How hard is learning a new TTRPG system?

[Morrus]

One common reason folks choose not to play a different game to the one they’re used to is that they say they don’t have time to learn a new system. 99% of the time that’s about trying a game other than D&D 5E.

Im curious about how much time and difficulty folks perceive trying a different game is?

(Obviously games vary in complexity: I’m just asking as a generality.)

 

[Umbran]

My main group picks up new systems all the time.

But, really, how hard it is to do that depends a lot on the system.

 

[aco175]

I do not think it is hard to learn a new game. New rules and different uses for dice is easy enough, the problem comes in time and effort.

I basically just play D&D. I do not have time to play another game and if I have more time, I would just assume play another version of D&D like another setting with micro-rule changes.

To be honest, there are a couple threads going around about making another 5e clone game. I stopped looking mostly after they decided that the attacks and skills would need to roll under your attribute. That felt more than I wanted to change.

 

[SakanaSensei]

It way easier than most people think, but their opinions are colored by their experiences with other games.

“Hey guys, I wanted to try this game Cairn out…” (Cairn is like 20 pages long)

“Nah, we’re good.” (Thinking “people are still arguing about rules in 5E 10 years in, I don’t have time for another one of these things!”)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Not hard at all BUT it is like finding a place to eat that everyone is going to be happy with. 5E is the that famous burger joint, other systems are variations of that burger joint or specialty places that offer atmosphere. It comes to what is everyone comfortable with.

 

[GuardianLurker]

You should also consider how you want to use the system, and how much it differs from your current one. If you just want enough for a trial one shot, the roll mechanics, and the basic key subsystems ( like Perception, saves, and attack rolls in 5e ) can usually be picked up on a read thru, a couple of character builds, and a mock encounter. A week or less. If you just wish to be a player, this is usually enough.

If you're going to be the GM, that first trial one shot should be enough to tell you whether you want to use the system more. If you do, you'll want to do more study. Bone up on on those areas that you were weak in, and just keep plugging on. If its complex enough or different enough, you may wish to run a series of one shots exploring what you need to.

For instance, when I was testing out Wild Talents, I ran a series of one shots with increasing power levels. When exploring Anima, it was one short adventure per subsystem. One with just the basics/martials only. One with just the Ki Adepts, etc.

This leaves aside any other mismatches between the system, setting, and players. When I was trying out Fortune's Fool, my players were actually disruptive to the point nothing was acheived at all because they couldn't buy into the default setting. A real shame, actually.

 

[jdrakeh]

It honestly depends a lot upon the game for me. Content editing (or the complete lack thereof) can make a or break a game for me in terms of being able to learn it relatively painlessly or bouncing off of it hard. For example, Helm is a very simple game, but the content editing isn't great, so I had to re-read parts of it a few times before I "got it" completely. Now, had that been a three-hundred page rulebook with bad (or no) content editing? Forget about it.

 

[hawkeyefan]

It’s no where near as hard as many assume or make it out to be. Most games are less complex than 5e.

I find learning a new game easier than running 5e, and I’ve been running it or playing it at least weekly since it came out.

 

[payn]

In my experience, the less enthused members need a good push to learn a new system. There usually is one or two members of a group that do a lot of the driving for new systems. If the, trend setters I'll call them, evangelize enough, the group will follow. Trend setters usually have an easy time picking up a new system as they are curious and enthusiastic about trying/learning them. How quickly the followers learn a system depends on assistance from trend setters and their enjoyment from the experience.

Something like 5E D&D takes a good read and many sessions to learn. Something like fiasco takes a single evening. So, it really depends on the system and how much heft there is to it. The groups dynamic between number of followers and trendsetters changes things too. YMMV.

 

[schneeland]

There's the obvious "it depends" answer, but I think it's actually a fair question. So to elaborate a little more based on personal experience:

• There is the basic cost (in terms of time) of reading the rules. I'm not that good at finding time for uninterrupted reading anymore, so this is already a while. Now naturally, I can read something like Into the Odd or Cairn faster than Warhammer Fantasy 4, and there are also outliers (e.g. Honey Heist), but for the majority of rule books we are talking about something a few days to a few weeks. Technically, I have also played games without reading the full rules, but retrospectively I wouldn't really say, I have "picked up" those games.
• If I am the GM, then the next effort comes in the form of preparing an adventure, sandbox or campaign frame (or whatever is appropriate for the game). There it depends on how familiar and how traditional in its design the new game is. This is generally also means a bit of double checking with the rules, but all in all it is often a matter of a few days, sometimes a week or two (I generally don't run large campaigns in new systems).
• If I am a player and the new system has at least some mechanical complexity, it then takes a bit of time for character building in which I usually process the rules again and iterate a couple of times until I feel sufficiently happy with the outcome. This is usually just a few days and can also be sped up with solid software for character creation.
• And finally, at least for me, it typically takes a couple of sessions until I feel I am actually grokking a system (assuming it resonates with me at all). Effectively, it will need a couple of weeks (because games happen at most once per week) to reach this stage.

So all in all, picking up a new game is something which typically means an investment of a few weeks to a few month for me. I personally still think this is very much worth the effort, but I can understand why people are reluctant to do it (especially if they care less about rules and game design than I do).