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Why aren't Star Wars and Star Trek dominating the RPG market?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dogbrain" data-source="post: 1665104" data-attributes="member: 14980"><p>In the long, long-ago, before the Statue of John Elway began to demand sacrifices, the big SF RPG was Traveller. It wasn't any of the big-market settings, and that was much of its success. Star Trek and Star Wars do not lend themselves well to gaming, for much the same reason that Middle Earth does not lend itself well to gaming. Gamers want freedom to play as they like. Settings with the One Really Big Plot already built in, along with the Really Big Heroes, have limited appeal. Playing second fiddle, or knowing that, whatever you do, you are purely peripheral to the Important Action generally doesn't appeal to most people. That handicaps Star Wars and Middle Earth. Star Trek has more potential, given that we get some idea that Other Stuff Happens, but we still have the "Not Really Kirk" problem. Likewise, as has been mentioned before, those gamers who like the settings enough to play them are likely to disagree with the design decisions in the licensed games. They may very well be the best possible design decisions, but that won't stop gamers from disagreeing with them. In addition, fictional settings do not have to worry as much about internal consistency or widespread implications of setting features as much as does a game setting. Writers just don't let their characters "play the quirks" as fanatically as gamers are prone to doing.</p><p></p><p>In essence, many of the traits that make these settings so good for conventional fiction weaken them for gaming.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dogbrain, post: 1665104, member: 14980"] In the long, long-ago, before the Statue of John Elway began to demand sacrifices, the big SF RPG was Traveller. It wasn't any of the big-market settings, and that was much of its success. Star Trek and Star Wars do not lend themselves well to gaming, for much the same reason that Middle Earth does not lend itself well to gaming. Gamers want freedom to play as they like. Settings with the One Really Big Plot already built in, along with the Really Big Heroes, have limited appeal. Playing second fiddle, or knowing that, whatever you do, you are purely peripheral to the Important Action generally doesn't appeal to most people. That handicaps Star Wars and Middle Earth. Star Trek has more potential, given that we get some idea that Other Stuff Happens, but we still have the "Not Really Kirk" problem. Likewise, as has been mentioned before, those gamers who like the settings enough to play them are likely to disagree with the design decisions in the licensed games. They may very well be the best possible design decisions, but that won't stop gamers from disagreeing with them. In addition, fictional settings do not have to worry as much about internal consistency or widespread implications of setting features as much as does a game setting. Writers just don't let their characters "play the quirks" as fanatically as gamers are prone to doing. In essence, many of the traits that make these settings so good for conventional fiction weaken them for gaming. [/QUOTE]
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Why aren't Star Wars and Star Trek dominating the RPG market?
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