…putting together a PDF of a campaign concept from a third-party RPG setting that nobody plays anymore. Especially since I don’t have the rights to do anything commercial with it, which means I cannot sell it. And I cannot in fact go get the rights, because I don’t have the money and would feel the need to ask yet more unwelcome questions that would be very ill-received. Tell me the smart idea is to work on something else.
Because I’ve been thinking about doing it anyway this evening. Like, a lot.
“And I cannot in fact go get the rights, because I don’t have the money”
Devil’s Advocate says you don’t know how much the rights are till you ask. They might be happy to give them up, or give a cheap flyer to rebuild interest in the property.
Part B) Do it anyway for personal satisfaction. If you find it rewarding, that non-monetary compensation should be enough justification, and no one can prevent you from enjoying a game you paid for in a non-approved manner. The rights holder is not Major League Baseball (I think).
I popped in to say Part B.
Sometimes a man just needs a hobby free of the financial consideration. Would be a shame if all your creative work were burdened by The Gig™.
They are not interested in giving them up, and do not actually like me.
Well see, this is the story I want to read now. Write this one.
The smart idea is to work on something else. The key here isn’t the money. The key here is that no one plays that RPG anymore, so working on a campaign for it won’t bring you any reward. It would be like making video games for a Commodore 64. You’ll end up having more satisfaction building a campaign for a game that people actually play. Even if you don’t make any money at it, you’ll still be able to see if your campaign is fun.
Does no one want to play it anymore or are all the old players just hungry for new material? In which case you could light a fire of demand, invigorate the market and become Facebook famous.
Nobody plays it anymore.
Alternate plan if the idea really won’t leave your mind no matter what. Apply the idea to a different set of rules and set your campaign out according to those rules. I’m willing to bet there’s multiple games systems for just about any genre you can imagine and doing even a little bit with it might exorcise the idea from your mind and leave it free to work on your other projects. 🙂