What's next for White Wolf?

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I mean, they've tackled Horror with the WoD, obviously, as well as
Historical. The Aeonverse allowed them to do Sci-Fi, Superheroes, and
even Pulp Action...There's a cracking good Fantasy game they've got
going...What genres remain to be tested?

What kind of game would YOU like to see WW try their hand at next?

Dex
 
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Hand-of-Omega wrote:

> I mean, they've tackled Horror with the WoD, obviously, as well as
> Historical. The Aeonverse allowed them to do Sci-Fi, Superheroes, and
> even Pulp Action...There's a cracking good Fantasy game they've got
> going...What genres remain to be tested?
>
> What kind of game would YOU like to see WW try their hand at next?

Hard science fiction.
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Richard Clayton wrote:

> Hard science fiction.

Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.
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In article <2rs9ggF1d2ateU1@uni-berlin.de>,
Richard Clayton <reZIGclaytonZIG@verizon.net> wrote:

> Hand-of-Omega wrote:
>
> > I mean, they've tackled Horror with the WoD, obviously, as well as
> > Historical. The Aeonverse allowed them to do Sci-Fi, Superheroes, and
> > even Pulp Action...There's a cracking good Fantasy game they've got
> > going...What genres remain to be tested?
> >
> > What kind of game would YOU like to see WW try their hand at next?
>
> Hard science fiction.

I second this.

I'd also like, since we're all dreaming, if they'd get the license for
*Neverwhere*.

And hey, how about a hard-edged, near-future setting with an erotic,
dystopian flavor -- a blend of "Jennifer Government" with "Gattaca" and
a touch of "Brave New World." The principle theme might be the
importance of will over eugenics.

mdf

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Minatures? They could always try that whole minature combat thing. I
never really got into it .. but might be a possibility

Joe
 

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Stephenls wrote:
> Richard Clayton wrote:
>
>> Hard science fiction.
>
>
> Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.

Well, lets see how well Ex Machina does. And I don't think Transhuman
space has exactly been a bomb (at least, I personally know 3 people with
copies + at least one sourcebook).

A hard sci-fi rpg from Whitewolf might be a very good thing. Whitewolf
has a tendancy to bring out, loud and clear, the Fun and Cool in any
setting/genre so that it can be seen at a glance, something many hard
science fiction settings and games have a hard time with (Transhuman
Space, I am looking at you).

William
 
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bigcozybear wrote:
> Minatures? They could always try that whole minature combat thing. I
> never really got into it .. but might be a possibility
>
> Joe
>

Trinity: Battleground. Sold for about six months in 1998. Not a big
seller, unfortunately.

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mdf wrote:
> I second this.
>
> I'd also like, since we're all dreaming, if they'd get the license for
> *Neverwhere*.
>

Funny you should say "Dreaming" ....
Justin Achilli's Changeling, if it gets greenlighted, is supposed to
have very much a Neverwhere flavour to it.

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Stephenls wrote:

> Richard Clayton wrote:
>
>> Hard science fiction.
>
>
> Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.

Hey, I'm just blue-skying. If anybody could do it, it would be White Wolf.
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Il 27 Sep 2004 20:02:28 -0700, smilinglord@hotmail.com (Hand-of-Omega)
ha scritto:

>What kind of game would YOU like to see WW try their hand at next?

romance. that would be a challenge.
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Hand-of-Omega <smilinglord@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:27420f11.0409271902.3bc34d76@posting.google.com...
> I mean, they've tackled Horror with the WoD, obviously, as well as
> Historical. The Aeonverse allowed them to do Sci-Fi, Superheroes,
and
> even Pulp Action...There's a cracking good Fantasy game they've got
> going...What genres remain to be tested?
>
> What kind of game would YOU like to see WW try their hand at next?
-----------
Kung Fu CB Mammas on Wheels vs the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns. In
Space.

--
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We walk on two legs, the one abstract
the other surreal.
All important political action should be
aimed at persuading people of the
necessity of further sacrifices.
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Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:2rshj5F1enen2U1@uni-berlin.de...
> Richard Clayton wrote:
>
> > Hard science fiction.
>
> Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.
---------
Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the rest
tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.

