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I have often voiced that what I need personally is not
another new system to play the same genres (e.g. fantasy, sci-fi,
post-apocalypse) but rather new ways to play the games I already own.
Intellectual property rights armor the author(s) of original games from
monetary loss by preventing others from utilizing that game for profit. Yet, it
is those same copyrights that remove a system from profitable use by others
that drive those others to invent their own new systems.
Creativity demands and will find an
outlet.
Innovation and a distillation of
ideas as regards rule mechanics has been a boon, but witness the hundreds of
role-playing games that are produced each year, and witness how many are
successful. To be sure, standards of success are set differently for each game
and each publisher. Sometimes it is perhaps enough to complete the product and
have it for sale – to be considered a success, regardless if it sells or not.
That aside, most of these games are objectively bad: Low production value and a
re-hash of what a dozen or more publishers have already done (but now with a
new twist!). Originality is to be desired. Novelty is to be avoided.
Allow me to say this just once: Not everyone’s personal
campaign is deserving of a setting book or a new game system.
This is not about stifling creativity, but rather about the
focus of creativity, profitability, copyright, and quality. If you are a gamer, please take stock of all the RPGs you own. How many have you actually read cover to cover? How many have you actually played more than once, if at all?
A balance must be struck between the need to create new worlds of adventure versus any real need for a new game system. In my own life, it has led me to simplify away from new games. I'm perfectly happy creating game worlds with Risus and only purchase a new game via Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) projects, and then, only for Japanese RPGs being translated into English as a matter of support rather than any desire to play them.
Like everything else in life, how much is too much? Is it a necessity or just a want? Do we need the latest thing for the sake of having the latest thing? Can you not find a way to accomplish what you need with what you have? Just something to consider.
-Brent
"Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation." - Friedrich Nietzsche
