For those who have embraced new systems/games, what was the deciding factor?

[Thomas Shey]

I think this would have been a good option for the poll as its also the one I would pick:

I have a campaign in mind and the new system supports it better

That's really key for me; picking the best tool for the job. Sometimes a campaign is a common enough sort of things multiple systems are "good enough", but sometimes there are elements needed that I don't want to have to bolt on myself.

With dedicated setting systems I'm usually going to assume the designer knows what his setting needs (though I'm usually approaching a few cases where I'm not certain but that the designer may have a tendency to use one system they like for everything, or where there are external reasons they'll tend to go with it--the fact that either D&D5 or PbtA is attached to a setting-specific game doesn't necessarily tell me they were genuinely the best choice someone could choose for them, for example).

 

[Black Dougal]

I chose other.

I always enjoyed other systems just like I enjoy a variety of board games, video games, genres of book, movies, etc.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I chose other.

I always enjoyed other systems just like I enjoy a variety of board games, video games, genres of book, movies, etc.

“Enjoy trying new systems” should cover that.

 

[John Dallman]

My Wednesday evening group has been going over 25 years. It runs two campaigns on alternate weeks, with different GMs, and most of us GM some of the time. In recent years, we've mostly played GURPS 4e, but one of our campaigns is currently Honor & Intrigue.

This choice was made by the GM for that campaign, Chris. He is outstandingly skilled at character optimisation, and sometimes doesn't appreciate that other people don't find it as important as him. He very much wanted a more "cinematic" feel with less realism than GURPS - the combat sequencing system for his self-written RPG was designed round making your actions look like a TV action sequence. I couldn't play that at all - my sight is poor enough that I don't even try to watch TV - and I literally could not understand what he was trying to get us to do. Everyone else found it hard, so that campaign did not last.

Honor & Intrigue is a simple system that's reasonably flexible, and everyone's reasonably at ease with it after about 60 sessions.