How hard is learning a new TTRPG system?

[Warpiglet-7]

I guess that’s the but I don’t understand. Where is the time burden? I’ve never experienced it to be more than a few minutes, even for brand new D&D players learning that fairly complex system. They’re playing pretty quickly.

(I mean for the GM, sure, they need to learn the rules so they can explain them as they go — but for players?)

Simpler games taught by others might not be bad but barring someone to teach, it’s more of a time sink.

 

[aramis erak]

One common reason folks choose not to play a different game to the one they’re used to is that they say they don’t have time to learn a new system. 99% of the time that’s about trying a game other than D&D 5E.

Im curious about how much time and difficulty folks perceive trying a different game is?

(Obviously games vary in complexity: I’m just asking as a generality.)

I change systems and settings every 3-6 months, while often running two different systems in my two groups. I used to do three groups a week, but my aging brain just isn't going there anymore - I wind up code-mingling rather than cleanly code-switching more and more. My only >6 month campaigns have been in D&D 5E, Cyclopedia D&D, FASA Trek, my home brewed alternate star trek (derived from FASA Trek)(with 8p at start and 12p+1h at peak), WEG Star Wars, FFG Star Wars.
My total campaign years, ignoring the session lengths, for FFG star wars exceed 9 years.

I've only had a few players who couldn't learn new systems - one of them my youngest (now adult) child - have not been so much unable as unwilling, and were diagnosed as being autistic.

My Wed group is largely excited about a january move to Dragonbane.

 

[DammitVictor]

Im curious about how much time and difficulty folks perceive trying a different game is?

(Obviously games vary in complexity: I’m just asking as a generality.)

Not just complexity but organization. Cortex is a very light and simple game, but it's murderous to learn without someone sitting down and just teaching you. AD&D and Palladium are very similar in complexity (and in general), but Palladium's a lot harder to learn because of its organizational issues. The massive success of Old School Essentials is credited largely to how well it's organized as both a teaching tool and a reference work.

But yeah, the right answer is that "it varies".

But... speaking in generalities, I'll say that no game is ever as easy to learn as your first game, and no game is ever as hard to learn as your second game.

 

[Yora]

This really depends entirely on the complexity, intuitiveness, and writing of each specific game.
Could be 30 minutes or 30 hours.

 

[Parmandur]

In my experience, not difficult.

I think what people often mean is "I really would rather play D&D rather than take time off from D&D to not play D&D." That is, they don't wanna play a different game or even genre.

 

[Staffan]

Not just complexity but organization. Cortex is a very light and simple game, but it's murderous to learn without someone sitting down and just teaching you.

I would say that that's because Cortex, at least in its current Cortex Prime form, is not so much a game as it is a toolkit for building a game.

 

[Temperantia]

I've been playing 3E D&D exclusively for 10 years, then moved on to other games. My own experience with this:

In general, trying to pick up the rules of different games from a book has been a bit harder for me than to pick them up during play.

The more different games you already played or at least read, the easier it will be to pick up more new ones as certain concepts tend to repeat themselves (Example: I've known Cthulhu and Runequest when I was invited into a group that plays Dark Heresy. I skimmed the Core Rules for twenty minutes or half an hour and then felt ready to make a character).

Unless you are playing a game at a table where intricate knowledge about perfect character builds is asked for, I feel it is not super necessary to know all of the core rule book at the start. Getting accustomed to how action resolution works is the most important part (What do I roll? How can I tell if my character is competent at the task?), the rest of the rules can come later and be explained when the situation arises by a supportive GM and group.

So, no, it's not difficult at all in my experience.

 

[Staffan]

The more different games you already played or at least read, the easier it will be to pick up more new ones as certain concepts tend to repeat themselves (Example: I've known Cthulhu and Runequest when I was invited into a group that plays Dark Heresy. I skimmed the Core Rules for twenty minutes or half an hour and then felt ready to make a character).

I definitely agree with this. I've been playing dozens of different games for almost 40 years, and most of the time I can look at something in a game and go "Oh, that's like concept X from game Y except for Z. Got it." In the few cases where I can't, I instead go "Hey, that's new and cool. Interesting!" which of course helps with learning it.

I think my gamer generation here in Sweden is more amenable to trying different games, as the then-dominant RPG publisher in Sweden published many different games – some self-produced and others translated – and pushed them through their more-or-less bimonthly* gaming magazine. So an issue could have articles both for their own Drakar och Demoner and Mutant, and also for their translated versions of Chill, MERP, and Star Wars. They also had a period where they actively presented different English-language RPGs in their magazine, exposing our young minds to such wonders. So pretty much every long-term gaming group I've been part of has had a number of people all owning different RPGs and cycling through them.

* That's the one that means "every other month", right?

 

[The Soloist]

I had a group during the AD&D2e period who refused to learn other RPG systems. For them, AD&D was a lifestyle choice. They didn't want to play RPGs, they wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons. They were satisfied with that. It was not about the difficulty of learning a new system.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

In my experience, not difficult.

I think what people often mean is "I really would rather play D&D rather than take time off from D&D to not play D&D." That is, they don't wanna play a different game or even genre.

I want to seem like a well rounded gamer but this is probably just true. Though for me if I had infinite time I would dabble. I don’t and D&D is number one so….