All right.  Thought exercise here.  Let's say you wanted to make and market an RPG to non-gamers.  Sure, you'd ship to gaming stores, too, but your primary goal would be to go after people who aren't gamers at all.  How would you do it?

I think it would require a single product, perhaps with modules.  I assume that boxed sets are expensive, since no one does them any more, but that would seem like the best format to me.  Of course, my gateway drug was the Basic set, so my thoughts could be coloured with nostalgia there.  

I'd make a medium-low complexity game.  I wouldn't want the rules to be *too* light, though; I think that is something for experienced gamers, personally.

I'd have ways to do character customization, but I'd have archetypes and I'd have pre-printed character sheets all ready to go in the box, too.  

I'd have a sample adventure, all set to go, with clear, concise instructions for whoever runs the scenario.  That would be the most difficult part of the whole project to get done right.

Genre is another difficult thing.  I was initially thinking modern action/adventure, but fantasy might actually be popular enough these days for a mass market RPG to actually work.  I'm still undecided.

As for support -- I think what might work best is to go exactly the opposite direction as the gaming industry does.  No splat books, but plenty of good modules.  Call 'em "Scenario Books" or something like that.  

Those are my initial thoughts, at least.  I don't know that there is an actual untapped non-gamer market for RPGs out there, but this makes an interesting thought exercise, at least.  

It should have an introductary adventure that you can jump in and play with only a very basic understanding of the rules.   The full ruleset can have more detailed rules, but ideally people should be able to start playing after only a short time of looking over the rules, instead of spending hours/days/an eternity trying to decipher the entire ruleset.

Quote from: KnightskyIt should have an introductary adventure that you can jump in and play with only a very basic understanding of the rules.

That sounds like a good idea to me.  Start it off in media res, preferably with a battle, and let them get a look at how things work.  Then have other leading scenes, where they get to see, say, how a social situation would work.  I think hopping aboard the railroad is a good thing when people are just starting, especially for the first couple of adventures.  It works well for Final Fantasy.

Try to include all the basic tropes of whatever genre the game covers. Make it so only one product has to be bought for the buyer to have a complete game. For example, if you do a scifi game, INCLUDE RULES FOR STARSHIPS, GODDAMNIT! If the buyer likes your game enough, they might be more inclined to buy further products. That's one of the best ways to alienate non-gamers who aren't accustomed to buying multiple books or material to get a complete product.

I think a game along the lines of Ghostbusters where everything was visual (cards, chits and counters for everything) character cards.

GB was very much about what you did and how you did it, and less about the dice rolling.

Keeping the game focused, maybe even including a Choose your own adventure script for the guy running the game to help him out at certain key stages.

Escape from Colditz boardgame was kinda like that (without the script, but then you made up the German dialogue) where the Germans were run by just one player and the POWs were the rest of the players.

Illustrations. Most people have a hard time describing scenes and encounters. Good/Detailed artwork would set the tone of the game and make the gm's job easier. It would go some way in helping all visualize the setting and the adventure - which is sometimes the hardest aspect of playing RPGs for the first time.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RIllustrations. Most people have a hard time describing scenes and encounters. Good/Detailed artwork would set the tone of the game and make the gm's job easier. It would go some way in helping all visualize the setting and the adventure - which is sometimes the hardest aspect of playing RPGs for the first time.

Regards,
David R

but not the usual RPG fare please - something different, unique

Quote from: Lawbagbut not the usual RPG fare please - something different, unique

I think that the artwork should be eye catching but pretty general. It should do enough to convey what the setting is about and help the players(gm) navigate through the adventure.

I'm also thinking about map and encounter design here. I think a good example about graphics helping out in running an adventure would be the "Oldenhaller Contract" in the first ed of WFRP. If I'm not mistaken it had in the earlier part of the adventure the actual route through the rooftops of Nuln taken by a burglar. This was accompanied by the relevant graphic.

Being unique is great for experienced players but in my opinion utility (which does not mean bland) is more "useful" for non-gamers just beginning the journey

Regards,
David R

My first thoughts are:

You have a customizable board that is broken into sections that can be arranged.


You have 5-10 basic Maps/quests/adventures in the box that can be run using the pieces you bought.

These Maps/quests/adventures are easily linked but can be run in different orders.

It plays as a simple board game, that can be rearranged in different ways.

You show how the characters you make for the game can be run from one "game" to the next.  

You include rules for making a new character during game/round 2 if you failed/died in game/round 1.  

Have rules that allow for evening out things each round to keep play on the same level or allowing those that win/survive at round one to have a leg up.

Decide if you want to require the people playing the game to work together against the board or to fight it out, or to decide as they play.

Have the different stories/quests have a difficulty attached to them that can be modified one the default has been done.

Give them a link to a community website where people can post new combinations for the pieces to allow for new games to be played and expansions to be bought that increase the number of pieces.

(Thinking about it, I'm basically describing NeverWinters Nights with physical pieces instead of digital with small prebuilt adventures for those that just want a board game but with enough hooks into infinite expandability to open the gate to role playing games.)

They already have them - they are called "Host a Mystery!" :ponder:

Quote from: KnightskyIt should have an introductary adventure that you can jump in and play with only a very basic understanding of the rules.   The full ruleset can have more detailed rules, but ideally people should be able to start playing after only a short time of looking over the rules, instead of spending hours/days/an eternity trying to decipher the entire ruleset.

You mean like this?


I loved it as an intro! It read like a story, slowly easing you into it concept by concept, and came with a nice little solo adventure. It was good, easy fun, and had just enough to inspire the imagination.

Quote from: Name LipsYou mean like this?

Yeah, that's pretty much the idea I was shooting for.

Depends on your design goal. Are you trying to make an introduction to the roleplaying games most people play today, or do you want to make a roleplaying game that could find appeal just because the target audience hasn't gamed before?

I think you could go haywire with conflict resolution, distributing story power among players etc in a way that would be hard for most long-time gamers to accept, but would feel quite natural to someone who had never played the "normal way". As long as the rules themselves aren't overwhelming, you wouldn't need to have any concerns about what a roleplaying game is "supposed" to look like.

Quote from: CyberzombieAll right.  Thought exercise here.  Let's say you wanted to make and market an RPG to non-gamers.  Sure, you'd ship to gaming stores, too, but your primary goal would be to go after people who aren't gamers at all.  How would you do it?

This question has many answers. This is but one.

1) Pick something that many non-roleplayers do anyway.

2) Figure out a way to turn it into a RPG.

However, this invites the age-old, fun-filled piece o' crap discussion of "What is a RPG, anyway?"

Hmm. Do we really want non-gamers to play RPG's?

:ponder:

I mean, not because we gamers want to be special and keep RPG's all to ourselves. But if a person is not inclined toward playing games, in the first place, then they're probably not interested in playing any sort of RPG; not even interested in even giving one a try, really.

Now, maybe a non-gamer hasn't heard about RPG's. (But who hasn't, nowadays?) Or maybe they're people who are intimidated and/or turned off by all the rules and by the "endless" aspect of an RPG (i.e. hundreds of pages of rules, bound in hardback books; and a game has no real pre-defined goals, and that technically never ends). But if they're people who are simply uninterested in gaming, because they're totally uninterested in that kind of social activity or they lack the attention span or whatever, then I don't know how one can design an RPG that might attract them and hold their interest.