How hard is learning a new TTRPG system?

[Thourne]

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.)

About as hard as changing a shirt for our group.
We have lots of them. We often wear one out and replace it with a new one.
Sure we have our favorite worn in comfy ones but we keep shopping.

 

[darjr]

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?)

It can be the time playing a new game, learning by playing that is. Though learning a new game outside of playing can be a burden too.

They know what they like and they might not like this other thing and it'll take four hours or so to find out, when they could be doing the thing they already know they like.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

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?)

The availability of a GM to guide and instruct new players does indeed make a huge impact on learning new games.

 

[overgeeked]

It's kind of asking the wrong question. The amount of effort is greater than zero. That is clearly enough to stop most people from learning a new system. It's the sunk cost fallacy, really. They put this much time, energy, effort, etc into learning this system...so why do that all over again with a different system. Especially when you can so easily find a 5E hack that does whatever genre or style you want.

You can see evidence of this in all the hacks people make turning D&D 5E into various other genres and styles of play. It's easier for a designer or a referee to hack the game system, create all new races, classes, spells, items, etc for 5E and hand that to players and get them to play that than it is to get most players to try something that's not 5E.

You also have a large group of gamers who flat out refuse to trust the GM to know the rules and must themselves read, study, and memorize the rules of a game before they'll play. The idea of "trust the GM to explain things as you go" is anathema to them.

 

[darjr]

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?)

I have to say, it is a problem for many people. We game with gamers, but ask a non-gamer if they'd like to learn a game and I think you'd get a response akin to some peoples response to learning a new game.

 

[Bagpuss]

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?)

Yeah the time burden is definitely there for whoever runs the game, but like you I can't understand players making that excuse.

 

[The Soloist]

It's not hard to learn a new system. As long as the group understands the core mechanic the rest can be learned as they play. It takes about one or two games to get it right. Often there is a player who is very good at learning new systems and helps the GM.

 

[darjr]

There is a natural resistance to new things for a lot of people, learning a new game adds to that with a cognitive burden too.

It's why I stress that the evangelists of the hobby need to find those that are already pre disposed to be receptive to the hobby. Instead of just evangelizing the game to everyone.

 

[Bagpuss]

You can see evidence of this in all the hacks people make turning D&D 5E into various other genres and styles of play. It's easier for a designer or a referee to hack the game system, create all new races, classes, spells, items, etc for 5E and hand that to players and get them to play that than it is to get most players to try something that's not 5E.

It really isn't easier to do all that design work, maybe a little easier for the players, but usually it will be a lot more work to make a hack than use an existing system, and often you end up stuck with a lot of the tropes of D&D which don't suit all genres.

You also have a large group of gamers who flat out refuse to trust the GM to know the rules and must themselves read, study, and memorize the rules of a game before they'll play. The idea of "trust the GM to explain things as you go" is anathema to them.

Not sure it is that large a group, I've certainly met a couple, but that's in decades of gaming, with lots of different groups and people.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

If you think learning a new game is hard then I don't even want to know you.