Writing for Roleplaying Games: Publishing Your Own Game

Fuente:

http://www.errantdreams.com/pages/publish

Información:

Writing for Roleplaying Games: Publishing Your Own Game

First published 3/12/2002; last edited 12/21/2004

It seems like I'm getting more and more emails these days asking how someone can go about getting their own, home-brewed roleplaying game published. Which, as usual, is a sign that it's time to turn the answers I keep handing out into an article.

I feel it necessary to issue the disclaimer that as of the writing of this article I haven't gotten my own game system published, so I have no hard-and-fast from-experience answers. All of this comes from things I've heard and been told and things that make sense to me. In addition, the RPG market changes from year to year, sometimes drastically. So what is true one year won't work the next. I'll do my best to provide suggestions that will be useful on as many occasions as possible.

So Many Games!

Contrary to the apparent beliefs of the people who keep saying that the industry is dying, there are a lot of games out there. And I do mean a lot. You should see the preliminary ballot for the Origins Awards--if you needed any proof that the industry is doing as well as ever, that's it. The number of roleplaying games published in 2001 alone is astonishing to me.

In a way, this is bad news for you. It means that there are an awful lot of good games out there. The standard has been raised. It's getting harder and harder to just walk onto the scene with your own game and have people say, "wow!"

On the other hand, people are publishing lots and lots of games. So there's no reason why you can't publish yours, in theory. Here are a few suggestions to help you figure out what you want to do with your game and how to go about it.

Expectations and Quality

Remember that people's expectations are higher now. You don't want to write a game and then find that you've failed to account for a bunch of things that other games have already handily solved. But there are ways to deal with this.

Research Your Field

In another article I explained that you need to research the other games out there. You don't want to shop your game around only to find out that someone's already done your ideas before. Or worse, to find out that some of the things you thought of as problems inherent to roleplaying are things that other games have already solved. So make sure you look around, read gaming books, and play a wide variety of games before you consider your game ready to publish.

In addition, read lots of reviews of roleplaying games from various sites. Listen to the issues that reviewers laud or complain about. Make a list of things that many reviewers dislike or like in the games they review. How does your game measure up? Here are a few sites that do reviews to get you started:

• RPGNet
• Ex Libris Nocturnis
• EN World
• Gaming Report
• RPG United
• AtFantasy

Experience

Experience is often the best teacher. If you want to learn more about the writing of RPG games, you could get your feet wet as a freelancer. Write under contract for other companies.

You learn a lot from the responses to your work. Your editors will tell you what you've done wrong (and hopefully what you've done right); your reviewers will catch your mistakes and problems. This can be a great (if somewhat painful) way to learn better ways of writing RPG material.

You also learn a lot from the people around you. By freelancing you have a chance to meet and talk shop with professionals. Your developer will probably make comments in your outlines that explain why certain choices were made, and that will teach you something. Your co-authors might make comments about why they choose to do certain things, and that will teach you something. There's a lot to learn from your peers; take advantage of that.

As a caveat to this suggestion, only work as a freelancer if you're interested in the field. Freelancing just to network will probably result in your doing inferior work due to a lack of interest in what you're doing. No one will appreciate that.

Talk Shop

Don't design your game in a vacuum. Talk with other writers and game designers. There are web sites that carry forums specifically for the purpose of discussing issues of game design. A couple of the more popular that I know of are RPGNet's forums and The Forge's forums. Take shameless advantage of such resources.

A quick hint though: lurk for a while before jumping in with your opinions and questions. This is a valuable tactic on any internet forum or mailing list. You need to get a good handle on the issues, the opinions, the expected behavior, and so on. Besides, you can learn a lot just by listening! Read old posts; you might find that someone has already answered your questions.

And remember: each web site has its own unique audience, with its own unique likes and dislikes in a roleplaying system and its own popular style of play. If you're trying to design a great hack-and-slash game, you might not get everything you want out of a forum frequented by folk who prefer diceless roleplaying, and vice versa. Again, lurking for a bit before posting can help you to find the right forum for you.

Study Writing

It isn't enough to know how to design a good system. It has to be well-written or it won't get your great ideas across. It also won't come across as professional if it has lots of misspellings and confusing wordings.

You shouldn't get into RPG-writing because you like roleplaying--you should get into it because you like writing and roleplaying. Study writing. Make sure you know how to write well. Take classes and get involved in workshops. Get things published besides your roleplaying work. To give you a hand, here's a list of some of my favorite writing books:

• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for all the details that will make your writing look professional.
• Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury, for sheer inspiration.
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction, for genre tricks and hints, as well as practical writing advice.
• Writing in Flow, by Susan Perry, to help you get the most out of your writing experience.
• Word Painting, by Rebecca McClanahan, to help you learn how to use your words like an artist.

Then reread a few of your favorite roleplaying books and note the differences between rpg-writing and novel or short story writing. Take a look around the rest of our rpg-writers' articles for more on this.

Playtesters

Find people (other than your own gaming group!) to playtest your game. Otherwise, no matter how well your game works for your group, it's entirely possible that it'll be broken for groups that play a little differently than you do. RPGNet provides a forum on which you can issue an open call for playtesters.

