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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cergorach" data-source="post: 5357798" data-attributes="member: 725">#1 Sales where 5000+ (including pdfs) a Lot more then the 3000 stated.#2 Maybe Q3 2010 was a slow quarter for games besides D&D/Pathfinder/40kRPG/WFRPG.#3 D&D was always number one by a long way, it wouldn't surprise me if Paizo and Fantasy Flight Games caught up (relatively speaking).While the specific case might not have merit (imho) that doesn't mean the pnp RPG industry is a healthy place at the moment, especially the print part of the industry. I have 25m+ of shelf space dedicated to RPG/wargame related books and boxed sets (add 9m of board games, a few cubic meters of miniatures). My game room/office is getting full and the amount of shelf space is getting increasingly sparse. A lot of that shelf space will be dedicated to completing a couple of old collections (AD&D 2E, Shadowrun, Battletech, Earthdawn, L5R 1E, OWoD, etc)., the new stuff is going to be limited to 40kRPG (FFG is not releasing a lot of supplements for this), Warmachine/Hordes hardcovers, Warhammer 40k/Fantasy rulebooks, and possibly some hardcover rulebooks from things I really like. Everything else will be pdf and will go on my iPad.I also think that computer games, specifically MMORPGs are getting a lot of the pnp gamers. I've seen in the past a lot of folks playing pnp games over irc, forums, Ventrillo, Skype, etc. And to be honest I find that a poor excuse for the social interaction the pnp RPG excels in, why would folks want to play a RPG that way when there are boat loads of far more immersive computer (MMO) games out there? This isn't 10-20 years ago when a lot of the computer games weren't exactly immersive (bad graphics), very little multiplayer/interaction. If I have the option of playing D&D over Skype with a bunch of folks I don't really know or play MMO X (WoW, LotrO, DDO, EQ2E, etc.) I think I'll go with an MMO.For me pnp RPG games are about sitting around a table with real life people (preferably 'friends'). The world we now live in is generally not 9-5 oriented anymore, so syncing 5+ folks for a regular evening is getting more problematic then it was 10-20 years ago. Add to that that a lot of folks that were in the 'golden' age RPG now have full-time jobs and have families. RPG publishers don't have the same connection to young people as they had 20 years ago, so a lot of introduction is left to the old folks, who don't really have time anymore to introduce new folks to the game.The Internet and cheap (color) printers are also a thorn in the eye of most publishers. Free games, Open Source games, creative GMs, etc. There are also very few publishers that produce products I would advise players to initially buy. If I where to run a RPG campaign (haven't done so in years) i certainly wouldn't require players to buy expensive books, I either provide an Open Source document (OGL) or a page that explains the rules in as few of my own words as possible. Some of the books I would prefer players not to own (to much background information for a campaign). Heck, a lot of the new systems are superior then their old ones, but far to often the setting has moved on or has changed in ways I do not want to explore (Shadowrun, Battletech, WoD, Exalted are excellent examples), so I am often forced to disconnect rules from setting anyway.Then we have games such as Descent (FFG) that are more then HeroQuest (MB) and generally less then a traditional pnp RPG. It's easier to get into and is presented a lot more attractively. It's also a board game that makes it more acceptable to a lot of folks then a nerdy pnp RPG, making it more casual.</blockquote>

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