What Game or Publisher Would You Have Be Market leader

[Ruin Explorer]

GURPS: Juche!

There's something bizarrely plausible about this one.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It feels weird to respond and not actually contest any of my points.

Well, you explicitly blamed WotC.

And it's not WotC - or not current WotC at least. It's fans and 3PPs. So that's an unreasonable point you made, and I contest it, and I don't think you actually disagree, I guess you were just using WotC as a shorthand for "D&D fans"? I don't think suggestions for modifying D&D enable genres better are high crimes and misdemeanours as it were. They might be slightly misguided but they're not why fans are trying to run everything under the sun with 5E.

I believe we would have a healthier game when the player base explicitly is told the boundaries of the system instead of being told that D&D 5e is the “World’s Greatest RPG.”

For sure, but I don't think it's necessarily on WotC to do that aggressively - and I honestly doubt the sort of fans who try and use D&D for everything would listen even if WotC did explicitly state D&D's limits.

 

[R_J_K75]

have had circa 2000 WotC make Alternity THE game system instead of d20.

I really liked Alternity too and was very surprised that they didn't end up using that system for the chassis of D&D 3E. I've always thought/said that Alternity was the prototype for 3E and was disappointed when the product line was cancelled. I haven't played it since the late 90s/early 2000s so not sure how well it holds up today, but I know D20 Modern was a pale comparison.

 

[Campbell]

If we're going with a publisher, it would be Modiphius for me. They produce and publish a very diverse catalog of games, both and in and out of house. One thing I really appreciate is how willing they are to make adjustments to their house system to fit particular games to their source material. Dune and Infinity barely feel like the same game. They also have helped games like Ironsworn, Vaessen, Coriolis and Into The Odd see much larger audiences then they otherwise would have. I'll never forget how they stepped up to the plate to provide a home for Vampire Fifth Edition when it really needed one.

If we're going to have a market leader I'd want it to be one who embraces diversity of play.

 

[MGibster]

SJG would be a hellscape. They couldn't write an accessible or popular RPG even if you sent the FBI to stick them up again and this time say "Write an accessible RPG or Steve gets it!".

Isn't that what the Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games was really all about? Given the popularity of games like Minecraft, I wonder if something like GURPS might ever hit it big again in the TTPRG space? Probably not, but I like to think of unlikely scenarios.

 

[pemerton]

Given this is a fantasy thread, I'll nominate BWHQ (ie the publishers of Burning Wheel, Torchbearer and a few other RPGs).

They publish good games!

 

[Wolfpack48]

Chaosium.

 

[aramis erak]

If WotC collapsed, that would be Paizo, Free League, Modiphius and Kobold maybe?

There are several others whose sales and productivity might also be far bigger than Kobold Press.

Cubicle 7, and Pinnacle immediately come to mind. For that matter, EN Publishing, as well. We'll have to see what happens with the reaction games - the ones whose designs were launched in response to WotC trying to kill the OGL -- to see if they should be the tier 2 games...

Heck, Goodman Games (DCC) and Necrotic Gnome (OSE) seem to be the dominant OSR games other than Mork Borg... and Mork Borg is dubious on being OSR... and it is also released through Free League, so doesn't really count against DCC or OSE for this purpose.

SJG only gets there if counting other than RPGs... but Dungeon Fantasy and The Fantasy Trip seem to be pleasingly profitable to SJ.

 

[The Soloist]

I like to think Modiphius, Free League and Monte Cook games are the co-leaders right now.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Given this is a fantasy thread, I'll nominate BWHQ (ie the publishers of Burning Wheel, Torchbearer and a few other RPGs).

They publish good games!

They publish GREAT games, but some members of their leadership have made poorly thought through decisions (ok, one has made one bad decision afaik)