What About Your Future?

Have you thought about what happens after your game is published? Will there be supplements? If so, how many? Of what kind? Do you have any idea how many you'd have to put out to keep your game alive or support yourself? Do you plan on writing them? Do you want someone else's company to hire freelancers to do it? Do you want to hire freelancers? How will you deal with them? What will you pay them? What will you charge for your game?

I'm drowning you in questions here, but hopefully I've gotten my point across. Don't just think about the here and now of your game--think about what you want from it. Think about where you want to go with it. This should help you to figure out how and where to publish it.

Where To Publish Your Game

You think your game is the very best it can be. You've done your research, polished your writing, and talked to people. Now what do you do?

Publishing With Other Companies

Most people seem to start out with the idea that some other company will publish their work (and thus, do all the hard business stuff for them). This is a tough one. Because there are so many good games on the market, most companies don't want to take a risk on someone unless that designer has a proven track record of designing great stuff. This is where having experience as a freelancer can come in handy. The contacts you made as a writer can help you now, and your reputation can open doors for you.

Check out the web sites of various RPG companies. Read their submission guidelines. If they're open to the submission of complete new game concepts, they'll say so. If they don't say so, you probably shouldn't bother. Pay close attention to those submission guidelines while you're there. The company will probably throw out any submission that doesn't conform to their posted guidelines. After all, if you can't be bothered to follow their guidelines, then how can they trust you to do good and careful work in other areas?

These days if you have a game world or adventure but not a game system you might have an easier time getting it published, simply because of the glut of d20 companies on the market. Write it up as a d20 supplement, then follow a d20 company's submission guidelines. This is one example of the fact that the industry can change dramatically from year to year.

Doing It Yourself

Of course, you could sell your game yourself. Even though some of the companies out there don't like to admit it, most of them started as little vanity companies selling the president's personal game creation. You can do that too.

Just be warned that it isn't easy. The market is small, and you'll probably never make much money at it even if your game is really good. This isn't an industry for people who want to be rich and famous. Folks at some mid-level companies still keep day jobs outside of the roleplaying industry to pay their rent. There are also a whole lot of aspects to the business that you might not have considered. Do you have a place to store books before shipping them out? If you're planning on doing this out of your house, is your area zoned for such commercial use? How do you know which printers to use and how to deal with them? What sort of legal forms do you have to file? These are just a few of the many questions you'll need to answer.

Unfortunately I'm not the right person to answer these questions for you, as I haven't experienced this side of the business. Instead, here are a few sources of information on the RPG publishing business. Make abundant use of them:

• RPG Publishing
• The Forge
• RPGNet
• The Game Manufacturers' Association
• The Game Publishers' Association

Keep in mind that most of the people who start and run RPG companies don't end up writing and designing--they end up running the business. Is that what you want to do?

Publishing Electronically

Another alternative is the smaller scale electronic self-publishing option. With the wonderful advent of pdf files and hosting services with built-in shopping carts and merchant account services, you can sell your own games. You can also sell games through places like RPG Now, which is a clearinghouse for electronic versions of RPGs and their supplements.

Electronic publishing has a distinct advantage over traditional publishing: very low overhead. You don't need a warehouse for your books. You don't need money to pay printers. You can't get screwed over by printing mistakes. It also does not remove the possibility of traditional publishing from your future. Some people have found it advantageous to use electronic publishing to build up an interest in their product. Then they use that interest to convince a traditional RPG publisher that their product is worth publishing.

The disadvantage of electronic publishing is obviously the lack of exposure in book stores; not everyone wants to print their own books or even buy them on the web. Also, there are still a few holdouts who consider electronic-only products to be unprofessional, although the holdouts seem to be fewer every day.

With luck this overview has given you an idea of some of the issues involved in publishing your roleplaying game. Maybe it's helped you to figure out which option would be best for you, and hopefully it's at least given you a few places to start your research. Best of luck to you.

Fuentes:

http://www.poewar.com/dear-john-how-do-you-write-a-role-playing-character-biography/

http://www.poewar.com/creating-memorable-characters/

Información:

Dear John: How do you write a role-playing character biography?

by JOHN HEWITT on 12/21/2005

On the article “Creating Memorable Characters” Natausha wrote: I was wondering how to write out a biography. I’m making a character for a role play chat. She’s a sorceress. Please help.

Natausha,

As someone who has played a few role-playing games, I think I can help. The point of writing a back story for a role playing character is to enrich your experience in the game. The biography of the character helps define that character’s actions and attitude. When it comes to adversity, the character’s life doesn’t have to be miserable, but it should include some moments that give the character motivation.

Let’s say I decide to play a bard (I don’t want to taint your sorceress). I want my bard to have some fighting skill and some musical skill, but the character is still young and relatively unproven. In researching character skills I decide I want him to start off with skills in performing, scribing and basic weapons. I also intend for him to pick up forgery, diplomacy and information gathering as skills later on. Personality wise, I picture him as good natured but a bit of a con man and a blowhard. He doesn’t just want to kill enemies and make money; he wants to have a great story to tell. He’s also the type of adventurer who will do whatever it takes to survive.

Below are a few short questions and answers that I will use to flesh out his character. I include my thought process in parentheses.

