What does it take for an RPG to die?

[Gradine]

I keep seeing WEG D6 Star Wars popping up and... that game still has a pretty active, if not incredibly large, active community. I myself am a member of two such Facebook groups, one with over 3k members, and the other is... is....


...this group is run by Vincent Florio??? How did I not know that?


Anyway I myself am a member of one such Facebook group, which has over 3k members and is regularly active!

 

[Thomas Shey]

Are people still playing FUDGE? Were there a significant number of FUDGE fans out there who saw FATE, said "Nah, I'm good," and are keeping the dream alive?

I've heard occasional references to people still using FUDGE well after FATE, but it didn't seem frequent.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm a bit broader in my definition, in that a game's dead when

1) No one's heard of it/there isn't a community for it
2) No company is making product for it
3) No one's picked up the ball to produce ongoing content

People can still be playing it if it's "dead", but if noone's making content for it, that's a good indication the community's dead and anyone whose playing it is single group or three.

There's several RPGs I own (and sometimes play) that I'd qualify as "dead" - Alternity, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Fading Suns, Spycraft, Star Frontiers, TSR Marvel FASERIP, Gamma World, FASA/Last Unicorn/Decipher Star Trek, WEG Star Wars, Rolemaster & Middle Earth Roleplaying (by Iron Crown) - just to name a few.

There are decent sized communities for a number of those so it seems to break your first criterion at least.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There are decent sized communities for a number of those so it seems to break your first criterion at least.

The third as well. Several of those communities at least are making content for their respective games.