Yeah the purposes of this thread was to bring attention to the fact that how we engage (or no longer engage) with D&D has been greatly impacted by other systems in varying ways.

Plus - I love knowing what moves people, especially in the hobbies I engage with. It's far too common in hobby-communities to be so tribal about their favorite thing, to suddenly find someone you otherwise had no idea was into something you didn't realize was a thing. For me there is always something new to learn from other systems. It doesn't mean they're all equal - it simply means there's usually something novel in how a system expresses a game that can be useful.

I have several systems I've had on the backburner for YEARS that I've never engaged with that I want to - Mythras/RQ, GURPS, and Warhammer Fantasy, being very high among them.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on February 10, 2022, 08:12:11 AM

Quote from: rhialto on February 10, 2022, 05:31:29 AM
I'd be interested in your attempts to smooth out the edges for consistency, as the new players problem is still a problem, and one I'm likely to face this year as our group continues to do our "let's try an old game" path.

Probably off-topic in this thread.  If you want to start a new one to talk about DQ, specific or general, I'm always up for that conversation.

Done!

The first RPG I ever tried after D&D was MERP but, even if the supplements were high-quality, we didn't feel that the mini-Rolemaster system was good for Tolkien. Then we loved Star Wars d6.

With my second group it was all Call of Cthulhu or Cyberpunk 2020 and we liked both.

My third group was totally into GURPS 3E. We loved it. We played 4/5 campaigns, starting with my Cyberpunk/Horror and going on with Wild Cards, Cliffhanger/Lost World, and a mix between Star Wars and Space Pirate Captain Harlock (the anime).

Then for a while I stopped playing RPG and actually thought that I was done with the hobby. In 1999 some fellow comic book writers and artists told me that they wanted to try D&D and then result was a 13 years campaign that spanned from 2E to 3.5E.

Now we are playing Cthulhu. I like 7E a lot even if it is in dire need of a 7.5E Edition. My only problem is how there is, literally, too much material among which to choose what do next.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for me.  A very well designed game, which I now find surprising, considering the subject matter,

The Fantasy Trip, which was the first rpg I played and it had me hooked immediately. D&D (AD&D2e to be exact) was the third rpg I played, so it was a relative latecomer for me.

D&D wasnt even my first game I played (that was TMNT).

AD&D 2nd ed just barely makes it into the 10 first games I played, at 7th place at earliest.

The RPG I always comes back to to having the most influence on me would be Mage the Ascension as the possibilities were endless, although it needs a playerbase with above average intelligence and imagination to run.

Started on the Holmes set, played a few games and moved on to AD&D.  Then, after several straight months of nothing but D&D, the group got bored and started looking around.  Over the next few years we played (in no particular order, and some many years later) Rolemaster, WHFRP, Palladium's TMNT and BtS, a ton of Battletech, Top Secret, MSH, Champions, WEG Star Wars, a little Call of Cthulhu and Vampire (too emo for us), along with a bunch of other stuff, in addition to our regular AD&D and 2e (when it came out).  After the first few months, we never considered ourselves a "D&D" group as much as an "RPG" group.  Ironically, it's only been in the last 10 years or so that the group (all of us over 50, with 2 newbies in their 30s and 40s) has pretty much stuck to just one system at a time for long stretches.  I guess we just don't have the time or inclination to keep swapping off anymore...

I never played D&D at all until I had been gaming for about 10 years. I started with WFRP and then Call of Cthulhu. As a result when I have played D&D I've enjoyed it but never really considered it an rpg (which I appreciateis is the height of irony ) but as a very detailed heroic minature skirmish game.

The two games that really click for me are Dark Heresy 1e as a GM and Runequest as a PC.

Castles and Crusades.  Love the Siege Engine system.  Easy to use, and easy to convert 1E stuff on the fly.

Star Frontiers!  Loved the setting and system as a kid.  Great memories.  Took another look at a few years ago to run sci fi and found it just a bit too hokey.  Went with MT2e.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on February 08, 2022, 02:19:22 PMThough we played RQ a lot like D&D, only skills-based.  The first radical departure was Toon, followed very closely by Fantasy Hero 1E.

That is interesting as the first non-D&D game I really got into was Stormbringer (which is similar to RQ) and it so fundamentally changed the way DMed, that years later when I ran AD&D 2e for a new group, all those new players were confused by how I ran my game. It was a bit more open and not as adventure-based as than what were used to. It took me several sessions before I adapted back to the AD&D playstyle.

What really clicked?

We did OD&D for 5 years. 1975-80. We tried other stuff in the 80s. We didn't do much serious stuff until a thing hit for us in the 90s... Amber Diceless... even then it was family-building time so we weren't overly into deep-dive. Now I'm running The One Ring.  Our group is 3 priests, 3 deacons, and a seminarian. I am sure a little nudge will aim us at Amber.

I started with AD&D 2E shortly before 3E and stayed within D20 for many years. Because of playing Call of Cthulhu D20, I eventually went to the BRP version and fell in love with it. Still enjoy BRP products.

For me, it's how the game system is easy to comprehend and is woven into itself nicely. It just feels intuitive. Natural. I never stop to wonder, "Why did they do it this way" and I can usually guess how a rule would normally work without looking it up. Not much of a fan of Runequest, but found Cthulhu Dark Ages to be fun, as well as Elric/Stormbringer.

I also love that the settings are woven into the rules. Each game feels unique.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on February 13, 2022, 12:21:59 PM

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on February 08, 2022, 02:19:22 PMThough we played RQ a lot like D&D, only skills-based.  The first radical departure was Toon, followed very closely by Fantasy Hero 1E.

That is interesting as the first non-D&D game I really got into was Stormbringer (which is similar to RQ) and it so fundamentally changed the way DMed, that years later when I ran AD&D 2e for a new group, all those new players were confused by how I ran my game. It was a bit more open and not as adventure-based as than what were used to. It took me several sessions before I adapted back to the AD&D playstyle.

I was a teenage killer DM. RQ was less deadly than D&D in our hands.  So I already had players used to avoiding fights whenever possible and using every trick they could imagine to get an edge.  For a DM starting out, that can actually be a little easier to pull off in RQ.

Although it was not the next game I played after D&D, the first one that clicked for me was Ghostbusters RPG 1st edition. The rules are elegantly simple, and they work very well for what it is supposed to do.