What does it take for an RPG to die?

[The Soloist]

The great thing is this is easily testable.....name a game you think is dead; someone just needs to come along and say, "Yeah, we're still playing that." Games I think are dead:
Amazing Engine System (any of them)
Synnibarr
Jorune
Space Opera (though I did know a guy about 25 years ago who still loved this one)
Dragonquest (1st, 2nd or 3rd editions)
Powers & Perils
Lords of Creation
Swordbearer (maybe....maybe not....I mean, FGU still sells it on their website)

Games I can confirm still have a following/players:
Bushido (I have a buddy in Seattle who loves this one)
Villains & Vigilantes (seems to be getting new content on the FGU site)
Metamorphosis Alpha (any edition; I personally will run this on occasion)
Runequest 3 (I also will run this if I can find anyone willing to put up with playing it!)

Etc.

Dragonquest 2e is not dead, I played it solo a few times in 2024 and plan to do so in 2025! There is an active Dragonquest FB Group.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Go to enough conventions and you will realize that no matter how unsupported and out-of-print a game is, someone will be running that game somewhere.

And even long-defunct games can come back. I wouldn't have ever figured on Dark Conspiracy getting a new edition, for example, but here we are.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Dragonquest 2e is not dead, I played it solo a few times in 2024 and plan to do so in 2025! There is an active Dragonquest FB Group.

That is excellent! I admit I would run it again if I could find a decent copy. I ran it right up in to college, when my buddies begged me to please take a break from Dragonquest and Runequest to consider the new AD&D 2nd edition. I should never have listened to them LOL

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Go to enough conventions and you will realize that no matter how unsupported and out-of-print a game is, someone will be running that game somewhere.

And even long-defunct games can come back. I wouldn't have ever figured on Dark Conspiracy getting a new edition, for example, but here we are.

That's a great example, I was just looking at collecting Dark Conspiracy a few months ago as its one of my nostalgia buttons, so glad to hear Mongoose may be able to do a revival with it now.

 

[Morrus]

Maybe we should decide what dead means in the context of role playing games.

Well you’ve certainly accurately stated the premise of the thread.

 

[payn]

Dragonquest 2e is not dead, I played it solo a few times in 2024 and plan to do so in 2025! There is an active Dragonquest FB Group.

 

[The Soloist]

Do you know what the song is about? Not related at all. Sorry, the joke falls flat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you know what the song is about? Not related at all. Sorry, the joke falls flat.

Next you're going to tell me that Born in the USA isn't a flag-waving anthem.

 

[overgeeked]

Interesting question. I take a different view of dead RPGs. Like the Mexican view of three deaths, that's how I conceive of dead games.

The first death of a game is when it goes out of print.

The second death of a game is when it's no longer played.

The third death of a game is when no one remembers playing it.

 

[General_Tangent]

For me, I typically thought of an RPG as being dead when it was no longer in print. But what does it mean to be out of print in the age of PDFs? I have easier access to AD&D's Oriental Adventures today than I did in 1994. Now I think of an RPG as dead when no new books are being published for it. Someone, somewhere, is playing Cyborg Commando. I don't know why anyone would play Cyborg Commando, scientist and philosophers have yet to answer that question, but I still consider it a dead game because nobody is going to publish anything new. Will it rise like a phoenix from the ashes one day and experience a rebirth? Almost certainly not, but maybe.

I for one did try to run Cyborg Commando back in the day for the gaming group and it wasn't my finest moment.