In the last couple of years there have been a number of RPGs, mainly from the '90s, that have been undergoing their own revivals. This includes things like Savage Worlds RIFTS and Aces & Eights Reloaded, among others.
How are any of these doing? I know some of them had huge kickstarters that did well, but is this going mainly out of nostalgia, or are they actually getting a lot of play?
I have been playing the 20th Anniversary WoD games in the years they have been released. They're quite popular among younger players too, as the physical presentation is impressive. Chaosium's RuneQuest and Cubicle 7s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying will always get attention from the groups I am involved with, and Space:1889 is something of a recent discovery that people really like.
Quote from: RPGPundit;964582In the last couple of years there have been a number of RPGs, mainly from the '90s, that have been undergoing their own revivals. This includes things like Savage Worlds RIFTS and Aces & Eights Reloaded, among others.
How are any of these doing? I know some of them had huge kickstarters that did well, but is this going mainly out of nostalgia, or are they actually getting a lot of play?
Savage Rifts has come to dominate conversation on the Savage Worlds Facebook group so much that it's almost the assumed baseline game now.
That is to say, it sure seems like people are playing it.
Quote from: Tommy Brownell;964588Savage Rifts has come to dominate conversation on the Savage Worlds Facebook group so much that it's almost the assumed baseline game now.
That is to say, it sure seems like people are playing it.
I know I am. I have a (House ruled) Cyber-Knight, a friend is playing a Grackletooth Merc soldier and his girlfriend is playing a 'half' elf Ley Line Walker. We're having a lot of silly in character fun.
TBH outside the small number of people who post/frequent the various media sites associated with RPGs I don't see a lot of these games being played outside the con circuit. The flavour of the month, whether it's the latest Kickstarter or a new release from a traditional source, is what I see being played at cons besides the usual round of Cthulhu, DnD and Pathfinder. There's huge numbers of gamers who never go to cons and only play in their home group of 4 or 5 people and run 80's or 90's games with little effort to vary from whatever their standard fodder is, beit Fantasy or Space or whatever.
I can see a new resurgence of WHFRP coming down the pike with C7's acquisition of the license but I really doubt if that will get to all the people who've been running 1e since they were in school as they don't even look at the RPG media to know that a new edition is on the horizon..
What about 7th Sea's reboot? Doesn't seem to get much attention. I'm wondering if the success of the kickstarter was due to folks wanting all of the 1E books.
Quote from: Aglondir;964607What about 7th Sea's reboot? Doesn't seem to get much attention. I'm wondering if the success of the kickstarter was due to folks wanting all of the 1E books.
They made a physically impressive new book, and the supplements and support seem impressive. For me though, just not that keen on fantasy pirates.
It's hard to say. Urban Shadows does well in my neck of the woods because the creator of the game lives here. My group is playing Palladium again because many of us played the hell out of those games 20 years ago, and we don't mind the warts in that system. D&D5E is everywhere, because it's a solid system people can easily digest (and a very recognized name). Pathfinder continues to be played.
But ask a local game shop what's being played, and most of them will not really know. Their stores are filled with Magic players, or Warhammer enthusiasts. With .pdf sales being very strong now, pirating being easier, and people direct ordering games to their homes, getting a pulse on what games are doing well is tough.
Quote from: Christopher Brady;964593I know I am. I have a (House ruled) Cyber-Knight, a friend is playing a Grackletooth Merc soldier and his girlfriend is playing a 'half' elf Ley Line Walker. We're having a lot of silly in character fun.
Savage Rifts does sound tempting...
Glad to hear some people are liking Space:1889. I always loved it.
I know that a number of people are playing T&T with the new deluxe edition. Many more are pleased as punch that the 5th edition is finally available in pdf.
Metamorphosis Alpha is seeing a resurgance in play. I think this is best explained by the flood of new product for the 1st edition. None of the other editions seemed to gain traction. Ironic for a 40 year old game to be flourishing in its first edition, not a re-boot.
Quote from: S'mon;964632Savage Rifts does sound tempting...
It's fun. Unbalanced and broken as all hell, but fun. Just avoid the really busted builds like the Mystic Dragon Squad and things are pretty smooth, at least compared to the original game.
Quote from: DavetheLost;965070I know that a number of people are playing T&T with the new deluxe edition. Many more are pleased as punch that the 5th edition is finally available in pdf.
Metamorphosis Alpha is seeing a resurgance in play. I think this is best explained by the flood of new product for the 1st edition. None of the other editions seemed to gain traction. Ironic for a 40 year old game to be flourishing in its first edition, not a re-boot.