What’s his/her Name?

Lute Barjoey (This name is musical and it ties into his heritage. Yes, that can be a little hokey but role-playing games are for fun, not literature.)

Where did he/she grow up?

Lute grew up in a minor town of about 800 people. He was the third of three children, all boys. His father and mother owned a small tavern where they and his eldest brother Edward worked. Lute grew up surrounded by laughter, liquor and music (Explaining his formative background in music and revelry).

Why did the character become a bard (Sorceress, warrior, etc.)?

Lute was an amazingly intelligent and beautiful child with an excellent aptitude for mimicry both in voice and instrument (Accounting for the high points I allot to charisma and intelligence). As the third child he stood little chance of inheriting the bar so his parents apprenticed him to a touring theater company where he received basic training (Enough to be a low level bard with some performing abilities). While touring, the theater company disbanded for a lack of funds, leaving the young man in a new city with almost no money (Adversity). He survived for a while by performing music and storytelling in the streets and by writing letters and documents (Scribing) for the illiterate townsfolk but spent more than one night hungry and huddled in the cold (More adversity!). While he believed himself to be a good person, he stole food on more than one occasion and conned his way into a few ladies beds by virtue of his looks (Food and shelter trump law and honor for him).

Tired of living hand-to-mouth he joined the military and was sent to a foreign war. He spent most of his time as a prison guard and saw very little action (Remember he is still young and untested), but he learned how to use basic military weapons such as swords and bows. Much of his time was actually spent playing music for his fellow soldiers and writing letters home for them (More performing and scribing).

How did the character come to seek adventure?

The roots of the bard’s wanderlust began when he toured with the theater company. The desire to travel grew while in the military. After his country was victorious in the war, they cut back on their military. Lute was given a small severance package and went home to live with his parents. He worked for a year scribing documents for the local government (The roots of both his emerging forgery and diplomacy skills) but still spent his nights playing flute in his parent’s tavern and entertaining the locals with his exaggerated tales of the war based on other soldier’s letters (The roots of his information gathering skill). His future seemed set, but the thought of spending the rest of his life writing down other people’s words depressed him (More adversity and desire for adventure). Also, he longed for the money to start a theater group of his own and he knew that his small salary would never be enough (A goal). Plus, he had told his exaggerated stories of adventure so many times that he had started to believe them himself.

How did the character arrive where he/she is?

One day Lute packed up his few belongings (Including paper, a pen and ink, a sword, a bow and a flute) and decided to head out in search of adventure. There were rumors of rebellion in the lands his country had conquered. Apparently martial law was failing. Lute smelled adventure . . . and money. (These circumstances may have to be molded to whatever adventure is being planned)

Tagged as: Dear John, story, write

Fuentes:

http://www.poewar.com/creating-memorable-characters/

http://www.poewar.com/dear-john-how-do-you-write-a-role-playing-character-biography/

Información:

How to Create Fictional Characters

by JOHN HEWITT on 10/23/2004

When writing fiction, one of the greatest challenges is to come up with compelling characters that both interest the reader and fit the story. On the surface, fitting the story might seem like the lesser of the two considerations, but it really isn’t. Beyond being interesting, the character must also be the type of person who will respond to your plot. Whatever the action of your story is, it needs to matter to your characters. The reader (and you) must care about what is happening to a character and take interest in what the character will do, or will fail to do.

Most people’s inspiration for a character begins with some spark. The spark may come from anywhere. It could be a voice, a physical feature, a profession, a line of dialog, or a plot you want your character involved in. Whatever the spark is, you need to need to explore it. You should expand upon that voice, that physical feature, that dialog, that profession or that plot. Whatever the first spark of life is, expand upon it until it fully takes shape.

After you have moved beyond the original spark, you need to create a profile of your character. You should start out very simply. Is the character male or female? How old is the character? How does the character look? What kind of clothes does the character wear? Is the character generally happy, sad, angry, lonely or indifferent? These are all very basic questions, but it is surprising how often they are ignored.

Next, explore the character’s background. Is the character working, getting an education or doing something else that occupies their time? Where does the character live? What is the character’s family like? What kind of friends does the character have? What kind of things does the character own? That last question can be surprisingly informative. You can approach it from several angles. What is in the character’s home? What is in the character’s office at work? What is in the character’s pockets or purse? How many keys does that character have and to what?

Once you have put the larger pieces of the character’s personality and life together, it is a good time to pick a name. You should now know who they are and what they are like. Knowing your character increases your ability to give them a name that fits them. Names should match the character, but without being clich’. A boxer named “Punch” is a little silly, for example. Of course, a nickname may spring up that mirrors the character’s personality, but their given name should only suit the character, not stereotype them. Whole volumes can be written on naming characters alone, but suffice to say that buying a book of baby names and going through it until you find one that feels good will work.

You can try all sorts of additional ways to delve deeper into your character. Interviewing the character is a good exercise. Ask the character questions as if you are a reporter for Rolling Stone, People, the local newspaper or a magazine appropriate to your character’s background. Let the character speak. If you have already developed other characters for your story, ask them about your character. What do the other characters think about this person? Do they see the character differently than the character sees himself or herself?

Another way to explore your characters is to visualize them in their everyday world. What route do they take to work? What stations do they pick out on the radio? How do they act at a party? How do they respond to their boss or to their parents? What are their most common facial expressions? What are their hobbies? What household chores do they perform or ignore? What are their finances like? Picture the character five or ten years before the story takes place and five or ten years in the future. Where have they come from and how will the circumstances of your story change them?

Once you have explored your character in detail, you need to finish by creating a short, clear portrait of that character. What makes the character interesting, compelling and different? Try to come up with both a single sentence character description and a single paragraph character description. Each of these descriptions should vividly portray what kind of person this is. You won’t necessarily use these descriptions in your story, but it is important to have a clear portrait of your character that can guide you as you write and the story progresses.

After you have created your character, it is important to remember that they must be treated as individuals with their own needs and agendas. Allow your characters to have secrets, quirks and contradictions. Most people have a thousand little contradictions, even if their basic nature remains steadfast. Do not, however, make a character violate their basic nature just to suit the plot. If this character’s actions would change your plot too much, you need to either re-examine the plot, or create a more suitable character.

The most important advice I can give you is to respect your characters. Treat them as important people, whether you like the individual character’s personality or not. Remember that the character’s feelings and actions must reflect who they are and that the progression of the story must be important to them. What happens to them must matter. If you don’t find your character compelling and worthy of exploration, how can you expect a reader to?

Tagged as: characters, creating characters, creating memorable characters, dialog, How to Create Fictional Characters, Novel Writing, plot, story

The State of Dungeons & Dragons: Future

Fuentes:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/5th-edition-dungeons-and-dragons/

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future.2

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future.3

Información:

FEATURED ARTICLES

The State of Dungeons & Dragons: Future

GREG TITO | 30 DECEMBER 2011 3:00 PM

You've seen the Past and the Present, now the Future.

THE GHOST OF D&D FUTURE

Daunted by the release of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2008, the future of the roleplaying game industry is unclear. The core books of 4th edition sold well, and the game is still popular among a large section of players, but detractors used memes like Hitler's speech from Downfall to illustrate their rage , while game designers like Justin Alexander carefully examined why the dissociated mechanics of 4th edition didn't work for him. The nerd rage has dulled a bit in the three years since 4th edition, was released, but the tabletop RPG industry is still reeling.

Mearls admits 4th edition might have gone too far in creating a perfectly balanced game.

"A divided D&D is a symptom," said Mike Mearls, the current head of Dungeons & Dragons development at WOTC. "I think the designers have lost faith in the core essence of the RPG."

Mearls came from the OGL [Open Gaming License] era of publishing, during which he was a highly prolific freelance designer. Critics and gamers alike regarded Mearls' Iron Heroes system (2005) as one of the highlights of creativity that the open system could produce. He was hired at WotC soon after, and delved deeply into designing 4th edition with the rest of the team under the direction of former head of development, Bill Slavicsek, and fellow designers Andy Collins and Rob Heinsoo. After their departure, Mearls took hold of the reins in 2011 to nudge 4th Edition a little closer to the D&D a lot of the older players wanted. Even though it was in development long before he took over, the 4th edition Red Box's homage to the art from TSR's original Red Box might be considered Mearls' olive branch. The purpose of the new Red Box was to remind the older generation that 4th edition may be a new direction, but it still shares a lineage with the game they fell in love with in the 80s.

"I have a theory about RPGs," Mearls said. "When 2nd edition really got focused on story [in 1989], we had what I call the first era of RPG decadence and it was based on story. The idea that the DM is going to tell you a story, and you go from point A to point B to point C. The narrative is linear and [the DM is a] storyteller going to tell you a static story, and you would just get to roll dice occasionally. 3rd edition came out and said 'To Hell with that,' it's all about players, we're going to give you some really cool options, it's all flexibility in the DM and for the players, there's this meaningful choice.

"I think we've hit the second era of RPG decadence, and it's gone the opposite way," he continued. "It's all about player power now - the DM is just the rules guy - and the DM can't contradict what the players say. [The game] is taking away from the DM, and that's where I worry because other types of games can do that better. I might as well play a board game, 'cause I'm just here enforcing the rules. Without the DM as the creative guy, what's the point?"

Mearls admits 4th edition might have gone too far in creating a perfectly balanced game. "We've lost faith of what makes an RPG an RPG," he said, admitting that in trying to please gamers with a limited imagination, 4th edition might have punished those with an active one. "There's this fear of the bad gaming group, where the game is so good that even playing with a bad gaming group, you'll still have fun."

The result of this philosophy is that, perhaps more than ever before, gamers are playing different games than the official D&D coming out of the Wizards of the Coast. "What D&D faces now with different editions and old school versus new school, and 3.5 versus 4th edition, it's like the comic book conundrum," Mearls said in reference to the differences between Silver Age Captain America versus the plot of the recent Captain Americafilm. "How do we get all these guys back together, so we actually have real communities, not just a bunch of separate smaller communities, that don't really interact in any way?"

Mearls believes that if he produces games that people want to play or written content on the online portal D&D Insider that people want to read, then he has done his job well, but the problem is that - more than ever - that is a difficult proposition.

