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WoW Board Game, Shadowrun 4.0, and City of Heroes RPG
Among the many announcements made at the GAMA Trade show this week, one of the most exciting is the revelation that Shadowrun 4.0 is on the horizon, to be released at this year's Gen Con game fair. Other news includes a World of Warcraft board game, an "Ultimate" version of Rifts, the Production Schedule for Dungeons and Dragons for 2005, a City of Heroes Table-Top RPG, and a 10th Anniversary Settlers of Catan edition. From the Shadowrun Website: "The core mechanics are completely revised to be simpler and more streamlined for quicker, easier and more consistent play. Matrix 2.0! An all-new level of wireless "augmented reality" overlays the real world, unleashing hackers to be mobile digital wizards."
Interesting that FanPro says they're revising Shadowrun to be "simpler and more streamlined for quicker, easier and more consistent play". My RPG group tried Shadowrun (at my suggestion/insistence, as I'd played it back in my teen years), and it lasted less than a year because the game system was too cumbersome. There were so many things to remember that we spent more time flipping through the rules than we did playing the game. Each additional subgame system (Matrix, vehicles, magic) had its own vastly different rules, to the point where we had real trouble remembering all those details, even with cheat sheets.
We didn't get to go personally this year, but our new game is nonetheless being demoed to distributors out there on our behalf. Next year we should be ready in time, though. Something about the game coming to print a mere two weeks prior to the show.
What disturbs me a little bit, being a newly formed independent game design company, is the seemingly increasing reliance on (movie/video game/whatever) property licensing within the traditional game industry. Ever since Monopoly opened the doors to having a million licensors/licensees, it seems to me that there has been more and more rehashes of the exact same games, only with new window dressing.
While I suppose that there is a logical fit with some of them (a Star Wars-themed Trivial Pursuit was a brilliant idea, as was the LotR Risk), others just plain don't make sense. A NASCAR-themed Monopoly? NASCAR, whatever you may think of it, is about speed and there is NOTHING fast-paced about Monopoly - neverminding the whole concept of renting spaces as a racecar.
My point being that it makes it feel a little bit like the time will soon come when a game not created on an established license will have difficulty gaining a foothold in the market. I suppose that just means I have to get in quick on starting my own powerhouse games now so that later it can be ME that's licensing my properties to others. Moohahaha!
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That green slime had it coming.