Too many RPGs out there?

[Nomad4life]

There arn't too many RPGs. There are too few gamers. (around here at least)

Word!

 

[TheGM]

There arn't too many RPGs. There are too few gamers. (around here at least)

There are plenty where I am, but this does segue into a rant I saw on another board the other day...

Are there too many games? In the sense that the number of players available is not growing at the rate new games are? Yes. This matters in the marketplace (so went the rant) because many of those games are not bringing in new players, they are sucking customers away from other vendors.

To a limited extent this is true about games in general, the rant was about D20 material, and in that market they're dead on. There is a limited dollar pool, every company not bringing new people to the table is reducing the viability of every other company out there.

I spend a lot on games, but when I walk into my FLGS, I look at the shelves and think "I'll never purchase the vast majority of this stuff". They turn an excellent business, but I'm guessing they have a lot of games that don't move an inch.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Are there too many games? In the sense that the number of players available is not growing at the rate new games are? Yes. This matters in the marketplace (so went the rant) because many of those games are not bringing in new players, they are sucking customers away from other vendors.

I agree. New RPGs are pretty much aimed at those who already play, not because of any fault of the developers, but because it is very difficult to bring new blood into the hobby. I have thus far succeeded at recruiting only a handful of gamers into roleplaying on any kind of long term basis so far that I am aware of. A company can't really recruit gamers and it can't really sell to non gamers.

 

[MonsterMash]

In some ways there are less than there were around say the early 80's as there are probably less systems around with the ubiquitous D20 - after all Conan, B5 and the OGL games from Mongoose are all versions of D20, Blue Rose, Grim Tales and True 20 are again D20 games and Castles and Crusades is in many ways a D20 game too.

But its good to have choice, personally at the moment I mainly play 3.5 D&D, BRP Call of Cthulhu, and intend to run Paranoia again if I can find time. Others I'd play if time was available are Warhammer FRP, RuneQuest2, Metamorphosis Alpha and C&C.