What RPGs will still be popular 20 years from now?

Balbinus · May 15, 2007, 01:24:45 PM

Inspired by this rpg.net thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=7297958&posted=1#post7297958

Simple question, what rpgs around now do you think will still be around in 20 years? By around I mean in print, though probably in a new edition (and quite possibly with several intervening new editions) and being actively played.

My answers are:

D&D, in some form.
Call of Cthulhu
Probably Hero
Probably Paranoia.

What do you think?

Drew · May 15, 2007, 01:27:22 PM

WFRP. It's already lasted 20 years, several of those without any official support.

jrients · May 15, 2007, 01:32:22 PM

For certain values of 'popular':

Either there will be an official D&D or a widely-accepted SRD variant.

I think we're 10 to 15 years off from a Vampire resurgence of some sort. A Vampire 3E, so to speak.

Traveller 12th edition will be played by the last game group willing to buy yet another edition.

Kids will still play Rifts using a new edition that contains three new pieces of art, corrects two old typos, and introduces 6 new errors for old fans to bitch about.

Zachary The First · May 15, 2007, 01:47:35 PM

Quote from: jrientsKids will still play Rifts using a new edition that contains three new pieces of art, corrects two old typos, and introduces 6 new errors for old fans to bitch about.

And I'll be there, bald as a cucumber, playing the holy hell out of my True Atlantean Rogue Scholar.

Pierce Inverarity · May 15, 2007, 02:01:37 PM

I'm somewhat opinionated, I don't know if anybody noticed?

Given this, I hate saying it, but... I got nothin'.

Seriously, it's impossible.

D&D. Everything else is up in the air.

Balbinus · May 15, 2007, 02:04:49 PM

Quote from: Pierce InverarityI'm somewhat opinionated, I don't know if anybody noticed?

Given this, I hate saying it, but... I got nothin'.

Seriously, it's impossible.

D&D. Everything else is up in the air.

Dude, take a punt. It's not like my guesses have science behind them.

Incidentally, on rpg.net someone has already said Exalted. I'd be willing to bet £5 as adjusted by inflation that it won't be in print and in play 20 years from now.

flyingmice · May 15, 2007, 02:09:05 PM

Quote from: BalbinusDude, take a punt. It's not like my guesses have science behind them.

Incidentally, on rpg.net someone has already said Exalted. I'd be willing to bet £5 as adjusted by inflation that it won't be in print and in play 20 years from now.

You sure it wasn't just reflex? There are many posters on TBP who post EXALTED! to every question, y'know...

-clash

J Arcane · May 15, 2007, 03:13:56 PM

Quote from: BalbinusDude, take a punt. It's not like my guesses have science behind them.

Incidentally, on rpg.net someone has already said Exalted. I'd be willing to bet £5 as adjusted by inflation that it won't be in print and in play 20 years from now.

Yanno, outside of RPGnet, I've never really seen any Exalted fans.

I've only even seen two copies of the game in real stores, and one sat on the shelf for months while the other had been ordered by a shop employee who was also one of the RPGnet fanbase.

jrients · May 15, 2007, 03:25:46 PM

Quote from: J ArcaneYanno, outside of RPGnet, I've never really seen any Exalted fans.

My friend Stuart is a fan and has played at least one campaign. He has a self-professed love/hate relationship with the game. He says the real fault of Exalted is that it tries to do too much. Super intricate setting plus byzantine mechanics equals formula for disaster, as it were.

Still, my buddy Doug and I keep trying to get him to run it for us, just to see what it's like.

Drew · May 15, 2007, 04:36:35 PM

Quote from: BalbinusIncidentally, on rpg.net someone has already said Exalted. I'd be willing to bet £5 as adjusted by inflation that it won't be in print and in play 20 years from now.

I think the setting may well survive, but the ruleset will come to be regarded as a clunky dinosaur pretty quickly. Blimey, there's enough people who think it is right now. If WW were to produce a streamlined, easily accesible variant system then it may have a shot at longevity.

beejazz · May 15, 2007, 04:41:50 PM

Tristat. Don't know what happened to GoO, but it's a good system... hopefully it'll stick around in some form or other.

Ian Absentia · May 15, 2007, 05:13:04 PM

Quote from: BalbinusSimple question, what rpgs around now do you think will still be around in 20 years?

[...snip...]

D&D, in some form.

When you think of it this way, D&D will have achieved the legitimacy, if not the popularity, of Monopoly. Well, kind of.

I think you've rather pinned my thoughts on games that may last. Other than D&D, I can only see Call of Cthulhu in some form or another. Definitely not Exalted, which I see going the way of the NWoD inside the next five years or so.

!i!

Koltar · May 15, 2007, 05:35:11 PM

Quote from: DrewWFRP. It's already lasted 20 years, several of those without any official support.

If you're using that as a rule of thumb, then GURPS should still be around 20 years from now. The game started around 1985 after all.
Steve Jackson games may or not be around - but I think GURPS will survive.
Second thought, considering the luck of that company - I bet SJG is still around - but only because Sean Punch has moved to Texas by then.

- Ed C.

Seanchai · May 15, 2007, 05:35:19 PM

Not Paranoia. It stikes me as culture specific.

Seanchai

Seanchai · May 15, 2007, 05:38:04 PM

Quote from: J ArcaneYanno, outside of RPGnet, I've never really seen any Exalted fans.

I'd say I'm a fan. My store, Attactix, has a bunch of Exalted stuff and I never have any trouble finding it there or at the local bookseller chain.

Seanchai