What can you say about the new T&T deluxe edition? I have a pretty nice set of 5E stuff (for those not into T&T, 5E is pretty much the standard 'old school' edition), but I'm curious to know whether there is a reason to trade up to the new one.
Warriors get a +1D6 per level.
Talents get +3 instead of a D6.
Experience is spent per characteristic per 7.5.
Unconscious at 0, dead at -10 for PCs.
No negative ads, only positive ones.
That is all I remember for now. I am sticking with 5e...
Also about half the book is a Trollworld gazetteer. Everything you ever wanted to know about Trollworld and then some.
Expanded Peters-McAlistair charts for playing monsters, and descriptions of same.
DT&T has a Kickstarter on the near horizon to reprint it the first run has sold out. There are mumblings of a possible format change, but nothing certain.
I'll be honest and say that especially with 5e now available in pdf from DriveThru it probably isn't worth upgrading unless you can get dT&T at a good price. It is a nice book, but not that much nicer a game than 5e.
Quote from: Brand55;965075It's fun. Unbalanced and broken as all hell, but fun. Just avoid the really busted builds like the Mystic Dragon Squad and things are pretty smooth, at least compared to the original game.
Usually it's the players who are imbalanced and broken...:o
Quote from: Brand55;965075It's fun. Unbalanced and broken as all hell, but fun. Just avoid the really busted builds like the Mystic Dragon Squad and things are pretty smooth, at least compared to the original game.
It does seem like Savage Worlds is a good fit for it then. If I'm going to play in an unbalanced gonzo world, I want the action to be fast and furious - which Savage Worlds does well. (Generally I prefer more tactical games without Savage World's inherent swingy-ness - but gonzo can be fun from time to time.)
In fact having just recieved the Epsilon City boxed set for 1e Metamorphosis Alpha (c1976) I can state that the game has seen a higher page count of published material for 1e in 2017 than in the 41 years preceding. That includes the massive influx of new product accompanying the Deluxe edition in 2015 or 2016.
1e MA now has a higher page count than the other 4 editions of the game combined! MA has also seen a succesful range of miniatures and a fiction anthology produced.
But since we are talking about the first edition, I don't know if it really counts as a re-boot.
Quote from: Dumarest;965637Usually it's the players who are imbalanced and broken...:o
True, and sadly errata usually isn't much of a fix for their problems.
Quote from: Charon's Little Helper;965640It does seem like Savage Worlds is a good fit for it then. If I'm going to play in an unbalanced gonzo world, I want the action to be fast and furious - which Savage Worlds does well. (Generally I prefer more tactical games without Savage World's inherent swingy-ness - but gonzo can be fun from time to time.)
If the official PEG forums ever come back online, you might want to check them out. A number of the more gonzo builds have been discovered, along with some proposed fixes for issues like the Mind Melter being an inferior psychic option when compared to just picking a MARS psychic. You might spot a few potential pitfalls you otherwise wouldn't have anticipated ever coming up.
Savage Rifts seems to be a popular one at the moment alright. However, Savage Worlds has so many great settings and supplements. It has got something for everyone and is a decent set of rules (not the best but good).
ETU seems to be popular as well. I'm running Deadlands Reloaded and we are having a blast. I can't see SV going anywhere for a long time.
V20 is pretty damn popular as well.
Rifts isn't an "old" game, it's maybe middle aged at best. ;)
Meanwhile, the Torg: Eternity kickstarter is over 1400% funded ... in less than eight hours ...
Quote from: DavetheLost;965657Rifts isn't an "old" game, it's maybe middle aged at best. ;)
It's nearly 28 years old, I disagree.
Chess is an old game.
Quote from: Voros;965707Chess is an old game.
Go and Backgammon think of Chess as a youngster. It's all relative.
In the realm of TTRPGs, 28 years is pretty dang old.
I think it's really hard to judge what is being played outside of cons because nobody really plays in local game shops anymore (outside of things like Pathfinder and D&D). Aces & Eights: Reloaded just ended its KickStarter. I know that activity over at the Kenzer & Co boards for the game was really thin over the last few years and there wasn't a lot of con play at the cons I go to (Nexus, GaryCon, GameHoleCon)
I know Savage Rifts is talked about online but I've not seen anybody in real life playing yet. I'm kind of anti-Savage Rifts for two reasons: I think the Megaversal system is perfectly serviceable and the art in Savage Rifts is so fucking bad that I cannot believe that PEG thought it was a good idea. It's beyond me why they didn't hire Palladium artists and get Kevin Long to do some art for the books. It looks like puke on paper.
