On playing new game systems

[Dannyalcatraz]

Learning a new RPG is relatively easy for the experienced player...if someone supplies pregenerated characters.

Otherwise, the players will need to spend some time figuring stuff out, ESPECIALLY if the game has complex character design, like HERO.

...not that any of that has dissuaded ME. I’ve played in between 60-70 different systems- including a couple of playtests- and have owned as many as 150 at my peak. Most of them I found to be enjoyable in some way, though a couple were definitely losers in my mind.

 

[schneeland]

Learning a new RPG is relatively easy for the experienced player...if someone supplies pregenerated characters.

Otherwise, the players will need to spend some time figuring stuff out, ESPECIALLY if the game has complex character design, like HERO.

That's also my experience. Picking up a new system is even easier when there is a quickstart version of the rules, so that it's possible to get a basic grasp on the system without an extensive investment of time.

I think the latter is also the major reason that dissuades me from really running new systems (I still buy way too many of them) - as the "default GM" for new systems, I have to read and understand the rules. And as my hair continues to shift its colour to grey, it's becoming more difficult to fit that into my life.

 

[Nebulous]

I have had a hard time recruiting people to try new games. I have posted in gaming venues for Cthulhu, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Numenera, and Shadows over Brimstone, but I don't hear a peep. It's only about D&D. I'm talking about in person games, not online. And although I do like running D&D, I really need to try something else. I've been wanting to run 7e pulp cthulhu for a long time now.

Oh, and I had the Alien RPG come in the mail today. That looks awesome.

 

[Reynard]

Also, I sometimes find it harder to run new versions of games I know than totally new games, simply because i have to try and forget or redefine rules. Trying to figure out Pathfinder 2e is a bit of a pain.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Also, I sometimes find it harder to run new versions of games I know than totally new games, simply because i have to try and forget or redefine rules. Trying to figure out Pathfinder 2e is a bit of a pain.

We call this “editionitus” at my table. Happens all the time.

 

[dragoner]

Did you like the T5 rules? How did they compare to Mongoose Traveller (if you've played that)?

T5 needs editing, though mongoose does too. T5's tone is more the regular gritty Traveller tone, mongoose is more goofy. T5 makes the ability score/characteristic very important by basing the roll off it, where mongoose flattens everything out, so Dex or Int 15 in T5 is a wow! Where in mongoose it's +3. Generally the quality of T5 products is high, but there are few of them; mongoose has a ton of products, though the quality of some of them is so low, it makes one question paying money for them. Ultimately it is a competition between a 1990's rules set (T5) and a 2000's rules set (mongoose), sort of like AD&D 2e vs D&D 3.5; it would be interesting to see an actual modern iteration. With editing, I would like T5 better, except with the caveat that I'm not chained to the 2d6 like some are.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm glad D&D is doing well. I like the game well enough, but it's always been a shame that it usually dominates the hobby so thoroughly. Try telling a non hobbyist gamer what you do. There's a good chance they know about D&D, but are puzzled when you try to explain there are other role playing games out there. I've met regular D&D players who don't know about other games. Or, as what used to happen to my husband decades ago, "Can we play that D&D game in space?" Meant Traveller.

I love quickstart guides too. Great way to get into new game, and get your feet wet.

I don't actually like using pre-gens with new players. Creating their own character means they are more likely to remember their character's abilities, and tends to get them more excited to play. Helps cement rules.

It is challenging getting a group to try something new, or attract players to new systems. Starting off with a one shot can work. Play 5e, then offer a one shot game in genre that you think might engage table. Then hopefully, they'll be asking you to do that super hero or horror game again. One shots are a situation where I would go with pre-gens.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I have always been all about D&D first and foremost, but recently I have decided that more than anything I want to have a big Fallout-ish RPG using the Wasteland Warfare stuff from Modiphius. If only it weren't going to be so expensive to do that...

 

[Nebulous]

It is challenging getting a group to try something new, or attract players to new systems. Starting off with a one shot can work. Play 5e, then offer a one shot game in genre that you think might engage table. Then hopefully, they'll be asking you to do that super hero or horror game again. One shots are a situation where I would go with pre-gens.

I should try that (again) with my D&D group, but they're newbies and love D&D and when I tell them their CoC characters are supposed to eventually go crazy and gruesomely die they're, like, um, No. But then I say it's PULP Cthulhu so they'll live way longer than normal! Didn't help.

Maybe one day when a couple of them can't play I'll force a one shot on the others

 

[hawkeyefan]

I should try that (again) with my D&D group, but they're newbies and love D&D and when I tell them their CoC characters are supposed to eventually go crazy and gruesomely die they're, like, um, No. But then I say it's PULP Cthulhu so they'll live way longer than normal! Didn't help.

Maybe one day when a couple of them can't play I'll force a one shot on the others

I think that having something ready to go for the occasion that not everyone can make it is he best way to intro a new game. That way the people who can’t make it don’t miss anything, and the people who are there still get to play something.