The End of a Long Fantastical Journey

[Retros_x]

D&D. I still have some games running on it, but I’m actively transitioning my GMing away from it and have mostly disattached from purchasing products and following its development.

Same. I still do play it as a player, but as a DM I see myself not really wanting to DM it anymore.

 

[GothmogIV]

Yes: I can no longer run, or play, Call of Cthulhu. I bought the second edition boxed set on my 13th birthday--44 years ago--and played it, literally, hundreds of times. It was the game I ran the most over the decades, and it will always be one of my favorites, but I just can't play it anymore. There is no way to keep it fresh or interesting for my players (I have been playing with the same idiots beloved friends for all of that time). It is a great, great game...but I have reached the end of it.

 

[Koloth]

Chess. Played a lot in high school. Oddly, as a side activity of Rocket Club. Pretty much quit once I went to college. Replaced by things like D&D, Traveller and Star Fleet Battles.
Star Fleet Battles. Played a lot in college and years after. Had a steady group for a couple of decades. Helped run tournaments at conventions. Play declined as the supported convention games became formalized around the Cadet's Game and members of the group moved away. Still have all the stuff.
D&D brand. Was the go to fantasy RPG until the switch from 3.5 to 4. Combo of didn't like 4th ed and mad at WOTC over how they canceled/changed licenses during the process.
One regular group avoids game burnout by switching games/GM every so often. Generally when the active game reaches a nice pause point. Not abandoned, just on pause for a while. If a GM needs a one session break, board games get played.

 

[Aldarc]

I think that my last game of D&D was a 2-3 shot I ran for my partner, who was curious about my roleplaying game hobby, and that was in Q1 2019. I pretty much have left WotC D&D. I may dip my toes back in the water for OSR/NuSR games, but my partner and I have been playing non-D&D games since that time.

 

[TheHand]

I tend to break away from D&D to play other RPGs for long stretches, starting all the way back with 1e when I discovered Marvel Super Heroes. But I’m usually drawn back, whether by a new edition or a new adventure someone wants to run. The cycle repeats.

As for a game I played a heck of a lot of that I would never be inclined to return to: Champions. I played it pretty heavily for about 10 years in the 90’s, even running games at conventions. But I had my fun with the Hero Engine and I’m no longer a fan of rules heavy, crunchy game systems.

 

[Mannahnin]

I've pretty close to entirely set aside 40k and WH Fantasy Battles. I played them intensively from around '99 until about 2017, I think? Used to play local tournaments and leagues constantly, travel a couple of hours to neighboring states for one day events, and much farther (sometimes flying) for weekend long grand tournaments in Baltimore or Chicago (Adepticon for several years, once went to the 'Ard Boyz final at the Chicago Battle Bunker after qualifying at the local and regional rounds), upstate NY, up and down the Eastern seaboard, and once Las Vegas for the Throne of Skulls invitational. I even brought a case of minis to the Netherlands when I went on a work trip so I could meet up for a game with a local I connected with on a WH internet forum.

I still have absolutely tons (like a room full) of painted and unpainted miniatures and a lot of unbuilt kits, though I started selling off the latter last year. Boxes of rulebooks and army books and old army lists, convention programs and souvenirs and shelves of trophies. Every once in a while I'll still play a miniatures game with an old friend, but I don't have the interest or motivation to buy or keep up with new editions of the rules and haven't in a few editions.

Vampire and the Storyteller system were big for me in the 90s but I haven't played them in forever and am not particularly interested to.

I used to LARP a lot in the 90s as well, playing those games (mostly NERO, a little Madrigal) and traveling to chapters in several states for weekends, before I tired of it (and that was about when I switched to miniatures wargaming).

