How did you convince your group to try something different?

[aco175]

What is this other game you speak of?

Seriously, the only new game my group has tried in the last year is DC Heroes card game my brother brought. He and my son play in a monthly night with a couple cousins and they play several other games, but my father and I only seem to play D&D- and golf, which I picture like D&D but with some exercise.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

We are ending a campaign soon and the topic of 'what's next' has come up. One player wants to play ANYTHING but 5e. It is wearing a bit thin. One player hates playing anything that isn't D&D but, mostly, he dislikes one-shots. He'd rather invest in a character and see it through.

So, with that in mind, we are playing a new system and we are going to see how long it goes. The guy who only wants to play D&D either has to play or sit out. He'll play because he can invest the time into it and develop a story.

Side note: We're playing Blood & Doom which looks pretty awesome.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I simply state what I'm running. Take it or leave it.

Although I do not change systems often. The last two campaigns I ran (together, 96 weekly sessions) were the same system (Zwei/FoF), just different settings. I did switch to a different system for the current campaign, because Zwei/FoF doesn't do modern.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Side note: We're playing Blood & Doom which looks pretty awesome.

I can't testify to the value of B&D, but I feel I should point out that the entire system is currently free.

 

[Xamnam]

Fortunately, I generally just have to ask my friends if anyone is interested in the core concept. Hopefully I can get at least three people, but if there's only one or two, I can usually find folks amenable to being convinced. If no one is on board, I'll just pocket it to try again later, potentially with new friends.

Or I ask for it as a birthday gift. Might need to do that for UVG

 

[Yora]

When I start a new campaign, (usually )all players from the last campaign are invited. If less than four players are up for it, I'll go looking for additional players again.

Nothing they can do to make me run a game I don't want to do anymore.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I offered to run a one shot DCC funnel to some players that I knew.* If we liked it, then we could expand it into a campaign. I was willing to find new players at the FLGS if they didn't want to play. Lucky for me things went well and we're still playing.

*I actually dropped one of the players because he was flaky. Checked in with the group to be sure they were ok with this. I didn't say anything to him.... Just didn't invite him to the next session.

 

[Bagpuss]

“Why don’t we just play the system we all know we like?”

I don't like it and I'm the one making the effort to run the game.

To be honest I've never experienced this problem, I offer to run a game with whatever system I like and my group plays it, be it for a one-shot or a mini-campaign. My group would much rather the GM runs something they are interested in and passionate about than try and force them to run a system they don't want to.

I also run more obscure games at conventions and never have an issue getting players.

So not sure if this a real problem, at least I've never experienced in 40 years of playing RPGs. Maybe it's a US or modern thing or maybe I've been really lucky?

 

[johnmarron]

My current group was explicitly formed to play non-D&D games. I'm the primary GM, and run 90% of our games. My crew is used to me switching up systems for short runs, and we've played probably a dozen systems since we started 3.5 years ago, with our longest run being 6 months (Blades in the Dark). I'm not a 5E fan at all, so they know there won't be any 5E played on our game nights. Some of them play 5E with other groups, but this group is for trying out lots of Non-D&D RPGs.

 

[not-so-newguy]

So not sure if this a real problem, at least I've never experienced in 40 years of playing RPGs. Maybe it's a US or modern thing or maybe I've been really lucky?

I think a big reason for the difficulty is being willing to play outside of the circle of players you already know. That was obstacle for me, at least.