Is there a space for my game?

#1

Been toying around with a new game idea (see below)

Hexen - 3 Factions of Supernaturals vs the Overlord.
Rebellion themes, help your loved ones, resist the Overlord (and his militia), struggle with your humanity/hungers, three rebel factions with competing goals. Lycans, Vamps, Magi, Geist PCs.

but im wondering does the world need another game with vampires and werewolves?

im not doubting my ability to create a functional game, i’m just wondering if there is a finite tolerance to variations of a theme.

one of the differences is its set in a middle ages setting, instead of modern, but is that different enough?

perhaps I should focus on a reskin of Urban Shadows?

guessing others have felt this way about their potential games at some point?

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#2

Would you play it? Then there’s space.

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#3

YES the world needs “”””another””””” game with vampires and werewolves!!!

But what are you gonna say with these vampires and werewolves? Is this a game about isolation, otherness, holding a dark mirror up to humanity, violence, desire, consent, or the erosion of self? Or is this a game about a power fantasy and rebellion? If it’s the latter, your game probably has more in common with various modes of fantasy or superheroes than the supernatural. And in that case, no, there probably isn’t a need for another one on the pile.
But dig in more! Why are vampires and werewolves, who across folklore are enemies, teaming up? What’s that relation like, the restrained predation of a vampire and the base violence of a werewolf? Why do the mages even need these other groups and how does that (sociocultural/class) power dynamic play out — prey with the ability to overcome the predator? GHOSTS on top of all of that!
This is different from US, but make the rebellion background noise. Steal from cyberpunk.

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#4

Much food for thought. Thank you very much. :slight_smile:

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#5

Yeah, I think I’d turn the question round the other way. What would your game do that you can’t already find out there? What would it do differently? And if you do think a reskin of Urban Shadows would do it, then you can do that! I got the chance to play in @Alun_R’s Dark Ages hack/reskin of Monster of the Week the other day, and that was great. It was cool to see how much reframing the playbooks and the context for some of the moves made it feel different, even if it wasn’t that mechanically distinct. (I don’t know MotW well enough to spot all of the tweaks Alun may have made :sweat_smile:)

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#6

This is the advice that I gave out years ago when I was (and still am) working on my own monster game. In a world with Monsterhearts and all the WoD and CoD games, should I put out my own?

The answer is yes.

It’s your voice on that subject, so yes there is space for it.

Now you need to be conscious of what those other games are saying, so that you’re not just repeating them verbatim. But your own spin on what that particular topic means to you is something to get out there.

The only thing to think about is tampering your expectations. If there is a large player in the field, know that it’s going to impact you on the business end. If you are making a fantasy game, know that it may not get the attention you think it should have because that audience is already occupied by playing D&D, Pathfinder, or the other fantasy games that are out there.

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