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Message: <blockquote data-quote="schneeland" data-source="post: 9200899" data-attributes="member: 6900337">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:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> </ul>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).</blockquote>

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