--
You are Not entering Chapeltown.
We walk on two legs, the one abstract
the other surreal.
All important political action should be
aimed at persuading people of the
necessity of further sacrifices.
- Ardian Vehbiu, "Handbook for
Aspiring Stalinists"
 
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Certic wrote:

> Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the rest
> tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.

Generally speaking, historical games and hard SF games that try to be
"future historical" (which is to say, basically realistic in their
presentation of how things work; PCs defined by skill lists and
backgrounds)) sell real badly. Steve Jackson Games, the primary
producer of such books, has basically said as much, and are planning on
producing far fewer of them in the future.

Games that try to emulate reality don't really appeal, it seems.
Players want the cool powers. This is not a criticism of that sort of
gaming style -- /I/ like the cool powers.

The market used to be big enough to support that sort of thing, but not
anymore. Traveler is currently a GURPS sub-line and a d20 sub-line that
ain't doing too well, and it's /Traveler/.

I've talked about this before. Games that define PCs as attributes and
skills, but which don't allow for special powers or anything, tend to
end up with a bunch of PCs who are generally homogeneous. It's only by
adding special abilities that the PCs are differentiated enough for
players to find them really interesting. That's why Hunter had edges.

(Call of Cthulhu is the exception, but it's benefited from great writing
and a die-hard fanbase, and even it's currently being mismanaged into
oblivion.)

The new WoD uses Merits to get around this. Maybe a hard SF setting
could do the same.
--
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Stephenls wrote:
>
> Richard Clayton wrote:
>
> > Hard science fiction.
>
> Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.

Well, non-superpowered science fantasy might be a way to go.

--
Jon
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Il Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:00:41 +0100, "Certic" <PJS@winwaed.demon.co.uk>
ha scritto:

>Kung Fu CB Mammas on Wheels vs the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns. In
>Space.

that's basically Exalted.
--
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Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca> wrote in message news:<2rtp4dF1enokrU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> Certic wrote:
>
> > Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the rest
> > tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.

I personally hate the 'Depressing dystopia" cyberpunk genre- but
Transhuman Space is weird but not depressing, Jovian Chronicles is
gritty but not dystopic, and Ex Machina has a variety of scenarios,
ranging from guardedly optomistic to oppressive. And of course
Centaurii knights is flat-out optomistic.

> Generally speaking, historical games and hard SF games that try to be
> "future historical" (which is to say, basically realistic in their
> presentation of how things work; PCs defined by skill lists and
> backgrounds)) sell real badly. Steve Jackson Games, the primary
> producer of such books, has basically said as much, and are planning on
> producing far fewer of them in the future.

Part of the problem I've seen with "future historical" games is that
they tend to be written by military buffs, so those histories tend
to be lists of war after war, with the occasional technological
invention to open a new area to have wars in. And that gets rather
tedius, in the same way that reading a list of European wars can be.

Then again, having an Anthropological background, I find the broader
sweep of how societies change to be more interesting than seeing
which aristocratic bastard is fighting which. SO YMMV.

> Games that try to emulate reality don't really appeal, it seems.
> Players want the cool powers. This is not a criticism of that sort of
> gaming style -- /I/ like the cool powers.

RPG players have ALWAYS wanted the cool powers. Even Traveller- the
cool powers were just defined in terms of FGMPs, Battle Dress, and
writs of nobility. I remember players just having their Battledress
and grav-belt equipped mercenaries drifting over a world with
Victorian era technology, merrily vbaporizing anyone that opposed
them, and threatening to nuke the local starport if it bothered
them.

The main thing is, Traveller has fallen behind on the tech curve, so
the col powers of Traveller just don't seem so cool anymore.

> I've talked about this before. Games that define PCs as attributes and
> skills, but which don't allow for special powers or anything, tend to
> end up with a bunch of PCs who are generally homogeneous. It's only by
> adding special abilities that the PCs are differentiated enough for
> players to find them really interesting. That's why Hunter had edges.

