WoD renaming, White Wolf returns

[Autumnal]

And there's always one dude in the group who insists on playing a chipmunk.

Or a wombat or a naked mole rat. Or a shark, and not a land shark.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Or a shark, and not a land shark.

"Candygram!"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Did anyone check to see if White Wolf’s return was in any way connected to Colossal Biosciences?

 

[VelvetViolet]

Did anyone check to see if White Wolf’s return was in any way connected to Colossal Biosciences?

Trademark dispute, maybe? It could also be a trademark dispute with the White Wolf missiles in Ukraine.

I think it’s probably coincidence. The contracts with Onyx Path and Renegade were allowed to lapse last year. That’s why Onyx made Curseborn. Paradox was planning this for months, maybe a year.

 

[JConstantine]

Since they haven't been posted here yet

Here (instagram) is a brief interview with Jason Carl about what it means going forward.
And here is another with Rob Weiland for Forbes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Trademark dispute, maybe? It could also be a trademark dispute with the White Wolf missiles in Ukraine.

Not unless a court thinks the market will think that missiles and roleplaying games are the same thing.

 

[aramis erak]

I really don't understand why all the people who are vitriolic about V5 haven't already done that several times over. It's an extremely derivative and generic IP.

So it's pretty ridiculous that none of the many angry fans decided to make their own game in protest. Not tabletop, anyway.

Except that, in RPGs, the general reception seems to be that a relaunch of an old game that was once hot, even if it's really just a whole new game with the same name and a closely related setting, sells better than a better game by a different party. See also Twilight 2000 2e, 4e; D&D 3/4/5; MegaTraveller, Traveller:New Era, T4, T5, MGT, MGT2...

The WoD IPs have brand recognition - even if they won't sell as well as the original, the odds are they'll sell better than one without the brand... even if it has mimicked the setting perfectly.

Hell, Classic Traveller is still selling new copies... 48 years on from first printing, as of this week. Most in PDF, some in POD.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Except that, in RPGs, the general reception seems to be that a relaunch of an old game that was once hot, even if it's really just a whole new game with the same name and a closely related setting, sells better than a better game by a different party. See also Twilight 2000 2e, 4e; D&D 3/4/5; MegaTraveller, Traveller:New Era, T4, T5, MGT, MGT2...

The WoD IPs have brand recognition - even if they won't sell as well as the original, the odds are they'll sell better than one without the brand... even if it has mimicked the setting perfectly.

Hell, Classic Traveller is still selling new copies... 48 years on from first printing, as of this week. Most in PDF, some in POD.

Truth. A lot of the games of the 70s are still soldiering on.

WW isn't likely to recapture the position it achieved in the 90s, but the system has good bones, and the setting still has fans.

 

[VelvetViolet]

Except that, in RPGs, the general reception seems to be that a relaunch of an old game that was once hot, even if it's really just a whole new game with the same name and a closely related setting, sells better than a better game by a different party.

That is so stupid and self-destructive. I would rather see lesser known IPs get revived, like Nightlife, WitchCraft, Everlasting, Chronicles of Darkness, and so on. I'd also rather see new IPs be created that can explore new territory, rather than constantly rehashing the same stuff from decades and decades ago with lower and lower returns. Constantly upsetting the fans with skinsuits isn't sustainable. Just look at Disney.

WoD is a pale shadow of its former self that is completely unrecognizable from its 90s heyday. V5 basically destroyed the setting and turned the brand name into a skinsuit, and fans reacted accordingly. I don't even like V5, I prefer Requiem because it's a better game in every way, but I can still see that much. Paradox should've rebooted from scratch rather than turn it into a skinsuit, or better yet released everything into public domain.

Truth. A lot of the games of the 70s are still soldiering on.

I don't like any of those games and I hate it when people recommend them to me after I keep saying so. They're based in a zeitgeist that I wasn't alive to experience and have no interest in now. I want more relevant settings like TSR's Star*Drive. But unfortunately it got canceled because it wasn't made in the 70s and the cargo cult of nostalgia for the mid-20th century is the only thing that matters to this industry.

Ttrpgs are basically the most uncreative and stagnant industry I'm aware of besides Hollywood. TSR/WotC alone produced a bunch of neat non-D&D settings that are completely forgotten now and don't have any comparable games today. All the creative games get canceled in favor of this cargo cult of nostalgia. I'm completely sick of it.

It's all so much dumb naughty word too. Creativity isn't a zero sum game, it's just that publishers are evil and hate creativity. If these dumb evil corpos don't care to steward the IPs they own, then they should lose ownership and the fans should be free to preserve and remix them. I wouldn't give a crap what Paradox or Hasbro did with their soiled IPs if fans could just fork our own versions of Planescape, Dark Sun, WitchCraft, Alternity, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, etc.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't like any of those games and I hate it when people recommend them to me after I keep saying so.

I wasn't replying to you, to be clear, but to aramis erak.

As I said before, my advice is write your own material.