publish its own IPs or to be ready for a future adaptation. If firearms and modern tech change radically the gameplay in the d20 system, they are working about that, maybe using computers for game simulations to test and try to find the right power balance. They would dare to publish a spin-off of Ravenloft based in the pulp age (1930's) (because it is the easiest way to be adapted to action-live), or a space fantasy with a retrofuturist look.