In this Prometheus movie review at http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag-prometheus the guys bring up what I thought was an interesting question:

Can a master movie director, who created their own film genre years ago, make a movie comeback by returning to their old genre of filmmaking?

So I wondered if this question can be asked about RPGs?  Has there been a master RPG designer, one who invented a whole genre for RPGs years ago, that recently went back to their roots and created a brand new RPG that was successful?

It hasn't happened thus far.   Of course for my money the "master designers" are all old guys who hung around Lake Geneva, WI...

Gary certainly never had a hit like D&D or AD&D.  TSR was so scared of Mythus/Dangerous Journeys that they tried first to sue it out of existence (which started a cash hemorrhage they never recovered from) then just ended up buying and shelving it.

Arneson didn't.

Mentzer didn't.

Jim Ward has always put out product but nothing as big as what he did for TSR (Star Frontiers, for example).

To be fair to non-D&D aficionados, what's Kevin Simbedia done that's as big as Palladium?  All he's doing now is just churning the same stuff over and over.

Steve Long?  He left a long time ago, and like KS, was really just churning Hero System.

This is a little dicey and probably doesn't count as an RPG but one that springs to mind is Jordan K. Weisman - HeroClix was just as big a phenomenon as Battletech.

I see you changed your avatar DD.  Mine must have inspired you


But to the OP, no.  They are all dead.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;548687I see you changed your avatar DD.  Mine must have inspired you

Yes, I was looking for a worthy change from Alex Baldwin/Animal Mother and Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez was just the man.

QuoteBut to the OP, no.  They are all dead.

Sadly.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;548684So I wondered if this question can be asked about RPGs?  Has there been a master RPG designer, one who invented a whole genre for RPGs years ago, that recently went back to their roots and created a brand new RPG that was successful?

Define "brand new" and "successful".  Is Prometheus revisiting the same setting as Alien and simply a prequel or is it "brand new"?  What does it mean for Prometheus to be successful?

For example, does Traveller 5 count or is that simply a new edition of an old RPG and riding the same gravy train?  Is a $100,000+ Kickstarter "successful"?

Traveller 5 would count.  In 2013 we'll know more.

By "brand new" and "successful", I mean the game would become the one that all players/fans of that genre then go to and skip over all previously released versions.  The new game could have also been produced as a re-boot of an old genre classic with more RPG mechanics in it for today's gamer?

Pathfinder?
Too new? Not enough time in between? Not masters?

Quote from: thedungeondelver;548686Jim Ward has always put out product but nothing as big as what he did for TSR (Star Frontiers, for example).

Wasn't Steve Winter the lead designer on Star Frontiers 1st edition?

Quote from: thedungeondelver;548686To be fair to non-D&D aficionados, what's Kevin Simbedia done that's as big as Palladium?  All he's doing now is just churning the same stuff over and over.

Rifts was way bigger than Palladium Fantasy.  So, he certainly produced his most popular work after the one that made his name as a writer, rather than thought of specifically for his earlier fantasy art.

Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games was the co-author of Fantasy trip and later was the lead on GURPS.

Some others that come easily to mind.

Steve Perrin was the lead on RuneQuest, and Ken St. Andre wrote Tunnels and Trolls.  They were co-authors of the RuneQuest variant Stormbringer.

Gregg Stafford was a contributing author for RuneQuest, and he wrote the RuneQuest variant Pendragon.

Though it was released in 1980 and is not an original work, David Cook was the lead on the first edition of D&D Expert, and he was the lead on AD&D2.

Quote from: Kuroth;548712Wasn't Steve Winter the lead designer on Star Frontiers 1st edition?

The credit on the front of my SF box says...Cook & Ward.  Not denying Winter had input tho.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;548684So I wondered if this question can be asked about RPGs?  Has there been a master RPG designer, one who invented a whole genre for RPGs years ago, that recently went back to their roots and created a brand new RPG that was successful?

I think Steve Jackson deserves some recognition in this regard.  He designed the The Fantasy Trip games for Metagaming and then went and founded his own company.  Unable to get the rights to The Fantasy Trip at a reasonable price, he created a sort of next generation in the form of GURPS.  He also designed the Ogre boardgame for Metagaming and recently got over $900,000 pledged for an Ogre Kickstarter to create a large new version of the game with cardstock miniatures.  And it looks like he plans on revisiting Car Wars next.  While not all in RPGs (note that Car Wars can be used as a rudimentary RPG system) or recently, he's shown an ability to try new things and rework old things and succeed with them.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;548731The credit on the front of my SF box says...Cook & Ward.  Not denying Winter had input tho.

Is that the Alpha Dawn second edition that you are looking at?  That game was weird that they didn't bother or didn't want to state authorship in the first edition.

Quote from: John Morrow;548734I think Steve Jackson deserves some recognition in this regard.  He designed the The Fantasy Trip games for Metagaming and then went and founded his own company.  Unable to get the rights to The Fantasy Trip at a reasonable price, he created a sort of next generation in the form of GURPS.  He also designed the Ogre boardgame for Metagaming and recently got over $900,000 pledged for an Ogre Kickstarter to create a large new version of the game with cardstock miniatures.  And it looks like he plans on revisiting Car Wars next.  While not all in RPGs (note that Car Wars can be used as a rudimentary RPG system) or recently, he's shown an ability to try new things and rework old things and succeed with them.

Steve really is one of the creative ones out there.  Sometimes he does projects that simply interest him.  He is still creative.

Gregg Stafford recently released the second edition of Heroquest with Robin D. Laws.  So, he still finds avenues he finds interesting.  As to 'roots', it has an updated version of Glorantha included.

So, these two are certainly creative to this day.  Gary was always trying to come up with some new thing everyone would love .  It didn't happen.  I wish he had an agent he could trust to select co-authors.  That would have really helped him.

Edit: Bored, more...

Kevin still is creative.  He wasn’t the lead on Dead Reign, but he did have a fairly large role in it as a co-author.  It is a fairly significant departure from other Palladium games in tone.  Siembieda still has a lot of creativity ahead of him.  He is one of those that goes way back to early Judges Guild days too.  As to 'roots', it is a variant of the original Palladium system.

Dead Reign Cover

Quote from: John Morrow;548734And it looks like he plans on revisiting Car Wars next.  While not all in RPGs (note that Car Wars can be used as a rudimentary RPG system)

I played both Autoduel Champions and GURPS Autoduel back in the day.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;548689. . . Alex Baldwin/Animal Mother . . .

Adam Baldwin.