Trailers for RPGs

[Daniel Solis]

The thought crosses my mind after seeing this trailer for Robota: Reign of Machines. The opening shot of a trio of skinny semi-humanoid robots treking through the windy desert, clad in ragged woolen cloaks and carrying spears is exactly what I have in mind for Gears & Spears. More than that, the trailer made me want to play Gears & Spears.

Has anyone tried creating a fullblown trailer for an RPG? Obviously, it wouldn't be aired in movie theaters, but just putting it up online and relying on word of mouth could potentially have the same bouying effect as it does for movie buzz. What would be in a RPG trailer? Game art? Video clips? Sample dialogue?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

I'll start with the observation that I too have the same reaction to the clip that you do. And some years ago, I wrote up a ton of ideas for such a setting myself; that prep informed a lot of my play of Zero (a game you, personally, really need to know backwards and forwards for your G&S work). All this is to say that you're tapping into some shared imagery that turns a lot of people on.

I was under the impression that cover art, tag-lines on the front or back cover, and most importantly the Color material that opens many game texts were playing this role. Granted, the first two might be more like the movie poster.

Oddly, I find that opening the game pages with Color (story fragment, comics fragment, lots of picture plates, etc) puts me right off my feed. But that should be ascribed to personal taste, unless you want to take Matt Snyder's comments (referenced in Color blind as far as I do, and say that over-emphasizing Color can become a substitute for actual play.

Best,
Ron

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Just to note, Orkworld had a trailer before it came out. It was a Flash animation - fairly well done - on the Orkworld website, which doesn't seem to exist any more.

[Jason L Blair]

The gang at Green Tentacles did a trailer for Little Fears. I had it online for a while.

I just grabbed it from the old server and put it on key20.com. You can view it here, if you like: http://www.key20.com/previews/trailer.html

[Chris Passeno]

I believe that Apophis Consortium had a trailer and such for Obsidian.

I just checked their site, but can't locate it.

[Daniel Solis]

That Little Fears trailer was quite good. Thanks for posting it. :)

It seems the primary difference between trailers for movies and RPGs would be that the former advertises the cool or interesting things other characters will be doing in the advertised feature, while the latter is meant to advertise the cool or interesting things you could be doing. It's a difference of third- and first-person perspective as well as of future tense. I could just be overanalyzing it though.

[max.lambertini]

Has anyone tried creating a fullblown trailer for an RPG?

Hmmm... No, but I toyed with this idea twice: the first was when I bought a french RPG named Polaris, a SF RPG where icecaps have melted, earth atmosphere is toxic and the remnants of humanity have build underwater cities to survive. Well, the cover and the background made me wish I could create a videotape for an imaginary anime series based upon that RPG. I even worked out the main theme song, cutting, mixing and pasting the central part of Juno Reactor's Mars with the help of a wave editor.

The second was when I tried to write a complete SF background for my homebrew FUDGE build. I toyed with Blender and the like, but it was very difficult for me to churn out reasonable-looking animations. However, in the process I've built a large number of 3D models that, textured properly, could well be used as spaceship in a 3D project.

Ciao,
Max[/i]

[Matt Snyder]

I have created several Flash animations and even a trvia game in Flash. I haven't yet tried to put together a "trailer" for anything, but I might just have to give that a go! If anyone's interested in me putting together a trailer for them, send me a private message, and we'll see what we can do. I'm sure there are also other Flash-abled folks who could put together some audio-visual goodness.

[Daniel Solis]

I actually know a healthy bit of Flash myself, which is why I'm particularly interested in what would make a good trailer for an RPG. Perhaps someone on the Forge with some knowledge of film theory and/or advertising psychology could provide input? All I've got figured so far is:

a) Show something cool.
b) Let the viewer know he or she could be doing that cool thing.

Is there much more to it than that?

[Ben Morgan]

Just to note, Orkworld had a trailer before it came out. It was a Flash animation - fairly well done - on the Orkworld website, which doesn't seem to exist any more.

Not to toot my own horn, but I did my own version of the intro John had on the Orkworld site when I was first starting to learn Flash (it's actually quite simple in comparison to most things people are doing in Flash these days). I never actually got to approach John about it, but it's up on my site for all to see.

http://www.ad1066.com/talent/website/orkworld.htm#top

-- Ben

[Gold Rush Games]

I think a trailer is a great idea and with all the times I've seen the various trailers for The Last Samurai I've been thinking that it would be very cool to have a trailer for Sengoku 2nd Edition.

  My problem is that I haven't the funds to do a proper filmed (i.e., DV) trailer and I have no Flash experience and would need someone to create a trailer for me.

  But a trailer for any new game would be tres cool, IMO.