Is designing an RPG gateway game a bad plan?

[komradebob]

get em playing first, then worry about selling them something later.

I'd actually been thinking of selling them something first, then getting them playing ( if they chose to) later.

Given the number of questions I've asked Ryan about injection moulding in the past ( and the link in my sig), it probably comes as no surprise that the idea involved toys...

I'd been thinking in terms of pre-painted fantasy/sci-fantasy themed pre-painted toys, sold through gumball machines, along the lines of the Homies toys. Included in the plastic "egg" would be a collectable token. Kids could turn in x number of tokens for other prizes; Promotional figures too big for the eggs or ( wait for it...) games and sourcebooks based on the toys.

Mostly I was envisioning short, comicbook or shorter publications. Honestly, I wasn't too concerned with a single, unified mechanic set of games. Rather, the books would offer a variety of mini-games in different styles. I'd probably throw in some freebie pdf download type stuff at the site as well on a regular basis to keep up interest.

Clearly, I'm thinking of a bit younger audience than your target audience- probably pre-teens, hopefully playing with their parents or older relatives. The idea is to easily introduce kids to some overall rpg consepts.

Of course, I wanted to side step any D&D competition whatsoever...

Hopefully the whole thing would create it's own cycle. Kid gets token #1, sees they can get promo items, buys more toys. Vending machine owners are happy, by more boxes of product. Kids teach one another the games played with the collectable toys, and the cycle goes round and round, with new toy sets introduced.

Following on other successfully pre-painted toy lines ( like the Smurfs back when I was a kid), the toys are later release in sets to toy ( and other stores) at a higher price for the ability to get figures non-randomly and in multi-figure packages.

Website includes places for fans to show off their best variations of games and uses for their toys. Especially good ideas are pillaged, with successful games also being re-released to stores in a nicer format.

Now if I could only get step one covered ( "Buy winning Lotto ticket"...)

[slade the sniper]

Insert Quote
Put up a MySpace page, create a wicked-cool 30-second animated future and post in on YouTube, send a free copy to Dane Cook and hope he likes it, etc.

This idea is gold.  The problem with pen and paper gaming is that it is still seen as geeky, while computer gaming has almost no negative connotation at all (among the younger generations).  Wargamers are seen as old and senile, for some reason. 

A RPG gateway game would be an awesome idea, but with perhaps a bit more money, you could create an entire product line spanning Wargames, table top roleplaying and computer gaming, but unlike some other product lines that grew from one to the other (D&D, Warhammer FRP, Warcraft), the entire setting is designed with an eye for transportability from one media to the other.

If you could have a couple of "core characters" for the setting and maintain them (much more prevalent in computer games like EverQuest or fighting games) through multiple incarnations, you could toss in books and comics as well.

Granted, that is an audacious plan, and one that will cost big bucks, but it is do-able.  This post is now off topic and shall end, time now.

-STS