Out with the old (Game design traditions we should let go)

[Mezuka]

There is no need to let anything go because the diversity of available RPGs is so wide these days you can choose exactly what type of system you want to play, which was not possible 20ish years ago.

(edit) There is no advancement in the original Traveller, which dates back to the beginning of RPGs.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

Class. Level. Zero to Hero. Readily available magic. Thousands of monster species. Multitudes of PC races.

OK I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing D&D isn't your favourite game.

 

[loverdrive]

Parties. Everybody and their mother tries to shoehorn PCs working (and often even travelling) together for exactly zero reasons.

 

[kenada]

Other than pointlessly specific skills that no player has real reason to ever take, none of the things listed here are inherently bad. They all can be useful tools for specific purposes.

However, the question was not, “What game mechanics are inherently bad?” It was, “What would you put out to pasture?”

And I did do exactly that in my homebrew system. (Not that it was particularly difficult since not only does old-school D&D do what I want, but there are also plenty of modern systems that do so as well.)

 

[Endroren]

Collectionism, officiality and novelty. None of which the RPGing hobby truly need.

I'd actually love to see this. I really like the idea of unique gaming experiences that don't have to continue on forever. I LIKE long campaigns and interconnected worlds and all of that, but I really do like the hobby aspect and the "one shot" story idea. The first Mutant Year Zero book had this vibe - like you'd buy it, play it, and finish it.

But since it sounds like you are a publisher, it is impossibile for you not to look at those as opportunities.

Not necessarily. Opportunity is creating something new people want to buy and have fun with. It doesn't have to fit those. In fact, in terms of novelty, we're a HUGE believer that more of what we already love (done right) is a good thing. You don't need to completely break the mold to make something awesome.

But it actually sounds like you're trying to find an idea for removing or replacing a core rule or mechanics mainly. Nothing wrong with creating a new game or variant, I would always welcome variations of the gameplay, and if you're lucky you can create a successful longlasting branch of the main.

Actually, I was just mulling this over as a gamer. We're using 5E for our stuff and putting out an awesome classic fantasy setting. Just me overthinking my hobby in this case.

 

[Endroren]

The only traditions I've been happy to see go are social: gatekeeping, nerd and geek being pejorative, lack of diversity at the game table, etc.

Seems to me in a way you really are answering the main question. And it makes sense - from your point of view the stuff that most needs to go isn't mechanical or story or genre specific. It's more about the social elements of our hobby culture. I gotta say I agree with your feelings on this.

 

[Endroren]

There is no need to let anything go because the diversity of available RPGs is so wide now you can choose exactly what you type of system want to play, which was not possible 20ish years ago.

(edit) There is no advancement in the original Traveller, which dates back to the beginning of RPGs.

I actually agree that there is a lot of diversity out there. What this came out of was discussing how in the 50's/60's/70's people struggled to imagine a science fiction future without smoking. It just got us wondering about what things do we accept as necessary when in reality we should move beyond. So yeah - I've played those games where it's done differently - just having funny thinking about these ideas.

 

[Yora]

However, the question was not, “What game mechanics are inherently bad?” It was, “What would you put out to pasture?”

And I did do exactly that in my homebrew system. (Not that it was particularly difficult since not only does old-school D&D do what I want, but there are also plenty of modern systems that do so as well.)

I think they are all tools that still have applications. The use cases for which they were designed still exist, and I can't think of anything that is both a tradition and has been superceeded by a better newer tool.

"d20 + modifiers against DC" is obviously superior to whatever TSR did with attack rolls, but that's a single specific mechanic, not a design tradition.

 

[Lanefan]

No levelling is for example one thing I'd be looking forward to, as I've said many times that I find the typical fast levelling of RPGs a distraction from the actual game for many players. I myself often tell my players to forget levelling up until the current adventure is over, so that they don't make in-game decisions in anticipation of what new abilities they should acquire next, or do silly things like going on a rats hunt for XP.

There's a way to both have and eat cake here, IMO, if instead of no levelling you go with extremely slow levelling as the default, and not very many levels (maybe 5? 10?). That way, more options are opened: a short campaign might never have its PCs level up during its run, a longer campaign would see some slow advancement, and any DM worth their kitbash should easily be able to find a way to speed advancement up should that be what the table wants; and in any case the framework and rules for higher levels would already be in place.

The risk I see in a no-advancement system is that you'd then need 15 different games (thus fragmenting the player base) to represent the different degrees of PC and-or opposition power that roughly map to today's levels - in other words, you'd need a game that approximated 0th-level play, another game for 1st-level play, and so forth up to near-supers-level play.

 

[Reynard]

Parties. Everybody and their mother tries to shoehorn PCs working (and often even travelling) together for exactly zero reasons.

While I wouldn't "get rid of" parties, I would like to see more RPGs where the base assumption was something other than all for one, one for all. Imagine an office environment RPG where the PCs are team members on a project but only one gets the credit and promotion at the end, and someone is getting cut. Lots of opportunities for drama there while still having PCs all be "together" for practical play purposes.