The Fantasy Trip outsells GURPS in 2019?

[Retreater]

But an $18.00 PDF isn't a big investment, nor a $35.00 bundle of the core rules, plus micro-games, adventures and other add-ons. Or even the core rules in hardback for $35.00 (or $30.00).

It may have been mentioned before, but the PDF of Melee is a free download if people are curious about the core system.
While it wasn't for me, I don't think it's a "bad" system. (And I did buy the $100-ish boxed set on a whim.)

 

[Jaeger]

Hindsight is 20/20 of course. But GURPS used to be in the 2nd tier of relevance in the 90's RPG industry along with Shadowrun, Rifts, a few others. You had D&D and White Wolf as 1st tier, and then SJG was a major RPG player in the next level down with Fasa, Palladium, and a couple others that I can't remember. Today, SJG's RPG division feels much less relevant - TFT 2019/20 sales notwithstanding. I would hazard more people play Dungeon World than TFT, and definitely more people are playing Savage Worlds than GURPS.

Somewhere along the line SJG started going backwards in audience and prominence from where it was in the hobby since the 90's.

The reasons for that are probably rather complex and intertwined.

Funny, but FFG is making enough off theirs to keep the line going.
Hero isn't exactly doing great, but it's not doing nothing and is still profitable.

It's all relative though. See Eyes of Nine's post above.

TFT also has a $35 version, complete with Melee, Wizard, everything those two sets contain, and In The Labyrinth. That means an entry fee of $7/person for a group to try the game.

Ohh, good on them.

 

[lordabdul]

SJG knows their core audience, caters to it, and does relatively well in the scheme of things. They may see no need but to just keep doing what they are doing.

Exactly. The goal is not to "win" some kind of market share race, unless you follow the worst tendencies of capitalist thinking. I'm totally happy if SJGames continues to work on GURPS in a sustainable way without necessarily chasing "growth". As long as they're making enough money to pay writers a reasonable wage, it's fine. Of course, it's always nice when new people come and play a game you like...

In other news, I hope all of you GURPS players have backed the new Pyramid Kickstarter!

 

[uzirath]

In other news, I hope all of you GURPS players have backed the new Pyramid Kickstarter!

Backed on day 1 and thrilled to see us blow past so many stretch goals. At $6 for three 48-page magazines, each featuring a dozen articles, it’s a pretty great deal!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Backed on day 1 and thrilled to see us blow past so many stretch goals. At $6 for three 48-page magazines, each featuring a dozen articles, it’s a pretty great deal!

I don't even play GURPS anymore, but $6 for 144 pages of RPG goodness - I couldn't say no. And heck, they may get to 156 pages (52 pps each). Probably not, but 3 days left and only need another USD4500 or so.

They are really smart to also add the $X worth of credit in their store, usually for a discount.

 

[MGibster]

Hindsight is 20/20 of course. But GURPS used to be in the 2nd tier of relevance in the 90's RPG industry along with Shadowrun, Rifts, a few others. You had D&D and White Wolf as 1st tier, and then SJG was a major RPG player in the next level down with Fasa, Palladium, and a couple others that I can't remember. Today, SJG's RPG division feels much less relevant - TFT 2019/20 sales notwithstanding. I would hazard more people play Dungeon World than TFT, and definitely more people are playing Savage Worlds than GURPS.

I think gaming tastes have changed a bit since the 1990s and the trend was moving away from games like GURPS. I'm not sure if an open license or anything else would have actually revitalized the game line. SJG probably did the wisest thing by putting their efforts into more profitable endeavors like Munchkin.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I think gaming tastes have changed a bit since the 1990s and the trend was moving away from games like GURPS. I'm not sure if an open license or anything else would have actually revitalized the game line. SJG probably did the wisest thing by putting their efforts into more profitable endeavors like Munchkin.

Certainly. I think in fact if they had opened up their license, they could have sat back and continued to be relevant and just reaped the rewards of their core books continuing to sell with almost on work on their part at all.

 

[darjr]

Wait didn’t SJGames open up a bit with GURPS third party adventures? Or am I thinking of somebody else?

 

[Argyle King]

Wait didn’t SJGames open up a bit with GURPS third party adventures? Or am I thinking of somebody else?

SJ Games accepts submissions for adventures and content. If you can write to their editorial standards, the pay is fairly good.

 

[dbm]

Gaming Ballistic have a license to release some third party stuff for Dungeon Fantasy, and it has been of a high standard.