Anything wrong with just playing D&D?
- Thread starter johnsemlak
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billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Psion said:
I would say it's THAT very attitude that makes someone a small-minded simpleton. D&D is an excellent game for many applications... though I would agree that it's not the best system for all types of play and all applications. And in those circumstances, I prefer a different tool.
For me, while I"ll always come back to D&D I occasionally like to try something different. As for different genres, I have to say that personally I don't like classes and levels for nonfantasy games. Something not right about it. So that kills most of the d20 games. Don't like inflating hit points either for nonfantasy games.
So what systems do I think are good? I love the Cinematic Unisystem used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Same system used in Angel and the upcoming Army of Darkness. Its fast, easy to learn and use, and captures the feel of action-packed movies and TV shows. The system just fades into the background like nothing else. You could take a nongamer and hand them a Buffy sheet and they'd have a decent understanding of what their character could do, as opposed to the arcane numbers and acronyms of a D&D sheet.
I also like GDW's house rules - the rules used in the Twilight 2k, Merc 2k, and Dark Conspiracy games. They were out of print after GDW went under, but another company has started printing them again. This is my pick for a realistic game. There's been sessions where my character took a shot in the leg. He didn't just mark some points off, he spent the rest of the game laying in the back of the truck crying for mommy
. Don't get shot.
I'm not a fan of Storyteller. I love the concepts and settings, but dice pools and death spirals leave me cold. I'd play mage in a heartbeat though. Many WW fans I've talked to consider it the best White Wolf has put out.
So what are you missing out on? Well, system does matter. D&D has certain conventions, things that Work or Don't Work because of the mechanics. If you want to change those conventions you have to change the mechanics.
So what systems do I think are good? I love the Cinematic Unisystem used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Same system used in Angel and the upcoming Army of Darkness. Its fast, easy to learn and use, and captures the feel of action-packed movies and TV shows. The system just fades into the background like nothing else. You could take a nongamer and hand them a Buffy sheet and they'd have a decent understanding of what their character could do, as opposed to the arcane numbers and acronyms of a D&D sheet.
I also like GDW's house rules - the rules used in the Twilight 2k, Merc 2k, and Dark Conspiracy games. They were out of print after GDW went under, but another company has started printing them again. This is my pick for a realistic game. There's been sessions where my character took a shot in the leg. He didn't just mark some points off, he spent the rest of the game laying in the back of the truck crying for mommy
. Don't get shot.I'm not a fan of Storyteller. I love the concepts and settings, but dice pools and death spirals leave me cold. I'd play mage in a heartbeat though. Many WW fans I've talked to consider it the best White Wolf has put out.
So what are you missing out on? Well, system does matter. D&D has certain conventions, things that Work or Don't Work because of the mechanics. If you want to change those conventions you have to change the mechanics.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
johnsemlak said:
Ah, I see. I was thinking HIGH SCIENCE fiction rather than higher tech science fiction.
You could still pick up the Star Wars d20 RPG, ditch any reference to Jedi and the Force and Force skills and use it for a Star Trek or Star Frontiers oriented game. This way you get a very familiar game AND it includes rules on starship combat that would be useful to have. Or use d20 Modern.
WizarDru
Adventurer
There's certainly nothing wrong with only liking D&D or d20. If you're having fun, then that's all that's important. Those of us who've played so many other systems have, as Henry said, been doing this for a long time and have (or had) a lot of free time. I played GURPS for 15+ years before returning to D&D with the advent of 3e. Now I rarely venture outside it.
EDIT: Which he pointed out between my typing and hitting the send button. Stupid work, interfering with my posting!
I agree with Numion on this one. d20 CoC is, IMHO, a better game, with nicer production values. Either game will work fine, since most of the tone and feel are dependent on the DM, not the system. And I prefer D&D to the clunky Runequest-based system that CoC used.billd91 said:
Actually, he said 'high' science fiction, not 'hard'. In other words, more space opera and Lensman, less hard-SF and Orbital Decay.billd91 said:
EDIT: Which he pointed out between my typing and hitting the send button. Stupid work, interfering with my posting!
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Well that and I'll mix up other stuff too! 
der_kluge
Adventurer
alsih2o said:
Couldn't have said it better myself.
John - you're not alone there, buddy. I've played: Shadowrun (at least 4 different campaigns), Cyberpunk (1 game - we all died), Star Wars (West End Games version) - I even GM'd Star Wars briefly. 1 game of "Chill" (sucked), some BattleTech (good for one shots), and lots and lots of D&D.
I'm like you - I always come back to the game I love. I've just never had a desire to play anything other than that. Life's too short to play crappy role-playing games.
Narfellus
First Post
d20 systems
I've played D&D since first edition, Star Frontiers, Cthulhu, Gamma World (the old one) Runequest, Palladium, and good ol Heroquest (which to me looks like an early forerunner to 3.5 miniatures and battlemaps). Of all the systems i like d20 the best, not because others are bad, but the rules, for our group anyway, took such a LONG time to master that we don't really want to bother doing it again.
That said, i love being able to pick up another d20 system and use it without learning a whole new ruleset. Other posters mentioned the d20 Call of Cthulhu, and here is what i did; when the book came out in 2002 (?) i bought it and the older version and some sourcebooks from Amazon. So, we used the cleaner d20 rules, but spliced with the flavor and tension of the old game. Yeah, the new Cthulhu does make it more action intensive, but the monsters are still so powerful that investigators will still get eaten unless the Keeper gives them "D&D" special abilities (which my playes begged for; they didn't want to be Elder God fodder.)
