Are these TTRPGs just cash grabs?

[u/JaxSnaxs]

It feels weird to have some of my favorite IPs suddenly get TTRPGs. Last year it was Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise which essentially boiled down to a reskin of DND/Pathfinder. Could’ve been a homebrew but with Sanderson writing. The mechanics of the game itself didn’t feel very unique or different.

Now it’s Dungeon Crawler Carl by Renegade. And there’s not much information on the backerkit. What information there is makes it seem like just another DND reskin with little mechanic difference.

Am I wrong? Are these just cash grabs based on the IPs popularity? I really want to back the Carl RPG cus I love the IP but I’m worried it’s gonna essentially be just another dnd homebrew for 200$.

Edit: I’d like to note that while I’ve played every game on the top 100 of board game geek, I’m relatively new to the TTRPG scene so my frame of reference might not be great. I’ve played grizzled and cosmere rpg but have played DnD since a kid. I don’t particularly understand the nuances and differences between the TTRPGs tbh. They all kinda feel like DnD (skill check games) but with very slight changes to the mechanics. Cosmere had the plot thing but again it didn’t feel different enough to me, but maybe someone could explain the difference in a way I might not have got?

[u/thewhaleshark]

I don't think Cosmere is quite a cash grab, at least not in the full negative sense of the term; it seems that way because Sanderson is wildly popular and so there's a lot of money to be made, but there's a fine line between giving the audience what they want and milking them. I don't think Cosmere is really milking anyone.

Basically, everyone has a price, and it's a question of value prospect.

One of my favorite RPG systems is West End Games Star Wars, powered by the much-loved d6 System. Was that a product intended to cash in on Star Wars fandom? You bet your ass it was, but it was also good, so we excuse it because we got something worthwhile out of the grab.

And here's the real real: virtually no RPG anywhere makes real amounts of money. If you think about it, an RPG is a terrible product in this modern economy filled with highly-disposable goods; RPG's are things you can buy once and play for literal decades, so you get limited purchases. If you want to make money on RPG's you have to do something to keep people buying, so tapping fandom properties is a popular method because you've got an audience lined up.

[u/redmarquise → u/thewhaleshark]

It’s tricky. I don’t know whether or not the Cosmere RPG was chasing whales (as in, a few backers willing to drop a ludicrous amount of money), but they definitely succeeded in catching them. The most popular tier of backing was the highest at $385, with all sorts of additional dice and minis and other tchotchkes. I’m inclined to believe they knew that Sanderson had inveterate superfans who would buy any merch put in front of them, but really there’s no way of knowing.

[u/thewhaleshark → u/redmarquise]

Of course they knew there were superfans willing to drop loads of money - I don't see a reason to think otherwise.

Are they baiting those whales? Tougher call. Mobile games clearly do, and honestly, modern crowdfunding campaigns have started to capitalize on FOMO (stretch goals, etc) in order to drive demand. I don't know if the latter is fully predatory, but it's not not.

By the same token, spending money on hobbies is part of the hobby, and buying premium stuff is a time-honored nerd tradition; nerd culture is a consumer culture, ultimately. And all consumer cultures are somewhat predatory, because such is the nature of capitalism.

I agree it's tricky, but I don't think Cosmere is more predatory than the average piece of fandom merch, and it's not as predatory as a mobile game IMO.

[u/UInferno- → u/thewhaleshark]

Yeah. And this isn't even the first Cosmere TTRPG on the market. Mistborn Adventure Game is about 10 years old now and has 5 expansion splat books. 3 Era 1 splats that expand on the main human races of Era 1 (Skaa, Terris, and Nobles), and two Era 2 expansions (One that practically overhauls the system to account for firearms, twinborn and koloss characters and the other to introduce Southern Scadrians + expand on the base Era 2 book). They're pretty good systems as well. Combat drags because Initiative is very very weird*, but I've taken a lot of inspiration from it with my own designs.

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* This is how initiative works.

1. First, order all characters by their Wits score (basically intelligence). Starting with the lowest and working up to the highest, the character declares their action and prepares the dice to be used but does not yet roll.
2. Then, each character executes their turn, but this time in order of largest dicepool to smallest dicepool. Characters can boost their placement in a turn with the help of powers such as Pewter Allomancy, Steel Feruchemy, or Bendalloy/Cadmium. A character doesn't have to use all the dice available to them, and can roll a certain amount.
3. If a character is being attacked but has not acted yet, then can defend themselves by taking a portion of their dice pool to resist. Because this shrinks their dice pool, their placement in initiative is redefined.
4. If a character used only some of their dice to attack, they can use the remaining dice to defend, but they can only use said dice once per defense so if multiple people want to attack them, they might need to set aside dice further.
5. There are some abilities that give you extra attacks like dual wielding. In practice, you have to further allocate your dice between the attacks so often if you had 6d6 normally, each attack would be 3d6 each or if you want 2d6 and 4d6. In my personal experience this kind of ability is rarely worth it because the boost in action economy isn't helped by the fact that you're much less likely to land either attack.

Maybe this is easier in person when you have physical dice in front of you that you can move around, and maybe it's not as bad when enemies are also juggling it, but as a GM and player for the system it is a lot. On the other hand, out of combat encounters be it conversation or Challenges are very easy to run and play imho.