Sagas RPG.com

Let’s face it folks, the industry that was RPG’s is not doing so hot. With WotC starting in on lay offs of some heavy hitters it is plain that what was a niche industry is having real problems supporting itself in this economy. I am not a doomsayer or anything. I don’t believe that RPGs will vanish or that table-top RPGs as a whole are destined to be a fond memory. However, the future of gaming as we know it will not survive unless the industry as we know it changes. I don’t pretend to have the answers to what the industry will become. However, I do have an idea of what I think it will be, and what the companies that seriously want to make the industry viable in the future will have to do. 

First, we have to accept that the world has drastically changed. RPGs are more commonly associated with video games and MMOs than anything else. This has led some of us to believe that we have lost our audience to these media forms. However, I don’t believe that is true. I think MMOs and Video games have fulfilled the needs of many gamers in a much more convenient package. The tabletop RPG industry cannot compete with that. We will always lose. We tend to think that because we lost a good portion of our player base to such media that video game players and MMOs tend to have a majority of RPG gamers. That is not true, but the association still seems to remain in the dialogue. Our first mission then is to change the dialogue. TTRPGs offer something much different, but also more difficult to embrace. We can still maintain the element that makes us different. What we need to do is make RPGs easier to embrace.

So what makes it harder to embrace RPGs? Some may say it is the games themselves. This is partly true. However, it is still only a small part of the overall whole. RPGs are also entirely inconvinient. Video games exhist whenever the player wants to play and the most difficult thing you have to do is maybe install the game and upload some patches. Then you can play whenever you want with whoever you want. You get a wide variety of playing options and all you have to do is play. No scheduling, no GM cramming the night before to get the game ready. And best of all, the game does all the ugly modifiers and calculations for you. All you have to do is play.

Of course there is a trade off. Video games have limitations that game sessions with TTRPGs do not. However, the trade off is apparently a good one. As more people pick up video gaming on a daily basis more because it is easy to get exposed and learn it than it does to play TTRPGs. Honestly though, as a father and a professional it is so much easier for me to get a gaming fix playing Elder Scrolls than it is for me to get everyone together and organize an at home TTRPG game. Yes, the TTRPG game is more fun, but it is so much easier to have some fun, than it is for me to have the fun I really want. Doing the math, the little fun I get from having a few hours in Elder Scrolls over the four hours or more I might get a week doesn’t equal out. I can have many more hours of Elder Scrolls than I can at my TTRPG session with a lot less work.

The industry has to reinvent itself. Lets face it, even Star Trek fans know that Star Trek will not succeed by fan power alone. It can survive. But to succeed as a viable property it needs new fans on a regular basis. Do we know what Star Trek does? It makes new shows, new games, and new movies. It also has recently reinvented itself. 

Virtual Table Tops seem to be the next logical step. However, while many formats exist, not one company that I know of really embraces them in any shape or form. Now, these programs likely will support the most common game types. That is not the problem. The problem is that companies do not support them. My idea is not to embrace a single company producing a VTT. That would breed a harsh competition between the programs and the companies. There would be too many “I won’t play this game because they only use such and such virtual table top.” While I think these companies need to exist on their own, I think that the game companies need to embrace the concept. But not just simply coming up with virtual table top programs, but to actually embrace virtual table top gaming, while not abandoning standard table top gaming.

My thoughts are similar to my business model. I believe that in order for companies to make TTRPGs a viable industry again they need to expand their efforts. Look at it this way, just about everyone who games has a computer. They also know basically how to use it. While we have elaborate game worlds and rules systems we have no support for them aside from the printed page and some fancy web pages. Its like someone still watching television on a black and white tv with an analog antenna. Why in the world are we still in this technological stone age? We need to accept the fact that technology should be helping our efforts. The means are within our grasp and yet we are not even reaching?

Companies need to do the following:

1. Create or license software that supports that will help the GM develop content for their games quickly and easily. Make it fluid, and fast with the GM able to whip up a good four hour game session in a matter of an hour or less.
2. Make those programs easily accessible. Either sell it cheaply or give it away.
3. Make your printed content also digital, in a format that allows you to use the content in the program you have developed for your game. This way, if you sell a monster book, you GM can use the digital file in the program simply and easily. However, I think it would be foolish to sell the independently. When you buy a book, you get the file. If you make it either/or then you will segregate the gamers into table top and virtual and not solve your problem. You want both to work together, not despite of each other.
4. Consider an online gaming tool. Either work with a company that has one and license and develop around their code or create your own. If you aren’t planning on it, then start. At least let the players know they will have a choice.
5. Whenever possible the two formats need to be in sync. They need to compliment each other.  Make it as simple a decision as what font to use, or whether or not to make your book a PDF. At some point it needs to no longer be a part of the conversation. It needs to be a natural element, like breathing. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under DPnP, Developer Blog, E-RPG General Development, Personal Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.