What is THE NEXT BIG THING?

[Aeolius]

How about a way to combine D&D, online play, and the convenience of a play-by-post game?

What D&D really needs is the magical means to allow those of us with kids, jobs, and their share of reality a way to play the game on our terms. Sure, I checked out the local D&D meetup board (I'd never start my own; too bloody expensive for what the service offers). but there are so many people who cannot travel far to game, or who have cat allergies, etc.

 

[KenSeg]

I think the next big thing is that the game will go into long term stagnation as far as publishing goes, but that gamers will have to relearn to use their imaginations and the next big thing will become....

HOUSERULES!

Much as in the earlier days, we GMs and players will have to take the core data and make our own adventures, fluff and rules. The number of players will dwindle down to the hard core which will carry the game onward, passing their knowledge of the pure fun of RPGing on to their apprentices.

-KenSeg
gaming since 1978

 

[Bert the Ogre]

How about a way to combine D&D, online play, and the convenience of a play-by-post game?

What D&D really needs is the magical means to allow those of us with kids, jobs, and their share of reality a way to play the game on our terms. Sure, I checked out the local D&D meetup board (I'd never start my own; too bloody expensive for what the service offers). but there are so many people who cannot travel far to game, or who have cat allergies, etc.

Try the magic of http://www.rpol.net

It's free, easy to use, comes with a built in dice roller, and is where I play.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I agree. the best D&D games I've played in haven't used anything from pre-canned adventures / campaigns. Those can be fun, but it's hard to replace a great DM / storyteller.

Catering to DM's is already catering to a niche within a niche.

(Four players, one DM-- who's buying the product?)

Catering to GREAT DM'S! is catering to a really, really nichey-niche niche.

 

[Acid_crash]

If it would take a blend of two things that are popular now, then somebody should truly try to create an rpg that is both an rpg and also a ccg.

Make it so both are inherently intertwined, and yet can also be played seperately. I'm sure somebody out there has the imagination and creative talent to pull something like this off.

You have the core rules, and the core set of cards.
Each sourcebook/expansion has more of both.
Sell the core rules with a set of basic cards, as well as each supplement. And also sell the cards in boosters (no starters, that's what the core rules of the rpg are for).

It could possibly work.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The return of OD&D.

Sorry, just had to beat diaglo to it.

I would say:

(1) Less complicated core rules; less complicated set-up (i.e., more DM friendly).

(2) If you want the game to be more mainstream, then the average person has to be able to understand what's going on. This means, IMHO, a return to more mainstream ideas about what a fantasy world is. Not necessarily a fantasy world like 1e or 2e (Western medieval), but something that an average person could understand (i.e., less self-referential).

I would love to see a set of core rules followed up by "Setting Boosters" that contain specific rules for specific types of settings. But, of course, the odds are that those wouldn't sell enough to make them worthwhile.......

 

[mythusmage]

Thats why I said 'obviously.' You can do what you want with an RPG, products of the imagination and all that. Still needs a balanced set of rules though to work from.

You're avoiding my point and I would appreciate you stopping that. And don't tell me you don't know what my point is, because if you didn't know you wouldn't be avoiding it so avidly.

 

[mythusmage]

Board and card games sell more by at least one order of magnitude?

Think games qua games, not games qua merchandise.

 

[delericho]

You're avoiding my point and I would appreciate you stopping that. And don't tell me you don't know what my point is, because if you didn't know you wouldn't be avoiding it so avidly.

Dragonlancer might not have missed the point you're making, but I certainly have. I see no benefit (from a game point of view) for discarding balance as a goal - such games are only fun if you happen to be the player in the beneficial position (or, in odd cases, if you've agreed to the weaker position in advance, but that won't apply to new players).

I certainly see a marketing advantage to ditching balance - if the new thing is always slightly but noticably more powerful than it's immediate predecessor then players can be caught on an endless power-creep treadmill, where they always have to have the latest books to remain competitive.

But that's a lousy way of building a game when Games Workshop do it, and it would be a lousy way of building a game if Wizards of the Coast were to do it.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

"The D Word," a spin-off of Showtime's hit series "The L Word," featuring a cast of hot lesbians playing D&D and the trials and tribulations of their hot, sapphic, gaming group.