Maybe I'm just getting old and stubborn, but it is really hard for me to learn and enjoy new systems.

As background, the games I have the most experience with are D20: D&D, D20 Modern, and Star Wars D20. I know how most of the rules work, or at least know where to look on my cheat sheets to find out about a particular details.

A few new games I've learned in the past year to serve as examples are Legend of the 5 Rings, Serenity and Shadowrun 4e.

During play of L5R and SR as a player (and Serenity which I GMed) there were times when I became extremely frustrated trying to figure out how a particular rule worked. Part of this was due to the fact that the rule wasn't clearly explained in the rulebook, and the rest was due to the very different and non-straightforward way the mechanics worked. It seemed none of the other players were masters of the game either, and play was frequently slowed down by people questioning how a rule worked or looking something up.

The degree to which using these particular systems limited everyone's enjoyment is pretty significant in my opinion. If everyone at the table was very familiar with the game, I believe things would definitely have gone smoother, and everyone would have enjoyed themselves more. I'm not entirely sure that's possible, however, as I think that all 3 of these games have pretty large holes in the rules as written, with things not clearly explained or even admitted.

Lastly, I often fall into a certain trap when playing new games. It's analogous to learning a foreign language, and frequently asking someone "how do say this in Japanese"?  At the gaming table, I frequently ask more experienced players how to do things like this - "I scan the bushes for signs of an ambush, how do I make a Spot check", or "I think he's lying, how do I Sense Motive?".

I don't think D20 is the perfect system, and I have lots of problems with it, but at this point I'm so familiar with the rules, it's frustratingly hard to use anything else.

Anyone else have this problem? Not necessarily just with D&D, but getting away from whatever your favorite system is.

It's not exactly the same thing, but my group(s) and I frequently find ourselves asking if something provokes an attack of opportunity no matter what game we're playing in.  Everything from Exalted to Unisystem to the nWoD larp we play in, it's always, "Now that won't provoke an attack of opportunity, will it?"

I don't mind checking out a few new systems that do cool things now and then.

But I don't want to make a hobby out of it.

I used to be part of a group that changed games on a monthly basis. No getting comfortable with the system of characters, no extended campaigning. I really got tired of it after a while.

I've never had a problem picking up a new game, assuming that the game was well written. However, my group is more likely to start a new game if it's system is recognnizable, which usuall means d20 or WoD-like.

Nope.  I carefully read the rules, prepare handouts, take my time in the early sessions, and rely on my friends if they have more experience with the system.

Sometimes I may hate a system, and sometimes the system is so complex I consider it to be a waste of time to try and teach folk unless they also purchase the book.  But I love learning new systems.

I like shiny stuff. And new systems. Much to the lament of my players who'd like to stick to something for a while.
(Not that we don't have long-running campaigns, but I really like to fiddle with stuff, so new house rules or alternate rulesets are always in consideration)

Nowadays it does take me slightly longer to absorb a new ruleset. In my teens and twenties most things would click almost instanteaneously. Now I'm in my mid-thirties I find the best approach is to read the book once and let it stew in the back of my mind for a few weeks before reading it again. The second time around everything seems half familiar, which is just enough for the information penetrate the ever thickening membrane of age.

Funnily enough whilst speed of assimilation has slowed a little, I find my depth of understanding grows ever greater. I find patterns, themes and connections that would never have occured to me ten years ago. Maybe Gygax was right when he included a Wisdom bonus on the Character Age table...

I can't say as I've had that problem personally.  To be honest I'm probably most familiar with d20 too, I started gaming when a friend wanted to playtest that newfangled 3rd Edition of D&D before running it at the roleplaying society at uni.  He was a house mate and two of my other house mates used to game and agreed so I figured 'what the hell' and signed up.  Been loving gaming ever since.

And I've played a whole bunch of systems since then too.  Now, to be fair, it usually takes a few sessions to really get a system down and, certainly, getting bogged down trying to figure out how something works is a bit of a fun killer.  However, I've never experienced that as a real problem, more a slight stumbling block near the beginning of a campaign, and often times not even that.  I've gone from d20 to Exalted to 1st Ed. Lot5R to BRP Cthulhu to WFRP to Polaris to, well, you get the idea!  Picking up new systems is actually something I quite enjoy, although I really like a nice, long campaign using the same rule set too.

Hmmm, that's probably too contradictory to help, huh?

Part of it may be the systems I was using. L5R and Shadowrun4 have a few quirks where things aren't terribly well explained. I think the problem is less well pronounced with rules light games like Savage Worlds.

I imagine things would get easier after a longer period of time, but I'm really finding the break in period to be stressful. What kills me is that I'm not a D20 fanboy, but I keep going back to it because it's what I'm familiar with.

I also find that for me, the problem is much worse when GMing. Attempting to GM a new game gets very problematic is you don't have the rules down pat. Nothing slows down a game more than the GM having to look up rules. If players do it, you can ignore them and go on to the next guy, but when the GM does it, everything screeches to a halt.

Maybe at this point in my gaming career I'm doomed to stick to rules light games (although I have a burning itch to try to run a Hero game).

The lack of explanatory material is one of my few gripes about SR4. It's definitely a pain to run by itself, especially if you want to exercise all the corners of the rich setting.

The core rulebook was created to act as a part of the whole package and for whatever reasons FanPro never produced most of those parts. Catalyst Games now has the license though, and they've already got two books slated for the next couple of months, so it looks like we're on an upswing.

While I don't mind learning and trying new systems -- I'm playing in a fantasy SotC game right now -- as a GM I tend to fall back on systems that are quite familiar to me (viz. C&C, which is pretty much a revamped version of 1e AD&D, and Rolemaster Classic, which is a refomatted version of Rolemaster 2e).

I guess my GMing processes were hardwired into me during my teenage years.

 The only 'new' game I feel comfortable GMing these days is Angel/Buffy (Cinematic Unisystem).  I tried GMing True20, but just couldn't get into it.

Quote from: GoOrangeMaybe I'm just getting old and stubborn, but it is really hard for me to learn and enjoy new systems.

Yes you are old and stubborn.

Quote from: GoOrangeAnyone else have this problem? Not necessarily just with D&D, but getting away from whatever your favorite system is.

Not really. I'm always trying out new systems...the great thing about not being "a systems guy" is that every system seems problematic during play But my players love reading new games and they help out during play...if I encounter any problems.

Regards,
David R

Like so many others, my problem is time.  Family and work take up a goodly portion of my life each day.  To digest a system I am unfamilliar with has to mean that that system is either: 1. Similar to a system I already know or 2. Simple enough to wrap my head around in a short time.

The third option open to me is going with a system that I'm already familiar with / already have.

I check out new systems fairly frequently, but the situation that I find myself in arises from the perspective of years.  After playing RPGs for the better part of 25, 30 years now, I'll be reading a new system and simply finding variants on the way another game did the same thing a few years back.  It's often like (and I exaggerate for effect) the new rules will suggest turning left 180 degrees, while the old rules suggested turning 180 degrees to the right.

This is one thing that I appreciate about the OGL movement and how it's catching on with a number of popular systems out there.  With OGLs there's no need to re-invent the wheel, but there are plenty of modifications that can still be made to that basic design, and, of course, plenty of pretty new ways to dress it up.

!i!