How would you design an RPG to be POPULAR and MAKE $$$

[OgreBattle]

We all have our personal preferences of the perfect RPG, but what if our goal is to reach the broadest audience possible and get as much out of their wallet as you can?

Say you have WotC funding.

-What rules set would appeal to the greatest audience?
-What distribution methods would make the most $?

[Whatever]

Are we restricted to pen and paper, tabletop RPGs? And can we count money from stuff like licensing fees, or are we just looking at sales of books/miniatures/whathaveyou?

[darkmaster]

Assuming TTRPGs only. You keep it simple. Think the ghost buster's RPG, or Amber Diceless, or maybe M&M (which is just a streamlined D20 system. Preferably finding a way to make it easy to learn but deeper than Amber Diceless or the ghost buster's game.

[tussock]

Go back in time and convince Peter Jackson to do a D&D movie rather than a LotR one, and then invest $300 million in it. That might make you a billion dollars, which would be better than anything D&D ever made.


Ignoring that, this is the age of micro-transactions for networked digital hardware. So you build a digital tabletop and sell people micro-world sets of monsters and treasure to adventure online with (with actual dollars to get resurrected or speed healing/spell recovery or controllable NPCs), using whatever slow-and-steady advancement system and communal world-building options you can steal from successful games.

Having a live DM handle the AI and modify terrain on-the-fly is your selling point, but I have no idea how you incentivise DMs without ruining the game for everyone else. Rules barely matter online, because you can hotfix them and let the computer do all the work. Monster and treasure placement is computer so DMs can't play favourite.

You can have a taxed marketplace for trading artifacts. So if I'm lucky enough to find one I get points and someone else spends more points and the business generally takes real money in the middle by diluting the remaining points in the world and requiring more real money to bring them back.

For a wide audience it runs on everything, ipods, smartphones, playstation, flash/HTML5, and everything, including shit like special prices for people buying golden healing apples at the apple shop.


If you like, you can even licence out the right to make a tabletop RPG loosely based on the rules, for pocket change.

[sake]

For a wide audience it runs on everything, ipods, smartphones, playstation, flash/HTML5, and everything, including shit like special prices for people buying golden healing apples at the apple shop.


If you like, you can even licence out the right to make a tabletop RPG loosely based on the rules, for pocket change.

The first game company to release a solid 1st party Virtual Tabletop/Character Builder/Character Visualizer(with cash shop full of extra cosmetic options) app for smartphones and tablets (and have the sense to advertise it worth a shit) will more or less win TTRPGs for the foreseeable future.

[Josh_Kablack]

I have no idea how to make a pile of money into a big pile of money in RPGs.

However anyone with half a rep, the ability to overpromise and the bare minimum of video production ability can probably put together a crowdfunding pitch that rakes in just enough money to beat working extra shifts at Wal-Donalds.

[deaddmwalking]

We all have our personal preferences of the perfect RPG, but what if our goal is to reach the broadest audience possible and get as much out of their wallet as you can?

Say you have WotC funding.

-What rules set would appeal to the greatest audience?
-What distribution methods would make the most $?

I'd say if you can get titties into it but still seem respectful of women you'll appeal to everyone.

[Cynic]

The best distribution model, currently, has been Paizo.

Headhunt almost everyone famous for past ttrpgs and pull them into your fantasy heartbreaker. Slowly make it a kitchen sink through supplements.

Look at what is the most popular system at the moment, hire a good marketing team and have them work the fanboys to accept the changes you make so that they seem to fix the system.

So be Paizo on a larger scale.

[Wrathzog]

The first game company to release a solid 1st party Virtual Tabletop/Character Builder/Character Visualizer(with cash shop full of extra cosmetic options) app for smartphones and tablets (and have the sense to advertise it worth a shit) will more or less win TTRPGs for the foreseeable future.

This is my vote. The future of the hobby is in digital tools and support.

[Neurosis]

We all have our personal preferences of the perfect RPG, but what if our goal is to reach the broadest audience possible and get as much out of their wallet as you can?

Say you have WotC funding.

-What rules set would appeal to the greatest audience?
-What distribution methods would make the most $?

Assuming I don't care about artistic integrity or game design at all and I just want something that has good production values that idiots choke down?

I would make PATHFINDER.

[shadzar]

Re-release HeroQuest. the real one, not the shit that stole its name, but the board game by MB+GW.

clean up the rules and simplify it a bit to make it work quicker. give better adventure/campaign design instructions and inflate the hell out of the monster list. add 2 more playing boards for : outdoors and city/town.

HeroQuest, like RPGs are basically just action/adventure games with a setting thrown in.

of course sell packs of monsters like little green army men or ZOMBIES!!! packs of zombies so people can buy enough of them that they want.

[infected slut princess]

I am extremely interested in the possibilities available due to 3D printing technology, and the implications for table-top games and RPGs. The price of this technology is falling rapidly, and will continue to fall. I think it would be fun to have your own machine that can print custom character models, downloaded monster packs, scenery, buildings, etc. Designs can be sold on a micro-transaction basis, like $1 for the Beholder Pack, or $2 for the Castle of Doom Pack. Of course people could just torrent all their custom creations and pirated official content, spreading the love. First-party content providers could even offer their own proprietary printer units customized to be most efficient and user-friendly for a specific purpose. They could have more control over content distribution unless one hacks or "jailbreaks" the unit.

Otherwise...

However anyone with half a rep, the ability to overpromise and the bare minimum of video production ability can probably put together a crowdfunding pitch that rakes in just enough money to beat working extra shifts at Wal-Donalds.

This is really key. And I mean specifically the part about "half a rep." The crowdfunding thing is just one variation of raising capital.

A person needs to build their rep. But to do that, you actually need to PRODUCE. You can't just fap to yourself as you talk abstract theorycraft on a message board. You need to have output. And you need to put it out there so people can actually see it. You need to establish some credibility and people need to see you as an expert to some degree.

Things don't need to be perfect. Some output that kinda sucks is actually better than the perfect output that never gets made, because you can make improvements to your bad output.

If you demonstrate to people that you can produce what they want, then you can sell a game that is popular and makes a profit. I would even invest in it.

The market is actually out there. There is money to be made. But there is no magic solution. It takes work and production, not just message board circle jerks.

[Desdan_Mervolam]

I think if any of us knew how to make money at RPGs, none of us would have shitty day-jobs. But here's one thing I can throw onto the pile: Take your ruleset and playtest the fuck out of it. Actually listen to your playtesters and change things based on their output. This won't give you a perfect game, such are the things of myths and legends, but it will improve your game exponentially.

[ishy]

I disagree. Most playtesters are people who don't know what the fuck they are doing but think they do.
You should definitely look through their comments and issues. But you shouldn't necessarily change anything.

[Mask_De_H]

Make an iOS cRPG with networking like Words With Friends crossed with the TTRPG experience and make it as simple and addictive as possible. Maybe throw in some giant titties.

[Avoraciopoctules]

We all have our personal preferences of the perfect RPG, but what if our goal is to reach the broadest audience possible and get as much out of their wallet as you can?

Say you have WotC funding.

-What rules set would appeal to the greatest audience?
-What distribution methods would make the most $?

Loren Coleman style, embezzle money out of the company and stiff contract writers while talking loudly about how you are revolutionizing your company's old product, based on major fan complaints about the old game.

You get scandal attention AND "new edition" attention, and could probably extract enough money to build a fancy new house, maybe.