Friday, March 1, 2013

Discussion: How Often Do You Change Systems?

How often do you and your group change systems? I'd imagine the answer is different for everyone. I know groups that are still out there playing in AD&D Revised campaigns that have been going for nearly twenty years or more at this point. I have a friend who has been running an L5R game for the last 10 years but they switch to the newest edition a little bit after it comes out (usually at generation gaps and such.) On the other hand, I'm personally hard pressed to have a game going for more than a year or two and regularly like to try out various systems.

How about you? How often does your group change systems? Each game? Do you finish one campaign and then swap systems or do you swap a lot in the middle? Even if your games end, do you stick to the same system? Are you an AD&D group? Maybe 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder group? Maybe a different game altogether like Shadowrun, the West End Games' Star Wars system, or something else?

How many folks out there change systems regularly? How many stick to the same one? Has anyone never actually tried more than the one system that they've been playing for months if not years?

Sound off in the comments.

3 comments:

  1. My weekly group changes systems and GMs every year or two. We've played Shadowrun, 7th Sea, Deadlands and Star Wars in the time I've been with the group, with 7th Sea as the most played system.
    My other group has been playing Cthulhu for the last four years or so now. We play to try 7th Sea and Vampire: Masquerade (no new WoD for us!), though. That group also plays Fiasco and is developing a taste for free roleplaying at the moment. We may give Jeepform a try as well because it's something very different from what we've played so far.

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  2. Last year I returned from a multi-decade RPG'ing hiatus. I'm playing in a Call of Cthulhu campaign that I suspect won't change systems for a long time, if ever.
    I'm right now starting a Dark Heresy campaign that I hope doesn't change for a long time (in San Francisco; ping me if interested).
    I think I prefer regular gaming with systems that don't change that often, if at all.
    HOWEVER, I recently attended a gaming convention (DunDraCon) and really enjoyed playing all sorts of different systems.

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  3. We tend to switch systems at the end of any long-running campaign (and for one-shots when a few players can't make it, or players who used to be part of the group happen to be around for a weekend).

    But those campaigns last for years, and we don't change during them.

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