[DannyAlcatraz] What do you do about the D&D-only player?

[Glyfair]

Why would I be held hostage by a single player?

I would run the game I was able to sell a majority of the group on, and the remaining player could participate or not as he liked. If he ran a game and I wasn't interested in the system or setting, I wouldn't hold his game hostage to my whims, and I would expect the same courtesy.

Well, it depends on the group. If this is a group of friends who have been hanging out regularly, and primarily by roleplaying, then holding the group together might be more important.

I had a group I used to game with every Saturday night in the 80s. If most of the group hadn't scattered to the 4 corners of the country I know we would still be gaming every Saturday night. Breaking that up because of a system disagreement seems silly.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My group is pretty eclectic, especially when it comes to RPG-esque board games.

That being said, we're primarily a D&D group. My next campaign, starting soon, is Star Wars Saga Edition.

One of my players (in fact, the husband half of the husband-wife team at whose house we play) isn't really interested in SW, though the rest of the group is pretty enthusiastic. He's mentioned that, and indicated that he'll hang out while the game is going on, but will probably spend most of his time painting.

Everyone - including me - is cool with that.

 

[TessarrianDM]

Our group is D&D only; no one has expressed interest in anything else since the original release of Battletech (about a 1 year experiment) and M:TG 4th Edition (for about six months). There has never been any interest in any other RPG, and little interest in changing or alternating DM's (I've been the only one since we began play in 1982, except for a few one-shot games here and there). I believe no one wants to invest the time or money in a new system.

 

[RFisher]

Agreed, so long as other players are interested, too. Having only the GM be excited about the game is as bad as having only the players excited. Both parties need to be having fun, or the game will typically end on a bad note.

I think the mystery to me is this: If someone whom you like enough to spend hours a week with is excited about running a game, how can you not be interested?

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

We're also a mostly D&D group, but there is really only one player who is not willing to play anything else. The rest of the group, however, is more than happy to go along and so am I. His argument is a bit different, I think. He came back to D&D after a long hiatus and bought a lot of the WotC books. Now he feels like he's got an investment in D&D and a lot of character ideas that he hasn't played.

As long as the group is happy with D&D, I'm happy with it. Star Wars Saga Edition does call to me, though . Luckily, I have an alternate group that loves trying out new games. So, I can get my regular D&D game and, every once in a while, try out something new with the other group.

 

[Rothe]

The biggest reason I hear for D&D only, is it is the system they know and they don't want to learn another. I try to run games where rules knowledge is not needed. What is more useful is knowledge and experience from real life and "common sense." So I'll pick a system that supports anyone trying to sneak up on someone (even if the chance is low), give advantages to flanking attacks, surprise attacks etc. All rule systems will be bent to this gameplay. To the actual mechanical advantages of choices I'm happy to convey those. If they fly in the face of common sense (i.e., the game system mechanical advantage is completely out of whack with any reasonable expectation based on real world experiences -I'm looking at you spiked chain-) then the system rules get tweaked.

The reason being I have too much invested in understanding and learning physics and history to recall multiple exceptions to common sense because some DM or game designer got a C in physics or thinks weapon x is so "cool' it should dominate the game or by fiat must implement these rules for balance reasons. In the last case maybe you should look to the rules that cause this imbalance in the first place or find an alternative that makes sense.

With respect to magic systems, I don't care. Just don't make them blantantly inconsitant with setting. For example, don't tell me magic is rare or not used in everyday life when the rules make learning it available to 70% of the population and there is a plethora of useful spells (light, food, water, etc.) that have permanent effects and can be readily and cost-effectively cast.

/end rant

 

[Pbartender]

I think the mystery to me is this: If someone whom you like enough to spend hours a week with is excited about running a game, how can you not be interested?

Easily. I don't necessarily have the same tastes as any of my friends. Just because I would really like to run a Star Wars game, for example, doesn't mean anyone in my gaming group is interested in playing it.

We game once a week on Sunday evenings. We simply run two concurrent games on alternating weeks. One is almost always D&D of one variety or another, while the other is often something new and different that someone wants to try out. That keeps everyone happy, and no one is forced to play in both, if they decide not to.