What Game Did You Leave D&D For?

Ratskinner said:

I'm very much a system tourist. I probably couldn't successfully list all the systems I've tried on the first go. I'm constantly disappointed and amazed at how so many different systems are just D&D "in disguise". (maybe a different rolling mechanism; maybe HP are renamed; lists of lists of lists of weapons, vehicles, races, etc.) So few games and mechanics actually add anything new or impressive to the play at table, and so many fail at delivering the "better story" promises that they make....ugh.

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I don't mind fantasy heartbreakers too much. There can be a time and place for them. However, I kinda loathe the Big Six attributes and the over-reliance on them in game design. This often negatively impacts my enthusiasm for a lot of "D&D in disguise" games. (Including True20, Dungeon World, and Stars Without Numbers.)

That said, I there are two relatively popular systems that I think do much better than D&D for me (YMMV, obviously): Fate and the Apocalypse World Engine games. With Fate, the aspects system lets you roll right past most of the listy-ness of other games. And! it has the added benefit of making all the narrative matter in ways that D&D just can't seem to match (Otherwise, the base mechanics aren't terribly impressive, although the Stress/Consequences system meshes with narrative much better than straight HP). Similarly, the PbtA engine forms a very tight loop with the narrative, making for (potentially) very fast play. If I had to "leave" D&D, it would probably be for Fate, with PbtA a close second (especially if I can wrap the second generation version found in Blades in the Dark.)

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I would love to try (and possibly hack) Blades in the Dark. On the upside to PbtA, BitD has more dials, knobs, and nuance (e.g., position, effect, tiers, devil's bargain, etc.), but, unfortunately, that also IMHO works against it. It makes a crunchier game which is often not what I am looking for.

I have also seen a number of new Fate games that have adopted PbtA/BitD playbooks, but as what they call 'mantles': Dresden Files Accelerated, Uprising, and Storm & Sail. I like the approach of this last one, which was authored by YouTube channel Red Dice Diaries, as it entails picking two backgrounds that form your character bundle.

After D&D (4e) I've been playing FFG's Star Wars, 13th Age and Pathfinder.

Of the three, I think I enjoy Star Wars the most and Pathfinder the least.

Star Wars somehow has just the right mix of mechanics and narrative elements for my taste. We've only played one-shots, though, not a real campaign, so I cannot say how well it works with high-level characters.

Pathfinder constantly reminds me why I stopped playing D&D 3e, except it's even worse: Trying to figure out how some of the rules are really supposed to work is a real chore. It's lots of book-keeping for very little fun.
Thankfully we started early to house-rule the system, adopting some of the things that were great in 4e, like simplified movement and quick healing.

I'm not sure yet how much I enjoy 13th Age. It's awesome on paper, but it doesn't always translate into great game sessions. Maybe it's also a problem with my group, though, who are almost all new to RPGs. It very much feels like D&D 4e 'lite'.

Jhaelen said:

Star Wars somehow has just the right mix of mechanics and narrative elements for my taste. We've only played one-shots, though, not a real campaign, so I cannot say how well it works with high-level characters.

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The only 'level' acknowledged in the system is 'knight' when you reach 300xp. But without any other tiers or structure built in, there is really no difference. Its not like you encounter tougher monsters or find better equipment. You just play out the stories as long as you are interested in telling them.

Dawn of Rebellion has an excellent chapter on structuring campaign arcs like a TV series. Treat each session like an episode, highlighting the main plot and one of the character's subplots. Each character should get two 'epsiodes' during the campaign, which should elude to the next campaign arc. Thus, each arc is like a season of the show. Highly recommended!

Really enjoying D&D 5e these days. Running 2 campaigns and playing in one. Saving a lot of games to run when the energy for 5e runs low.

I left D&D for about 12 years and ran WFRP during the 2e era. Left D&D for a few years during 4e - played an assortment of games. Odd-numbered editions seem to work best for me.