The tendancy for newer games to compress skill lists has increased
that problem- back in the days of Space Opera, the Orbital Pilot had
a bunch of finicky skills that the Powered Armor Trooper couldn't
match, and vice versa.

It's worth noting that the "special abilites" don't need to be
pwers per say- merely anything that makes characters distinctive,
and interestng to play. It could be Appearance and social
modifiers, cultural and racial attributes, anthing that says "Hey,
this person has more to him than 85A99B Pilot 3 Laser 2 Admin 2"

> (Call of Cthulhu is the exception, but it's benefited from great writing
> and a die-hard fanbase, and even it's currently being mismanaged into
> oblivion.)

I think CoC has benefited by not being character-centric. It's the
monsters and the mysteries that are important. Of course it also
has that reactionary xenophobic element going for it as well. They
have that niche secured.

> The new WoD uses Merits to get around this. Maybe a hard SF setting
> could do the same.

Merits seems perfect for an AF setting, yes.

- Eric Tolle
 

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"Certic" <PJS@winwaed.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cjc8qm$b60$1$830fa79d@news.demon.co.uk...
>
> Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca> wrote in message
> news:2rshj5F1enen2U1@uni-berlin.de...
> > Richard Clayton wrote:
> >
> > > Hard science fiction.
> >
> > Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.
> ---------
> Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the rest
> tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.

Try Blue Planet by Biohazard Games and published via Fantasy Flight. I doubt
you'll find a better hard SF game on the market at the moment.


Regards,

Mike
 
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Eric Tolle <schaduw@silcom.com> wrote in message
news:d07ba801.0409290903.598993ca@posting.google.com...
> Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:<2rtp4dF1enokrU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> > Certic wrote:
> >
> > > Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the
rest
> > > tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.
>
> I personally hate the 'Depressing dystopia" cyberpunk genre- but
> Transhuman Space is weird but not depressing, Jovian Chronicles is
> gritty but not dystopic, and Ex Machina has a variety of scenarios,
> ranging from guardedly optomistic to oppressive. And of course
> Centaurii knights is flat-out optomistic.
>
> > Generally speaking, historical games and hard SF games that try to
be
> > "future historical" (which is to say, basically realistic in their
> > presentation of how things work; PCs defined by skill lists and
> > backgrounds)) sell real badly. Steve Jackson Games, the primary
> > producer of such books, has basically said as much, and are
planning on
> > producing far fewer of them in the future.
>
> Part of the problem I've seen with "future historical" games is that
> they tend to be written by military buffs, so those histories tend
> to be lists of war after war, with the occasional technological
> invention to open a new area to have wars in. And that gets rather
> tedius, in the same way that reading a list of European wars can be.
>
> Then again, having an Anthropological background, I find the broader
> sweep of how societies change to be more interesting than seeing
> which aristocratic bastard is fighting which. SO YMMV.
---------
....and hence they tend to fall into the old trap of making the future
look remarkably like historical periods which interest them, so they
have to recreate a class of nobles and a despotic emperor and so on.
Spacemaster was the worst for this.

--
You are Not entering Chapeltown.
We walk on two legs, the one abstract
the other surreal.
All important political action should be
aimed at persuading people of the
necessity of further sacrifices.
- Ardian Vehbiu, "Handbook for
Aspiring Stalinists"
 
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Mike wrote:
>
> "Certic" <PJS@winwaed.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:cjc8qm$b60$1$830fa79d@news.demon.co.uk...
> >
> > Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca> wrote in message
> > news:2rshj5F1enen2U1@uni-berlin.de...
> > > Richard Clayton wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hard science fiction.
> > >
> > > Now there's a genre of RPG that hasn't been selling well lately.
> > ---------
> > Who's been doing it? Arguably only the Traveller line... the rest
> > tends to fall into the grimly depressing cyberpunky genre.
>
> Try Blue Planet by Biohazard Games and published via Fantasy Flight. I doubt
> you'll find a better hard SF game on the market at the moment.

