I just read in a "StackExchange" (whatever that is) someone's answer to a question about alternatives to Fudge dice (c. 2010), and my name was mentioned: "There is more than one Fudge die roller on the internet. Gordon A. Cooper's roller is simple and easy to use." My old Javascript dice roller on Fudgery.net (R.I.P.) was linked in the comment. Ah, the days when a few people could find my Fudge essays and Javascript random generators in search engines... Any search of "Fudge RPG" or "FudgeRPG" now yields little more than endless links to FudgeRPG.com or Reddit. The independent blog articles and resources have largely disappeared from results, and Creative Reckoning is nowhere to be found unless the search terms are quite specific. I know some of this is symptomatic of the eclipse of Fudge by other games, but the continuing sabotage of search engines by their owners is compounding the situation. I shan't belabor the point, but the only way to reverse this trend might have to come from the grassroots level and a different approach. I hope a Fudge community still exists to find it.
There's a lot of love for Fudge out there, and a good deal of favourable reaction whenever new players hear about it, but it's an older game with no budget behind it. The official forum is practically dead. These things make it hard for a game to be heard above the roar of the crowd.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I think a grassroots movement is needed. A concerted effort to run Fudge scenarios at more conventions would probably help.
DeleteThe Fudge forums are quite dead, but there are small yet active Fudge communities on Reddit and Discord, and an official Facebook page. Also, Blood Sweat and Steel is a nice Fudge based published game. Bottom line, Fudge is not popular but not dead either
ReplyDeleteAlas, Reddit and Discord are incompatible with my preferred ways of interacting via the Internet. I would rather see a re-establishment of Fudge blogs and perhaps the birth of Fudge zines.
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