The abominable axiom of Free RPGs

[Rob Lang]

[Thought]

Accepted by whom?

If one wants one's game to be accepted by individuals who only mostly play commercial games, then yes, it must be up to commercial standards.

This, however, is not unique to RPGs. If one wants one's research to be accepted by scientists, one must get one's research published in a fancy-to-do journal. Or, if one wants one's game to be accepted by Germans, one must write it in German.

Yet if one wants acceptance by individuals who do not mostly play commercial games, then not.

One should always write to one's audience; the trick, of course, is in determining who that audience is.

Just a shilled,

Thought

[Rob Lang]

[Thought]

And thus must be written to commercial standards.

However, to note, even in that there are different levels. I've generally found older gamers to be less demanding, perhaps because they remember the old days, when companies didn't have much money to throw around and the art even of commercial games was poor. Of course, they also seem to prefer less talk and more smash (or at least those I've interacted with the most have).

Anywho, point being, when one sits down to make a game, it is probably prudent to spend a good, long time pondering what your intended market is, what that requires, and if you are willing to put out that level of effort. As this relates to your guide, perhaps then a brief discussion of a few end-goals and their requirements.

Just a commercialized,

Thought

[Cram]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I will agree such a practice is not right, but I can't say it is wholly wrong. It does stand to reason, however, that there are advantages to free games that should overcome a lack of polish. Hopefully, most RPG enthusiasts can focus on these elements.

Perceived professionalism really does exhibit some valuable windfalls. A bit of thought in the technical editing really will make the game far easier to read and play. Including art work will assist in establishing mood and illustrating setting elements. The additional effort helps show that the writer really cares about his subject and the readers since they're not charging more for the extra time put in.

Personally, I tend not to compare free games to commercial ones, except perhaps in the positive manner of "wow, this is so good it could be published". Free games with poor production have on occasion provided some interesting elements. is an ugly document, but has nomic cards and music as part of its mechanics.

One of my big arguments for starting the RPG hobby is that 20-30 dollars for a Main book, and 5 dollars for your initial dice set gives you months of play time, rather than 80 dollars for a 20 hour long video game. (At least, this applies to most single volume games - three book D&D less so.) Free games remove most of that price barrier and let you share copies with friends which is a notable improvement over passing one physical copy around. So the convenience factor certainly comes in to play.

Surely we have all read or played published games that did not deserve our money. Graphics and layout are not the first thing you should be looking . Thus free games have another advantage in that you can browse through the mechanics at your leisure. Small business owners probably don't appreciate you reading a 200 page book without buying it, and with online retailers you can't check the mechanics at all.

Of course there is always the "Free stuff, cool!" mentality. Or the ideal that people who are not commercial have more room to experiment, so there is a good chance of finding something odd. Furthermore, you're not pressured for time or money, so you have time to evaluate the games.

[Thought]

[Rob Lang]

I like the idea of a pitch but this should go on the back cover of the free RPG.

@CA, For you, me and the others here I think that implementation will overcome lack of polish. However, I think even I would have trouble selling a free game to my group that wasn't written by me. They would be receptive perhaps to a one off but that then excludes excellent games such as 'Dog Town'.

I don't want to compare the free games to commercial ones. I've avoided doing so on the blog - except as you say "Don't bother with paying X for Y, download this instead!". However, the comparison is not happening on the blogs and forums, it's happening in the minds of the rightly sceptical players. You can smash that barrier by creating a game that looks like it should be sold but to do that means you're going to meet the wall of effort that commercial games have.

[Cram]

I think the trick is to leverage our advantages. What advantages do free games have over commercial games?

The "indie" meme is a strong one. There are lots of people who identify with "indie music" and numerous other type of "DIY" / "underground" projects. I think indie games can tap into some of this "non-mainstream" cool.

If I were a marketing wiz, I think my goal would be to craft a compelling image of the "indie gamer". Most gamers are not aware of independently published games. Is there a difference between an indie gamer and a commercial gamer? If we can create an attractive image of the "indie game group", and get people to buy into that identity, it'll draw a lot of eyeballs this way.

How can we sculpt that meme? .... let's see ... Indie Gamers...

-are less concerned with the "superficial" elements of the game, such as illustrations or online content
-are more willing to experiment with different game styles
-will be the ones who discover the Next Big Trend in gaming
-have better snacks at the table due to the money NOT spent on books

If you were to create a pamphlet for 1km1kt, I think you'd want to include some of this imagery, and a list of games from the thread. "Here are some free games which are fun and quick to play." - that's a powerful hook! The pamphlet would also contain instructions to pass this around to your gamer friends. The goal would be to get it passed around at a D&D game. People might say, jeez, it feels like we've been playing this game for YEARS, I wonder what other styles of games are out there? Mm, this one sounds like fun...


sorry to get on a bit of a tangent

[maledictus]

People always download free stuff (I came to this comunity by googling "free games"). So it's very likely that gamers have downloaded lots of free rpgs. The problem is that your free game is the one they'll decide to give it a try and play it besides D&D, because there are lots of other free rpgs. Once they have played it, if the game it's cool, they'll play it gain.

What dou you need to attrack players to your game so that they give it that chance? Make it atractive from the very begining, before they even download the game. With a well writted and appealing presentation, telling gamers why your game is the one they should play the next time they gather. A cool website and cover also helps a lot.

Of course different players look for different things in a game. So I would say make you rpg more appealing to the most players you can. You can make a more non-traditional experimental game, but it won't pass the little niche of indie gamers.

A great ambientation is also very important, if you make another fantasy game with elves, dwafs and halflings is less likely gamers would play it, because there is already a well known fantasy game with all these. But what does your fantasy game have that others don't? Maybe it's a cyclops turtle or an original setting.

I have more luck, where I come from nobody know what a rpg is. So I teach everybody, and I teach them my games