I designed and recently released an entire RPG system BECAUSE there are things I love about role-playing games and things that I... think are just plain shitty about more than a few of them.

Hopefully, as I put out more product, I will be helping to keep positive trajectory RPGs are moving in.

Well I just started running Primeval Thule (5e D&D version) and I'm extremely impressed how well designed & presented it is for maximum playability. It blows away anything I've seen from the '90s, never mind the '80s and before. It does seem to have benefitted from some evolution in game/supplement design.

I believe the industry is dying, or getting stagnated.  The hobby itself is alive and well because anyone can make a book without a publisher.

Quote from: S'mon;1073856Well I just started running Primeval Thule (5e D&D version) and I'm extremely impressed how well designed & presented it is for maximum playability. It blows away anything I've seen from the '90s, never mind the '80s and before. It does seem to have benefitted from some evolution in game/supplement design.

I've been thinking about picking that up from my FLGS. What's the vibe or theme the setting's going for?

Quote from: Tanin Wulf;1073890I've been thinking about picking that up from my FLGS. What's the vibe or theme the setting's going for?

I would say the closest fit is Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan comics. Ostensibly it is a Kull/Conan swords and sorcery setting, but because it uses the 5e D&D rules basically unchanged there is a lot of magic in the adventures and (probably) used by the PCs. So it tends to remind me of SSOC, Marvel's take on the Conan mythos - an ostensibly low magic world, with pretty super-heroic protagonists often facing high-magic threats.

Game-wise I find this works brilliantly, it's far easier to run than a genuinely low-magic game, but some people are offended by the disparity. It's incredibly flavour rich; the Heroic Narratives (replacing Backgrounds) are brilliantly done for integrating PCs in the world, and once I took an hour to do a list of all the named NPCs in Quodeth (the starter city) the setting really came to life. I've run two sessions now and it's been some of the best gaming I've had in years.

Free setting taster - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/129630/Primeval-Thule-Travelers-Guide

You can check out my Thule blog at https://simonsprimevalthule.blogspot.com/

Quote from: Snowman0147;1073880I believe the industry is dying, or getting stagnated.  The hobby itself is alive and well because anyone can make a book without a publisher.

Well it's like a lot of stuff from movies to computer games, the Triple A stuff keeps on trucking and the Indie stuff is blossoming due to the internet but everything in between is getting gutted.

Quote from: Snowman0147;1073880I believe the industry is dying, or getting stagnated...

That's true whenever D&D is popular.

Quote from: S'mon;1073909I would say the closest fit is Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan comics. Ostensibly it is a Kull/Conan swords and sorcery setting, but because it uses the 5e D&D rules basically unchanged there is a lot of magic in the adventures and (probably) used by the PCs. So it tends to remind me of SSOC, Marvel's take on the Conan mythos - an ostensibly low magic world, with pretty super-heroic protagonists often facing high-magic threats.

Game-wise I find this works brilliantly, it's far easier to run than a genuinely low-magic game, but some people are offended by the disparity. It's incredibly flavour rich; the Heroic Narratives (replacing Backgrounds) are brilliantly done for integrating PCs in the world, and once I took an hour to do a list of all the named NPCs in Quodeth (the starter city) the setting really came to life. I've run two sessions now and it's been some of the best gaming I've had in years.

Free setting taster - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/129630/Primeval-Thule-Travelers-Guide

You can check out my Thule blog at https://simonsprimevalthule.blogspot.com/

Appreciate the text and links. This helps bring me to a "likely buy."

Quote from: Razor 007;1072047Serious Question.

I buy less RPGs than I used to. That's probably the surest metric. I'm a simulationist and given that the viral marketing of gamists (D&D, OSR) and narrativists has been overwhelming in the last 10 years, I cannot say that the picture is great.

That said, the picture is more complex. There have been innovations, a few. Less than there have been touted though. The book design has overall improved. We have much more color art. The problem is that the color art is generally of poor quality, however. So, overall: some improvements, lots of it is just marketing though and games have gone in directions I am not entirely comfortable with.

But we'll see a resurgence of (genre) simulationism in the 2020s. Pretty sure of it. The stage is set.

