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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jacob Lewis" data-source="post: 9712174" data-attributes="member: 6667921">D&D was a hard habit for me to break. It was my main game for decades. I’ve been through every edition. By the time I stepped away, both my time and expectations had already peaked. I was always open to trying different systems, but most of the games I encountered that promised “D&D, but better” never really gave me something I wasn’t already getting. No system is perfect. D&D had its flaws—but I’d put in the time, money, and effort to make it work for me. I knew its problems, and I knew how to navigate around them. And even after purging a lot of books from various editions, I still had a mountain of material to draw from.So when I decided I was “done” with D&D, I went looking for alternatives. What I found was that the only real alternative for me was the D&D I already had—specifically the versions I used to enjoy, before the game became something that no longer held my interest. I didn’t need a replacement system. I’d already invested in one that functioned well enough. And honestly, if I ever get the urge to go back, I’ll literally go back—to a version I already own, and still enjoy.I know that’s not exactly the spirit of this thread. Most people are naming specific games that check off certain boxes or scratch particular itches. But when I tried to fill the void D&D left behind, I realized that every “almost-D&D” still came with its own compromises. Learning a new system, buying new books, adapting to a different rhythm of play—it just wasn’t worth it for the type of game I was trying to replace. If I’m going to deal with trade-offs, I’d rather stick with the ones I already understand.What changed wasn’t my desire to move on from D&D entirely—it was my understanding of what else was out there. Instead of looking for alternatives to D&D as a replacement, I eventually found alternatives to D&D as options. The systems I invested in didn’t push D&D off my shelf; they took a seat next to it. They gave me different kinds of experiences that D&D wasn’t built to offer, while letting D&D continue to do what it already did as well as any game like it.So for me, the alternative to D&D wasn’t a different system. It was a different relationship with the game I already had.</blockquote>

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