A somewhat interesting post about which games seem to be getting played and which games got traction with #ttrpg bloggers.
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@Printdevil @Taskerland Is it perhaps the case that game-shop buyers are looking for "an RPG" and fixate on a familiar name? Like the way a film company will buy the rights to a book then completely ignore the actual content, they just want the recognisable name on the poster.
@Printdevil @Taskerland And in turn if say Cubicle 7 buys the rights to your old media property it's gonna be a 2d20 game because that's what they do right now. Never mind what might be the best fit.
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@Printdevil @Taskerland Is it perhaps the case that game-shop buyers are looking for "an RPG" and fixate on a familiar name? Like the way a film company will buy the rights to a book then completely ignore the actual content, they just want the recognisable name on the poster.
I think it's potentially more likely the RPG suppliers have lots of copies and say "this is popular" I don't think anyone at my local actually plays RPGs anymore, so they are purchasing fairly blind these days which leads to a very central tendency shelf look.
D&D D&D D&D Starter Starter Starter Chaosium Chaosium Arkham Arkham and then for no reason "Welcome to NightVale"
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@Printdevil @Taskerland And in turn if say Cubicle 7 buys the rights to your old media property it's gonna be a 2d20 game because that's what they do right now. Never mind what might be the best fit.
So much hate for the 2d20 stable. Fallout is terrible and it is a *natural* for a good RPG, but even the tight ones like Space1999 are disasters of "lets make the font big and the paper stock shite"
Grrr
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It is however interesting that these sort of games are on the shelf of my local, available to purchase, when a thousand other games never see the light of day in a shop. The inherent PR machine of those games gives them a place, even un-earned as physical product. The Daggerheart copies have just sat on the shelf unflushed though. I suspect they sold the ones they sold to specific people, and that was the end of it. All those Fallout Starters have sold though.
@Printdevil In fairness, whether or not people seem to be playing a game is not something that the industry or commentators really talk about.
All this talk about D&D getting replaced as top game is pure bullshit. People are playing D&D, but the YouTube games seem to be getting less play than indie games.
YouTube PR shifts books and gets you into shops but that is not the same thing as getting played.
Like, I have seen no signs anywhere that anyone is playing the Arkham Horror RPG.
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@Printdevil In fairness, whether or not people seem to be playing a game is not something that the industry or commentators really talk about.
All this talk about D&D getting replaced as top game is pure bullshit. People are playing D&D, but the YouTube games seem to be getting less play than indie games.
YouTube PR shifts books and gets you into shops but that is not the same thing as getting played.
Like, I have seen no signs anywhere that anyone is playing the Arkham Horror RPG.
@Taskerland That Arkham Horror game (and scenario boxes) annoy me because they are too nerfy for me, and too battlemappy, but they have an attention of pace and flow as well as design that Chaosium has never had.
Sometimes I just want to shake someone and go "the world has changed, make your stuff look enticing and worth owning, people want a reason to own a physical product or they will drown in PDFs"
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@Printdevil I think Chaosium should test their offices for carbon monoxide leaks.
@Taskerland I think someone should let me write scenarios about wallpaper horrors so maybe we all need our air quality tested...
Mind you I have air quality units and they say it's ok
BUT MACHINES LIE
*shifty look, keeps fingernail clippings in bags*
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So much hate for the 2d20 stable. Fallout is terrible and it is a *natural* for a good RPG, but even the tight ones like Space1999 are disasters of "lets make the font big and the paper stock shite"
Grrr
@Printdevil @Taskerland I've not seen the actual rules (except for a quick skim through Star Trek) but I've played a little and it seems… it's a very modern-sensibility game, in that it has lots of complicated mechanics but there's nothing you can reality-check, so you can describe it as "simple". Like the One Ring, trade off a Fellowship point for a Despair point or whatever it is, but it's not "a 9mm bullet can penetrate this much Kevlar" so it doesn't get mentally bracketed into the "hard games".
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@Printdevil @Taskerland I've not seen the actual rules (except for a quick skim through Star Trek) but I've played a little and it seems… it's a very modern-sensibility game, in that it has lots of complicated mechanics but there's nothing you can reality-check, so you can describe it as "simple". Like the One Ring, trade off a Fellowship point for a Despair point or whatever it is, but it's not "a 9mm bullet can penetrate this much Kevlar" so it doesn't get mentally bracketed into the "hard games".
@Printdevil @RogerBW One Ring is a mad game. A complex economy of metacurrencies with no connection to reality. It's like working in finance.
There's an appearance of depth because everything is incredibly involved and requires 17 steps but it's nothing but 5 red gets you a blue, unless you roll a 12 in which case it's a green.
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@Printdevil @RogerBW One Ring is a mad game. A complex economy of metacurrencies with no connection to reality. It's like working in finance.
There's an appearance of depth because everything is incredibly involved and requires 17 steps but it's nothing but 5 red gets you a blue, unless you roll a 12 in which case it's a green.
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I think that YouTube games aren't really there to be played. They're part of the YouTube parasocial economy. You but CR games like you'd buy an EGirl's bathwater.
Moreau Vazh 100%. Daggerheart just exists for CR to have leverage over WotC. The fact that they can sell it as merch is just gravy. And there’s a reason they sold out their first printing basically overnight: they didn’t print that many.
