The Business: Macris Has Josh Peters On To Talk RPG Design Beyond the D20 System

Monday night, while Dunder had the gang on for the Diplomacy after-action panel, Macris had Josh Peters of FTL Nomad on to talk non-d20 System design.

FTL Nomad claims: "These rules present a streamlined, though detailed and comprehensive, role-playing game suitable for a variety of settings. The primary focus is on interstellar adventuring, but Faster Than Light: Nomad (FTL: Nomad) also supports nearer-future cyberpunk and interplanetary games, as well as the intergalactic escapades of distant-future heroes. The key word here is “adventure” - everything these rules contain was written from and for the gaming table. So, gather your friends, order your favorite fast food, and prepare to play the heroes and villains of the stellar future!"

"Traveller Not Traveller" is a good summary of what this is.

If you had to not use D&D as your basis for a game, going with the analogs for D&D in a different marketing category is the smart play. For space adventure, that's Traveller. For various horror stuff, that's Call of Ctuhlhu. You get the idea.

The problem that people run into is that there is sweet fuck-all liminal space in the hobby. Making something that isn't for The Game That Matters is already an Herculean ask; making it for something that is not adjacent to The Game or one of those analog properties either needs to be an external tie-in (Star Wars, Robotech) or be part of a larger media strategy (BattleTech, Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles).

If you're in this for commercial reasons, that's the hurdle you need to surmout. Given how things are shaking out, I would reconsider being a commercial enterprise.