The Nerdery #15

[Fellfrosch]

Read it here: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1001

So what do you think? Is playing the same game system year after year good or bad? What can you do to get a stuck-in-its-ways group to try something new?

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Yes, I would like to know how. Then my gaming group can try something new.

[n8sumsion]

Actually this was never a problem with my gaming group WAY back in high school. We were always buying new game systems. We had a nice system worked out where one person would run a campaign for a few weeks, giving the rest of us time to write up notes and study a new game, so that we would be ready to run a campaign of our own when our turn came around. That would give each player a couple months of prep time to run a campaign.

We ended up playing TMNT, Paranoia, Psi-World, Chill, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, D&D, Twilight 2000, Gamma World, Villains and Vigilantes, among others. We would usually come back to CoC or Stormbringer. And if we didn't have anything ready, then we would roll up Traveller characters, start a grand adventure that usually began in a bar, start a bar fight... and then by that time we'd be tired and call it a night. In all the many, many times I played Traveller, I don't think I ever made it past the bar fight, we would have lost our character sheets by the time we played next and we'd start all over.

I think changing up systems is great. It helps you role-play out situations rather than trying to exploit holes in the rules. And it can give you new insights on how to approach situations differently. A tactic you learn using one system might be applicable in another.

So that might be a decent system to try out with your gaming group. The GM can declare that he is going to take a break from the campaign in X weeks, and someone else can run a different setting in the interim and give the regular GM time to recharge his batteries.

[Mister M]

I guess I'm lucky, because my experience has always been jumping from one system to another. I started with D&D 3.0, then almost immediately went on a mission and into withdrawal for two years.    

But when I got back I almost immediately found a group that alternated between Marvel Superheroes and a home-brew d12 system. After returning to school, I joined an already-existing Werewolf game, and for the past year I've been running Orpheus. The campaign is drawing to a close sometime in April, and we're already planning out Forgotten Realms characters for afterward.

This might be because I (and many of the players in the above groups) are relatively new to roleplaying and haven't had a chance to ossify in our ways.

[Spriggan]

Even though I did't want to put this in the article, I think D20 has a lot to do with people not wanting to try new systems.  First off there are tons of settings for it and secondly there are so many rules to it many people think all RPGs are that complicated.

[42]

Well, D20 has just had good marketers behind it, so it's actually getting pushed. Other rpgs usually just put out a book and hope for good word of mouth.

I think the main reason people don't try other RPGs is simply because it's more comfortable not to change. There were plenty in the D&D community who refused to change to 3e when it first came out. There are plenty of people out there still playing 2e, 1e, or even basic. Not because they couldn't play the other versions, but because it just more comfortable not to change.

I lot of people just fall in love with their first RPG experience and game system then are afraid of change.
I also think starting with the simpler systems makes it easier to not be so afraid of changing and trying new things. I can understand starting off with a complicated RPG system and then thinking that you would have to go through all that work again to learn a new system would be rather intimidating.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yet another way that d20 is like Windows! Everyone learns it and then doesn't see a reason to switch.

and frankly, the obsession with everyone having to know all the rules is part of the problem with this. To be a player in d20 you really only need to know two things: that higher numbers are better, both for die rolls and stats, and that you're supposed to kill most of things you see. The DM should be able to work everything else out for you.

[Spriggan]

I think SE and I have a lot of the same views on this.

Anyway, so how do I get big linkage for my nerdery article?

[Satansfist]

I have been trying to get my group to try new things for over a year now, with no luck.  I even suggested that we occasionally try new things when we don't have a quorom to play our 'serious' game, and they voted to just skip those weeks instead!  Aaarrggghhh...

My group's biggest counter-argument is "We just want to stick to one character to really develop him/her/it" which has a whiff of BS about it because they fall into character personality ruts easier than I fall into villain/plotline ruts.  When a player's shifter barbarian is indistiguishable from his previous ascetic monk, something needs to break the mold.

Anyway, any suggestions from someone who has had a resistant group and yet somehow managed to talk them into trying something new, please share.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

"Hail our half-inflated demon lord!"

That is, welcome to the forum. Be sure to introduce yourself and read the FAQ.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

well, logically the "let's stick with this character" argument doesn't work for an evening when y ou wouldn't be playing with the character anyway. Playing a different game is more fun than playing no game. How to convince them of this, I'm not sure. Pure logic doesn't usually turn someone over unless they have pointy ears

[Entsuropi]

Promise cookies, and knife related incidents for people who agree with you and who disagree with you respectively.