Why do you play games other than D&D?

HoodedRat575 said:

Because to be blunt I think DnD sucks compared to games like Vampire the Masquerade and having it as my first TTRPG almost made me think I didn't like TTRPGs. Purely my opinion and maybe I'll give it yet another go some day but it grinds my gears that people just end up (really through little fault of their own) equating TTRPGs with DnD when there is so much more out there.

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Welcome to the forum, Hooded. Way to throw down the gauntlet! Just FYI, it seems we moved on from this conversation six years ago.

I don't have any single game that's my goto; haven't in years. I'm not generally a great fan of the D&D style paradigm (classes/levels/elevating hit points/etc) but even that isn't hard and fast a I'm finishing up a 13th Age campaign. But in the last few years I've run BASH UE, Fragged Empire 1e, Mythras, Savage Worlds and Cortex Prime, and my next campaign will be likely Eclipse Phase 2e.

Whoops, didn't realize this was a massive necro.

HoodedRat575 said:

Because to be blunt I think DnD sucks compared to games like Vampire the Masquerade and having it as my first TTRPG almost made me think I didn't like TTRPGs. Purely my opinion and maybe I'll give it yet another go some day but it grinds my gears that people just end up (really through little fault of their own) equating TTRPGs with DnD when there is so much more out there.

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One thing I learned getting an MBA was that the #1 predictor of success in a market was being first in the market.

Another thing I learned getting an MBA was that the company that company or product that’s the most successful in a given market often has its name become a generic term for all products in the market, at least to the general public. See Xerox, Kleenex, Aspirin, and Coke, among others.

The nookie. (j/k). I like modern conspiracy/weirdness and bio-terror a lot. Stuff like The Andromeda Strain, Bureau 13, Fringe, Resident Evil, X-Files, etc. They're easily my favorite genres outside of fantasy. And D&D (of any stripe) is a poor fit for those genres. People have tried to hammer various editions of D&D into those shapes and, frankly, all of the results were poor.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Another thing I learned getting an MBA was that the company that company or product that’s the most successful in a given market often has its name become a generic term for all products in the market, at least to the general public. See Xerox, Kleenex, Aspirin, and Coke, among others.

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Have to be careful though, because if the name gets TOO popularized/generic then you risk losing your trademark

I generally consider 5e a toolbox versatile enough to be my go-to ruleset. But the focus on combat abilities for PCs is its main limitation, so for stories where combat is very marginal (e.g. investigation/mystery) or where you want situations that don't fit with combat-attrition rules (e.g. poiting a gun at someone), I'll look for other rulesets. In 2025 the only other game I played however was Call of Cthulhu.

Morrus said:

So why do you play games other than D&D? What is it that your game of choice does that makes it the best fit for the stories and genres you're playing with?

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Other than in D&D-inspired derivates, I haven't seen "class", "level" or XPs in any of the fantasy that I like to consume. BECMI Basic and Expert were among my first purchases, but never played as the alternatives I had beat it. I did play a little AD&D 1st and 2nd because friends played it, but I pulled several of them over to my table where I ran skill-focussed games like RuneQuest (3rd edition, as I started roleplaying a year too late for 2nd edition goodness). That's obviously more than 3 decades ago. I stuck with the D100 games as I can improvise the fiddly bit without a sweat, but I also enjoyed side trips to other, less rules-heavy games, including dice pool mechanics (WEG Star Wars, World of Darkness) and narrative ones like Dresden Files Fate or HeroQuest/Questworlds.

I am alternating between BRP D100, M-Space (a Mythras-derived homage to the Traveller-style space opera) and Questworlds for my ideas and projects.

I find that D&D is so disconnected from everything I like that it's all but completely useless to me as a system. Classes and levels and HP bloat don't line up with anything even remotely resembling reality, so I can't use it to play the "realistic" a-historical games Iike. The most recent version is so inundated with magic I can't use it to play the low magic fantasy I prefer. It's no good at emulating any other media that I know or want to emulate, including it's own novels, so I can't use it for that. Most of all. I dislike minis combat games, and the newest version is basically just a minis combat engine, so I would have to abandon the majority of the rules, or tweak or mod them, in order for the system to be useful for the kind of games I want to run. I also don't buy in to the utterly false mindset that D&D is the most flexible and versatile game ever made, because it really isn't, unless I want to spend hours and hours of my life homebrewing stuff, which I don't. So yeah, while D&D isn't the worst TTRPG ever made for a guy with my preferences, it's close to it. That and I happen to be a very good reader and have a knack for learning TTRPG systems, most of which are way easier to understand and utilize than D&D. So, yeah, that's why I play other games. They are way better for the themes, eras, genres, tones, gameplay, and emulation I want when playing TTRPGs.

Own Rules.. Simple one.. Easy to run.. Once I didn't have d20, so I rolled 4d6 instead..
This is "skeleton of realistic game".. And sorry for my english, I wrote this instantly from my mind..

Weapons, shield, etc. can be added..
Powers? In realistic world? Shift in realistic world?
Heal? Yes, it adds Health Points, but its more like Adrenaline, when you near death, so you do not feel pain at all..
Here we go..
Ability mod roll (Example: Str mod Roll; Dex mod Roll..) means.. You roll 1d6 x mod (Example: 1d6 x mod: 3 = 3d6)


ABILITIES

4d6, drop lowest


Strength

• Melee Attack; Thrown Attack

Constitution

• Health Points

Dexterity

• Ranged Attack
• Defense
• Initiative

Intelligence

• Weapon Durability

Wisdom

• Heal

Charisma

• Buff

ACTIONS

• Character can use one Attack Action and one Movement Action per turn in any order
• Character can swap Attack Action to gain additional ½ character's Move Points for Move Action (Run)
• Defend is Free Action
• Buff is Move Action
• Heal is Move Action

INITIATIVE

• 1d6 + Dex mod
• If few characters or enemies has same result, they re-roll, to see who start first among them

ROUND

TURN



MOVEMENT POINTS

• All characters start with 6 Movement Points
• Character cannot move diagonally
• Character cannot move trough ally or enemy
• As part of Move Action, character can move before and after Attack (Example: Move 2, Attack, Move 4)

LOCK

• If the character is next to the enemy and wanna move away from enemy, or to the another square next to the same enemy, the enemy decides if enemy wanna use Lock
• If enemy do not wanna sue Lock, the character can use all remaining Movement Points
• If enemy wanna Lock enemy, both roll raw 1d6

Result:

• If result is same, they re-roll
• If character has better result, character can move up to character's Movement Points
• If enemy has better result, character can move up to character's Movement Points - the difference in the roll result

ATTACK

Character can Attack only on character's turn

Melee: Weapon Dice Roll + Str mod Roll + Weapon Power (read Weapon Durability rule)

Thrown: Weapon Dice Roll + Str mod Roll + Weapon Power (read Weapon Durability rule)

Ranged: Weapon Dice Roll + Dex mod Roll + Weapon Power (read Weapon Durability rule)

Dice results:

• 1 and 2 = Miss
• 3 and 4 = Half point (Two half points make 1 Damage, one half point do not deal Damage.)
• 5 = 1 Damage
• 6 = 2 Damage

(Character can melee Attack only characters 1 square away and in line. Some weapons have Reach, then character can attack 2 square away in line, and 1 square away diagonal)



DEFENSE

Character Defend on enemy turn, as respond to enemy Attack

Defend: Armor/Shield Points + Dex mod Roll + Armor/Shield Dice

Dice results:

• 1 and 2 = No defend
• 3 and 4 = Half point (Two half points make 1 Reduced Damage, one half ponts do not defend Damage.)
• 5 = 1 Reduced Damage
• 6 = 2 Reduced Damage

DAMAGE

Final Damage is equal to Damage - Reduced Damage



SURROUNDED

• -1 Defense Die when there are two enemies next to the character

OUTNUMBERED

• -1 Defense Die when there are tree enemies next to the character
• Outnumbered character is Surrounded in the same time, so the character get total -2 Defense Dice

RANGE

• Thrown and Ranged weapons do not have penalty to Attack within 6 squares
• Further than 6 squares, Thrown and Ranged weapons get -1 Attack Die penalty per 6 squares

