Why do you play games other than D&D?

[GMMichael]

Because to be blunt I think DnD sucks compared to games like Vampire the Masquerade and having it as my first TTRPG almost made me think I didn't like TTRPGs. Purely my opinion and maybe I'll give it yet another go some day but it grinds my gears that people just end up (really through little fault of their own) equating TTRPGs with DnD when there is so much more out there.

Welcome to the forum, Hooded. Way to throw down the gauntlet! Just FYI, it seems we moved on from this conversation six years ago.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't have any single game that's my goto; haven't in years. I'm not generally a great fan of the D&D style paradigm (classes/levels/elevating hit points/etc) but even that isn't hard and fast a I'm finishing up a 13th Age campaign. But in the last few years I've run BASH UE, Fragged Empire 1e, Mythras, Savage Worlds and Cortex Prime, and my next campaign will be likely Eclipse Phase 2e.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Whoops, didn't realize this was a massive necro.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Because to be blunt I think DnD sucks compared to games like Vampire the Masquerade and having it as my first TTRPG almost made me think I didn't like TTRPGs. Purely my opinion and maybe I'll give it yet another go some day but it grinds my gears that people just end up (really through little fault of their own) equating TTRPGs with DnD when there is so much more out there.

One thing I learned getting an MBA was that the #1 predictor of success in a market was being first in the market.

Another thing I learned getting an MBA was that the company that company or product that’s the most successful in a given market often has its name become a generic term for all products in the market, at least to the general public. See Xerox, Kleenex, Aspirin, and Coke, among others.

 

[jdrakeh]

The nookie. (j/k). I like modern conspiracy/weirdness and bio-terror a lot. Stuff like The Andromeda Strain, Bureau 13, Fringe, Resident Evil, X-Files, etc. They're easily my favorite genres outside of fantasy. And D&D (of any stripe) is a poor fit for those genres. People have tried to hammer various editions of D&D into those shapes and, frankly, all of the results were poor.

 

[Distracted DM]

Another thing I learned getting an MBA was that the company that company or product that’s the most successful in a given market often has its name become a generic term for all products in the market, at least to the general public. See Xerox, Kleenex, Aspirin, and Coke, among others.

Have to be careful though, because if the name gets TOO popularized/generic then you risk losing your trademark

 

[Li Shenron]

I generally consider 5e a toolbox versatile enough to be my go-to ruleset. But the focus on combat abilities for PCs is its main limitation, so for stories where combat is very marginal (e.g. investigation/mystery) or where you want situations that don't fit with combat-attrition rules (e.g. poiting a gun at someone), I'll look for other rulesets. In 2025 the only other game I played however was Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Joerg Baumgartner]

So why do you play games other than D&D? What is it that your game of choice does that makes it the best fit for the stories and genres you're playing with?

Other than in D&D-inspired derivates, I haven't seen "class", "level" or XPs in any of the fantasy that I like to consume. BECMI Basic and Expert were among my first purchases, but never played as the alternatives I had beat it. I did play a little AD&D 1st and 2nd because friends played it, but I pulled several of them over to my table where I ran skill-focussed games like RuneQuest (3rd edition, as I started roleplaying a year too late for 2nd edition goodness). That's obviously more than 3 decades ago. I stuck with the D100 games as I can improvise the fiddly bit without a sweat, but I also enjoyed side trips to other, less rules-heavy games, including dice pool mechanics (WEG Star Wars, World of Darkness) and narrative ones like Dresden Files Fate or HeroQuest/Questworlds.

I am alternating between BRP D100, M-Space (a Mythras-derived homage to the Traveller-style space opera) and Questworlds for my ideas and projects.