Quote from: David Johansen;646448SJG will not liscence the system and they don't really want to hear your ideas.  They know everything there is to know about the hobby and the industry and unless you're writing something from their wish list with approval they aren't interested.  Be prepared to wait months for a response, if you ask twice they won't ever talk to you again as a matter of policy.

Don't take that as bitterness.  I'll freely admit I'm not the kind of writer they want to work with.  That's okay, my feelings aren't hurt.  But I think it's more than fair to warn people that if you want to work with SJG you do it their way.

They've delt with and been burned by enough freelancers in the past that they've got quite a harsh vetting process.

Well put and pretty much my experience as well. I don't feel any ill-will towards SJ Games because of it and with the release of the Dungeon Fantasy line they pretty much addressed my personal wants with the GURPS.

I would like to be able to publish my own GURPS material, I would like not to have to rebuild my GURPS player base every couple of years but those two items don't interfere with my enjoyment of GURPS or make me play GURPS any less.

I may submit a modified Scourge of the Demon Wolf, it was originally run as a GURPS adventure, for use by the MIB program. A helpful person within the program told me how to do it.

Quote from: estar;645249My Response: Yet you are still producing GURPS product why not focus on something that will expand the customer base of the line instead of your next hardcover being GURPS Zombies.  Something I think they will do well but is it what the line really needs?

So what do you think they need?

What do you think would be the trick to making GURPS a bigger success?

Quote from: David Johansen;645527Not true, GURPS 4e has a profound passion for nitpicky little fiddly bits and indexing.

Touche!

Well, some support would be nice.  GURPS barely got a foot note in this year's stake holder's report.

I've had a few thoughts on how to open up GURPS to the wider market over the years.

My personal favorite is a set of 32 page supplements for GURPS Lite.  You could have a fantasy one, a supers one, a modern one, a horror one, a science fiction one, a mecha one and so forth.  Each booklet would have a fold over on the back cover with cardboard heroes and a couple pull out maps in the center of the book.  They could sell for maybe $10 and a copy of GURPS Lite with a cover on it might be $15.  I think the industry often fails to recognize that dead broke teenagers grow into adult gamers with jobs and money.  Essentially I'd like the point of entry to be priced in the same range as Magic The Gathering's range and in a format that keeps the sense of reading a brick to a minimum.

However, I think some good, generic one book hardbacks would do better at targeting the existing gamer market.  GURPS Vorsykien is actually a really good one book GURPS Space point of entry but it's also tied to an obscure liscence and has a particularly uninspired cover.  Which is why I stipulated generic books.  I don't think SJ is interested in paying out for a big name liscence and I don't think he's willing to try developing an inspired or evocative setting with great art and fiction.  But if "play it your way" is one of your strengths you should play to that Strength.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see GURPS tied to a really popular setting but it seems vanishingly unlikely.

Quote from: RPGPundit;647069So what do you think they need?

What do you think would be the trick to making GURPS a bigger success?

Three books, one for Fantasy, then Sci-Fi, and Horror. Each book has everything you need to play that particular genre using GURPS. The implied setting would be similar to the market leaders for each category (D&D, Traveller or Star Wars, Call of Cthulu)

The implied setting would be tweaked to show off GURPS emphasis on making the character you want, a combat system that is deadlier and has tactical detail. In short it will be a GURPS version of what the market leaders do. Not an attempt to emulate the leading systems of the market.

For example this is where Dungeon Fantasy misses the point as Sean Punch choose to try to emulate D&D style dungeon crawls with character roughly as durable as midlevel D&D character. To do that they had to base characters on 250 pts.

It should have have been how a bunch of 150 pt character deal with a dungeon and support that. Which is what I been doing in the Majestic Wilderlands since the late 80s.

Finally produce one or two adventures for each of the genres. And don't make them whacked out for example Transhuman Space versus Traveller Imperium/Star Wars. Or choosing Discworld as your standalone Fantasy Setting.

So the idea is that you take this 144 page books and have a complete RPG. People can buy it and learn GURPS. Then move on to the corebooks and the supplemental books.

The objections of course this would cannibalize sales of the core books. And my answer is that if your sales of the line have decreased because the market considers your presentation to be approached what is the point of keeping it the way it is?

Another object is that they give out GURPS Lite for free. While it is a good product it is only a PDF online and not something they see in the store.

However I been saying this since the early 2000s and because of the impact of the internet, I think my strategy is out of date as game store are just part of the package these days.

To revive GURPS in 2013 It would take a good organized play program using GURPS Lite as the foundation, some type of open license again using GURPS Lite (especially for adventures and settings), and a series of support products for specific genres which they are doing (Monster Hunters, Dungeon Fantasy, Action!).

The problem is that Munchkin design time is vastly more profitable than GURPS design time. The only answer I think a type of open license and let the fans do the work in reviving the system.

I like the idea of showcasing GURPS' strengths.  I haven't bought a single Dungeon Fantasy product.  They said 250 points and I said not interested.  But yeah, I'd carry those books.  I don't need them as a gamer but as a store I really do need them.