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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8197580" data-attributes="member: 6777737">I am being moderately hyperbolic, yes. The point I'm trying to make is that picking up a new system isn't as trivial as a lot of web forum posters like to say it is. These boards in particular are frequented by a lot of people who just read new games and never intend to play them. That's really weird, even within the hobby. Even if you're a designer, it's moderately weird. Some designers I know do that, but just as many if not more are confident in their designs that they don't feel a need to.While I 100% am frustrated by players who try to shoehorn every genre, style, setting, and tone into D&D -- because that's a horrible idea that almost always ends badly -- I absolutely understand why there is so much inertia about moving to a different game system. Changing a system isn't as trivial for most players as the posters here would have you believe. Lots of RPG players don't think about, let alone care about or enjoy, game systems. That doesn't mean they're not gamers or not roleplayers.Now, yes. The point was about before actual plays existed. I've spoken to many people over the years who think of roleplaying as something closer to LARPing. And that's not to mention those who only think of it as something you do in the bedroom.Understanding why actual plays helped so much gives tremendous insight into what kind of inertia people experience about playing the game. Why something like Magic or World of Warcraft or Warhammer tend to get a lot more players and fans, and how onboarding people into almost every other game than an RPG is easier. It seems strange because all you have to buy is books, but that's exactly the problem. Buying a thick book of rules is intimidating. It's almost like buying a textbook.And switching to a new system brings that same inertia.So, yes, system matters. I'm never going to run D&D in a modern setting because I don't think guns work well with D&D hit points. I'm going to run Savage Worlds where you could be very highly experienced and still be taken out by just a few good shots. That's going to be way better to the style of game I'm going to run in a modern setting.But I also sympathize with people who just don't want to learn another game. Another system that has worse production values and is less complete than D&D is, because of course they are. A game system whose rule books are often terribly organize or have major parts of the rules written in nonsensical or contradictory ways. Having to stop in the middle of combat to figure out something that should be a pretty common scenario that the rules somehow just don't address. Finding out halfway through session 6 that your chosen system is unplayable, unworkable, or just not at all fun. Doesn't matter if it just doesn't work at your table or if it's bigger than that. Finding out that what you wanted out of the new system wasn't actually there in the first place is heartbreaking because you often can't do anything about it except throw the whole campaign away. Choosing a brand new system is choosing to allow your campaign to fail because the game rules just don't function.It's not as easy as posters here want to argue that it is.</blockquote>

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