Admit it, you've wanted to.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

Walter Gretzky, father of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky

Right Game, Wrong Crowd

Legacy of the Cage is a Sports Sim (?)

My game is a sports sim game, not a TTRPG. It took me 3 years to realize this.

audible facepalm

It was always a miss in fantasy TTRPG focused communities. Discussion there focuses on HP, the core 6 attributes, d20 rolls, and stat blocks. LotC has none of this. In fact, I was almost embarrassed to bring my game up in these places because of the roleplaying focused discussions therein. Who wants to talk about spreadsheet fistfights in the middle of a riveting discourse on non-combat DnD sessions?

Yeah, nobody.

Open Door, No Customers

The two audiences do not collide in meaningful ways. The Venn diagram of "hardcore sports sim fans" and "diehard stream-actor DnD players" is almost two separate circles. It's like going to the country music show to promote your death metal bad. Some small percentage of extreme music fans will get it and say "ah, cool, man keep doing you," while the rest will be confused or happy to ignore it.

Realization Time

In my gut, I didn't want to admit the game was a sports sim. I was playing DnD, Starfinder, and Blood Bowl during the pandemic when I designed it. I wasn't playing Strat-o-Matic Baseball or APBA Football (on my TODO list). They weren't even in my vocabulary, ironically, when I started designing LotC. Even I thought those games were too nerdy.

Yeah, imagine that.

Anyway, I found my crowd now. Three years later. And, honestly, I'm all in. These players LOVE this stuff. I cannot make the game crunchy enough to satiate the need for more detailed numerical chaos.

I failed to recognize the blind spot I help my UX product clients with daily: you don't have a product if you don't have an audience.

Lesson learned.

Check your bias. Open your mind. Build your dream.