How Do I Escape D&D?

Although I’ve been writing games (and about them) for over 20 years, I haven’t done much for the Big One. I’ve done a few OGL bits here and there, a Dungeon article for 4e, and a run on the dual statted line for 7th Sea. I talk a lot about the other games that are out there on the panels and podcasts I get to be on and there’s always one inevitable question:

"I love this new game that I bought but I can’t get my group to try it. How do I escape D&D?"

That question has come up a lot on social media since the OGL 1.1 leak. Here are some of the options I’ve seen work well when I’ve suggested them to friends. Different tactics work well on different people so don’t be afraid to keep trying even if you strike out at first. I also hope folks will post their success stories in the comment to offer additional advice.

Don’t Trash The Mothership​

In trying to sell a new game, a lot of people make the mistake of comparing everything to D&D. Usually in a negative way where D&D does it badly and the new game does it well. True as that may be, remember that people have feelings about D&D and those feelings are often complicated. It’s better to focus on the positive stuff that a new game does without needing trash talk. Players are already making those comparisons when considering a new game.

Learn To Love The One Shot​

The true villain of any D&D game is logistics. There will almost always be someone unable to make it or nights where the current DM is unavailable. These nights can be opportunities to try out a different game to see if it vibes with a group. There are a lot of great starter sets out there that make this sort of game easy complete with ready made characters and a story that plays out in a session or two. There are also games built for this mode of play like Fiasco.

Check Out An Actual Play Of The New Game​

Critical Role gets a lot of press in this space but there are a few crews who play games other than D&D. Showing one of these games to a group will help them learn the rules and see what you like about the game. Of course, I would love it if you check out my crew Theatre of the Mind Players but there are some other great shows in this space like The Glass Cannon Network and One Shot Podcast Network among others.

Find The Right Fandom​

While there are a lot of fans of D&D, those fans are also fans of other things. Licensed games are your friend here. If you have a member of the group that’s based their current character on Aang or Spock, they are more likely to try Avatar Legends or Star Trek Adventures. Players into a genre will do the work on learning new rules because they want to experience their favorite world.

Switch Either Genre or System But Not Both​

Some people prefer to ease into the pool rather than jump in. For those folks, switching one element of an RPG might help with the change. Play fantasy with a different system like Savage Worlds or Shadow of the Demon Lord. Or choose another 5e game in a different genre. There are some excellent conversions out there like Doctors & Daleks or works like Everyday Heroes.

Build To A Season Finale​

Jumping out of an ongoing campaign can be frustrating to players who have invested into the story and their characters. Take a page from how TV networks run serial stories. Build to a season finale in the story: a big battle, a dramatic trial, a wedding full of intrigue. Give some storylines closure, hint at some new ones to come, but helping the storyline come to an end for not makes it easier to move to a different one. And, if nobody likes the new game, there’s always room for another season.

 

[MNblockhead]

Good advice and mostly tracks my experience, except for "switch genre or system but not both." I find it is easier to get people who are mostly familiar with D&D to get into a new system if it is not easily compared to D&D.

Being open to one shots or a series of several sessions allows people to try a new system without feeling like they have to make a long-term commitment to a game they don't know if they'll like.

For a while, gaming conventions were my main opportunity to try new games. But now, with online gaming, I've been able to regularly find and try new games using Roll20s find a game feature (mostly free) and StartPlaying.games (paid).

In terms of running games, I found that when I post on Meetup.com or on the bulletin board of my FLGS, I've been able to find people interested in trying one shots of various games.

With my regular gaming group, our main campaign will likely continue to be 5e or another D&D based system (I'm thinking Dungeon Crawl Classics). But I'll run one shots of other systems. Not all of my group will want to play all one shots (I have one player that just isn't interested in sci fi type games for example), but I can run one shots on the side with just some of the main group. Also, if a session of my main campaign has to be postponed because some players are not able to make it, it is good to have some one shots in other systems ready to go.

 

[MGibster]

One of the problems I sometimes run into is players playing the new game as if we were still playing D&D. i.e. They assume the the tropes that apply to D&D apply to whatever game we're playing. This problem can be even more pronounced when playing a different fantasy game. I was running Savage Worlds in a fantasy setting and one of the players missed my description of a giant. He suggested they ambush the giant and when the other players gave him a look of horror he's like, "What? It's not that big, maybe 15-18 feet high." No, this was a Time Bandits style giant big enough to wear a ship as a hat!

