What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

[GrimCo]

When it comes to products themselves, i don't think hobby needs more of them. There is abundance of systems and with digital distribution, they are easier than ever to buy. Marketing of said products, that one is iffy. Sure, if one wants to find something, one will find it, but that usually means person is already into ttrpgs.

While D&D is biggest game out there, it lacks few strong competitors from other genres. Sure, CoC is out there, trudging along. But biggest rival to D&D is PF which is same style of game. We need PF level SF/horror/modern games. Few big names as entry points into the hobby that cover big popular genres.

Biggest problem with this hobby is time investment and scheduling and there isn't much help to mitigate it. It's same for every other hobby in which you need other people to have fun with.

 

[R_J_K75]

Seems to me that the fundamental problem with the hobby is that the most popular, market-dominating rpg is just too damn complicated.

One of the biggest problems I have with 5E2024 is that a player has a lot more they can do on their turn now. One of my players is playing a fighter/wizard and between their standard actions in combat, weapon properties, bonus actions/reactions, there's a lot to resolve in one turn. I think he may actually be doing more than what the rules allow in one turn, so I'll have to look into that.

 

[R_J_K75]

Biggest problem with this hobby is time investment and scheduling and there isn't much help to mitigate it. It's same for every other hobby in which you need other people to have fun with.

The irony is that when we were younger and only had landlines it was easier to schedule a game when we didn't have a set time or day. Now that most people have a cell phones, texting and email it sometimes take days to get a reply from some players.

 

[Reynard]

4? There were the two WotC versions and the FFG versions, which one am I missing?

There were 3 by WotC: SW RPG, SW RPG Revised, and Saga Edition. technically, FFG is 3 games, but we won't split hairs on that weird publishing decision.

 

[Reynard]

Biggest problem with this hobby is time investment and scheduling and there isn't much help to mitigate it. It's same for every other hobby in which you need other people to have fun with.

The irony is that when we were younger and only had landlines it was easier to schedule a game when we didn't have a set time or day. Now that most people have a cell phones, texting and email it sometimes take days to get a reply from some players.

VTT play has done wonders for scheduling. Even if people are local, cutting out travel time and letting people still watch their kids or whatever means more people are able to play more often.

I recommend folks pick a regular day, preferably a week night. Nothing fails harder, in my experience, that trying to schedule session to session. And weeknights, while often busy, do not see as much shift as weekends. Most people know what they are doing on tuesdays into perpetuity.

 

[Staffan]

4? There were the two WotC versions and the FFG versions, which one am I missing?

I think Wizards did both a Star Wars, Star Wars Revised, and Star Wars SAGA. As I recall, Revised had mostly minor changes and updates from the new movies (Star Wars d20 was released after Phantom Menace but before Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith).

You also had 2.5 versions from WEG themselves. 2nd edition added a whole bunch of rules to the game, such as open-ended rolls via the Wild Die, skill specialization, ammo consumption, grid combat (both in space and on the ground), and scale. A bunch of those had been in one or more rules expansions, but were now brought into the core. In addition, the default time was changed to 5 years after Jedi (same as the Heir to the Empire books). I never played 2.5, but I think they changed the scale rules and reverted the time jump so the default time was again set to between A New Hope and Empire.

 

[GrimCo]

VTT play has done wonders for scheduling. Even if people are local, cutting out travel time and letting people still watch their kids or whatever means more people are able to play more often.

Sure, if you like it, online play can help by reducing travel times. Personally, if i had ti choose between only online play or no play, i'm not playing.

But you reminded me on another point that could be solid help to hobby. Better advertising as a fun way to spend time with friends and good way to meet new people. Lean into real world social aspect of the game. All of us spend way to much time stuck to screen and in virtual places. TTRPGs are great way to detox from screen and have some fun face to face interactions with fellow humans.

I recommend folks pick a regular day, preferably a week night. Nothing fails harder, in my experience, that trying to schedule session to session. And weeknights, while often busy, do not see as much shift as weekends. Most people know what they are doing on tuesdays into perpetuity.

That's highly dependent on demographic you play with. Might work for people with older kids and no kids. Also, people are usually zoned out by 22-23h.

 

[R_J_K75]

I recommend folks pick a regular day, preferably a week night. Nothing fails harder, in my experience, that trying to schedule session to session. And weeknights, while often busy, do not see as much shift as weekends. Most people know what they are doing on tuesdays into perpetuity.

We play F2F and usually play Monday afternoon/evenings, it works out well enough, but we do cancel here and there.

 

[R_J_K75]

I think Wizards did both a Star Wars, Star Wars Revised, and Star Wars SAGA. As I recall, Revised had mostly minor changes and updates from the new movies

Correct. I forgot that WEG had 1E, 2E and 2E revised and then WotC had the original edition the revision and Saga followed after that. Never played the FFG version.

 

[Velderan]

VTT play has done wonders for scheduling. Even if people are local, cutting out travel time and letting people still watch their kids or whatever means more people are able to play more often.

I recommend folks pick a regular day, preferably a week night. Nothing fails harder, in my experience, that trying to schedule session to session. And weeknights, while often busy, do not see as much shift as weekends. Most people know what they are doing on tuesdays into perpetuity.

Agreed! We settled on Mondays since people don't tend to have as much going on and the only real conflict that pops up is one of the PCs has a job that has him travel for work frequently, but playing on Foundry makes it pretty easy for him to join from his hotel room. If his connection is bad, he just joins the discord call and he plays theater of the mind. It overall has worked out and we probably end up playing 45+ weeks a year this way. The only downside to a weeknight is we usually have a pretty firm stopping time because of work in the morning, so our sessions are around 2 1/2 to 3 hours depending on what the best stopping point for the night is.

We do occasionally meet up in person on a weekend and those sessions usually go 6ish hours playing a Call of Cthulhu one shot. The longer sessions are great, but it's really hard juggling everyone's schedules to make them happen.