Do you consider learning a new game to be unpleasant work?

[Morrus]

This was prompted by this post in this thread:

D&D General - Why do you play Dungeons & Dragons?

Nostalgia and 5e is much easier for me to DM than any other game I’ve been a DM or GM for.

www.enworld.org

I enjoy learning a new RPG. Reading a new game and getting excited about the new rules and itching to make a character or try out the rules is fun for me.

I know that other people find that unenjoyable and consider it work rather than fun.

So the poll. Fun or work?

*Obviously, as with films, books, food, etc, the assumption is that it’s a good game. Obviously eating a new bad dish made of poo is not fun. Assume quality.

 

[GreyLord]

If it's not fun, I'm not going to spend time learning how to play it normally.

If it's work to learn to play it, there are dozen's of other games that aren't.

 

[Baba]

Twenty years ago I would find it fun as long as the game was good.

Today I still find it fun, but only if I know I am actually going to play it. If I am not going to play, most often I won’t bother.

 

[Umbran]

I am not of the opinion that work and fun are mutually exclusive.

So - assuming that learning a new system is largely reading a book, it is work, and if the book is well written for the act of learning, then it can be fun. Most rulebooks, however, are written for the act of reference, which is not so great for learning, and the result is work.

If we have some other method of learning the system - then the answer varies based on the method.

 

[Li Shenron]

Theoretically, I would always find it amusing. We just learned yet another (very simple) tabletop game the other night called Hanabi, it's fun to play new cards/boardgames and such every now and then.

Practically, I don't feel like doing it anymore for RPG. It feels like reading the same ideas over and over, endless variations and rehashing, but ultimately just going around in circles without making a better game. Adding material and even a whole rule module occasionally is more fun than starting from scratch.

 

[tetrasodium]

I have relevant GM'ing experience. Between 2010 & covid I've run semiopen & outright open games that were five different versionsof Fate (sotc, dfrpg, mindjammer, core, blades in the dark, & a couple splatbook based ones), 5e, PF, 2d20 conan, & probably others. At no point did I find myself at a loss for players after going through the work of posting that I'd be starting a weekly game of X on such & such day/time in my local flgs's facebook group. There was always a steady trickle of people coming & going who would join the group & have fun learning while playing if they didn't already know how. Many of those players went on to start groups of their own or convince their group over to the cool new game/system they picked up with more than one entire group showing up asking if I'd gm for them or let them watch a session to get some experience before they start on their own. There are plenty of people who enjoy it, plenty of people who don't consider it a significant hurdle, & plenty of people who learn a new game over the first few sessions while playing rather than sitting down to fully grok a new game before their first session playing it . Mix all those people together & you have plenty of fun.

 

[Voadam]

As a player I prefer to play something I know. I will learn new systems if my group decides to do one for the next campaign, but I consider it work.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I dont know if I consider it work but I only want to learn a new system if I'm actually going to get to run it or play it?

 

[Zaukrie]

Reading rules is generally more work than fun. Learning about the game as you play it the first few times is fun.....but the initial learning curve for complex board games bores me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I said fun, because that's usually true if I'm going to enjoy the game system in the end at all. But it kind of depends on how easily I engage with the system; sometimes its an uphill push (and on at least one occasion, that was on a system that in the end I liked quite a bit, but there's no question that getting there was work).