Re: Re: Cybergames plans for ME.....

[<srydzews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"There is no new material in the works....all of [my] time is devoted to the game that actually makes my company money. ME, even if we started putting out a whole slew of new books, will not make my company any money"

Ouch.  Well, fair enough. 

What I've heard so far:
1) HG should just give it away, then, and hope to make money off the supplements.  

You never make more from the supplements than you do from the rules.  This proposal is basically the reverse of the 'D20' approach.  While I'm not a fan of the D20 system, I think the business model behind it is sound.  At least, more sound than the reverse.  I can't imagine HG wanting to do this.

2) Let's design a new game (analagous to "let's put on a show in the barn!").

Er, I think we're on this list because we like the ME game, not some ME-like-game-that-studiously-avoids-being-ME.  Plus who's going to design it?  The list? Sounds rather like a rifle designed by a committee.

3) Jeff Pawlowski has a game.  It's great.  Or there's Porter's EABA

Well, okay, these may be great games.  If what we're after in ME is the setting, then other rules to implement that setting may be viable.  Although copyright again puts us in the situation of needing the setting to be ME-without-being-ME.  But in any case, I think what makes ME worthwhile and in any way distinctive is the rules.  We're going to throw those out in order to have some game to be named later with a 'technothriller' background?

Here's my thoughts: