Monte Cook on target audience of RPG Supplements

[Glyfair]

Monte has posted the second part of his journey through the RPG industry. In it he makes a comment that caught my attention (partially becauise I've been arguing something similar for a while). In fact he is quoting Rob Bell, but "Rob Bell on..." isn't as attention grabbing

Rob taught me the important lesson that RPG supplements aren't created for great GMs, because great GMs don't need them. (Not that great GMs don't use them, they don't need them. So you can't assume that the audience is great GMs. Assume that the audience is made of average GMs.)

Lots of other interesting bits as well (such as his being told time & time again that computers would take over from RPGs in 5 years...in 1990) in the article.

 

[DaveMage]

Link?

 

[Doug McCrae]

Well, Here I Am. And I'm Not Leaving

I found this quote the most interesting. I've often suspected some games writers stopped playing rpgs long ago.

Most people in the industry didn't actually play the games they were working on, or if they did, it was only rarely. And they would say so with a strange sort of pride, as though actually playing games was beneath them. I remember the looks of disdain and startled surprise from other pros at my first Gen Con when I went off to actually play games with actual gamers. There was an undercurrent of arrogance among many of my peers, and even a mild contempt for the audience.

 

[Glyfair]

Link?

Oops, I copied the link and forgot to embed it.

As an aside, here is one of his blog entries expanding on some rules bits from that entry.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

What about Lazy DM's? I mean I find myself a pretty good DM above average but not great. But Im a very lazy person. The only additional Rules Ive ever come up with in completion is a set of d20 Super-hero rules after I got fed up with not being satisfied with other systems or Hero Games. Still havent had time to Play test it yet.

For example Book of Nine swords is similar to an Idea i had about 3 years ago. WOTC came out with it and I never had to lift a finger. Wait long enough and most of the time a game company will do it for you. Though you cant profit from it.

 

[Theron]

Well, Here I Am. And I'm Not Leaving

I found this quote the most interesting. I've often suspected some games writers stopped playing rpgs long ago.

I remember being shocked when I first started interacting with game designers online (initially through a BBS that was the unofficial HQ of the Hero System) and learned that most of the folks designing superhero game materials weren't regular comics readers.

In retrospect, it actually explained a lot. :\

 

[Glyfair]

What about Lazy DM's? I mean I find myself a pretty good DM above average but not great. But Im a very lazy person. The only additional Rules Ive ever come up with in completion is a set of d20 Super-hero rules after I got fed up with not being satisfied with other systems or Hero Games. Still havent had time to Play test it yet.

I think it still applies. You don't need them, it doesn't mean you don't use them.

 

[fusangite]

I think great GMs can create a setting on the fly and have it emerge as they run episodes with not much additional work. And generally I don't take long to construct a setting... a couple of afternoons' work and I have enough to go.

 

[Rothe]

...Lots of other interesting bits as well (such as his being told time & time again that computers would take over from RPGs in 5 years...in 1990) in the article.

Well they actually did, even if not by 1995, certainly in the last 5 years. The on-line multiplayer games and the counsole game markets dwarf pen&paper RPGs by orders of magnitude. Electronic games did take over from RPGs just not in the way people thought they would.

 

[Glyfair]

Well they actually did, even if not by 1995, certainly in the last 5 years.

Yes, but in the sense of "RPGs won't be around 5 years from now." To the best of my knowledge they still are.