A while back I was having an online discussion with someone about how many rpgs actually last. I figured that if an rpg was popular at all, it'd see a 2nd or later edition. So then I was wondering, okay, how many rpgs do see a 2nd or later edition? So I went to John Kim's Bigass List of RPGs. I've put 'em in a spreadsheet. I'm counting only those which were published in print, in English, to the end of 2006 on his list. Of course this will be imperfect and incomplete, but it gives us some idea of the maginitude. It turns out that about 6 out of 7 rpgs see only one edition. The number is probably actually a bit higher than that, since some of those counted will only be a couple of years old and not had a chance to see a second edition yet.

From 1971 to the end of 2006,
   there were 989 first editions,
153x 2nd editions
39x 3rd editions
18x 4th editions
8x 5th editions
2x 6th edition
2x 7th edition (Tunnels & Trolls, and Ysgarth)

Again, this is rough only. D&D is difficult to catergorise. Obviously Basic Set and Expert Set count really as one rpg. But Basic Set saw 3 editions, Expert 2, Master, Companion and Immortals 1 each - so how many editions did D&D go through without Advanced? I'd be inclined to count the Basic Set number of 3 editions, since that demonstrates the popularity of the whole thing. So it's difficult to count.

Then there are the 4 editions of Traveller, the two editions of Traveller 2300, and Traveller d20 and GURPS Traveller - so have there been 4 editions of Traveller, or 8? If we count GURPS Traveller as its own game, aren't we really counting GURPS twice? It's difficult to say.

But what's interesting is that published in print in English we get less than a thousand rpgs up till the end of 2006, in fact it's 989. I didn't count 2007's rpgs because it's not over yet, and anyway the count overall could be incomplete. For example, we don't see Burning Empires on the list.

But still, there might be less than 1,000 published in print English-language rpgs out there. So, who's going to write #1,000? And if it's already been done (easy to believe Kim missed 1% of rpgs!) which was the 1,000th?

PS - thanks to John Kim again for his excellent collection of information.

Whoever writes the thing should make it a point of principle to use d1000 as the central resoloution mechanic.

How are you factoring conversions between one system to another?

Pete

Jesus Christ Kyle Aaron (jimBob) !!!

 Here I thought that I was an an odd combination of obsessive-compulzive and anal retentive about keeping lists and records!!

 That takes the cake - where I don't know.

- Ed C.

Quote from: KoltarJesus Christ Kyle Aaron (jimBob) !!!

 Here I thought that I was an an odd combination of obsessive-compulzive and anal retentive about keeping lists and records!!

 That takes the cake - where I don't know.

Hey, he's not the only one who's done geeky things with John's list...

Statistically, it should be Steve Long, Kevin S., or myself...



-clash

Quote from: pspahnHow are you factoring conversions between one system to another?

I haven't at this stage. I just chucked them all in a spreadsheet, and did a sort according to name in the "edition" column, so that all the 1st editions would be listed first, the 2nd editions next, etc. I tried to account a bit for editions with more pretentions names like "collector's edition" and such.

GURPS Traveller isn't listed on John Kim's thing, but Traveller d20 is. Should either really be considered a separate game? Or a separate edition of the original? The latter seems more reasonable to me.

Apart from Traveller and the endless GURPS versions of things (GURPS Mage, Blue Planet, etc) there really aren't a lot of rpgs converted into different systems. Certainly some rpgs see a lot of different systems (Harn, Jorune, Tekumel, etc), but it seems to be mostly different original systems. So if they put out another edition of Old Favourite, it's most likely to have its own new system, rather than taking on d20, GURPS, or the system used in Arduin in 1984 or whatever.