Reinventing the Wheel

I feel like it is pretty common for folks to come up with solutions to known problem in TTRPGs that have already been not just thought of but implemented, sometimes for years or decades. it seems more common in the years following a spike in D&D's popularity in particular, and these days the very online nature of D&D fans and "influencers" makes this reinventing of the wheel all the more visible.

Why do you think this happens? Why do people end up solving already solved problem in TTRPGs so much, as opposed to seeking out existing solutions? Is it simply the DIY nature of TTRPGs, or is there something more driving it? Is it happening more today, or is it more visible?

What do you think?
Partly egotism.
Partly laziness.
Partly the low signal to noise ratio for specific D&D fixes in search results (tho' this is getting better)
Partly the creative aspects of the RPG games space.
Partly the lack of consensus on what needs to be fixed.
Partly, what consensus there is on any given issue being an issue doesn't guarantee, hell, doesn't even presage, any form of consensus on HOW to fix it. (See the arguments over the last 20 years about D&D AC... and the last 42+ years over AC as deflection vs dodge vs damage absorption.)
 

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It's been said a couple of times already - most people (even RPG designers) don't have the money or time to cast their net wide for elements. In doesn't help matters that there are a LOT of games. Even if 80% of them are just Fantasy Heartbreakers, the remaining 20% are still nigh overwhelming in quantity.
There's also the nasty US precedents of being sued because you look to have borrowed someone's idea. Which lead to a bunch of absurdities... such as design team staff being barred from a given game's official forums... or deleting the official forums to avoid even the vague chance of it appearing to be a source of ideas for design.

Plus the information liabilities of the US, UK, and EU personal information laws, most especially the GDPR...

There's also the problem that a lot of unique mechanics can be drowned out by other more obvious changes. There are also a lot of mechanics buried in time.
Most RPGs of any note which aren't licensed games are having availability return in PDF...
... which makes the catalog at DTRPG ever more and more historically interesting and less and less easy to find anything interesting.
Most licensed games whose licenses are expired have pirate scans floating about. Many which are still in print, but not legally in PDF, have pirate scan PDFs.
 


I feel like it is pretty common for folks to come up with solutions to known problem in TTRPGs that have already been not just thought of but implemented, sometimes for years or decades. it seems more common in the years following a spike in D&D's popularity in particular, and these days the very online nature of D&D fans and "influencers" makes this reinventing of the wheel all the more visible.

Why do you think this happens? Why do people end up solving already solved problem in TTRPGs so much, as opposed to seeking out existing solutions? Is it simply the DIY nature of TTRPGs, or is there something more driving it? Is it happening more today, or is it more visible?

What do you think?
I think that most solutions are trade offs that end up being problems elsewhere in a game, so it turns into whackamole. There’s never a perfect game that covers all situations, all styles of play, and so forth.
 


The odds are pretty good that >90% of what you come up with has been independently come up with by a dozen or more others....
And? The process of innovation is still fun, even when others have done it first.

And let's be realistic, 99% of house rules and hacks I come up with aren't actually going to see light at the table. It's just a fun process.
 




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