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.

 

[GMMichael]

. . . If it's not going to be D&D, make it light, i.e. easy to pick up and try.

What doesn't (sometimes) work: bait and switch!

 

[FoolishFrost]

. . . If it's not going to be D&D, make it light, i.e. easy to pick up and try.

What doesn't (sometimes) work: bait and switch!

What? Lying to your players isn't a winning strategy? I don't believe you! Are they not chattel to dance for my amusement?

 

[RareBreed]

These are good pieces of advice. I have to admit, I'm not good at the first one. It's like trying not to complain when there's a rock in your shoe; it's too painful to endure anymore. That being said, I haven't been in a gaming group in a long time. Thank goodness for solo RPGs

The funny thing is that there are many analogies between getting a group to switch to a new game system, and getting a bunch of software engineers to try a new programming language or framework (eg, javascript -> typescript, or angular -> react).

• Don't trash the mothership: No one wants to hear the language/framework they invested their career in sucks or is obsolete
• Learn to love the one shot: Don't try to replace your major project; start with a small component or library and build from there
• Check out an actual play of the game: If another team in the company is using it, look to them, or have internal meetups to discuss
• Find the right fandom: Hook them in with a very popular 3rd party tool that uses the tech you want to use
• Switch game system or genre but not both: Languages can be broadly grouped as Object Oriented, Imperative, Functional, Logical, etc. So try to transition to a language that can at least work within the same style (eg don't go from Java to Haskell)
• Jump to a season finale: Wait until your current project is at a good inflection point (for example, there's so much tech debt to upgrade to a newer version of your current language, that you may as well switch over to something else entirely)

But I think with gaming, instead of a career investment, it's more of an emotional and monetary investment. People can become attached to a game setting/system just like fandom can get attached to say Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who or the MCU. There is a monetary component too, especially for GM's. Buying all the rules, supplements, miniatures, accessories etc etc can get quite expensive. While some items might be reusable like miniatures for other fantasy systems, there's still a monetary cost too.

Who knows, maybe one day, someone will create a subscription service that allows access to a variety of rules, supplements, etc, for a monthly fee. While you would never own anything, at least you could try out many more games than you normally would.

But fundamentally, I think it's the emotional attachment to a system that needs to be addressed. As Yoda said:

 

[Jer]

Learn To Love The One Shot​

Build To A Season Finale​

I like both of these and go one further - experiment with short campaigns. Players who only know D&D think of new games as long term commitments because of the way D&D's leveling system encourages thinking about campaigns over a long term. Letting players know up front that you expect a series to go 6-8 sessions max rather than being an open-ended campaign can go a long way to getting player buy-in IME.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I prefer shorter campaigns in general. In d20-terms, games that run 5-10 levels). Longer campaigns feel like they're full of padding between the interesting dramatic beats, and shorter ones you don't really get time to explore your character.

Having said that, it does annoy me when people say that it's fine to ignore higher level play. If you're not going to support half of your levels, just... don't include them in core. Shadow of the Demon Lord and a bunch of the d20 OSR games only go levels 1-10 by their core books, and they all work fine.

 

[Emirikol]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I believe that ONE-SHOT is really the underused tool. Many GMs feel the need to plan out long campaigns and you've got to get players on board. Have some pre-gens and if a player wants to make a character (one of those min-maxer type players) let them have at it. Run a one-shot adventure (a session or three) and see if it sticks. Then repeat with a different game system so that players have more than one thing to compare against D&D.

 

[Cergorach]

Switch game system or genre but not both
I do not agree with that! Like, at all! A game system is a 'nice to have', but imho not the reason why you change games. The same old stuff just with different rules is boring as all heck! A long, long time ago my 'school' group started with HeroQuest, moved to basic D&D and then moved to AD&D 2E and eventually to 3E and 5E, we've played some Shadowrun and Vampire: The Masquerade, but we always came back (eventually) to D&D. Sure, both those games have fantasy elements, but one is in the cyberpunk genre and the other is the very first in the gothic punk genre, imho very far removed from 'classic' D&D.

Why did we play those other games then? Because sometimes you need a break from your D&D and these games had things that interested most of us in the group and the rest was willing to go along with it. I think that is way more important then anything else! If you want to play something else, make sure that it's something that the rest of the group also finds interesting enough to want to play when the eventual D&D break shows up. That means understanding the rest of your group, asking what they like, discussing what they like, etc. Also be open to things others want. If you're shooting down things others want (to do), changes are that they'll also not be open to things you want to do...

I also played Mage and some Werewolf with an older group I was part of (along with The Dark Eye, D&D and AD&D 2E), but never with my 'school' group, there was some interest, but mostly from the perspective of how they interacted with the Vampire part of that universe. There was also some interest in Earthdawn, but again mostly from how it interacted with Shadowrun, but the general consensus was, if we want to play fantasy, why not D&D (why learn another complex rulesset)? And there's a plethora of other RPGs I've acquired over many years, we had a decent amount of Star Wars fans in the group, but never played the Star Wars RPG. One other person was interested in Battletech and the Mechwarrior RPG, no one was interested in Heavy Gear, Middle Earth (I.C.E.) while there were quite a bit of LotR fans in the group, etc.

What I do agree is that you don't badmouth D&D, you show what's different, but that isn't necessarily better (just different). Lending out the core book around the group is pretty much a necessity, it having a good presentation (cool art helps a LOT) is pretty essential, people must want to read it.

Or what we did recently, 35 years after we started, one person doing a 'oneshot' with the potential of doing it for more then one session if we like it. Thus we played Kids on Bikes, creating the character during the session. It was lots of fun! BUT as usual, DMs/GMs sometimes get burned out or in this case don't have time to prepare for the next session, this gives others an excellent opportunity to do something else, so next time we're back to D&D (5E), someone else DMing.

 

[Faolyn]

Most of this is solid advice, but I'm not sure about "Switch Either Genre or System But Not Both". My experience is rather contrary to that and willingness to try out new rules was notably higher when also switching genres, whereas with fantasy, people trended to gravitate back to D&D (at least among those who liked D&D and were not already looking for something else).

Yeah. I think that it would be easier to move fully away from D&D than just take a step and get a nice clean start with something new.

Unless the other fantasy game is sufficiently different from D&D. Like, an only humans setting (or no humans), or one with no spellcasters, or one that isn't vaguely-European based.

 

[robowieland]

I'm glad that folks disagree with the single genre/system shift. I have personally found it the least effective but I also have cutivated playgroups that are more open to trying out brand new games. I've seen some groups that have to take things a bit more slowly, often heading through something like Pathfinder or Starfinder to get that one person who doesn't want to give up their system mastery. It's most effective for tablew where there's the one person who just can't let go of D&D.

 

[robowieland]

I like both of these and go one further - experiment with short campaigns. Players who only know D&D think of new games as long term commitments because of the way D&D's leveling system encourages thinking about campaigns over a long term. Letting players know up front that you expect a series to go 6-8 sessions max rather than being an open-ended campaign can go a long way to getting player buy-in IME.

Agreed. I structure my campaigns like TV seasons. If we're enjoying it, we can always come back rather than the expectation being all 20 levels of play to the bitter end.