Is Fudge A Dying System?

Is Fudge a dying system? This has been brought up on more than one occasion. Lots of gamers do not know about Fudge, and there are not many products available for Fudge in comparison to the plethora of products available for d20 games. New material for Fudge is not being produced at a very regular rate either.

So is Fudge a dying system? Yes. Yes it is dying, because unless the community is growing the game is not being played. If the game is not being played then the game is dying. My observation is that the game is not being played by many gamers.

Now for the good news: Fudge is not dead! The big difference between dying and being dead is that you may be able to save that which is dying, but dead is dead.

With the recent Day of Fudge and the current One Month Fudge Adventure Challenge I see the Fudge community gathering around the patient and doing their best to save Fudge. You know what? The patient is responding, and getting better!

Activity over at the Fudge RPG Community is increasing as is the membership. More Fudge games are soon to be released, and I know from personal experience that when I run games of Fudge for people who have never played it before (some who have never played an RPG before) that the game sparks their interest. That first exposure to Fudge is all it takes for them to want to download the free PDF and to start diving into Fudge.

Ann Dupuis, owner of Grey Ghost Press and current holder of the Fudge license, has been a great supporter of these types of events. She has sent bricks of Fudge dice to be given away to players, as well as promotional materials. My correspondence with other Fudge publishers has always been positive as well, and without fail they are willing to forward promotional materials to me for me to hand out at my Fudge related events. These are the sorts of things that truly help to keep a game system going strong. You cannot rely on just your existing fans, you need to go out in search of new fans as well.

So is Fudge dying? Yes.

Will Fudge die? Never. There are too many people looking out for it to prevent that from happening.

Is Fudge making a comeback? Only time will tell, but it looks to me like it is. Now is the time to get on board with your own Fudge project, because the momentum is here, and the time is right. Too many people are working hard on too many projects for there not to be some great results. I would not be surprised if by this time next year that there are some great Fudge products on the shelves and an even stronger Fudge community.

What do you think? Agree, disagree? Share your thoughts by commenting below, and let everyone know what you think about the current state of Fudge.