The Fantasy Trip. It was 1982. I started playing a few other people's favourite games about then too, such as Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, and Rolemaster, Bushido, Champions….

D&D was my first role-playing game. I've tried leaving it many times. Mostly for short flirtations where I imagine that I've found a new go-to fantasy RPG, only to be dispelled of the notion after one attempt at running it. (Savage Worlds, Fate, Fudge, Risus, Tephra, Victoriana, Barbarians of Lemuria, Castles & Crusades, 7th Sea, Lord of the Rings, and The One Ring are all sitting on this heap in a great, big unceremonious pile.) Honor & Intrigue managed to pull me away from D&D for a good three months once, back in 2015. But my single longest absence lasted from 1998–2005, when I had left D&D first for AD&D, and then for 3rd edition. Otherwise, my attempts to leave have never really taken, and I'm still just playing D&D again all these years later.

Well, I started at the very end of AD&D1E and played AD&D2E for quite a few years, but I've always been interested in many other games.

Sprinkled in between 2E campaigns were Call of Cthulhu, WEG Star Wars, Warhammer FRP, Earthdawn, Shadowrun, CP2020, GURPS and a few other oddities (mostly one-shots).

Now I have way too many RPGs, way too little time, but I'm gonna be able to start two campaigns very soon. One is a campaign with experienced players and I'll be running my new favorite system, The One Ring. The other is mostly beginners (half the players will be playing their first ever sessions) and I'll be using Basic Fantasy set in Mystara.

DO PAthfinder and clones count? Otherwise we play Star Wars *WEG D6 or SWSE) usually as a break from not as a D&D replacement.

What game did I leave D&D for? A lot of them...

Started back with the three little booklets in the '70s, but by the time I could afford any of the following editions, I got into all kinds of other things, helping set the pattern of my regular group (yes, there's a couple of folks from that time who are still in/back to my regular weekly group!) of rotating GMs and exploring rules sets...Melee/Wizards/Fantasy Trip for a little while, Traveller, Space Opera, CoC, Dragonquest...and so on. I never really played any actual D&D between after those original three little booklets until 4e, other than occasional con events.

I was big into Hero System for many years, until it became just too much work (and I had issues with the way they handled 6th ed.) - though it included my longest-running and most successful campaign ever (which migrated from Justice, Inc. through to 5th ed.). Had a good time with Deadlands, 7th Sea (1st ed.), Savage Worlds, 007, Star Wars d20 (especially Saga edition!) and a bunch of others.

4e drew me back into D&D, and my group still has three 4e campaigns open - I think the gridlocked tactical system brought out the long-forgotten wargamer lurking in a couple of us. D&D5 sounds good, but it's not a big enough draw for us, and there's no way I'm going to convert from 4e - might as well start from scratch.

In general, I've gone from number-crunching precision (i.e., Hero System) to looser action-movie style games (Feng Shui, Torg) that still have enough crunch to matter. Straight-up storytelling games can be fun, but by the end of a session, I find myself wanting to play with stats and numbers and dice. 7th Sea 2 is about on the far edge of what I'm comfortable with right now.

We've got a good half-dozen or more open campaigns we rotate through: besides 4e, we currently have two 7th Sea (one by land and one by sea), a co-GM'd Feng Shui 2, a couple of Fate-based things, and Torg Eternity. Yeah, we're a big group (7-9 depending on campaign), and almost all of us take turns at GMing. We have it good that way.

If I remember correctly, I left D&D for Dogs in the Vineyard. Or, more precisely, a 2 year long D&D campaign burned me so hard that I couldn't run a game for several months. Then I encountered Forge boards, read several games created there and fell in love. DitV was the first one of them I ran.

Dogs are not my main game nowadays; I prefer variety. I currently play in a fantasy campaign using Fate. I ran a series of adventures for my co-workers, each one with a different game, to show them what RPGs can offer. We went through Mouse Guard, Dogs in the Vineyard, Strike, Nobilis and recently Capes. In the meantime I also ran and played Masks, Ironsworn and a few others.