Quote from: GRIM;310160Dark Heresy is one of the few RPGs regularly found in normal bookshops. That it wasn't marketed to the 40k crowd was because GW wouldn't put it in their normal stores and despite its success passed it on to FFG.

GW are, frankly, wankers and have been since around 1990. You'd think they'd want to run with and promote a success, but nooooo.

I suspect it's a case that, despite the stuff they licensed to FFG being a success, it wasn't enough of a success to spend GW's time and money on it. Say, for every £100 GW spent on DH they enjoyed a net profit of £50, but for every £100 they spend on their minis lines they get a net profit of £100: at that point it doesn't make sense for GW to spend their own time on DH when they could just license it out, have someone else spend the money developing it and enjoy the tasty royalties, whilst their own designers focus on what makes them the most money.

Quote from: Drew;310286The combination of wider retail distribution and massive UK brand recognition may result in something more. The BBC freely admits that it makes bundles from Who merchandise every year.

how will this game have wider retail distribution?

i've no doubt Dr Who merch is big bucks. But those things aren't obscure involved hobby products; they are highly accesible toys whose use is immediate and apparent.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;310296how will this game have wider retail distribution?

The aforementioned Waterstones. The Cubicle 7 Q&A I attended a while back also mentioned selling it through toy stores and any other place that carries Who merchandise. It's an official product, backed by the BBC, and as such is likely to have many more doors open to it than other RPGs.

Quotei've no doubt Dr Who merch is big bucks. But those things aren't obscure involved hobby products; they are highly accesible toys whose use is immediate and apparent.

Maybe you're right, but there was a time when these obscure and involved hobby products flew off the shelves. Whilst there are many environmental factors that might the curtail the success of the Doctor Who RPG, I don't think that the patience and concentration required to learn how to play it will be one of them.

Two things:

1.  Yay!  I digs this news!

2.  What kind of system will this be using (if anyone knows that is)?

Quote from: Drew;310290A Sarah Jane boxed set was also mentioned.

Of course this was almost two years ago, when the Who set was scheduled for a 2008 release. Things may have changed since then.

Now, that one I'm not so sure about... is there really that much material in the SJA to make for a whole set? I'd say that a good website with info on the characters (and how to translate them to the game) could be a safer move...

Quote from: Ghost WhistlerBut those things aren't obscure involved hobby products; they are highly accesible toys whose use is immediate and apparent.

RPGs are not really that "obscure" anymore, really. And actually, this "wacky grown-up game" could be a great hook for the smaller kids. I'm sure every one of us who's got a little brother/sister/son/daughter know that children just LOVE this stuff. Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic here, but we could really be seeing some big thing here. You know what? Scratch what I said above about Sarah Jane... make a box set out of it alright, and target it to 9-12 kids... I'm probably just being fanboyish here (and I really wouldn't know except for the web, we don't get Doctor Who down here in the Western Indies -though we do get Torchwood, ain't that weird?), but this could be really big...

Is the tone of the game written for youngsters?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;310305Is the tone of the game written for youngsters?

If they're keeping consistent with the general tone and style of other tie-in material, I think they'll try to keep things kid-accessible without talking down to them. The people currently managing the franchise are very aware that they need to cater both to the younger generation of fans and to grown ups (of both the fanboy variety and the more casual follower who remembers watching the old series as a child and enjoys watching the new series with their children).

You can see this approach with the way they do the show and its main spin-offs, actually; Torchwood is specifically for grownups and older teens, the Sarah Jane Adventures are a kid's show, and Dr Who is the "broad church" which tries to accommodate everyone (but perhaps might be a bit over the heads of the youngest audience members). Which, incidentally, means that the 3-game approach makes a lot of sense: Torchwood has its own adult fanbase who'd appreciate their own version of the game, the Sarah Jane Adventures has a younger fanbase who might find a simplified version of the game more accessible - say, with more boardgame elements, a more limited GMing role (kids under 10 tend to power trip if you give them complete authority over their peers), and lots of pregenerated material in the box.

If I had to guess, in fact, I'd say that that the main problem the SJA game faces would be writing an RPG which an especially young audience would appreciate. Kids towards the upper age range of the SJA audience almost certainly watch Dr Who as well, and I suspect that given the choice they'd rather play the cool Dr Who game that their peers and the slightly older kids enjoy rather than the too "kiddie" SJA game. (Of course, the really cool kids play Torchwood because it's more violent and the show has sex and stuff, only their parents get upset if they catch them watching it.)

Actually i would say that Dr Who is plainly a kids show. Certainly now they've hired this 26yo to play the part (and the actress playing the assistant). They've clearly found the demographic for the new who is the kids market. Whereas Torchwood, with its painful attempts at titillation, is aimed either at adults or people who are extremely sad.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;310318Actually i would say that Dr Who is plainly a kids show. Certainly now they've hired this 26yo to play the part (and the actress playing the assistant). They've clearly found the demographic for the new who is the kids market. Whereas Torchwood, with its painful attempts at titillation, is aimed either at adults or people who are extremely sad.

I think Dr Who is pitched as a "family" show - in that it's meant to be suitable for and enjoyable by kids, but adults watching with them should also be entertained. Whereas the Sarah Jane Adventures is more explicitly for children and doesn't make much of an effort to appeal to adults.

It is enjoyed by many families, but IMO it's clearly, now, aimed more at the kids. I think that's where it's gravitated. Perhaps not as much as SJA.

now whether this rpg is the same, remains to be seen.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;310279Dr Who isn't marketed to any bigger or different an audience at all. Both games are marketed to whomever wants to buy them. I see no evidence of a particular plan to sell Dr Who in a groundbreaking way for rpgs (unlike the proposed Dragon Age rpg thing that's coming out based on that video game). And it's not as if 40k isn't appreciated by largely the same audience anyway.

You might see Dr Who in shops like Waterstones but I think that'll be as far as it goes. Nothing new there, so was Dark Heresy.

That is not what the C7 people expressed to me in our conversations, or when I was part of the playtest process.
The whole idea (including the idea behind the design of the rules) was to make this a "gateway" RPG for new gamers, to appeal to all the 14 year old boys who love Dr.Who but never played an RPG before.

So if they now fuck up in the marketing or distribution (including the pricing), that will be a tragedy. Because this really could potentially be a game (moreso even than Dragon Age, and second only to Harry Potter) that could bring in a huge influx of kids (particularly in the UK) to the hobby.  Its one of the last best hopes for the hobby.

RPGPundit

Quote from: SunBoy;310289Torchwood? Mmmh... Not really my thing, but that's a real smart move in C7 part...


(I wonder whether they'll go on to publish rules for Mr. Smith and sonic lipstick? )

Personally, I'd rather see a UNIT RPG.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Danger;310300Two things:

1.  Yay!  I digs this news!

2.  What kind of system will this be using (if anyone knows that is)?

I was part of the playtest process (got quite a few of my ideas in there), but I'm not sure how much I can say that's outside the NDA.

Suffice it to say the system is relatively simple.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;310305Is the tone of the game written for youngsters?

Its written with the 14 year old new gamer in mind.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;310366Its written with the 14 year old new gamer in mind.

RPGPundit

Shit.

They got us pegged, eh?

Boobies :teehee: