I know we often talk about "Flavors of the Week" or "_____ darlings" when it comes to RPGs.  Often an RPG will get a ton of hype (pre-arranged or naturally occuring), garner a medium-to-huge amount of talk, then fade away.

So, what games that seemed to be all the rage earlier this year have you not heard much from lately?  What was the big buzz that everyone seemed to be pimping that seems to have fallen off the radar?  In the doldrums of the RPG year, what have you heard a lot of hype regarding lately from the different circles?

I think a lot of it is just naturally occuring--just like in music, a new album will see a lot of hype, just to fall out of the Top 100 in a few months.  But with RPGs, we see a lot of games touted as Really Big Stuff, only to dwindle soon afterwards.

I'm kind of immune to that, because I don't visit RPG.net often enough to hear about that and people here at the RPGsite seem more level-headed (or maybe they're just less into new games?).

In my area of the country ?


 SCION and Mutants and Masterminds.

 LOTS of buzz and people seemingly going nuts about them earlier in the year. Now everyone seems to have gone back to whatever their favorite RPG system was before that.
Getting a lot more sales for supplements and additional materials for previously bought game systems.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Consonant DudeI'm kind of immune to that, because I don't visit RPG.net often enough to hear about that and people here at the RPGsite seem more level-headed (or maybe they're just less into new games?).

Really?  I mean, I guess every community has its new hotness and darlings--I will agree I don't think we see as much of it as on Big Purp.

Over at rpgnet, the ridiculous enthusiasm for Wild Talents has dwindled to nothing (one of my favourite thread titles has to be "Wild Talents can do anything!" complete with exclamation mark). Reign is going the same way...and funnily enough, I don't hear nearly as much Exalted talk as I used to.

I'm imagining a VH1-style "Where Are They Now?" TV special for expired flavors of the month.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstI'm imagining a VH1-style "Where Are They Now?" TV special for expired flavors of the month.

Ha! That would be cool. Go mining the fora for the darlings of yesterday and see how they are doing.

I wonder though if it's just the buzz that dies. Isn't M&M still doing gangbusters for Green Ronin?

SAGA? Although... I think I know where that conversation went.

"Newish iteration of D20!"
"New edition of 4e?"
"Fucktards! 3.5 is teh roxxorz, they know better!"
"Hay yoo guys! 4e!"
*silence*

"4e's GONNA BE LIKE TOME OF BATTLE!"
"It's soooo world of warcraft..."
"*sob* my gnomes..."
"AGGRO! There's gonna be frickin' aggro... OMFG!"

Scion. Haven't heard a peep about it since it was launched. Also, I haven't heard or read anything about the new Traveller game since it was announced.

Scion is still getting a fair bit of attention over at RPGnet. The recent release of Demigod no doubt helped.

Quote from: DrewScion is still getting a fair bit of attention over at RPGnet. The recent release of Demigod no doubt helped.

Thats nice, but RPG.net is not the real world - as we've discussed many times on here before.


A new book is just a new book.

Actual groups playing it? Haven't seen much proof of that yet.

- Ed C.

M&M is a strong and steady player in my neck of the woods.

I'd say the norm (as Zach suggested) is that when a game comes out there will be a lot of excitement about it and then it will die down.  Only a few games are going to be so succesful to remain at the top (M&M is probably one of these).  So all this smarmy "darling" this and "favorite" that seems like misplaced resentment to me.  I mean you could say the same thing about Wilderlands here.

Heard a lot about Reign a few months ago. Pretty quiet now. I wonder if it's another one of those games that people love to marvel over in it book form, but nobody actually follows through and plays for more than a one-off.

Quote from: HaffrungHeard a lot about Reign a few months ago. Pretty quiet now. I wonder if it's another one of those games that people love to marvel over in it book form, but nobody actually follows through and plays for more than a one-off.

I've been running a weekly REIGN campaign for a couple of months now and it's still going strong.

I think the notion of M&M as a "Flavour of the Week" is a bit ridiculous.  It's more or less GR's bread and butter.

KoOS