In order to serve each customer well, WotC no longer jams one square-shaped edition or format into a round audience-sized hole but instead offers different games for each potential player.

"People have no time for bullshit," he said. "People have less time than ever to do stuff that engages them. You take roleplayers, who are by nature creative and engaged, they're not just passively watching something. They have standards of what they want, they're persnickety. They want what they want, and if you don't give it to them they'll tell you very loudly and clearly, 'Screw you buddy, I don't need this!'"

There is no lack of feedback on the web or at convention panels for what WotC is doing wrong, but Mearls said he is paying close attention. For example, statistics gathered internally show that more than two thirds of D&D players choose to play one of the four major races - human, elf, dwarf, halfling - so there's been a shift to focus on the core of what people expect from the game. Mearls intended the Essentials line - essentially a repackaging of 4E rules into easier-to-digest books - to get back to the shared language that unites all D&D players. "You don't want a situation where someone comes into a room and says 'Hey guys, I'm playing a Shardmind Seeker' and the response is 'What the hell is that?'" he said. "I know what it is because I worked on it, but it's not even in the Player's Handbook. If you [publish] too much, that shared language, it just evaporates."

WotC has also realized in the last few years is that not all D&D gamers are alike. There are some who love 4th edition's tactical gameplay, while others simply want to participate in epic stories with their friends every week. Some gamers don't have a lot of time to devote to game sessions, while others would gladly spend all their time playing and reading about D&D. In order to serve each customer well, WotC no longer jams one square-shaped edition or format into a round audience-sized hole but instead offers different games for each potential player.

"D&D isn't one game, it's a range of games," said Mearls.

The current strategy of WotC is diverse. For players who want a quick structured experience, WotC now offers three board games designed to be completed in an hour or two, using a simplified version of 4th edition rules. The Legend of Drizzt came out in late 2011 and uses R.A. Salvatore's iconic character to attempt to attract new players. D&D Encounters is a weekly program that brings players into game stores for newbie-friendly sessions designed to teach them the full role-playing game, and the recently launched beta of the Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter aims to get friends playing D&D together as easy as possible.

The other side of Wizards is the cash cow of Magic: The Gathering, and it's hard for Mearls not to want to emulate the profitability of that game. Magic has seen a boost in popularity from the success of the Xbox Live game Duels of the Planeswalkers. A large percentage of players will get hooked on the digital game and then be inclined to purchase a booster deck of cards - or twenty. "One of the big questions facing the medium now is what is theDuels of the Planeswalkers for D&D?" said Mearls.

The problem with developing such a game was, until this year, Atari held an exclusive license to produce all digital representations of D&D, and Atari had no interest in making games other than what was already in the pipeline. As of August 2011, the two parties have settled that dispute, and D&D is now free to either develop games itself, or hire other videogame developers to make the game WotC hopes will be as successful as Duels is for Magic.

With all of these options, it seems that the biggest hole in WotC's catalogue would be a product for those players who grew up with the game. "Working on a game that's almost 40 years old now, we've seen the complex end. And what happened with each edition of D&D is it got more complex and we need to go back to the original D&D." Mearls isn't necessarily arguing for WotC to reprint the older editions and compete directly with the many retro-clones released by the Old School Renaissance - although there are rumblings - but he wants the company to go back to what drew people to the game in the first place.

"A lot is going to depend on whether D&D can rebound from its current state. The game has had a troubled few years and it'll help everyone if WotC can turn things around."

"Let's just play D&D," he said. "Just cut all the bullshit that can get in the way, and say 'Look, we have all these different ways you can express yourself in the game,' and let's just give people what they want. Don't trick people into things they want or just come up with something new for the sake of it. [Let's] get back in touch with what makes role-playing games great, what makes D&D great."

Only a little over three years since the last revision, it's probably too early to speak of a 5th Edition of D&D because such talk would only further enrage customers who just bought a whole set of books. Instead, Mearls is less dedicated to reuniting the fractured audience rather than catering to each new niche in turn. But with products like Paizo's Pathfinder, the many games of the Old School Renaissance, and Chris Pramas' RPG lines from Green Ronin already serving their communities well, it will take more than lip service from Wizard of the Coast employees to heal the loss of hit points that 4th edition caused.

"A lot is going to depend on whether D&D can rebound from its current state. The game has had a troubled few years and it'll help everyone if WotC can turn things around," said Pramas.

A healthy RPG industry depends on how the most recognizable brand fares, but Pramas remains optimistic that Green Ronin will still be publishing rulebooks. "I expect there will be least one and maybe more than one industry-changing innovation," he said. "We will be here one way or the other, making great games and promoting all that is awesome about pen and paper RPGs."

Paizo will continue to innovate as well, while still holding onto the principles that made Pathfinder successful. "The future is going to bring more integration of technology to tabletop games, to the point at which 'pen and paper tabletop games' won't, in many cases, use pens, paper, or tabletops," said Erik Mona, publisher at Paizo. "I hope Paizo is still at the vanguard of the tabletop hobby in 5 and 10 years, pushing forward with new ideas and new expressions of the game, but always focusing on story first."