I love Blue Planet's setting. Pity about the mechanics feeling so clunky though.

--
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-----
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On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 19:49:55 +1000, lord zog
<evil_lord_zog@spin.net.au> wrote:
>> Try Blue Planet by Biohazard Games and published via Fantasy Flight. I doubt
>> you'll find a better hard SF game on the market at the moment.
>
>I love Blue Planet's setting.

It's good, but it's not a big universe. There's three planets
in it,isn't it ?

Guillaume
 
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Guillaume JAY wrote:
>
> On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 19:49:55 +1000, lord zog
> <evil_lord_zog@spin.net.au> wrote:
> >> Try Blue Planet by Biohazard Games and published via Fantasy Flight. I doubt
> >> you'll find a better hard SF game on the market at the moment.
> >
> >I love Blue Planet's setting.
>
> It's good, but it's not a big universe. There's three planets
> in it,isn't it ?

Most campaigns regardless of genre are happy existing on a single world or so.
Part of Blue Planet's attraction is interacting with the world they've created -
which is what really drew me to Trinity and not the super powerz.

--
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Eric Tolle wrote:

> The tendancy for newer games to compress skill lists has increased
> that problem- back in the days of Space Opera, the Orbital Pilot had
> a bunch of finicky skills that the Powered Armor Trooper couldn't
> match, and vice versa.

Mmmmmmhhmmm.... Space Opera. And didn't that game have one of the
coolest Psionics systems?

--

David Cherryholmes
 
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David Cherryholmes wrote:
> Eric Tolle wrote:
>
>> The tendancy for newer games to compress skill lists has increased
>> that problem- back in the days of Space Opera, the Orbital Pilot had
>> a bunch of finicky skills that the Powered Armor Trooper couldn't
>> match, and vice versa.

And in fact it was impossible for a starting character to have all of
the necessary skills to be a really good pilot, unless he started
with like 30 years of service -- reflecting how incredibly demanding
the Astronaut profession could be.

>
>
> Mmmmmmhhmmm.... Space Opera. And didn't that game have one of the
> coolest Psionics systems?

The only psi system I liked using, except my own homebrew.



--
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/^\
;;;
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Sea Wasp <seaobviouswasp@sgeobviousinc.com> wrote in message news:<41646FED.7080901@sgeobviousinc.com>...
> David Cherryholmes wrote:
> > Eric Tolle wrote:
> >
> >> The tendancy for newer games to compress skill lists has increased
> >> that problem- back in the days of Space Opera, the Orbital Pilot had
> >> a bunch of finicky skills that the Powered Armor Trooper couldn't
> >> match, and vice versa.
>
> And in fact it was impossible for a starting character to have all of
> the necessary skills to be a really good pilot, unless he started
> with like 30 years of service -- reflecting how incredibly demanding
> the Astronaut profession could be.

I always found that a bit annoying, frankly. I always started out
trying to make an astronaut, and ending up making a scout, or an
armsman, or something.

The character classes were some of my favoirites though- concepts
like "First In Scouts" have made it into other of my SF games.

> > Mmmmmmhhmmm.... Space Opera. And didn't that game have one of the
> > coolest Psionics systems?
>
> The only psi system I liked using, except my own homebrew.

It's no longer my favorite, but I like it a lot.

It also had, for a long time, the neatest weapon list of any SF
game. Spring-powered needle guns, the Dial-a-Gun, slug guns,
powered armor straight out of Starship Troopers...it made the rather
generic equipment list of Traveller look anemic and uninspired by
comparasion.


- Eric Tolle
 
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Eric Tolle wrote:

> It's no longer my favorite, but I like it a lot.

Out of curiosity, what is your favorite Psi system?

> It also had, for a long time, the neatest weapon list of any SF
> game. Spring-powered needle guns, the Dial-a-Gun, slug guns,
> powered armor straight out of Starship Troopers...it made the rather
> generic equipment list of Traveller look anemic and uninspired by
> comparasion.

It's where I first learned what a Gauss gun was. Yes, very cool equipment.

--

David Cherryholmes