A long struggle, I thought I'd moan about it a bit

[Rob Lang]

I've been long in the process of taking all the active links from excellent list of Free RPGs and adding them into a on delicious.

All told, it's going rather well. 250 links in and I'm at 'F' in the alphabetical list already. Sadly so very many of the sites on John's list have gone to the wall that I find myself closing tabs more often than looking through sites. The other breathtakingly upsetting reality that 90% of free RPGs are just a system and a very, very, very, very, very generic fantasy one at that.

The authors, bless them, often think they are doing something courageous and different by adding Attr+Skill+D10. They also promise so much "There's loads coming, you just wait and see... Nov 2004." I'm still waiting. There's almost a blog post in this somewhere but I don't want to put people off. I love the idea people are still putting things up for free on the net and I want to encourage it. At the same time,I don't want to see yet another fantasy system.

[SheikhJahbooty]

You're cracking me up!

Bless you kind sir for slogging through it all.

[Rob Lang]

Thank you, sheikh! The number of dead links in John's directory makes me weep.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Very few people - if any - just wake up one day and decide to write a rules for combat in a world defined by collective free-form storytelling. Rather they've played an RPG before, and want to improve upon the experience by changing what they didn't like. Chances are they've played the same or similar game (D&D) and thus have the same complaints and design goals. Thus like most engineers, they'' arrive at the same simple solution.

As to why fantasy settings seem so prevalent, that is an interesting question. The image of knights and swords is a pretty deep seated archetype and the image of casting advanced magic is certainly exciting. Science Fiction tends to imply more focus on the reasoning behind everything and technology - rather than the meme-tastic standby "A wizard did it". As to the lack of modern/cyberpunk - well we're on some level playing these games as an escape from the real/corporate worlds. Like SF, being accurate in a historical setting takes a bit more work and tends to run crosswise to your attempts to change events or add new factions.

And as to why so many have gone so long without an update? That is another intriguing discussion. I'd guess the simple answer is its a lot of work, and most people don't have time. When so many others are available without all the extra effort, continuing seems like a less viable option. A lack of feedback could also play into this I've only received two or three responses to my game via e-mail. We're lucky to have these forums and RPG-lab (I really need to go through the archives - I'm months behind there!).

[BubbaBrown]

You know Cyberpunk had a pretty neat system, but I don't think it's THAT neat. Then again, I'm partially biased to my own work. But, I have to agree with you on the generic fantasy worlds. Some of them are pretty good, but you can still just change a few names and times around to reveal it's a subconscious Forgotten Realms clone. I've been lurking around RPGNet forums into their Game Design section... you see a lot of what you have seen there.

I'm just glad my gaming experience is pretty varied so I know many settings and systems aren't THAT unique. I still can't blame them, my work on first few iterations was a Fallout clone. Then, I sat down and honestly thought about what I want to do. I went through the material to find anything that was obviously borrowed and make either my own thing or my version of something existing that fits well.

I just think they all need some time and reality checks to get them along their way. I'm sure many could easily adapt to making something unique, but they just might not know what they have isn't that unique. It's taken me some time to create a system and Post-post-apocalyptic world that allows for:
The warrior tin man armed with a full blade that happens to be Skeeball master
A half-human/half-mammalian genetically engineered hybrid that is presently the butt of every feline/canine/etc crack and joke despite arranging deals and knowing the proper customs and ways to deal with multiple cultures.
A whipped super mechanic pilot that's under the mercy of a fanatic with an unhealthy obsession with extra-dimensional bacteria and critters
And a nanite infested guy with an Australian accent and the odd habit of trying to "assimilate" anything more advanced than a toaster.

All traveling the world in a vehicle that could be best described as what would result from the military making a nuclear powered Winnebago with inspirations taken from a double section bus.

(Yah, that's the present group I got playing my game right now. It's going to be interesting.)

So, I'd keep up the hope. There's bound to be a few good ones out there, but I guessing there's probably far more fodder out there to sift through.

[kumakami]

I've noticed that...the more generic the game, the more clones. In the end, its a LOT harder to come up with a Deadlands variant than D&D. Mostly in the end due to it being hard to make a "perfect" generic so more people get dissatisfied. if system, setting, and layout are more unique they tend to seem to more, cohesive.

just my thoughts

[Rob Lang]

[SheikhJahbooty]

I wonder why sci-fi RPGs are almost always causally related to modern times.

True, Lord of the Rings was causally related to modern times, at least implicitly, and Earthdawn does that too, to suggest that the fantasy world is a forgotten past, but there are a lot of fantasy worlds that are not causally related to modern times at all, Dragonlance for instance.

Sci-fi (and even sometimes distopian or cyberpunk) video games are often set on a fictional planet. The same should be true of PnP RPGs.

Well, we're game writers...

[BubbaBrown]

I've noticed that stereotypical Fantasy does indeed not allow itself to be very malleable. I think one of the issues is that once you change too many elements of the standard Fantasy mold, it starts to not seem like Fantasy anymore. There's a series of books by Anne McCaffrey called Dragonriders of Pern. The world seems and sounds so Fantasy... but it's actually science fiction at it's core when you start getting into the series.

I think the stereotypes have become the standard in the Fantasy genre and the expectations have similarly been swayed. If you change too much, people will start not seeing the work as Fantasy and will no longer know how to classify it. It may be textbook Fantasy, but to popular definition it isn't. My guess is that this tends to keep people limited and narrowed within a certain range. In contrast, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Cyber Punk, and Alternate History genres are almost expected to try crazy new things and go all out in whatever direction they choose.

As to why Fantasy seems to be focus of the clones... I don't know. My best guess is that it's far easier to create a clone of something that is strictly defined. The stereotypes of Fantasy seem to help out here. They fill in the blanks that designers and writers don't want to deal with and let them focus on what ever it is they want to make different. I'm not saying this is a good plan, but it does make sense to some extent. Another possibility is that due to the popularity of the D&D, World of Warcraft, and some JRPGs franchises, a lot of people get their starts on a Fantasy themed game. All my first RPGs were computer based science fiction games, so my tastes seem to focus on science fiction and post apocalyptic. Also, I prefer computer over console.

Moving on to another point...

Generic Systems... I have to agree with you on the points. I think I'm steering clear of them, but don't know as my point of view is skewed. (http://www.bestwithstuff.com if you want to tell me how wrong I am) But, I admit to have seen all three points when browsing Generic systems, too. After checking my present literature, I've been good to avoid directly using the term generic to describe my system. (No false advertising in the making there.)

It's pretty hard to make something universal and generic. A good portion of the my undergraduate computer science education was spent being taught to avoid infinite problem domains. Another good portion of my graduate computer science education was spent learning why you avoid infinite problem domains and how to tackle them if you are stuck with dealing with them. (API and OS design is filled with them.) The problem I tend to see is that many people tackle the problem of trying to define the infinite domains rather taking the route that math does; Define rules and functions that help you deal with whatever part of the infinite you care for. It seems like the better route to go, but it's all opinion in the end. I whole accept the fact I'm probably just as full of it as the next person and sometimes more so.

[Rob Lang]

I have no problem with generic system per se but I prefer those that do come with an example setting, genre or scenario. You would not describe a novel mechanic without an example, why describe a novel system without an example setting?