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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8353065" data-attributes="member: 6801252">One relevant question is if the solution is for TTRPGs to somehow move beyond 'cottage industry' status by finding ways to stabilize the necessary sales to support more companies or independent creators, or if it really is better handled by remaining mostly hobbyist-- I offer this as a real choice because I see systems designed to better distribute economic security as possible, essential, and necessary. A world where self-driving cars are ubiquitous alone is probably sufficient to strain the credibility of 'we can employ everyone at rates that allow them to live' so at some point I think we have to own up to the possibility of economies where needs are taken care of (food, shelter, healthcare, education) collectively, and with a lot of people working a little, instead of few people working a lot. Either things get dark enough that we'll have bigger things to worry about (e.g. regular people consumers will no longer have money to sustain the RPG market at all, at best it forcibly goes hobbyist if we still have a free internet) or we go 'full star trek' or something approaching it to avert what would functionally be feudalism. Traditionally, expectations for such a society essentially entail conditions in which people participate in the arts and take up other pursuits because they have the leisure time to do so-- personally as a writer, I think that would be a major benefits for many artists, to be able to create without having to commodify, and RPGs are absolutely something that can be produced without the engine of capitalism, though they might look different. I honestly think you only really need leisure time and a sufficiently literate population. Less state-directed creation of RPGs, and more "<a href="https://libcom.org/files/Bertrand%20Russell%20-%20In%20Praise%20of%20Idleness.pdf" target="_blank">In Praise of Idleness</a>" or "<a href="https://libcom.org/files/The%20soul%20of%20man%20under%20socialism.pdf" target="_blank">The Soul of Man Under Socialism</a>" style hobbies-in-a-post-scarcity world. A lot of people already do stuff like this, I know I got into TTRPGs in the first place because it was a space where I could design adventures and be a 'game designer' without having to devote a whole career to it, or pick up a lot of technical skills I didn't have, its still a big reason I write homebrew adventures, study up on so much game design and TTRPG culture-of-play stuff, try different games, and build out my own worlds.</blockquote>

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