Not all gamers are so optimistic. "I think the tabletop RPG market is enduring a kind of death. I think it is transforming into something that isn't a viable commercial business for more than a handful of people," said Ryan Dancey, former VP of RPGs at Wizards and marketing guru at White Wolf/CCP. Dancey was instrumental in developing the OGL before the 3rd edition era of D&D, but he foresees the RPG industry becoming a dead hobby like model trains. "Kids stopped playing with trains, and the businesses that remained dedicated to hobbyists who got more disposable income as they grew up, until the price of the hobby was out of reach of anyone except those older hobbyists. Eventually, it became a high-end hobby with very expensive products, sold to an ever-decreasing number of hobbyists. As those folks die, the hobby shrinks. That is what is happening to the tabletop RPG business."

No matter what edition or game you play, tabletop role-playing games are really just vehicles for getting together with your friends, rolling some dice, and having fun. The saddest part about the current state of the tabletop industry is that game designers, publishers and even regular gamers are now hyper-aware of how well each game sells and how these games are marketed or written instead of - as Mearls pointed out - just playing the games. The vitriol seen during the launch of 4th edition now just leaves a bad taste in gamers' mouths. Healthy competition is a good thing for any industry, and with digital distribution and cheaper print costs, it's easier than ever for startup gaming publishers with great ideas to compete with established brands likePathfinder and even Dungeons & Dragons. While the separate communities and aging of the audience as Dancey says could be perceived as unhealthy for the hobby, the many different tabletop options gamers now have might actually be a good thing. D&D, and by extension the whole role-playing industry, has been through a rough patch in the last few years, but there is a glint of great things ahead. Like the characters in any fantasy adventure story, passing through the dark times will only make us stronger. Despite the anger and resentment fostered by the release 4th edition, optimism on the future of RPGs has begun to bubble to the surface. We are on the verge of a golden age of tabletop gaming we haven't seen since fantasy roleplaying roared out of the minds of Gygax and Arneson and took over imaginations of gamers everywhere.

You've seen the Future, now check out the Past and the Present of RPGs.

The State of D&D: Present

Fuentes:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/5th-edition-dungeons-and-dragons/

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present.2

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present.3

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The State of D&D: Present

GREG TITO | 28 DECEMBER 2011 3:00 PM

Previously on The State of Dungeons & Dragons.

In the mid 2000s, tabletop roleplaying games enjoyed a resurgence in popularity not seen since the originalDungeons & Dragons rules were published by Gary Gygax in the 70s. The 3rd edition of those rules, and the Open Gaming License (OGL) that opened them up for public use, cemented D&D as the leader of the roleplaying game world, while simultaneously encouraging competitors to advance the design of roleplaying games. But as result of Hasbro's desire to turn D&D into a $100 million business, and the success of fantasy MMO videogames likeWorld of Warcraft, the release of the 4th edition in 2008 changed more of the game than many fans were comfortable with and despoiled the goodwill Wizards of the Coast had built over the last decade. The Ghost ofD&D Present still haunts the industry.

The young designers working at Wizards wanted to stretch their design muscles to make a new game - something that they could call their edition.

Andy Collins worked under 4E Lead Designer Rob Heinsoo at Wizards of the Coast and eventually became Design & Development Manager around the release of 4th edition. Collins told The Escapist back in 2010 that the changes he and Heinsoo implemented in D&D were meant to catch the game up with the way that people played modern games. Collins believed players have a short attention span, and were, perhaps, "less likely [to be] interested in reading the rules of the game before playing." "I'm not just talking about younger players now, but anybody. We've been working to adapt to that, the changing expectations of the new gamer."

The young designers working at Wizards wanted to stretch their design muscles to make a new game - something that they could call their edition. "Designing new editions is the work of younger, more energetic folks," said Collins. While 4th edition offered elegant tactical combat and an equanimity between classes never seen before in the game, many of the people who played Gygax'sDungeons & Dragons in the 70s and 80s didn't understand why concepts they held to be sacred were axed.

"I started playing D&D when I was 10 years old in 1979. I thought they made some curious choices [in 4E] regarding what was central to the property," said Chris Pramas, President of Green Ronin Publishing. "They added new core races and created a different cosmology, and that was totally fine for the new campaign setting they were releasing. It just seemed strange to me that that all the old settings had to have that stuff shoehorned into them."

"I don't know why you call an elf an eladrin and I don't know why tieflings are there when they haven't been there all along. I do have some problems with it as a writer," said R.A. Salvatore, who writes novels set in D&D's Forgotten Realms. Salvatore has written more than thirty novels starring the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden, many of them NY Times Bestsellers, arguably giving Salvatore the distinction of creating the world's most valuable D&Dcharacter. "4th edition [D&D] is more like a card game. It's a strategy game and there are a lot of things in there for the reason of class balancing, so from a mechanical standpoint, it's a fabulous game. From a roleplaying standpoint, by that I mean a writing standpoint, it's much harder."

"I think, at least from my initial observations, that 4E put too much emphasis on the battle grid and not enough emphasis on the world outside of combat. That, in combination with the sacred cow-killing, made it feel like a whole different game to a lot of people, including me," added Erik Mona, publisher at Paizo, creators of Pathfinder.

