Statistics for Profiling, Fall 2003

[Lxndr]

Very few peopel are running the game.
I plan on running in #indierpgs after my fastlane playtesting is complete.

[Emily Care]

As for it being surprising -- well, D&D is an enormously popular game in general.  I think this just shows that Forge-ites aren't totally separated from the general gaming community.

That is what I was surprised about. But given how large a percentage of all rpg gaming that has ever been done (in this country at least) has been d&d, it does make sense. Especially with all variants lumped, and as Ron pointed out, the local variation.

It doesn't surprise me at all that homebrewing is popular in a forum of game designers.

It's like asking micro-brewers about their favorite ale.

Interesting that the two tops are such broad categories, and can be seen to be at the extreme of the spectrum from traditional to non-traditional systems.  I bet the variability of each category accounts in large part for the fact that they beat out single systems.  

--Em

[jrients]

It's also interesting that Nobilis is consistently in the top 5 of games people want to play, often for the same people.  Is nobody running this game, or is nobody willing to fork over the $40 for the book?

Based upon discussions at rpg.net and elsewhere there seems to be an intimidation factor about GMing Nobilis.  The expansive setting, high power level of play, diceless mechanics, and sheer arty-ness seem to combine into a tough nut for some prospective GMs to crack.

I could be partially projecting my own insecurities onto others (I ran the game once primarily to overcome my own skittishness about doing so), but I've seen several explicit "I wish I could run it but it's so overwhelming" comments.

[John Kim]

Just a notice that I have again updated the profiling stats to include the latest responses.  

http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/theforge/

It might be interesting to do some studies on how these change over time.  Do the "Want to Try" actually make their way into "Last Played"?  I'd like to maybe do some study following people's choices over time.  It looks like there are currently 43 people with responses for both spring and fall.  It may be enough to be of some interest.

[arxhon]

I just wandered into Actual Play because i was bored....

Nobilis is on my want to play list, and i have another person in my usual suspects list who also wants to play, but we're both afraid.

Despite that, i'm going to run a game of it soon, probably after Feng Shui (which is coming up in a couple of weeks).

Why did i not list it in my 3 Most Want to Play? Because i want to run the others more than i want to run Nobilis.