Anyone else out there having the same problem?

My favorite Supers RPG (and favorite game of all time) is Marvel SAGA...which has been dead for quite a while and doesn't even have a decent online community thanks to relying on a 96 piece out of print prop.

Deadlands Classic has been replaced with Savage Worlds...a system which, while faster, doesn't have the same charm as the original.

Eden recently lost the license to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, putting the kibosh on a lovely game (with some great supplements that will never see print.  I know, I got to playtest them.)

Street Fighter, for all its balance issues, is my favorite iteration of the Storyteller system.  Just some good, campy fighting fun.

Star Wars D6.  One of the all-time classics...and still has an active web community that updates material from time to time.  But as for finding physical copies of the old books?  That can be tricky sometimes.

My favorite D&D setting, Ravenloft, has now been killed twice, and each time just as it was getting a good, solid direction going that removed it from the "Weekend in Hell" type of game and into a full-fledged campaign world.

Now, keep in mind that I don't let the fact that the games are OOP stop me from playing them, or making new stuff for them.  Heck, I own everything that was released for the first four game lines.  It's just a little disheartening when you see the games you loved the most consistently die such quiet, and ill-timed, deaths (except Star Wars...that one raged on for a while AND made its mark on its source material).

That's not to say there's not anything out there that I like.

I'm getting into Mutants & Masterminds (as an alternative to SAGA, not a replacement for it).

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e just SCREAMS awesome.

If I ever get around to porting Midnight to a non-d20 system, I could have a blast with that setting...

But it sure would have been nice to see some of the above games last a little longer.

Quote from: Tommy BrownellAnyone else out there having the same problem?

Well it usually takes a few years of decent play for a game to get onto my all-time favourite list, so the likelihood is that most of the current contenders will be OOP unless they're big, sustained sellers.

I would have this problem, but, like Madonna, I keep trying to re-invent myself.:teehee:

If you have a good group of likeminded people, playing OOP games is just fine.  I went through a time where I didn't have a group and found that jumping on what they see in the game store is the best way to get a group together (especially if you go ahead and embrace D&D 3.5).

So...yes, my "favorite" games for each genre are OOP, but my new favorites are all in print.

Nostalgic favorites (major genre): Basic D&D, Star Frontiers, V&V, CHILL
Play:  D&D 3.5, Star Wars D20, M&M, Savage Worlds  

Those new games I have embraced don't give me the warm fuzzies of the older nostalgia filled ones...but I'm having just as much fun playing them.  In the end I'm happy I decided to be open minded and embrace new games, rather than be bitter and wonder why I'm no longer playing.

Hey, welcome back grubman.  

You know, in the age of the Internet and publishing technology that makes it easy for fans to produce materials for their OOP favorites, I am not too worried about it.  I've seen great fan web sites that carry on the flame for many games that I enjoy, and fan-based revivals of classics like Star Frontiers just reinforce the point that fans can make a huge impact.  If the audience is large enough you can even see these fan efforts rekindle interest in publishing more material for the OOP game, like the new version of Traveller: The New Era.

Add to the fan efforts the fact that you can get many, many OOP games as PDF downloads now, and it is a good time to play your classic favorites.


TGA

I have really broad interests, so yes and no.

I'd dearly love to see a Player's Guide to Adventure!, a boxed set for the Scarred Lands setting, or a Episode I-III book for Star Wars D6 among many other products.  The good news is that most of the OOP games I have are perfectly complete and don't really need anything else.

Cost and finding things is a problem for me too.  A lot of the old Planescape supplements aren't cheap and it's tough to drop $50 or $100 bucks for an old box set I'll probably never use...

Quote from: C.W.RichesonCost and finding things is a problem for me too.  A lot of the old Planescape supplements aren't cheap and it's tough to drop $50 or $100 books for an old box set I'll probably never use...

:raise:

May I recommend 'the eBay'? I've passed on picking up Planescape boxed sets cheaper than new because I'm letting my bank account recover after my old-school D&D/CoC & Delta Green/Wild Talents/L5R binge.

Quote from: Christmas Ape:raise:

May I recommend 'the eBay'? I've passed on picking up Planescape boxed sets cheaper than new because I'm letting my bank account recover after my old-school D&D/CoC & Delta Green/Wild Talents/L5R binge.

Sure, I search eBay weekly.  It's been a while since I looked for the Blood War set, but looking today shows it at $98 dollars.

The sets had different rarity.  Conflict was the most difficult of the core 3 to find, then law, then chaos.  I have those, Blood War is probably the big one I'd still like to pick up.

I want copies of  Ringworld, Superworld, as well as SPI's Universe and Drangonquest.
But I'll happily settle for a copy of the Traveller book- which is available cheap through amazon vendors.

Quote from: Tommy BrownellAnyone else out there having the same problem?

One of the reasons I play 3.5 is so that I don't feel like a relic.  Most of my favorite games were out of print before your favorites were published.  Still, I try to do some one shots and con events with older games.

Quote from: Tommy BrownellAnyone else out there having the same problem?

To me, it's not really a problem per se. I like tons of out of print games and do wish there was active, official support for them, but I can get along with out. Generally, I fall in love with games because of the core rulebook anyway...

Seanchai

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

If you dig a game and it's a fossil, you kind of have to run it and sell it yourself.  Them's the breaks.

Y'know what works?  Doing all the work for the schlubs and acting like a good salesman.  Prep a kickass one-shot (so they don't feel a commitment), make up some pre-gen characters (so they don't have to do any work), and make up a quick rules summary sheet (so they don't have to learn the system) and hand-hold them through a session.

They still have to be interested in the premise not only of the fossil but of your particular session, though.  So it's better to work with an existing group.  However, it's still doable at the FLGS or a convention with a group of strangers.

This is where I mention Jorune...but the great thing about it's fan base - all ten of us - is that we produce a fair bit of material on our own.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: grubmanThose new games I have embraced don't give me the warm fuzzies of the older nostalgia filled ones...but I'm having just as much fun playing them.  In the end I'm happy I decided to be open minded and embrace new games, rather than be bitter and wonder why I'm no longer playing.

I agree 100%.  A good (or even okay) game that I'm actually playing is infinitely better than a brilliant game that nobody else is interested in.

Quote from: grubman(especially if you go ahead and embrace D&D 3.5).

Been there, done that, haven't found it worth the headaches.  Luckily for me, most of my players feel the same way, and the ones that DO play D&D 3.5 just bitch non-stop about how their DM doesn't follow challenge ratings or this or that whenever we talk about how it went.

Quote from: grubmanThose new games I have embraced don't give me the warm fuzzies of the older nostalgia filled ones...but I'm having just as much fun playing them.  In the end I'm happy I decided to be open minded and embrace new games, rather than be bitter and wonder why I'm no longer playing.

Well, the reason I'm not playing anymore has nothing to do with my RPG selection and everything to do with jobs with odd work schedules, deciding to break into pro wrestling (which tends to eat up ones weekends on the independent scene) and no game store closer than 50 miles with which to go recruit new gamers to replace the friends that aren't really feeling it anymore.