I've heard that Ars Magica has a great magic system (i like Midnight's spell points myself) and Unearthed Arcana next month from WoTC might have a good spell system. Darwin's World gets great reviews, but like others have mentioned, so long as you're having fun i suppose it doesn't matter whether you branch out or not.
I've played D&D since first edition, Star Frontiers, Cthulhu, Gamma World (the old one) Runequest, Palladium, and good ol Heroquest (which to me looks like an early forerunner to 3.5 miniatures and battlemaps). Of all the systems i like d20 the best, not because others are bad, but the rules, for our group anyway, took such a LONG time to master that we don't really want to bother doing it again.
That said, i love being able to pick up another d20 system and use it without learning a whole new ruleset. Other posters mentioned the d20 Call of Cthulhu, and here is what i did; when the book came out in 2002 (?) i bought it and the older version and some sourcebooks from Amazon. So, we used the cleaner d20 rules, but spliced with the flavor and tension of the old game. Yeah, the new Cthulhu does make it more action intensive, but the monsters are still so powerful that investigators will still get eaten unless the Keeper gives them "D&D" special abilities (which my playes begged for; they didn't want to be Elder God fodder.)
I've heard that Ars Magica has a great magic system (i like Midnight's spell points myself) and Unearthed Arcana next month from WoTC might have a good spell system. Darwin's World gets great reviews, but like others have mentioned, so long as you're having fun i suppose it doesn't matter whether you branch out or not.
Wombat
First Post
There is nothing "wrong" in like D&D, even to the exclusion of all others.
D&D is not my favourite game, but it is the easiest one for me to set up and get rolling, in that it is a known quantity. I prefer other games and would play them more often (indeed, I am probably weening my group away from D&D over the next couple of months), but I find that there are three systems that a majorly popular (D&D, GURPS, and WW/Storyteller), none of which are my faves, but are the well-known ones that a lot of people are generally willing to play.
The thing is, as long as you are happy with your game, what does it matter?
If you like D&D and loath Ars Magica, cool! Go for the gold and I hope you have fantastic games from here on in!
If, conversely, you want to play another game, or multiple games with multiple systems, also cool! Go for the gold and I hope you have fantastic games from here on in!
My whole thing is promoting rpgs in general
D&D is not my favourite game, but it is the easiest one for me to set up and get rolling, in that it is a known quantity. I prefer other games and would play them more often (indeed, I am probably weening my group away from D&D over the next couple of months), but I find that there are three systems that a majorly popular (D&D, GURPS, and WW/Storyteller), none of which are my faves, but are the well-known ones that a lot of people are generally willing to play.
The thing is, as long as you are happy with your game, what does it matter?
If you like D&D and loath Ars Magica, cool! Go for the gold and I hope you have fantastic games from here on in!
If, conversely, you want to play another game, or multiple games with multiple systems, also cool! Go for the gold and I hope you have fantastic games from here on in!
My whole thing is promoting rpgs in general
Desdichado
Hero
Of course there's nothing wrong with only playing D&D. Just like there's nothing wrong with only watching Star Trek re-runs, or only watching classic Star Wars movies to the exclusion of any others. I wouldn't recommend any of those three options, though -- there's a lot to be missed out there.
However, in regards to roleplaying, I've come firmly in the last few years to the conclusion that I don't want any other system besides d20 anymore. I've read and played plenty of other systems over the years, and am now little impressed with new systems simply for the same of being new. d20 works well for anything I can imagine. Call of Cthulhu was the acid test for me; if that game could be done right, and get the right feel (which is so anti-D&D) with the d20 rules, then the system was golden. And voila!, IMO the d20 version of the rules are much better than the original (I still wonder why in the world BRP CoC is held up as some kind of model of beautiful game design; I've never been a fan of the system). I would run another system if it came packaged with a setting I really wanted to play, but since I prefer homebrewing, I can use whatever rules I want, and I find d20 to be good enough and varied enough to do the job.
Right now, the game I want to run, and will hopefully get started before we get too far into the New Year, is a fantasy d20 game that uses very little of D&D per se. I'll steal some stuff from Call of Cthulhu d20, Wheel of Time d20, Midnight and Arcana Unearthed to make a fantasy swashbuckling game in a high fantasy world that has airship pirates flying through a shattered world environment. It's so easy to cobble together a fairly unique ruleset using d20 components that accurately models the feel I want here that it's not funny.
However, in regards to roleplaying, I've come firmly in the last few years to the conclusion that I don't want any other system besides d20 anymore. I've read and played plenty of other systems over the years, and am now little impressed with new systems simply for the same of being new. d20 works well for anything I can imagine. Call of Cthulhu was the acid test for me; if that game could be done right, and get the right feel (which is so anti-D&D) with the d20 rules, then the system was golden. And voila!, IMO the d20 version of the rules are much better than the original (I still wonder why in the world BRP CoC is held up as some kind of model of beautiful game design; I've never been a fan of the system). I would run another system if it came packaged with a setting I really wanted to play, but since I prefer homebrewing, I can use whatever rules I want, and I find d20 to be good enough and varied enough to do the job.
Right now, the game I want to run, and will hopefully get started before we get too far into the New Year, is a fantasy d20 game that uses very little of D&D per se. I'll steal some stuff from Call of Cthulhu d20, Wheel of Time d20, Midnight and Arcana Unearthed to make a fantasy swashbuckling game in a high fantasy world that has airship pirates flying through a shattered world environment. It's so easy to cobble together a fairly unique ruleset using d20 components that accurately models the feel I want here that it's not funny.
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