How Many New Systems have you bought?

[JoeGKushner]

Well, at Gen Con I bought Burning Empires because I'm not devoted to d20 as a science fiction campaign and thought that the engine was interesting enough to pick up Burning Wheel.

Now I did notice a few other games like Qin the Warring States and a campaign setting 'powered by the A/B system' or something.

I passed them over.

Heck, I even skipped Runequest.

I'm not saying that you can't enjoy multiple game engines. Heck, if Rolemaster came out tomorrow in a new edition I'd probably go buy it.

But....

As I get older, I have less time to learn new game systems. My group has less time and well, patience for new game systems when they're perfectly happy with 3.5.

This makes me realize that despite how cool some of these things look, they're simply not aimed at me.

And that's okay. There are other people coming into the hobby that have played 3.5 and found that "Wow. that was cool. What else is there." and there are others going, "Wow, this stinks. What else is there." Since the d20 pool has cooled off, the wide range of options for d20 aren't what they used to be.

now I'm still firmly convinced that many game engines could just be left alone, especially if it's doing generic fantasy, but hey, Palladium Fantasy is still out there and heck, that's gotta be one of the first house ruled D&D games I've ever played.

So how many new fantasy systems have people bought over the last year that weren't d20 or d20 based?

 

[BluWolf]

Since the launch of D20 I stuck a fork in the meatloaf and said enough. The mechanics are not perfect but it is efficient enough for me to understand and I can find people that know how to play it. Hurdle sufficiently crossed.

I have purchased probably about 10 or 12 different game systems over the past 27 years. All of them redeeming in some way or another. I have come to the conclusion that I have reached the threshold of diminshing returns when it comes to gaming systems. They are all more or less the same. All equally good and all equally bad.

As long as I can find people that are willing to play the system then I am ok.

So, nothing but D20 from here on out.

 

[WayneLigon]

So how many new fantasy systems have people bought over the last year that weren't d20 or d20 based?

I've stopped buying things for much the same reason you have, but I still have hope i might get to play something else later on. As much as I love d20, I like a little more variety than I've been getting the past six years.

The only non-d20 thing I've purchased in the past year has been Savage Worlds. I've been looking at FATE as well (Holding off committing to it based on whatever FATE 3.0 will look like; the Spirit of the Century sneak peek pleases me, so I'll still wait and see what makes it to the free game version).

I suspect I might like Burning Wheel, but there are no copies around to look at. I've looked at the stuff on their website and really it seems at least as complex as D&D is; that's not really what I'm looking for right now.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Within the last year, I've purchased Lejendary Adventures, Warhammer Fantasy 2e, Runequest, and Kobolds Ate My Baby

I'll agree that I have less time for multiple gaming systems, so I've taken to switching for each campaign, rather than trying to run more than one at a time. Which is more of a long-term plan these days.

 

[sjmiller]

IN the last year I have purchased one other game system that can be used for fantasy games. That system is GURPS 4th Edition. I also downloaded the OSIRC rules/sourcebook, but GURPS is the only one I bought. I have played a number of systems this year, but none are new.

 

[Michael Dean]

I picked up Qin because it was such a gorgeous looking book, and I can never get enough Chinese based rpgs.

 

[The Cardinal]

...within the last 12 months I've purchased non-d20/OGL stuff for:

GURPS4e
Warhammer2e
Savage Worlds
nWoD
AFMBE
Secrets of Zir'An
CoC
Unknown Armies


...and I will aquire within the next 3 months:

a/state
Artesia
Qin
HARP

 

[Arnwyn]

So how many new fantasy systems have people bought over the last year that weren't d20 or d20 based?

For the actual system itself?

One. (Fuzion)

(Because, like you, I have yet to see d20 do the futuristic/sci-fi genre very well.) But, otherwise, I'm not interested in new systems. My group only has a limited amount of time to play, and we only like two specific genres - "classic" fantasy and anime-related (Macross, Ghost in the Shell, etc) futuristic sci-fi.

We've long figured out which systems work best for those genres for our tastes (d20 for fantasy, Fuzion for sci-fi). That's it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I picked up Qin because it was such a gorgeous looking book, and I can never get enough Chinese based rpgs.

Yeah, I saw it and wanted it but...

When you get a chance to read through it some more, post your thoughts.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I picked up Artesia after talking with the guys at GenCon for a while. I hadn't even heard of it before the Ennies. But I'm a system junkie; a lot of stuff will never see the table, but its still interesting to see different mechanics and design philosophies. You never know when you're going to stumble across something that hits all the right notes for your style of game.