Although work had already begun on the design, public talk of a new D&D edition from Wizards of the Coast began around 2007. The expectation was that WotC would support 4th edition the same way it had before with a new license and system reference document. It seemed unlikely that the OGL would survive the new edition unscathed, but fans and publishers had no reason to suspect just how thoroughly Wizards would abandon it.

"Like any aggressive proposal, the OGL never had universal support within Wizards of the Coast. Lots of folks questioned the wisdom of simply giving away the rights to the core system of the game that paid our salaries."

"[WotC] made all sorts of assurances to the community of third-party developers about how open the new game would be, how they planned to share the rules early with key publishers, and how we could all get on board with supporting the new edition," Mona said. "But something happened behind the scenes over there at about that time, and a licensing agreement that had been touted as a 'more open than ever' failed to materialize."

Not everyone at WotC believed that the OGL was a good thing for D&D. "Like any aggressive proposal, the OGL never had universal support within Wizards of the Coast. Lots of folks - myself included, at the time - questioned the wisdom of simply giving away the rights to the core system of the game that paid our salaries," said Collins recently.

"There were a lot of folks who thought [the idea of OGL] was a disaster, and that the result would be a failure of 3rd edition, but they kept their opinions to themselves and to the watercooler chat," remembers Ryan Dancey, the VP of RPGs at Wizards until 2001, and the guy who came up with the crazy OGL idea. "When 3rd edition didn't fail, but instead wildly succeeded, most of those folks came around to seeing it at least as a neutral, if not a net positive."

By the time that 4th edition was developed, even the people who begrudgingly accepted the OGL had left their positions at Wizards of the Coast. "Many of the key players were completely different at this point - different brand managers, different legal team, different executive team," said Collins. "And with new people come new opinions ... and this time around, the pro-OGL side was in the minority."

He still believed in the benefits of an open system, but he was fighting a losing battle. "I remember arguing pretty hard to retain something like what Wizards had done for 3rd edition; an open license that included the core rules and a few basic guidelines on how to use it. I argued that without some kind of OGL, Wizards risked leaving behind the body of customers and potential customers who saw the open license as an assumed part of the D&D experience," Collins said.

"In hindsight, I wonder if it might simply have been better to [let the OGL die] rather than guilting the company into crafting a Frankenstein's monster of an open license that ended up pleasing basically nobody," Collins continued. The Game System License [GSL] that WotC released in conjunction with 4th edition took away many of the freedoms that the industry had come to expect with the D&D rules, such as reprinting text for clarity in new products. "At the time, those of us arguing for the continuation of an OGL-like system truly believed that we'd be able to come up with something that protected Wizards and also helped the community," he admitted, but wrangling an agreement that achieved those goals proved a monumental task that took much longer than anyone anticipated.

If the licensing issue was the only black Eye of Vecna on its face, 4th edition might still have been a hit with fans and other publishers alike. In December 2007, WOTC released Wizards Presents: Races and Classes the first of several preview documents that outlined some of the radical changes to the rules, and initial feedback from fans was not encouraging. "All of a sudden our subscribers started begging us not to convert to the new game system," Mona said. "The fact that many members of our editorial staff shared some of these concerns underscored our uneasiness with the dragged out licensing situation. We finally made the decision that if we weren't able to support the game at launch, we might as well not bother supporting it at all. So we decided to stick with [D&D] 3.5."

The designers at Paizo rewrote the 3.5 rules a bit under the old OGL license and added the distinct setting of Golarion into a package called Pathfinder. Even Mona was surprised at how well the beta version of Pathfindersold, and how it has grown into a multi-million dollar enterprise. "We put together an impressive print run of the Beta Playtest version of the Pathfinder rules, and when that sold out in about a week, we knew we were onto something," he said. "Interest in the system far exceeded our expectations, and continues to do so. We sold more [Pathfinder] Core Rulebooks in 2011 than we did in 2010, and the final hardcover Core Rulebook is now in its fifth printing with no end in sight."

Paizo's success with Pathfinder was possible because the OGL was not abolished; it was still valid for the rules printed under the 3rd edition D&D banner, while the GSL governed everything published under 4th edition. This created a unique situation in the history of role-playing games- for the first time, it was legal for companies to reprint older versions of Dungeons & Dragons after its publisher had let the core rulebooks disappear from shelves.

"That allowed something we have never seen before: a company that emerges as the champion of the previous edition and rallies its fans," said Pramas of his competitor in the third party market. "That is what Paizo was able to do with Pathfinder. Similarly, many companies of the Old School Renaissance used the OGL to recreate older editions of D&D in various permutations. Now, no matter which version of D&D you prefer, there are many publishers supporting it with new material."

The Old School Renaissance is the name given to what can only be called a movement among gamers to return to an older style of play. "I think Gary Gygax's death [in 2008] had a profound impact on a lot of the old schoolers. Many of them were grudgingly going along with modern game design conventions simply because they had no other choice," said Erik Mona.

Games like Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, and Lamentations of the Flame Princess use the OGL to recreate the feel and simplicity of older editions while making tweaks to the presentation and playability. (Full disclosure: I'm publishing a game called the Adventurer Conqueror King System which similarly represents older rules with significant modifications.) Members of the Old School Renaissance play these so-called retro-clones, or keep on rolling dice with old copies of TSR's own editions and then dissect the experience online at websites like The Mule Abides and Grognardia.

