The appeal of licensed properties

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The recent Green Ronin announcement and subsuquent reaction (mine and others) got me wondering.

What's the appeal of a licensed property?

I completely understand what the publisher gets out of the deal -- built-in customer base, free PR, cross-promotion, etc. And I understand what they give up, and the hassles that can be involved in having to toe someone else's line creatively.

But I'm not sure I get the attraction for gamers.

I game because it's fun, and it's fun for me for a whole lot of reasons. One of them is that it's a creative outlet. As a GM, creating adventures, fleshing out worlds, writing plot outlines, all scratch that itch. Not to mention the joy of improvising on the spot when the players do something unexpected, and having that off-the-cuff adjustment become part of the lore of the game. And as a player, obviously, the roleplaying itself, as well as the chance to help 'write the story' of the world we're playing in.

But licensed properties rob me of that, to some degree. I'm no longer in control. I'm playing in someone else's sandbox. I have to worry about contradicting canon; not that I can't, but that it'll lead to confusion among the players. I have tons of history already hemming me in before I start. And it only gets worse as the product line grows. I have to ignore new material, or retcon it.

I'm not immune. I've run games in the popular settings. I've used settings from fiction, like the Camber novels, or movies like Star Wars. But for me the original source material was just a springboard, a common touchstone but nothing more. But my interest in a settting has been inversely proportional to the amount of material for it. It waxes, I wane.

So as players and GMs, what do you all get out of a licensed property?

 

[Crothian]

A solid base to build the campaign. With Star Wars I don't have to explain what is going on in my science fiction game. Who the races are, what the majot planets are, who the good guys and bad guys are, etc. The players for the most part come to the table with this knowledge and we are ready to roll.

It provides the players with firm expectations. When a I play in a Buffy the Vampire game I know what I'm (usually) going to get out of the game. The tone of the show is the tone of the game.

But for the most part I see licenses as not really aimed at gamers. I thinbk it is more aimed at fans of the license and to get them to game.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

A solid base to build the campaign.

But don't you generally have that to begin with?

I mean, if you want to play Star Wars, you're likely going to attract players that already have the common foundation.

In Buffy's case, the core mechanics that allow a 'star' surrounded by supporting players to work is pretty unique. That's something that most games don't address at all, and to my mind is a good use of a licensed property, as it was something that existing games didn't handle very well.

But for the most part I see licenses as not really aimed at gamers. I thinbk it is more aimed at fans of the license and to get them to game.

To some extent, I agree. Most of the licensed stuff I've bought I acquired to enhance my enjoyment of the source material, rather than as a game aid. And I can see how certain properties have enough appeal outside the traditional gamer market that there might be some recruitment possibilities.

But that's got to be a pretty expensive and haphazard approach.

 

[Wombat]

Many people are drawn to rpgs because they want to play out aspects of a favourite novel or movie. How many new gamers have you heard say, "I wanna play Aragorn/Skywalker/Elric", or whathaveyou? As such, having a game that specifically targets a beloved setting is going to have at least some draw right off the top.

As Crothian notes, this is useful as a shorthand, especially in a science fiction setting -- with fantasy settings you have a wide but fairly well understood range of tropes to draw upon; with science fiction, every single point has to be understood -- saying "We're playing Star Trek/Star Wars/Stargate" (or any other "star" matter) allows the players to draw up a range of images, of what can and can't be done, and allows the characters to fit into the world swiftly.

So, yes, there can be a big "up" for the gamer side as well.

...of course, that always assumes you want to play in that world to begin with...

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Not quite an RPG but similar, I play the Lord of the Rings Online. I play that game because I love the world that Tolkien dreamed up. While I like the characters in the story, the world is more to me than just those characters, or their adventures. I enjoy being able to explore and have my own adventures in that world.

 

[wedgeski]

It's simple wish-fulfilment, from my point of view, on both the GM's and player's side. This happened to me only last night after watching the finale of the second season of Sarah Connor Chronicles... the first thing I said (well, actually the second, but the *real* first thing had words not fit for grandma's wrinkly little ears) was, "We gotta play a Terminator campaign."

In more clinical terms, the property, assuming you like it, provides a simple template for adventure and a real sense of what the RPG has to do in order to "work". But ultimately, I just want to run me some Skynet and see what my guys can do to save the world.

 

[Crothian]

But don't you generally have that to begin with?

Not really. If it is a world of my own creation I have to explain everything to the players or give the home work of stuff to read. It takes a while to get some players up to speed unlike just having them watch a movie or a TV show.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Not really. If it is a world of my own creation I have to explain everything to the players or give the home work of stuff to read. It takes a while to get some players up to speed unlike just having them watch a movie or a TV show.

Sorry, what I meant was, when playing Star Wars / LotR / Firefly, you're appealing primarily to people that are already familiar with the source material.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

It's simple wish-fulfilment, from my point of view, on both the GM's and player's side. This happened to me only last night after watching the finale of the second season of Sarah Connor Chronicles... the first thing I said (well, actually the second, but the *real* first thing had words not fit for grandma's wrinkly little ears) was, "We gotta play a Terminator campaign."

Right. But you can (and presumably will) do that absent any 'official' version of the Terminator: The RPG. You'll take what you already have and run with it. What does an official book offer you that you don't already have? You've got the basic concept and the creative urge to do something with it. Anything more, as I see it, is limiting rather than liberating.

 

[Crothian]

Sorry, what I meant was, when playing Star Wars / LotR / Firefly, you're appealing primarily to people that are already familiar with the source material.

Yes, I think they are. I can't think of a licensed product I have that I wasn't a fan of the source material before I bought it.