Traveller Is In The Mainstream

Mongoose Traveller got noticed on Friday 2015-06-19 by a Guardian author in this article.

Roleplaying is slowly encroaching upon the mainstream consciousness, and I'm pleased to note that Traveller is in there. Sadly, they didn't mention any other Mongoose games - Legend, in particular -but baby steps, people.
 
The field of fantasy role playing games is a lot more crowded than that of science fiction space settings. You have Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, among others.
 
Just need the History or Science channel to do a show talking about role-playing games. They both have done documentaries on superhero books and sci-fi novels in the past. Start with interviewing the main RPG designers (and their historians) from Mongoose's Designers & Dragons.
 
Star Trek is pretty darn popular. So is Star Wars. Toys, cartoons, computer games, chess sets, Halloween costumes, and so forth. So there are pen and paper RPG games where people are very well aware of the name and the setting.

A typical computer RPG is not identical to a pen and paper version, some may say it is in some ways better. Computer, including phone, RPGs are becoming more and more engaging, open ended, and there are a few that are quite popular and have been for over a decade. I do not think it likely pen and paper versions of a RPG will become "mainstream". If one looks at the whole, I think RPGs in general are already mainstream.
 
"Lots of video games got made for TV."

I was supposing the animated Battletech was based on the original minis/RPG game and things like the cartoon and video games are offshoot merchandise from them.
 
"I think RPGs in general are already mainstream."

They went mainstream back in the Eighties when they became as well known and popular as old time board games. Schools had RPG clubs, they sold like hotcakes, the media was in a frenzy. Too many people today forget how far back RPGs go as if they're some new phenomena from the 2000s. Not everything mainstream needs a movie to prove it.
 
Reynard said:
"Lots of video games got made for TV."

I was supposing the animated Battletech was based on the original minis/RPG game and things like the cartoon and video games are offshoot merchandise from them.
The video games were the rage at the time the TV show was being produced. Most gamers didn't even know a pen and pencil version existed before then. Virtual World was the craze in 1994, with their mechbot simulator rides everywhere running on Mac computer networks.

Then Windows 95 came out, which put them out of business because anyone could then setup a LAN party at someone's house and do the same thing (minus the servo-rides).
Reynard said:
"I think RPGs in general are already mainstream."

They went mainstream back in the Eighties when they became as well known and popular as old time board games. Schools had RPG clubs, they sold like hotcakes, the media was in a frenzy. Too many people today forget how far back RPGs go as if they're some new phenomena from the 2000s. Not everything mainstream needs a movie to prove it.
Depends a lot on what your definition of mainstream is. In the US, mainstream media is ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC. Are any of those networks broadcasting anything RPG related to at least a 9,000,000 audience?
 
Either a movie or a HBO series.

You need a story that will portray events in the Third Imperium that would resonate with a general audience, or just the Terrans kicking the Vilani butt after nearly getting overrun, maybe in a trilogy:

1. A New Frontier

2. The Imperium Strikes Back

3. The Return of the Jets
 
CosmicGamer said:
Star Trek is pretty darn popular. So is Star Wars. Toys, cartoons, computer games, chess sets, Halloween costumes, and so forth. So there are pen and paper RPG games where people are very well aware of the name and the setting.

A typical computer RPG is not identical to a pen and paper version, some may say it is in some ways better. Computer, including phone, RPGs are becoming more and more engaging, open ended, and there are a few that are quite popular and have been for over a decade. I do not think it likely pen and paper versions of a RPG will become "mainstream". If one looks at the whole, I think RPGs in general are already mainstream.
Star Trek is the Traveller, what Lord of the Rings is to Dungeons & Dragons.
 
Outland, Star Wars (not the prequels), Battlestar Galactica (Original movie and not the remake), Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard movie version the theme tune for the opening was awful!), Earth Star Voyager (I suppose this counts), Orin, The Legend of Starchaser (I think that's what it was called!), lord there must be dozens that apply some maybe as well as Firefly!

Outland since it to me is Traveller at its most basic and a one shot game at that!

Star Wars always struck me as a Traveller game that later attempted to go back to explain its past... badly and quite probably by someone else without a clue about what the original evolved from.

Battlestar Galactica escaping the fall of civilisation and attempting to rebuild with the ultimate sandbox!

Buck Rogers throw in a survivor from before the apocalypse and have him run into his fellow players with one running an android or robot, another running Wilma (well wouldn't you?!) and so on...

Earth Star Voyager an attempt to try an exploration sandbox that ended after the first set of sessions with them realising what they're fighting against but felt like running something else and never bothered coming back to continue this!

Could go on and looking above I certainly have! :oops:
 
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