Quote from: Snowman0147;1073880I believe the industry is dying, or getting stagnated.  The hobby itself is alive and well because anyone can make a book without a publisher.

I believe my game has some new angles to offer. It's just the beginning of a new generation of simulationist games that emulate their respective genres closer than ever before.

Quote from: Alexander Kalinowski;1073962But we'll see a resurgence of (genre) simulationism in the 2020s. Pretty sure of it. The stage is set.

Interesting. How would you say this genre-simulation differ from the genre-emulation we've been seeing for some time now?

Quote from: Itachi;1073965Interesting. How would you say this genre-simulation differ from the genre-emulation we've been seeing for some time now?

I wouldn't say it does. But I would say that the term genre simulation is more compatible with the term simulationism, that's why I have come to prefer it.
I would also like to add that D&D and PbtA dominate a lot of the online discussion with simulationst games at times being regarding a thing of the 90s or so. I think we're going to see a resurgence in gamer conversations about the simulationist aspects of RPGs, spurred but improvements in simulation. (Or emulation, if you prefer.)

Quote from: Alexander Kalinowski;1073993I wouldn't say it does. But I would say that the term genre simulation is more compatible with the term simulationism, that's why I have come to prefer it.
I would also like to add that D&D and PbtA dominate a lot of the online discussion with simulationst games at times being regarding a thing of the 90s or so. I think we're going to see a resurgence in gamer conversations about the simulationist aspects of RPGs, spurred but improvements in simulation. (Or emulation, if you prefer.)

Thanks for clarifying!

Don't you think the latest boom of BRP (Mythras, RQ: Glorantha, Delta Green 2, Unknown Armies 3, CoC 7, supplemenets like Mythic Britain, Rome, etc) is a sign of that already hapenning?

Quote from: Eric Diaz;1073154RPGs are getting better as a whole. Shorter skill lists, lest dice rolling and re-rolling, less tables that contain nothing but numbers, no more "confirming criticals", AAC is easier for newbies, etc.
...

Agreed. There has been a refinement to RPG design that has gone on the last 10 years that has largely fallen under the radar. Unfortunately it is almost totally confined to the Indie/small press RPG's.

By and large - aside from legacy systems the design trend has been for much less crunch than one would see from new games in the 80's and 90's.

Quote from: Snowman0147;1073880I believe the industry is dying, or getting stagnated.  The hobby itself is alive and well because anyone can make a book without a publisher.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1073919That's true whenever D&D is popular.

True but in this case D&D's traditional industry competition is basically no one.

Its D&D, and then essentially indie/POD/Small press RPGs now.

D&D basically has no competition. The Gulf in sales between D&D and it's "competitors" is bigger than it ever has been.

Outside of pathfinder - who I think will start to hemorrhage customers after their 2e flops. Who is there that is really putting a visible alternative to D&D out there?

Everyone else has mishandled their properties. (In fairness without WOTC, D&D's future would have been interesting.)

But no one else got a WOTC white knight charging in to save them. White wolf is gone. Vampire sequels are niche POD titles now. RQ was never going to challenge D&D, (or even come close) because Glorantha. Hero, Gurps - got to big and bloated, totally on life support. WHFRP RPG was always second fiddle for GW. Traveller? Who even plays that now?

(Yes hyperbole is in full effect here. Save your: B,b,but what about meeeeee! For someone else.)

The RPG hobby is utterly awesome these days.

The RPG industry is D&D. Period.

Quote from: Itachi;1073998Thanks for clarifying!

Don't you think the latest boom of BRP (Mythras, RQ: Glorantha, Delta Green 2, Unknown Armies 3, CoC 7, supplemenets like Mythic Britain, Rome, etc) is a sign of that already hapenning?

Yes, but it's a long way from the vocal supporters that D&D and PbtA or Fate have. For the record, I also consider Star Wars FFG and Conan 2d20 part of the attempt to capture a given franchise more closely. For me, the simulationist games of the future have a clearer vision of what they need to simulate (actually emulate but I think I stated why I go with the misnomer) and strike greater accuracy while not going beyond rules-medium in complexity.