 

[The Soloist]

I've pretty close to entirely set aside 40k and WH Fantasy Battles. I played them intensively from around '99 until about 2017, I think? Used to play local tournaments and leagues constantly, travel a couple of hours to neighboring states for one day events, and much farther (sometimes flying) for weekend long grand tournaments in Baltimore or Chicago (Adepticon for several years, once went to the 'Ard Boyz final at the Chicago Battle Bunker after qualifying at the local and regional rounds), upstate NY, up and down the Eastern seaboard, and once Las Vegas for the Throne of Skulls invitational. I even brought a case of minis to the Netherlands when I went on a work trip so I could meet up for a game with a local I connected with on a WH internet forum.

I did that with 40K, Warmachines and INFINITY. It's a life style choice. Didn't have time for other types of games. Stopped wargaming in 2014 when D&D 5e came out. I remembered I used to role-play!

Now I'm into SAGA Age of Vikings by Tomahawk Studio. It's a cozy semi-historical game with no official miniatures. I also play their Age of Magic and Age of Hannibal variants. Clash of Spears is excellent and also agnostic. Otherwise, I play solo wargames using Frostgrave, Stargrave, Warriors of Athens, Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderland.

 

[Mannahnin]

I did that with 40K, Warmachines and INFINITY. It's a life style choice. Didn't have time for other types of games. Stopped wargaming in 2014 when D&D 5e came out. I remembered I used to role-play!

Now I'm into SAGA Age of Vikings by Tomahawk Studio. It's a cozy semi-historical game with no official miniatures. I also play their Age of Magic and Age of Hannibal variants. Clash of Spears is excellent and also agnostic. Otherwise, I play solo wargames using Frostgrave, Stargrave, Warriors of Athens, Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderland.

I resumed D&D around 2002 (when some of my wargaming buddies wanted to start a 3E campaign on the side) after having largely dropped AD&D around '97 or '98? Only really had a 5ish year gap in my RPG career, 1985 to present.

I played Warmachine leagues and tournaments (often mixed with Hordes) for a bit there too. I have a pretty nice little painted Cryx force tucked away, though nothing as crazy as my half dozen or so large painted armies for WH and 40k and an army and a half for Song of Ice and Fire. (Plus some rebasing/new units I did to re-use my Warhammer Chaos and Wood Elves models in Kings of War).

I've heard SAGA is fun. While I did play a couple of big Mordheim leagues for a bit at a local store, and the aformentioned Warmachine, I tend to like bigger scale battles for the spectacle over skirmish games, though.

 

[Mannahnin]

I'm also mostly retired from Magic: the Gathering. Played that a lot from '94 until '98, largely dropped out but would occasionally play casually with friends. Jumped back into competitive play randomly in 2013 when a couple of friends invited me to a prerelease and remembered that I really like Limited- Sealed and especially Draft.

This was around the same time that my WH and 40k hobby was on the wane, so I got my competitive kicks with cards, doing lots of drafts and some sealed, and some Standard (tiny bit of Modern) since I was accumulating current cards anyway from Limited. And of course folks were eager to trade current staples for old eternal cards from my collection if I wanted to trade a few so I could round out a deck. Went to a few PTQs and Grand Prixs, making day two of my first Team Limited GP in part because I had two very good team mates. But I only stayed heavily into that until 2019. Now I draft very infrequently, and casually watch streamers on Twitch if I want a fix and to see the new cards. Finally sold off most of my old money cards last year.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

On the original subject: I playtested Pathfinder 2, and I kickstarted Nimble. Both have a 3 Action economy, and I find that while I love the idea "on paper", I absolutely HATE it "at the table". I just find that players (my players at least) can come up with TWO actions that they want to do on their turn, or they can come up with FOUR, but they struggle to find the 3-action sweet spot.

At least they do what I would say is too much of the time.

In both those games, I felt that we were always either reining in the 4x actors, or waiting on the 2x actors to pick one more thing, that it really slowed the game down.

I'm interested in an approach like @mearls' Moldvay, where there is a strict (but not too strict) ONE action economy. No Bonus/Minor/Swift action, either. The occasional free action is granted by special abilities (somewhat like how "Extra Attack" gives you 2 attacks in 5e, but it doesn't give you two attack actions.

Take your turn, move on.