#RPGaDAY2023 Day 27: “Game you like a new EDITION of…”

New editions are a pain in the backside, frankly. They are a clear commercial strategy primarily intended to raise extra income for the company that produces them. As a gamer, unless the new edition is genuinely going to improve the product, I don’t really want one thank you.

There’s quite a bit of new edition release at present, largely in the wake of the licensing furore earlier in 2023. Examples I’ve noticed (and purchased) include Swords & Wizardry Complete (Revised) and Basic Roleplaying.

I supported these new editions because I like the core systems of each and I enjoy supporting companies that do good stuff. But, as is often the case, I am not sure I gained enough from each new edition to truly warrant a new edition.

A lot of the time I suspect the new edition is what’s keeping the game in print and the company afloat. These are worthy reasons from a commercial standpoint. They are less worthy from the perspective of the paying gamer.

Which brings me to the question of whether there’s a game that I would like a new edition for. The short answer is no. But I will place a caveat on that because there are games for which I’d like to see a re-designed introductory set.

GURPS desperately needs a starter set designed to introduce people to the game in a way that doesn’t involve super high-powered play and all the options in the no-so-basic Basic Set. The core of the game is very simple but the extensive encyclopaedic approach of Fourth Edition is off-putting and confusing to neophytes

By way of comparison, Basic Roleplaying benefits from the excellent Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest starter sets which introduce specific genre treatments of the core system. GURPS needs something like this: pre-packaged and very cool introductory sets that you can run with a neophyte. No, not Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game which is still too much.

The question of a new GURPS edition to achieve a freshening up of the product range worries me. When a game has been around for 20 years, you accumulate the books and you don’t want substantive change to the system. In my view, as with the shift in edition in 2004, the changes would need to be enough to warrant the reinvestment.

Which raises the question of whether the commercial benefits of a new edition can be replaced by a re-issue, much like the smaller revisions done to Castles & Crusades between the reprintings. Fixing errata and improving small details is a valid reason to re-issue a core rulebook and it’s nice to see fresh artwork as a part of that.

Unless of course the publisher really does seek to radically re-design and seek to improve an old game. I just think that it’s important to spell out those big changes up front so everyone can make an informed decision. After all, D&D’s editions have had a rocky history around communicating the change.

Game on!