Changes in how people buy RPGs and the freedom of the OGL combined to make the Old School Renaissance grow across the internet. The rise of digital distribution of PDFs through marketplaces like DriveThruRPG.com have allowed designers to make money selling their work with less overhead. The costs of printing books has also decreased, especially print-on-demand services that allow smaller print runs, so it's easier than ever for amateur designers to publish something gamers can bring to the table and use with any of D&D's older editions or retro-clones.

Pulling from so many different sources, especially videogames, may have worked against the reception of 4th edition D&D.

While most members of the Old School Renaissance are older people who began playing as kids during D&D's early-80s heyday, the current edition competes against a totally different medium among young people today - computer games. "Nerd momentum has moved away from RPGs and towards videogames in the last 30 years," said Pramas. "In the 70s, if you were a certain kind of geek, you'd have playedD&D. Now that same type of geek is much more likely to enter fantasy gaming through World of Warcraft."

Mona admits that tabletop games are vying for the attention of the audience but instead of a threat, he sees a challenge. "Gamers have more options to spend their money than ever before, and that could lead to an erosion of tabletop gamers across the board," he said. "A lot of the bleed-off can be counterbalanced by a new generation of gamers who come to the hobby through electronic games, but who are open to tabletop experiences, as well. Many of these gamers come to the table with a much greater understanding of RPG basics like hit points, character class, and armor class than any of us had in the 1970s. It's up to game publishers to make compelling content that these people will want to buy and experience as much or more than the latest computer or console game."

Coinciding with the release of 4th edition D&D in 2008, Wizards of the Coast launched an advertising campaign that reached out to MMO players. "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help," the text of one ad read over a shot of a bored young man in front of a computer. Paradoxically, one of the most frequent complaints with 4th edition was that the rules too closely mimicked World of Warcraft or EverQuest. The concept of certain classes described specifically to take or deal damage in 4th edition mirrors the role of tank or "DPS" in MMOs.

Collins admitted that 4th edition was influenced by MMOs but was quick to point out that the design took inspiration from many contemporary sources. "As professional game designers, we look at all games for lessons," he said last year. "Certainly, the lessons we learn from online games are going to be the most obvious ones because they have a lot of people familiar with the sources, but there's also lessons about turn management from European board games, interface ideas from card games."

Pulling from so many different sources, especially videogames, may have worked against the reception of 4th edition D&D. "I think the mistake people sometimes make is to think that we can attract more players if we ape the experience of videogames. I think a better approach is to emphasize what makes pen and paper RPGs unique and fun," said Pramas.

For all the machinations behind-the-scenes at Wizards and the grumblings of people in the industry, Collins and his designers clearly wrote a game that fans wanted to buy. Preorders for the core books of 4th edition of D&D in June 2008 were extremely strong and - without any hard sales numbers released by WoTC - anecdotal evidence from local game stores supported the claim that it sold much better than 3rd at launch. Moving its periodic content to a digital portal called D&D Insider on a monthly subscription model, while providing access to online tools like the handy Character Builder seems to be successful (Again, without any sales numbers it is hard to gauge, but anecdotally most people who play 4th Edition use D&D Insider in some capacity.) In addition, any gamer who wrote scathing critiques of the game on forums was met with an equivalent number of fervent supporters of 4th Edition. The new game has attracted a loyal audience, especially with younger players, but at the cost of alienating those who grew up with the game of Gygax and Arneson.

The negative response to 4th edition was not without consequences for the people who made it. Rob Heinsoo was laid off in late 2009, and Bill Slavicsek, Director of RPG R&D for more than ten years, left earlier this year. Wizards is notorious for laying off employees before Christmas, but restructuring can happen at any time. In May 2010, Andy Collins was asked to vacate his position at Wizards of the Coast as design and development manager of D&D. "To be blunt: They told me they were restructuring the department and I didn't have a job there anymore," he said. "As harsh as that moment was, it was a good thing for me, both personally and professionally. Despite working on an amazing game, surrounded by smart, talented folks whose mere presence made me a better designer, I was stagnating."

With the departure of Heinsoo, Slavicsek, Collins and most of the brand team who launched 4th edition, it seemed the company was moving in a new direction. The D&D Essentials line and the new Red Box starter set released in September 2010 were publicized as easy gateways for players to enter the hobby. WotC also released its first D&D-themed boardgame - the dungeon-crawl with 4E elements Castle Ravenloft - at the same time. Wizards of the Coast appeared to be moving away from a pure tabletop RPG publisher and people began speculating what the company would do next. Some assumed that a new 5th edition was inevitable, while the concentration on digital subscriptions and online tools suggested that Wizards could sustain the 4th edition lifecycle for a while. Old school gamers rejoiced when Collins' successor was named, but it remains to be seen whether one man can turn the tide.

A changing of the guard at Wizards may herald a sea change for the company, check back to see what the ghost of D&D future has to say about where tabletop RPGs will be like in ten years.

Previously on The State of Dungeons & Dragons.