What does it take for an RPG to die?

[MNblockhead]

I don't necessarily agree. Boot Hill is an RPG that I would consider to be dead. It only comes up rarely and in reference to the distant past. We can discuss it, but as an RPG it's dead.

You can still find it being run at conventions. Obscure (to younger folks) and has a small fan base, but not dead.

 

[MNblockhead]

People expect old games to die,
They do not really mourn old games.
Old games are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old gamers know when an old game dies.

(with apologies to Ogden Nash)

 

[aramis erak]

We were just talking about Battletech "city Tech" box set. BT is alive and enjoying a renaissance, but city tech is still in the grave.

CitiTech and Aerotech are both obsolete, as their rules are in Battletech Total Warfare. The dead ones are Battleforce [1e], and BattleTroops.

I can kind of see the former, but the latter still turns on someone's definition of "almost no players." Like I said in the above post, its entirely possible there are still more players for some long-out-of-print games than some recent indie ones. Are the latter "dead"?

On a bit of rethink, dead: not gaining any new players.
But in the age of piracy, that leaves a lot of not quite dead either way. Functionally, if you can't find nor make players, the game is dead for the individual. The games that deserve to be there (FATAL, RaHoWa) sadly aren't...

 

[John R Davis]

Dragonquest (1st, 2nd or 3rd editions)

We still play this. A guy occasionally published stuff, and there is an internet group with some active members.

 

[Nightfly]

I will go out on a limb and say that F.A.T.A.L. is truly dead. Although I'm not sure anyone ever played it in the first place, so... can something die which was never alive? (House Greyjoy would say no).

Is the Primeval Thule setting dead? The company that published it appears to be defunct, and it seems to be a given that nothing more will be released, even material previously announced. And I'm reasonably sure no one is playing it anywhere. On the other hand, it's still for sale on DriveThruRPG. Does that make it "alive"? Even if no one is buying it, which seems likely? I don't know. But I liked that setting a lot and I'm sad it flopped.

 

[Autumnal]

I have the impression that a small number of Savage Worlds players dabble in Primeval Thule each year, along with Totems of the Dead. Savage Worlds and Fate have more or less uniquely extensive libraries of settings that are worth peoples attention and a significant chunk of player base that likes to poke around and see what pokes back.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Savage Worlds and Fate have more or less uniquely extensive libraries of settings...

I think GURPS falls in that category too, although I'll concede they've fallen behind as they've tailed back on new material and stopped chasing licenses. Still a lot of good GURPS worldbooks out there, although many are a little (or a lot) dated, eg GURPS Humanx Commonwealth, which is well over a dozen books behind last I checked.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

You can still find it being run at conventions. Obscure (to younger folks) and has a small fan base, but not dead.

Last time I saw it at a con it was being run using Playskool Old West figures and scenery. You couldn't get near the table, there were so many people watching. Filled every seat over five different event slots.

Pretty lively for a corpse.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

We still play this. A guy occasionally published stuff, and there is an internet group with some active members.

Yeah, DragonQuest definitely has a player base. Little more concerned about Universe, but maybe I've just never stumbled over whatever online community is out there.

 

[Aldarc]

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die."

I concur with @The-Magic-Sword. There are a number of games out there that IMHO are functionally dead and/or effectively dying. They are no longer published or supported. There are definitely people who play them; however, they do not play them in noteworthy enough numbers to exist in the popular consciousness of the hobby, even taking D&D's disproportionate influence in the hobby aside. The conversation around these games may be the equivalent of "Where are they now?" or talking about their impact on the hobby.