[MUD-Dev] d20

[Michael Tresca]

Travis Casey posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 10:56 AM

> Of course, you'll note that, to date, only one major game company
> besides WotC has produced a d20 RPG -- thus, there's very little
> evidence to support the idea that a d20 logo would double sales of
> an RPG.

Hmm, I assume you're talking about White Wolf. I imagine Alderac
Entertainment Group and Pinnacle Entertainment Group disagree. >:)

> It could be that the d20 logo will help things sell, but there's
> no proof of that yet.

All the D20 logo is providing, for good or bad, is a common gaming
platform.  It's taking it one step further than say, creating a
Rifts computer game -- product identity in this case would be Rifts
the RPG and thus carrying over to an electronic version.  Instead,
it's more generic.  This is a new concept to the role-playing
community -- even GURPs wasn't as pervasive and immediately
recognizable.

WOTC used its marketing power to disseminate the core rulebooks, and
since the D20 system is based off of those books, the barrier to
entry for any game based on that same system is reduced.  No RPG has
had that level of distribution and visibility before.

This means that players know how to play your game before they even
play it.  Those same fundamentals that you can't put into your game
(as per the OGL) are the fundamentals that the players already know
how to play (levels, exp, etc.).  This has unofficially been the
case for years -- other games have been ripping off the basic D&D
level system, Armor Class, Hit Points, etc.  Why?  Because players
understood it and therefore could relate to it immediately.  Which
means it's easier for new players to play your game because it uses
rules they're comfortable with.

A product that comes to mind is "Dragon Bane" for the PalmPilot
(http://www.palmcreations.com/products/index.html).  This game uses
the same wacky Armor Class system of AD&D (negative numbers for high
AC).  If I wasn't comfortable with that system, I would find the
negative AC very confusing.  So why would they do it?  Because
players were familiar enough with the system that Palm Creations
knew it wouldn't turn off new players.  And that's drawing on the
RPG audience's previous experience with pen-and-paper RPGs.

The new D20 system, which fortunately is a bit more (but not
necessarily that much more) cleaned up, can easily be treated the
same way.  NeverWinter Nights is the first step -- if it's
successful, there will probably be others who will want to leverage
the D20 logo in a computer game.

I haven't seen any numbers yet, but I heard that one-third of RPG
sales were third-party D20 products at Gen Con.  If that's any
indication, then slapping the D20 logo on your game may still have
merit.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
<http://www.retromud.org/talien>

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