Quote from: Ulairi;965777I think it's really hard to judge what is being played outside of cons because nobody really plays in local game shops anymore (outside of things like Pathfinder and D&D). Aces & Eights: Reloaded just ended its KickStarter. I know that activity over at the Kenzer & Co boards for the game was really thin over the last few years and there wasn't a lot of con play at the cons I go to (Nexus, GaryCon, GameHoleCon)
Well we have hard data from the VTTs companies like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.
Roll20
http://blog.roll20.net/post/159952619415/the-orr-group-industry-report-q1-2017
Fantasy Grounds
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3507-Who-s-Playing-What-on-Fantasy-Grounds#.WTA5kevytpg
Quote from: estar;965788Well we have hard data from the VTTs companies like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.
Roll20
http://blog.roll20.net/post/159952619415/the-orr-group-industry-report-q1-2017
Fantasy Grounds
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3507-Who-s-Playing-What-on-Fantasy-Grounds#.WTA5kevytpg
Great. What % of gaming is done online? Do we expect the same participation online as we do off?
I know we have this information I just don't know how much gaming is done online versus off. I have a feeling that the majority of gaming is still done offline based on how WoTC has treated these services.
Quote from: Voros;965707Chess is an old game.
Chess definitely has undead traits.:-)
Sooner or later, someone will reboot Cyborg Commando.
Quote from: RPGPundit;966089Sooner or later, someone will reboot Cyborg Commando.
why reboot what has never died in the first place? :p
Quote from: RPGPundit;966089Sooner or later, someone will reboot Cyborg Commando.
We can only hope.
Quote from: RPGPundit;964582In the last couple of years there have been a number of RPGs, mainly from the '90s, that have been undergoing their own revivals. This includes things like Savage Worlds RIFTS and Aces & Eights Reloaded, among others.
How are any of these doing? I know some of them had huge kickstarters that did well, but is this going mainly out of nostalgia, or are they actually getting a lot of play?
Of the bunch, I think the Kickstarted CoC and WoD varieties get the most play after their purchases. The rest just end up piled in a stack somewhere, and forgotten, because of no shelf space. The recent RuneQuest 2nd Edition re-print is probably looked at once to make nostalgia happy.
Quote from: RPGPundit;965008Glad to hear some people are liking Space:1889. I always loved it.
I like the Ubiquity version by Clockwork Publishing and we're going to play that next. Ubiquity seems to be slowly growing the number of RPGs that use it.
Quote from: RPGPundit;966089Sooner or later, someone will reboot Cyborg Commando.
Cyborg Commando... one of those rare games where you can honestly say "Rifts does it better".
Quote from: remial;968073why reboot what has never died in the first place? :p
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
- "Cyborg Commando" by H. P. Lovecraft
Quote from: Ulairi;965777...the art in Savage Rifts is so fucking bad that I cannot believe that PEG thought it was a good idea. It's beyond me why they didn't hire Palladium artists and get Kevin Long to do some art for the books. It looks like puke on paper.
Yeah, the art is bland, sparse, and non-evocative of the setting. Especially of equipment, which has poor descriptions and usually no representative art at all.
Quote from: everloss;968609Yeah, the art is bland, sparse, and non-evocative of the setting. Especially of equipment, which has poor descriptions and usually no representative art at all.
Don't mince words. How do you really feel? :D
Quote from: Ulairi;965777the art in Savage Rifts is so fucking bad that I cannot believe that PEG thought it was a good idea. It's beyond me why they didn't hire Palladium artists and get Kevin Long to do some art for the books. It looks like puke on paper.
"Long left Palladium in August 1995 for unspecified reasons. Certain sources initially made the unequivocal claim that he was "fired", while others have more recently suggested that his separation was voluntary."
I have to disagree about the art in Savage Rifts. To me it's a mixed bag. Some good, bad and average. Unlike Palladium the art actually matches the fluff imo. Mages are supposed to be sneaky and crafty and too much art has them out in the open in combat against their enemies. While I agree about the art of the equipment, Palladium art is not any better imo. Oh look it's another weapon that has the same stats as the L-20 Pulse Rifle but it's different see because the illustration and company that makes it is "different". Both companies have flaws and merits when it comes to their art.
I'm also glad that they don't toss in as much art as Palladium does. Sometimes less is better. A book does not have to art on every second or third page or worse recycled art.
I'm not surprised Savage rifts is doing well. It's a recognizable IP. Until I bought the SW core book the only IP I knew was Deadlands. I'm not saying their other IP are not played or popular. Just not as well known. Pinnacle imo needed a recognizable IP.