The Future of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game?

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't see why a line being "dead" actually matters. It's fun to buy new game supplements sure, but they aren't actually necessary. There are plenty of people who play games that only ever had the one book, or whatever.

In this case though, the support isn't entirely absent, since GURPS DF stuff is mostly usable with the DFRPG.

I'll also note unhelpfully that the only thing we actually know about the future of the DFRPG is that they won't be reprinting it. SJ Games hasn't said a thing about further DFRPG support. They just sold a couple thousand physical copies of the game and it's available in PDF, so there's an installed base which can, theoretically, grow. Will we see further DFRPG works in PDF? Who knows? Not us.

[David Johansen]

I would suggest that given the success of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and the fact that many DFRPG supporters acquired the whole .pdf library suggests that there will be new support there as they need something to sell to the existing clientele.

[kmunoz]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't see why a line being "dead" actually matters. It's fun to buy new game supplements sure, but they aren't actually necessary. There are plenty of people who play games that only ever had the one book, or whatever.

It matters to some subset of the buyers. Some people like collecting things. Some people like reading things. I have a whole bunch of GURPS PDFs that I categorically will never use because I dislike the genre they're in...but I wanted to read them. In the last 10 years I have only irregularly had enough people around me to play GURPS with, but I've continued to buy the products, because I enjoy reading them, and I'm something of a completionist. If tomorrow the line suddenly stopped being made, there's a pretty good chance that within a year or two I will have moved on to another system - one that has new things to read.

Not every buyer's purchase decisions are based on utility.

[finn]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't see why a line being "dead" actually matters. It's fun to buy new game supplements sure, but they aren't actually necessary. There are plenty of people who play games that only ever had the one book, or whatever.

In this case though, the support isn't entirely absent, since GURPS DF stuff is mostly usable with the DFRPG.

You just explained why the DFRPG line being "dead" matters. DFRPG may have no supplements, and the buyer of DFRPG would have to adopt GURPS DF products if they wanted to expand.

That is something I would feel obliged to explain if a player showed interest in buying DFRPG. And to consult and see if the GURPS DF line might work better for them (or not).

[DeadParrot]

I wonder if they could do a KS, similar to Ogrezine, to fund further adventure modules? With the KS, they would know up front how much support there was and how much money they had for paying for modules before any request for submissions were advertised. Any modules created could be POD pdfs to keep the publishing costs lower.

[afschell]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

...

SJ Games hasn't said a thing about further DFRPG support. They just sold a couple thousand physical copies of the game and it's available in PDF, so there's an installed base which can, theoretically, grow. Will we see further DFRPG works in PDF? Who knows? Not us.

Here is to hoping that some indication of support, one way or another, will be forthcoming in the near future.

[finn]

Originally Posted by afschell

Here is to hoping that some indication of support, one way or another, will be forthcoming in the near future.

I hope for the same. Even if it is just "GURPS DF products will continue to be produced, and most of the new content will be DFRPG compatible and useable with no conversion effort".

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by finn

Even if it is just "GURPS DF products will continue to be produced ...

That is certainly happening. Kromm has blogged about one that's he's recently written and is going through the production process.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by finn

You just explained why the DFRPG line being "dead" matters. DFRPG may have no supplements, and the buyer of DFRPG would have to adopt GURPS DF products if they wanted to expand.

Or, you know, make stuff up themselves.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Or, you know, make stuff up themselves.

Many people (although certainly not all) don't like to do that at all, and more don't like to do it wholesale.

However, this is very much missing the point. This is a fandom. Like all fandoms, there's two ways to sustain one: have a very large self-reinforcing fan base and make a deep cultural impact outside the fandom (which makes recruiting easier), or continue to produce novel material to catch the attention of non-fans, re-attract ex-fans, and keep existing fans engaged.

D&D is (probably) in the first position; the creation of Pathfinder alone says that D&D has inertia separate from its corporate "parent".
DFRPG is no D&D. It has not made a lot of cultural impact and does not have a large fanbase. Therefore, it really needs to be fueled with more material on a regular basis or it's going to leak players.

I think that material can be provided as "dual" GURPS DF / DFRPG products, but that's a thing for SJG to work out.