How Everway Failed?

[Lxndr]

In Ron's Narrativism Essay (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html) there's a rather intriguing morsel:

"I will leave the very interesting question of why Everway failed in this regard to future discussions."

I've searched the Forge's archives and can't seem to find any discussion that addressed this 'very interesting question.'  Perhaps my search-fu is poor.

Can anyone point me to anywhere that this discussion happened, or if it never did happen, I'd like to have it now!

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Alexander, and welcome to the forum! You were there at the time, so you know as well as me that was written a decade or so ago, right ...?

Found the discussion which addresses that a little bit: Everway, Cult of Ron style (LONG). Ah! And also [Everway] Story when?

In retrospect, here's a little bit more about what I had in mind:

- the game didn't know whether it had a setting or not
- it couldn't figure out whether it was about character arcs or situational (i.e. other people's) problems
- it couldn't figure out who its target audience was
- it couldn't figure out whether story emerged from characters's actions in play or was imposed/managed by a swift-footed GM

I think of it as the Impossible Thing Before Breakfast with people trying very sincerely and very hard, with great big open hearts. But that Thing is fuckin' Impossible, any time of day, so none of that sincerity and none of the excellent smaller techniques ideas could work in that context.

All compounded with the economics of the moment too:

- then its support and promotion were dropped like a hot rock when Magic: the Gathering hit it big
- and at that time, what distributors wanted, distributors got

Best, Ron

[Lxndr]

Hi Alexander, and welcome to the forum! You were there at the time, so you know as well as me that was written a decade or so ago, right ...?

Oh yeah. Definitely

That's why I immediately began searching the archives.  I did find those two threads you mentioned, but they didn't seem a result of your question. So I wondered if the implied discussion ever happened.

I'll admit part of why this piqued my interest at this time is because I'm designing a game that's meant to be an homage to Everway - since the rights are effectively missing, and I was bitten by the design bug, I just wanted to know where my progenitor failed, so I could avoid the same missteps.

...here's a little bit more about what I had in mind:

- the game didn't know whether it had a setting or not
- it couldn't figure out whether it was about character arcs or situational (i.e. other people's) problems
- it couldn't figure out who its target audience was
- it couldn't figure out whether story emerged from characters's actions in play or was imposed/managed by a swift-footed GM

I think of it as the Impossible Thing Before Breakfast with people trying very sincerely and very hard, with great big open hearts. But that Thing is fuckin' Impossible, any time of day, so none of that sincerity and none of the excellent smaller techniques ideas could work in that context.

Thanks for this! This helps me try to answer my secondary question above.

All compounded with the economics of the moment too:

- then its support and promotion were dropped like a hot rock when Magic: the Gathering hit it big
- and at that time, what distributors wanted, distributors got

I know Magic was part of the reason WHY it was published.  It was also why it died?  Sad.

Thanks for the welcome, and the reply!

[James_Nostack]

You know, I somehow picked up a complete, mint copy of Everway for free at a swap table at some local con, and I know the Forge crowd admired the hell out of it back in the day, so I've been meaning to play it.  If anyone can talk about prep techniques appropriate to the game (or LXNDR's derivative - and it's good to see you still around, man, in all senses of the term), I'm certainly all ears.

[Ron Edwards]

A couple of clarifications ...

1. I have no inside knowledge concerning the decisions made about Everway by WotC or its author.

2. I think a lot of us in those Forge discussions (linked above) acknowledged that the game as written tended to flounder in play, and in addition to my points in those threads, I'll also say that its text was absolutely silent about what content was to provide "pressure" or "motor" in the Sorcerer sense - a lot of the examples seemed to hand-wave that away as something the GM did, very much like a convention LARP ref gets the participants to the climax of a timed, canned scenario.

To say that this issue and other content-related points caused the game to encounter problems with financial success is probably reaching. Saying that presumes that the game got out to enough people to see dedicated play, and that their reactions had an impact on retailers' decisions about re-ordering or the company's continued support or not. My knowledge of that time in RPG commerce suggests that no such causal link (up the line" existed in the slightest for any game.

I wouldn't be surprised if the direct cause of Everway's disappearance from the reorder-reprint cycle had more to do with Magic and any other strictly economics/priorities issues, but that takes us back to #1 above.

Best, Ron

[Marv]

The thing about Everway is that it was different than anything else out there. That can be good or bad, but when things are different either folks jump all over it or run away from it. In this case they just didn't seem to "get it" and so it slowly vanished.

I have a copy of the game that I bought years ago and I'll confess I've never played it, either. It looks pretty but I could never quite decide what to make of the thing.