[freeroleplay] Re: Opportunities for Free Gaming?
- From: Ricardo Gladwell <president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FRPGC <freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:04:50 +0000
On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 19:31, Samuel Penn wrote:
> This is inline with other forms of entertainment, such as computer
> games. Here in the UK, RPGs are in the order of (mentally adds note
> to get keyboard changed to UK mappings) 20UKP to 25UKP. A new
> computer game is around 30UKP to 40UKP. Cinema tickets are about 7UKP.
I remember not so long ago when we still had the old ABC cinemas: you
could get a student ticket for £2.50. Regular, adult tickets weren't
much more. The cinemas were a bit old and run down, but at least they
showed a wide range of different movies and not just "block-buster"
movies. Now that ever high-street has its sterile, multi-screen cinema
the space for smaller cinemas seems to draw closer and closer.
Similarly, many roleplaying retailers seem to be going out of business.
I can think of only one RPG-only retailer in the London area.
Nevertheless, I'm still shocked at the price of books. It seems a
100-page, large-print novella is the same price as your 500+ sides,
small print novel these days (£7.99) and the prices seem to be ever
edging their way to the £10 mark. No wonder literacy rates are so low.
> I'd almost disagree with this last point. Almost. I've picked
> up many games because I liked the setting. Most of my d20
> collection consists of purchases based on liking the setting
> (Midnight and Kalamar principally). Of course, before, I'd
> always ignore the rules and nick setting ideas. d20 has changed
> that, but it makes it harder I think to sell the idea of a new
> game system.
I would say that the real success of d20 is not that the system is
familiar but the fact that it has such a wide range of ready-made
content available for it. After all, there are plenty of D&D knock-offs
out there that are simpler and more intuitive to learn that have been
going just as long. What attracts people to d20 are the various settings
available for it. Any new system has to similarly supply people with a
wide range of interesting and playable settings.
> Things might be easier if there were generic gaming magazines
> with a decent readership size. You could submit scenarios,
> and include rules for your free game (i.e., character stats
> in Yags or JAGS), with a link to the full rules online. I'm
> not aware of one though.
Yes, the demise of generic and quality RPG magazines has left a vast
hole. Dragon went the way of White Dwarf and became a WotC brochure. We
had an excellent magazine in the UK, called Arcane, but it went under
when the CCG craze hit the market. There have been attempts since, but
the market just can't support them. I think everyone is getting their
RPG-fix from sites like Enworld and RPG.net now.
I was thinking about starting a free content RPG zine for the FRPGC
myself. I don't have the time, but if anyone is interested in starting
this project I'd be more than happy to contribute articles.
--
Ricardo Gladwell
President, Free Roleplaying Community
http://www.freeroleplay.org/
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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