The trends of 2005

[MerricB]

Hang on a moment - isn't the D&D MMORPG scheduled for next year? Or is it 2006?

(Second half of 2005, as far as I can gather).

Cheers!

 

[exile]

I think BTS2 stands for Beyond the Supernatural 2 (from Palladium).

My predictions, for what they are worth...

The role-playing gamer population will continue to grow, thanks more in part to D&D and Star Wars miniatures than to the new basic game.

WOD2 will (continue to) be a success; towards the end of the year, Exalted will get updated to the system common to the new WoD.

Green Ronin will continue to put out awesome stuff (they really do seem to be one of the bright stars in the industry right now). At least one of their new lines will have a color in its title (a la Red Star, Blue Rose, Black Company).

We'll continue to see other companies downsize the amount of D20 material they are producing. The less successful of these will close; the more successful will branch out into non-D20/non-OGL games (a la FFG and Fireborn, and Grimm).

WOTC has a big surprise planned for late in the year; it won't be a new edition, but it might be a new campaign setting (maybe). I would personally like to see GI Joe or Transformers developed for D20 Modern or D20 Future.

3-4 new campaign settings from big name companies will be born and die in the space of a single hardcover book and (if they are lucky) one soft back supplement.

Goodman Games will build on the success of their Dungeon Crawl Classics and do something equally cool, if not equally old school.

Chad

 

[JoeGKushner]

We'll continue to see other companies downsize the amount of D20 material they are producing. The less successful of these will close; the more successful will branch out into non-D20/non-OGL games (a la FFG and Fireborn, and Grimm).

I think this is correct to an extent. GoO for example, will still probably work with the d20 license in their various products, while others like Monte and the Troll Lords will continue to push their OGL based works in new directions. After all, Mutants & Masterminds is OGL too and it’s already got a genre sourcebook, Noir, out.

BTS2 will be a sellout

Now if you mean Beyond the Supernatural 2nd edition… Well, I’ve enjoyed Palladium Games for a long time now. I had the original Palladium fantasy and Mechanoids a while ago, I must disagree. Palladium, like Chaosium, has to get the product out. If they do, sales are unknown. Despite selling, their popularity seems off in big online areas like RPG.net and to be honest, seem aimed at a different audience than what most claim to be playing.

The 2nd D&D movie will also see an upsurge of interest in D&D by young teenagers, funneling into the Basic game and the D&D Miniatures game. D&D Supplements will sell well, and finally get some good editing. With the second half of the year, Wizards will expand upon the topics they cover.

One of us is smoking something and I don’t think it’s me. Based on the first movie and Lord of the Rings, people don’t necessarily funnel to fantasy from movies and other product tie ins. Now if the D&D movie has a huge ad for D&D RPG then there’s a small chance. As far as editing… yeah, pass it down man… share the love…

One trend I'm very curious to see how it continues is the Licensed games. We have had some great games from licenses come out and I hope that trend continues.

Agreed. Black Company, Conan, Lone Wolf, Slaine, and others were great. If GoO can get Game of Thrones and Tekkumel out, and someone mentioned Amber, I’d be very happy. Of course this doesn’t count Thieves World and I’m hoping someone clubs Chaosium like a baby seal and takes Elric away from them…Strange as it may sound, I wish someone would cover Marvel or DC with either Tri-Stat Silver Age or Mutants & Masterminds.

Miscellaneous Thoughts…

New edition of Warhammer FRPG… a lot of this is going to depend on how they try to sell it. If they try to sell it to the old guard with the tabletop background at $50 bones, it’s going to fail. No one of the old guard wants it for that price with that baggage and I’m pretty sure that it’s coming with the high fantasy dark feel of the tabletop. If they try to aim it at new players and table top gamers, they might have a chance as they’re often younger and have more disposable income.

White Wolf… well, I love Exalted but don’t know too much about their other stuff but it looks like they haven’t given up the d20/OGL ghost yet. I’m very curious to see what they do with Warcraft as an OGL Game although Everquest II isn’t my style. Have they dropped Gamma World and Ravenloft? Maybe they’ll try Planescape next?

AEG will get Warlords out and hopefully World’s Largest City, but I don’t know if they’ll do anything with d20 past that. I hear that they have a new edition of L5R out and that they’ll drop the d20 support for d20 they were doing in the dual books.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

BTS2 = Beyond The Supernatural 2

 

[Nisarg]

Hang on a moment - isn't the D&D MMORPG scheduled for next year? Or is it 2006?

(Second half of 2005, as far as I can gather).

Cheers!

Yes, that's what I said.
And the success or failure of that MMORPG, based in Eberron, will also determine the ultimate fate of Eberron.
If the MMORPG tanks, then its "quick, everyone back to the Forgotten Realms!".


Nisarg

 

[KB9JMQ]

Yes, that's what I said.
And the success or failure of that MMORPG, based in Eberron, will also determine the ultimate fate of Eberron.
If the MMORPG tanks, then its "quick, everyone back to the Forgotten Realms!".
Nisarg

Why do you think this ? Has this been true with any other setting ?
I am just really curious because no one in either of my groups could care less
if a setting has a game based on it.

 

[MerricB]

Yes, that's what I said.
And the success or failure of that MMORPG, based in Eberron, will also determine the ultimate fate of Eberron.
If the MMORPG tanks, then its "quick, everyone back to the Forgotten Realms!".

I think that's a big leap in logic and quite unlikely. If the MMORPG tanks, it shouldn't have much effect on Eberron at all. Ultimately, it is two different companies. And, indeed, Eberron (from Wizards) is not concerned with Eberron (Online) - two different continents, ways of play, etc.

Eberron's future will be determined by sales of the D&D supplements. If they fall off quickly, then it will be dropped.

Cheers!

 

[Stone Dog]

I think that's a big leap in logic and quite unlikely. If the MMORPG tanks, it shouldn't have much effect on Eberron at all.

I agree here. Eberron is already getting pretty established and by the time the computer games come out there will be even more supplements and even a couple of novels to keep it stable.

The Dragonshard RTS is coming out before the D&D Online game and already looks to be wicked smooth. That should help grease the wheels even more. I rather like how it is set in the past of Eberron and has no impact on the present campaign setting. I would like to see this continue with an actual RPG set in one of the dramatic moments of the Last War or perhaps during the Wars of the Mark or the Silver Crusade. Sure, we know how these events panned out, but that isn't really spoiling the story (see any good movie about past events for proof).

 

[Crothian]

I think the cvomputer game can only help the setting by bringing more people to it. I doubt that the people who already like it will drop the setting if the computer games flops.

 

[Nisarg]

There were a lot of D&D settings that started off strong and with a slew of supplements.

The real issue here is that WoTC cannot have two flagship lines: FR and Eberron. They WANT Eberron to succeed but success here means success in the much larger field of the MMORPG industry, and to a lesser extent how many people who get into the MMORPG actually get into buying D&D books because of it.
The Novels will also play a big part.

If the MMORPG (and the novels) are not a big success, then Wizards has no good reason to abandon "old faithful" (the realms) for the new setting that has demonstrated its inability to actually capture new blood.
If they didn't retreat back into the realms (and do anything less than reduce Eberron to a minor line, if not kill it completely), they'd be intentionally harming themselves as a company.

On the other hand if Eberron is a huge success in those related lines, then the die is cast for Eberron as the new flagship line, and the realms will have to be cut down to something akin to what Greyhawk is at now.

Nisarg