 

[Faolyn]

My group just started a SWADE game and our first session was a "non-canon" bar brawl to help us get used to both the system and power levels involved. It turned out to be really handy because a player decided to use their burst ability, aced, and basically turned three of the five opponents into ash. The GM then said the heck with us and just threw more and more powerful things at us so we'd know what our powers were like. It took us a few rounds to kill the Queen of the Ceiling Crocodiles but we got killed by the dragon.

So anyway, that might be a good idea when starting out with a new game. Do a quick playtest with everyone that has nothing to do with the actual game itself and let people try out their abilities. Then, when the game starts for real, they're not trying to understand the setting and the system all at once.

(I dunno, maybe this is what most people do with their session zeroes, but it was a new idea for us.)

 

[Thomas Shey]

One of the problems I sometimes run into is players playing the new game as if we were still playing D&D. i.e. They assume the the tropes that apply to D&D apply to whatever game we're playing. This problem can be even more pronounced when playing a different fantasy game. I was running Savage Worlds in a fantasy setting and one of the players missed my description of a giant. He suggested they ambush the giant and when the other players gave him a look of horror he's like, "What? It's not that big, maybe 15-18 feet high." No, this was a Time Bandits style giant big enough to wear a ship as a hat!

We used to see things like this years ago when we had people unused to RuneQuest coming in from a D&D background. They'd expect certain sorts of opponents be trivial to experienced adventures that weren't, and a bunch of other things (treasure on non- or marginally-intelligent opponents for example) that were just not the case.

It gets even worse outside the genre. I can't tell you how hard it is to get people not grounded in superheroes to engage with superhero games properly.

 

[aramis erak]

It gets even worse outside the genre. I can't tell you how hard it is to get people not grounded in superheroes to engage with superhero games properly.

Group viewing of some good supers of the type desired is useful...
... provided one can find movies or episodes with the desired tone.

Note that one might need to go back to 70's cartoons for certain styles which still exist in comics. (Space Ghost in first run was a certain substyle I've not seen on TV since Fat Albert left the air, a substyle shared with the Brown Hornet portions of FA - the mixed source supertech + natural superpowers in an interstellar setting.)

 

[Tbiafore]

This was not difficult for my group. We were all pissed at the OGL fiasco, so we all just moved to Pathfinder 2 and have been playing ever since. Problem solved.

 

[EthanSental]

This was not difficult for my group. We were all pissed at the OGL fiasco, so we all just moved to Pathfinder 2 and have been playing ever since. Problem solved.

So how many sessions is this move to PF2 in the last 10 days? Makes it sound like the OGL was months ago with the ever since portion.

 

[Hex08]

I hadn't realized this was even an issue for people until I saw similar threads here. Maybe I am lucky, although my decades old game group has picked up and lost players over the years it has been always mostly consisted of friends. In my group I have always been the one who bought the rulebooks and been the DM, there have been others that have come and gone who also ran games and bought rules as well but it has mostly been "my game". I don't think there has ever been a time where I said I wanted to run something new that anyone has objected, my players are generally happy to put themselves in my hands and play anything. There have been times when, after trying a new game, it hasn't been to some peoples liking and if it's not an issue that can be fixed we move on to something else but that is rare.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I hadn't realized this was even an issue for people until I saw similar threads here. Maybe I am lucky, although my decades old game group has picked up and lost players over the years it has been always mostly consisted of friends. In my group I have always been the one who bought the rulebooks and been the DM, there have been others that have come and gone who also ran games and bought rules as well but it has mostly been "my game". I don't think there has ever been a time where I said I wanted to run something new that anyone has objected, my players are generally happy to put themselves in my hands and play anything. There have been times when, after trying a new game, it hasn't been to some peoples liking and if it's not an issue that can be fixed we move on to something else but that is rare.

Though its pretty alien to me too, its pretty clear its a problem for a lot of people.

 

[OTHG]

Try bait and switch. Falsely advertise that you are going to run a 5e game and when everyone has signed the dotted line, switch systems. Tell them it's a streamlined version of 5e or some kind of double talk like that. Works like a charm.