[PnP] Hello and a question

[Scott Adams]

At 08:34 AM 8/2/06, Choinski, Burton wrote:
>Given the fact the even the old warhorse AH is no longer alive
>(bankrupt, sold out to parker brothers, dead), anything form that
>quarter is unlikely.
>
>It's a tough environment.  A rewrite project today, with no assurance of
>payoff for Richard in terms of being picked up and published, is hard to
>justify for his time.  I would think nearly any of us would put in time
>if he decided to rewrite a framework and then farmed out chunks to each
>of us to develop and then return for discussion and polish.
>
>I'd love to see something out there then the damned d20 kudzu plague,
>but it's tough for retailers.  A shop I have gone to for a while has a
>WALL of games and system that primarily gather dust.  He can hardly
>justify getting much in that is new, unless specifically asked for
>and/or ordered simply because the market is so dead for stores.  Many
>people are ordering online or are not doing boardgames/wargames/rpgs
>anymore.  Like Scott said, only the big guns (GURPS, D20, White Wolf)
>are doing OK, with others hanging on.  I see many one-shot ideas in that
>game store (nice bound books, interesting concepts, complete POS systems
>and mechanics).  And online MMRPGs don't help.




Its ok to do pieces of Fan Filk/Fiction (whatever its called).  Supplements here and there.  Rule changes.  But to rewrite something as big as P&P is hard to justify like you said.  Ten years ago.  Maybe.  5 years ago.  Doubtful.  There are some independent game shops who publich.  A friend of mine in NC Capps Games for example.  But even teh computer game industry got slammed this week with a big shift in their convention - E3 with that convention being almost cut to shreds by news retailers will pull out.  So even the computer game industry is suffering these days.  Sad truly.  But at least rpgs lasted 40 years.  Computer games only 20 so far :)