Direction - Strive/Modify/Break/Quit

#1

Gooday.

Figured i’d throw together some thoughts here as a way of sorting options, hopefully others can offer insight, and maybe someone else has gone through similar.

Last year I released Conjure Hagalaz, my investigation-espionage game in a fantasy setting. It’s gone through a few revisions, got playtested online and in person, ‘modified pbta’ lets call it.

The game does what it intends too, but any time i offer to run it, I get little interest.

So at some point I have to consider do I keep striving with it, modify it, take a break, or just quit and work on other games.

There are a number of potential factors affecting it -

  • it came out without kickstarter so is under most peoples radar

  • it is in a fantasy setting, so perhaps has a perception battle of 'why bother when dungeon world/5e (worlds greatest rpg don’t you know!?) is already out there

  • i’m the only one running it

  • i didn’t take it to metatopia (im in australia) so missed the in-crowd there

  • maybe it’s simply took setting/game rules in a direction contrary to current game evolution?

  • bad timing, people were jumping into Blades in the Dark

  • the market is flooded anyway and its hard for any non-big name game to get up and keep going?

  • its 2 thirds pbta, 1 third trad stuff. so maybe people want just pbta or just trad?

  • it was playtested alot over 6 months, instead of over 2 years like some of the other indy games.

  • the setting is provided, and while its very easy to learn with quick over views and space to insert your own stuff, the perception of premade settings =tons of lore to download.

  • I don’t think it’s my MC/GMing, since if I offer MOTW it fills super quick.

i’ll probably think of more factors once i hit Create Topic, but that’s it for now. Thanks for your time.

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#2

I’d start by considering giving it a new name that better explains exactly what’s going on with it.

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#3

Okay so the first thing I notice, is that if all I heard was “Conjure Hagalaz, an investigation-espionage game in a fantasy setting”, I personally, would not be very interested. As @JimLikesGames points out above, the name itself doesn’t conjure up any evocative imagery for me or make me want to know more. You say the game does what it intends to do… but what is that? The best I can tell is that it is familiar investigation mechanics in your home-brew setting. If it is not that, I think the pitch might need something else to differentiate it and change that perception.

Secondly, and this has a lot to do with my personal preferences, but I actively don’t like investigation or espionage (or mystery) games. This is entirely a thing about me. I am usually pretty open to trying something out at least once. But for me, I specifically would want to know more about makes this an “investigation-espionage” game up front. I would want to know how this game might present the genre in a way I might enjoy, or at least give it a try.

What are the ideal goals you would have for this game?

  • That it sells X number of copies?
  • That it gets run and played by folks, other than you?
  • That it becomes a recognizable name?
  • That your name becomes recognizable, from this game?
  • To get reviews for it?
  • To get a fan community around the game?
  • To get fan created content for the game?
  • To create supplements for the game?
  • To get a physical off-set print run created?
  • To do a Kickstarter for it?

The fact that you want to still work on it, tells me that right now you don’t think it lives up to your expectations. I would try to figure out what those expectations are, and think about whether they are reasonable expectations. Whether you actually care about them that much now that you examine them. Whether or not you might be able to achieve those goals and desires with another project.

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#4

it’s funny I never thought of the name being an issue, but I see your point.

possible alternatives are Agent-Supernatural, and Investigator-Explorer-Agent

as for goals, I never expected it to be the next D&D or even Dungeon World
but say 2-5 other GMs running a 4-6 ep series a year, sure that’s achievable?

i’ve already created two add on books (legacy and tragedy) which can easily be used with 5e/DW with little conversion

every session someone has said they love the setting/world, and its more about sharing that setting/world than simply gaining a big name, this is not a wealthy community or industry so I have no illusions there.

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#5

If the setting is what players love about the game, then the setting is what you should be pitching. In your original post, the only thing you told us about the setting is that it’s “fantasy.” In TTRPGs, fantasy settings are a generic default. Nobody’s going to pick up a game and say “oooh, this one has a fantasy setting!” Grab us with what it is about your specific setting that is cool and unique. And I’ll echo Jim and Yoshi on the name – I’m sure once you know the setting, “Conjure Hagalaz” is a meaningful name. But to someone considering playing with no background knowledge, it might as well be called “My Game.” The name gives you a golden opportunity to tell people what it is about your game they should be excited about.

That being said – there’s no shame in treating this as an experience that built your design chops, and moving on to the next project that excites you. It’s a cliche in the literature world that you publish the second book you write.

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