Play Something Else

[Sparkle_cz]

Yes, it's good when people generally try new things to gain a new perspective of the world and become more tolerant.
No, it's not mandatory that they should do it in every field of their life including RPGs.

There are people who play RPGs for a very particular reason that helps them mentally. For example, people who are unlucky with relationships who want to play a RPG with a happy romance. Or a closeted queer person that wants to play a game about coming out to gain courage for it irl.
Or a person like me, who has a very demanding job in a field that I never liked but it is the only field where I am able to function with my health impairment and earn enough to support three kids. I have to learn and try new things at work every day. I am exhausted. I want an escape from this in a RPG. I want to play my beloved system, that I feel comfortable with, with my beloved friends who share the same life values as me, and with my beloved character that I made up years ago and write fanfic about him.

So please don't push and guilt-trip people like us into "you should try new RPGs or you are doing it wrong". It is harming us. We are already vulnerable and this isn't helping. If our life gets better (and I hope so), we might change our ways and might try something new, but this "getting better" will not be sped by you demanding that we switch to new games right now.

 

[Reynard]

So please don't push and guilt-trip people like us into "you should try new RPGs or you are doing it wrong". It is harming us. We are already vulnerable and this isn't helping. If our life gets better (and I hope so), we might change our ways and might try something new, but this "getting better" will not be sped by you demanding that we switch to new games right now.

I'm sorry you feel personally attacked by this thread, but I think it is quite a stretch to interpret anything in the OP as a demand or harm.

 

[The Soloist]

I'm sorry you feel personally attacked by this thread, but I think it is quite a stretch to interpret anything in the OP as a demand or harm.

Perhaps using 'you' in the OP makes it feel like a command for some readers.

If instead, the OP had been written using the first person 'I discovered by playing different games....' it would be perceived differently.

 

[Wolfram stout]

I have indeed. For myself I dove into Call of Cthulhu last year. I didn't get it to the table, but loved the Luck Stat.
I did get Dune to the table for House/Character Generation. While it made me appreciate Metacurrancy heavy games, there was not a lot of buy in as 2 of the players were not fans/familar with Dune.

But, in April Pendragaon comes out, so I shall try again.

 

[Sparkle_cz]

I'm sorry you feel personally attacked by this thread, but I think it is quite a stretch to interpret anything in the OP as a demand or harm.

It wouldn't be harmful if it was just this single post on this single forum. But I hear such opinions regularly and it adds up and it is frustrating. Even the pamphlet "Play unsafe" which came ages ago contained a similar kind of advice.

 

[Mannahnin]

There are almost always exceptions to any general advice.

Is it generally true that playing more than one RPG will give you broader perspective and enable you to think in new ways about how you game? That it can improve your gaming, enhance your appreciation for your original game or make it easier for you to recognize and address any issues you have with it? Or that it may open your eyes to something you enjoy even more, in the new game? Absolutely.

Is it also true that this is not a mandatory exercise, and that not everyone needs to do it? Sure. Of course. It's a hobby.

 

[Reynard]

There are almost always exceptions to any general advice.

Is it generally true that playing more than one RPG will give you broader perspective and enable you to think in new ways about how you game? That it can improve your gaming, enhance your appreciation for your original game or make it easier for you to recognize and address any issues you have with it? Or that it may open your eyes to something you enjoy even more, in the new game? Absolutely.

Is it also true that this is not a mandatory exercise, and that not everyone needs to do it? Sure. Of course. It's a hobby.

Also, if a suggestion doesn't apply to you for whatever reason, just let it not apply to you. No need to assume it is personally directed at you.

 

[Russ1728]

I agree with this 100%. There are so many good TTRPGs out these days, many with mechanics entirely different from games like D&D. Our group playing games like Blades in the Dark and the Alien RPG has opened our eyes to different play styles and genres. Even people who have only played 5E trying Pathfinder 2E could show them that there are different approaches to the same genre, but I think the biggest benefits come from trying entirely different genres.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Games I have tried other than my standard d20/shadowrun/earthdawn:

The Coyote & Crow system encourages multiple approaches overcome challenges which I like but it felt like a table-top version of a "quick time event" from a video game in the pre-made adventure. I need to revisit it to see if it was just the way those initial adventures presented things.

I always wanted the Deadlands playing card-based version to play better than it did but it wound up as fiddly as first edition Shadowrun.

Eclipse Phase is a wonderful setting but we've never found a percentile system we like. I'm real close to converting it back to Shadowrun or maybe Earthdawn. The setting can seriously make you question the nature of identity and personhood. And it can do a nice Call of Chtulu meets Terminator crossover.

Similarly Kult was so full of gooey horror tied to a mythology that poses strange moral questions, but again the mechanics were...meh.

I need to run Planet Mercenary and see how well our group does with a unit of semi-disposable characters.

I like the 3d6 Fuzion system used in Shards and that one edition of Champions, but it seems like no one else did.

I also need to dig out Black Magic, I have it from a kickstarter but forgot about it.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I like the 3d6 Fuzion system used in Shards and that one edition of Champions, but it seems like no one else did.

I did NOT like Champions Fuzion when it came out. How dare they get rid of all those lovely numbers!

Fast forward about 25 years and my house rules for Champions are looking very Fuzion-esque. I should really re-visit it to see how I feel about it now.