What is THE NEXT BIG THING?

[Nightfall]

The next big thing will be for White Wolf's WoD 2.0 - Leviathan: The Aquatica.

Are you being serious Um? Or just pulling our collective legs here?

 

[Aeolius]

Are you being serious Um? Or just pulling our collective legs here?

Or tentacles, as the case may be. We can still hold out for Races of Water, the Hydronomicon, and Waterscape.

 

[Umbran]

Are you being serious Um? Or just pulling our collective legs here?

Whales ain't got legs to pull.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Whatever the Next Big ThingTM in tabletop RPGs is, it needs to be marketed to college-age kids and gaming clubs, as that is where the long-term players come from.

As for what that NBT will be... ::shrug:: ...no idea here.

Lanefan

I'm not so sure about that. Of the local players whose gaming backgrounds I know, not one started in college. The vast majority started in high school or even earlier. One I know started later, since he was out of college when OD&D came out.

Also, most thriving games don't thrive because of long-term players. For an RPG, a long-term player is likely to be 'dead weight' for the game he's playing; having bought the core book, he is unlikely to buy anything else, so he's useless to the company untill/unless it releases a new edition.

I seem to recall Ryan Dancey talking about the business model he wanted to pursue with the (bestselling RPG of all time) Pokemon Jr. game: release a series of 'tiered' games aimed at increasingly higher age groups and beginning with fairly young kids, so the peer pressure of the group would encourage kids to upgrade from one licensed game to another, using increasingly complex iterations of the same system.

The difference with that model is that a) it covers all levels of rules complexity while being roughly compatible and b) it encourages each player to buy multiple core books... but spaces it out of years and without being redundant.

Once those players hit the 'adult' rules (around late high school or college), they are essentially 'dead weight...' but by then they (or their parents) have bought 5-10 PHB-equivalents each instead of one, and new kids are coming up.

 

[brehobit]

My WAG (wild a** guess):

A role-playing (acting) game which has very few rules, ties into TV properties, and is labeled as "cool" by the masses. Will have a strong computer tie-in as well as a social gathering portion. Used in part as a marketing tool, it takes off on its own.

New Game is to D&D as Checkers is to War.
New Game is to D&D as acting is to the reading of boxed text.

I think the white wolf stuff was a near miss.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Who ever suggested lesbians are the next hot thing obviously missed the latter part of the 90s...

I said that. 90s revival time, dude.

 

[Acid_crash]

Blend roleplaying games and ccg's.

 

[Nightfall]

Whales ain't got legs to pull.

Whales. You are a silly, silly entity Umbran.

 

[Aeolius]

Whales ain't got legs to pull.

Is a dolphin close enough? Dolphin With Legs

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

*thinks D&D like rock and roll will survive*

Just happens to be me that carries along.

"Rock and Roll will always be. It will never die.
It was meant to be that way, though I don't know why.
I don't care what people say, Rock and Roll is here to stay."