The future of roleplaying #2

Just when I published my lastest  post, it struck me that I obviously missed a couple of things I wanted to say. But instead of editing the original post, I decided to write a second post about the future of our beloved hobby.

When talking about the companies that could land a hit in the near future, I definitely should have mentioned West End Games and Green Ronin Publishing. Yes, West End Games of Star Wars (the d6 variant) fame still is alive and kicking although a mere shadow of its former self. Eric Gibson, the current owner of WEG, is fighting to keep WEG alive and he’s come up with a great idea: Open D6. One of the greatest assets WEG has is its D6 system that was used in a couple of games like the aforementioned Star Wars game. D6 is an easy to learn and fast to play game that can be used in every genre. A few years back, WEG release three core rule books called D6 Space, D6 Adventure and D6 Fantasy that are now the basis for the upcoming Open D6. Open D6 will be released under the OGL and will come with a site, where you can download your personalized Open D6 rulebook. When you want to use the Open D6 trademarks, you’ll have to upload any rules you created using the Open D6 SRD to this site, so it is available to the community. And I believe that Open D6 will definitely something that could be considered “the next big thing”! In the past the D6 system has always been overlooked but backed with a great community site and licensed under the OGL, it could become one of the big players again.

Another thing that I remember just a few minutes late, is Green Ronin and its “Dragon Age” deal. Dragon Age is an upcoming computer roleplaying game by Bioware, the company that created Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect, just to name a few. Bioware has obviously joined forces with Green Ronin to release a pen & paper game based on their franchise. And since Green Ronin has created a couple of pretty impressive games like True20, Mutants & Masterminds and the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, I am pretty sure they won’t just make a half-hearted attempt at converting Dragon Age to the gaming table. I am pretty sure we could see another decent fantasy RPG line from Green Ronin based on the Bioware game in the near future. And even if this doesn’t work out, I believe Green Ronin is a company we should keep an eye on.

Ok, I think this concludes part two of my blog carnival contribution. As always I am interested in your comments. So please let your voices be heard in the comment section!