Just finished The Wheel of Time books, where is my new RPG?

[MGibster]

Fact of the matter is, there are many games that do not require as intensive character creation or rules reference as D&D asks of its players. This is perhaps the greatest con job that D&D has pulled on the hobby: convincing players that other tabletop games are as complicated or rules/book intensive as D&D is.

I don't really think D&D pulled a con on the hobby. It just happens to be the most popular RPG and there are a lot of people who simply aren't interested in learning how to play something else. Why that is, I don't know. My group is usually pretty keen to try new games, but they're a bunch of board gamers who are used to learning new rules so maybe that helps.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

But let's say we were to play Stonetop (a PbtA game): the GM would provide the players with a cheat sheet reference of game moves plus playbooks, which have everything that you need for your character. There would be no need for you to buy this material. No need for you to look up character creation rules in a player's book. It's all there on your playbook.

Resolution System = Roll 2d6 + Mod. Describe what you are trying to do in the game world. The GM tells you if your actions trigger a move, and then you roll for that move. If you roll 1-6, you fail and the GM makes a hard consequence. If you roll 7-9, you achieve a complicated success, and the GM makes a softer consequence. If you roll 10+, you achieve a full success.

Got that?

Yeah, I got that it sounds like a lot of work for something most people I play with just aren't particularly interested in.

You are too fixated on the learning curve, which, naturally is the biggest barrier to enthusiastic devourers of new RPGs, which is presumably what you are. I'm talking about people just not being particularly enthusiastic about trying a new thing that they aren't good at yet and aren't invested in when they are already content with a familiar thing they are good at and are invested in that seems (to them) to do the same thing, and the fact that even if some people are keen on broadening their horizons a lot of groups have trouble getting everyone in a group onboard.

 

[Aldarc]

Yeah, I got that it sounds like a lot of work for something most people I play with just aren't particularly interested in.

A lot of work? How is that more work than D&D?

You are too fixated on the learning curve, which, naturally is the biggest barrier to enthusiastic devourers of new RPGs, which is presumably what you are. I'm talking about people just not being particularly enthusiastic about trying a new thing that they aren't good at yet and aren't invested in when they are already content with a familiar thing they are good at and are invested in that seems (to them) to do the same thing, and the fact that even if some people are keen on broadening their horizons a lot of groups have trouble getting everyone in a group onboard.

I am talking about the people I game with, who are not as enthusiastic devourers of new RPGs as I am. My group (including my partner), for example, found character creation and play easier going from D&D to Dungeon World, Fate, and Fantasy AGE. And since it seems (to them) that it does the same thing, then they view the greater accessibility as a net positive.

I don't really think D&D pulled a con on the hobby. It just happens to be the most popular RPG and there are a lot of people who simply aren't interested in learning how to play something else. Why that is, I don't know. My group is usually pretty keen to try new games, but they're a bunch of board gamers who are used to learning new rules so maybe that helps.

I don't think that the con was intentional, but I do think that it has had a psychological effect on the hobby. My partner doesn't mind learning new TTRPGs, though they tend to view learning new TTRPGs like learning new boad games, and they likewise love board games.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I get the whole apprehensiveness of getting into a new RP system. I really really do. That was mean in 3rd ed. And 3rd ed was generous with its D20 off shoots.

Star Wars D20 was fine.

And then we had Call of Cthulu and World of Darkness D20. And you know what? They were naughty word. Horrible naughty word. Because D&D/D20 doesn't work for everything. When I tried the REAL version of those games, so much better. And got across their themes better as well.

Trust me as someone who was "afraid" to try other games. Break out of your comfort zone. D&D does D&D well. But you are missing out on wealth of great systems and games and game genres. I know it can be hard but trust me. Try other games. Its very worth it.

 

[Haplo781]

I get the whole apprehensiveness of getting into a new RP system. I really really do. That was mean in 3rd ed. And 3rd ed was generous with its D20 off shoots.

Star Wars D20 was fine.

And then we had Call of Cthulu and World of Darkness D20. And you know what? They were naughty word. Horrible naughty word. Because D&D/D20 doesn't work for everything. When I tried the REAL version of those games, so much better. And got across their themes better as well.

Trust me as someone who was "afraid" to try other games. Break out of your comfort zone. D&D does D&D well. But you are missing out on wealth of great systems and games and game genres. I know it can be hard but trust me. Try other games. Its very worth it.

CoC d20 gets a pass entirely because of the GMing chapter by Ken Hite.

 

[dbm]

As a person whose job involves process improvement, my experience is that people don’t like change even when they are being paid to do that.

Asking people to change ‘for fun‘ is a hard sell…

 

[DarkCrisis]

As a person whose job involves process improvement, my experience is that people don’t like change even when they are being paid to do that.

Asking people to change ‘for fun‘ is a hard sell…

Only way I broke out of it was friends who has played things like Vampire the Masquerade convinced me to try it (as in "We are playing this instead of D&D for a few sessions) and I loved the system.

Oh and Shadowrun. Always collected and read the books (and novels) (and played the video games) but never got to play it (until I did). So genre/theme def helped there to branch out. I honestly cant imagine D20 Cyberpunk working at all. Just like VtM.

 

[CleverNickName]

I find I only need 3 RPG systems:

For horror, crime noir, and "weird west," I play Call of Cthulhu
For quick-start, fast play, casual party games, I reach for Dread.
And for everything else, from Sci Fi to High Fantasy to Steampunk, I run Dungeons & Dragons rules. Usually 5E.

 

[MGibster]

I don't think that the con was intentional, but I do think that it has had a psychological effect on the hobby. My partner doesn't mind learning new TTRPGs, though they tend to view learning new TTRPGs like learning new boad games, and they likewise love board games.

Yes, it has. I've had numerous occasions where players made assumptions and had their characters take actions based on what they were used to in D&D.

 

[DSCrankshaw]

I know that Against the Darkmaster cites WoT as an inspiration, but I don't think it's necessarily a good system to run in an actual Wheel of Time campaign. It's system is a close match to MERP, basically a retroclone of it, meaning it's supposed to represent Middle Earth, though it was always higher magic than the Lord of the Rings was.