COVER

If the character use Thrown or Ranged Weapon and Attack enemy that is behind ally, enemy, or some another obstacles, Attacked enemy gain +1 Defense Die per ally, enemy, or some another obstacle



HEALTH POINTS

3x Constitution + 3x Con mod



WEAPON DURABILITY

• Weapon Durability is same as Int mod
• When character have at lest one Weapon Durability, the character can apply Weapon Power to the Attack
• With every Attack that hits enemy and deal Damage, character loses one Weapon Durability
• When Weapon Durability is reduced to zero, the character cannot benefit from Weapon Power anymore

HEAL

• Character can use Heal per combat, equal to the Wis mod
• Character can use Heal as Move Action
• When character use Heal, the character regain 1d6 Health Points

BUFF

• Buff is same as Cha mod
• Character can use Buff as Move Action to give ally at least +1 Additional Dice
• Character can use Buff on any ally withing 6 squares of character
• Character can give ally any amount of Buff he wants (up to cha mod)
• Ally that received Buff must use Additional Dice in next two turn, if not used Additional Dice perish
• Ally can use Additional Points for Attack or Defend, and can even save Additional Dice for another turn if want
• Buff Additional Dice stack

INJURED

• When character is reduced to zero Health Points, the character cannot play until end of fight. If all allies are reduced to zero Health Points, they are all dead.
• If allies won the battle, character can recover, but roll 1d6 to see permanent Injuries.
• Character can have max 3 permanent Injuries, after that, character just recover after battle and do not get any new permanent injury.

Results:

• 1 = Left Leg (-1 Movement Point.. Etc)
• 2 = Right Leg (-1 Movement Point.. Etc)
• 3 = Left Hand (-1 Attack Dice.. Etc. Can lose hand..)
• 4 = Right Hand (-1 Attack Dice.. Etc. Can lose hand..)
• 5 = Torso (- Max Health Points)
• 6 = Head (Lose ear, -Hear Skill; Lose Eye, - ranged Attack Dice)

WEAPONS

Short Sword (Light)

• Attack Dice = 3d6
• Weapon Power = Copper +1;(or) Bronze +2;(or) Iron +3
• Thrown = Max range 12
• Can use Dex mod instead of Str mod for melee Attacks (not Thrown Attacks)

Long Sword (One Handed)

• Attack Dice = 5d6
• Weapon Power = Bronze +2;(or) Iron +3
• Can be used with two hands, +1 Attack Die

Great Sword (Two Handed)

• Attack Dice = 7d6
• Weapon Power = Bronze +2;(or) Iron +3
• -1 Movement Point
• When roll odd number of 3's and 4's, last half point can be used as 1 Damage

ARMORS

Light Armor

+1 Defense Point, +1 Defense Die

Heavy Armor

+2 Defense Points, +1 Defense Die, -1 Dex mod, -1 Movement Point



SHIELDS

Light Shield

+1 Shield Die



Heavy Shield

+1 Shield Point, +1 Shield Die; -1 Dex Mod



WEAPON COMBINATIONS

• Character can use two Light Weapons. Rolls are made combined (3's and 4's from one weapon can be combined with 3's and 4's from another weapon)
• Character can use one Light Weapon with One Handed Weapon. Rolls are made separately (3's and 4's from one weapon cannot be combined with 3's and 4's from another weapon)
• Character can use two One Handed Weapons, but each weapon get -1 Attack Die penalty. Rolls are made separately (3's and 4's from one weapon cannot be combined with 3's and 4's from another weapon)
• Light Weapon or One Handed weapon can be used in combination with a Shield.
• Two Handed weapon cannot be used in any combination.

Skills? 4d6

Some interesting..

Int for Crafting Weapons.. To fix Weapon after battle, and regain some, or all Weapon Power..

Cha for communication, even among players.. If they do not agree, they can roll 1 against another 1d6 + Cha mod, and result says where to go next, or what to do with an captured enemy etc..

Wis for collecting plants, crafting heal packs, maybe even curing permanent injuries..



Saving Throw?

4d6

4-14, Fail

15-24, Success