Playing One Game System or Many, Part 1

My current gaming group likes to play a lot of different games. We play all types of games: board, card, strategy, dice, role-playing.  For this series of articles, however, I am focusing on role-playing games (RPGs). A group I used to play with liked to play only one game, Dungeons and Dragons. The contrast between these two groups came to light for me recently in a discussion where people were talking about which style of group is better. Of course, if you have read much, or any, of my writing on these types of topics you already know my answer is what works best for you and your group. Now we have taken the short route to get to the answer, let's explore what is each style provides.

Why Playing Just One RPG is Good

When I first started gaming there wasn't a lot on a store shelf to choose from. There was more out there than I originally knew about because it was well hidden within the community as the creation of the minds of the people that played them. When meeting some of the early RPG pioneers I felt like they had poured their souls into their creations. They not only enjoyed playing the games they had, but the games and the systems were a part of their being.

That same level of support is still out there today for games. There are people who will throw themselves into single game system and that is all the only one they want to play. I am not just talking Dungeons and Dragons like my older group, but I have met people who have this feeling for games like Star Wars and Star Trek, Shadow Run, Call of Cthulhu, Blue Rose, BESM, and other. In fact I am willing to bet there is a dedicated group for each and every game system.

Groups are devoted because the game provides what they want. If you have everything you want on the table in front of you, why go looking for something new? That was one of the main aspects of the gaming group I was in before. The group even told me they would be interested in playing a different game, but if it was a fantasy, then it had to be done in D&D. A couple of us introduced new games. They would play one maybe two sessions and then want to get back to their fantasy characters.

Eventually I understood they had a comfort level with D&D they enjoyed. The group got together to play D&D because they knew the system. As time went on, they knew it better and better. They understood the nuances and the house rules developed to get around those nagging questions left open by incomplete descriptions. They knew how to create characters and how they fit into the setting. They knew what needed to be done to defeat an encounter, virtually every aspect of how monsters were supposed to act and how each was vulnerable. They liked what they knew, and the comfort that knowledge gave them.

At even tried to introduce different settings that were a part of the D&D system. We played Ravenloft, Spell Jammer, Dark Sun, and a couple of other settings. Those also lasted a few sittings at the table before the consensus was to get back to "the game." The comfort they had gave them the chance to fall completely into the characters and to design in a system they wanted to play.

Running a game is easier in a world you understand. I have almost always had a group with a certain level of "open" or "sandbox" gaming. There were campaigns where characters were dedicated to a series of adventures ran by a single GM. But, also, we each had a folder of characters we could call upon when any person took the reins of GM and announced they had an adventure they wanted to run.

Knowledge allowed them to build between game sessions. By knowing the system, they could spend time building an adventure or a new character. They could do it on the spur of the moment. They could start putting together ideas in piecemeal, five minutes here, five minutes there. Then they could push their note pages together and have an adventure that could be ran with minimal information on the written page in front of them. They were good to go.

Groups playing a single system have these advantages. Basically, everyone knows the system.

Another older gamer told me they have had, roughly, the same gaming group for thirty years. There have been the same core people playing, while others have drifted in and out. The only game they play is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons—the original hard cover books. They've only included information written for that first edition. Admitted, there is a lot of material from that time (a lot that has been reintroduced into later editions). But, they think of themselves as purists to the system. And, they enjoy it.

Groups into one system, no matter which system they play, have the ability to dig deeper into the game. They build on the basics of what is presented, learn the subtleties that make the system special and explore them to the level of detail that makes them experts.

Don't confuse these people for rules lawyers. Where a rules lawyer is usually looking for ways to exploit the system and push the game in their favor. These RPG system purists are wanting to keep the game going in its true form. They have no reason to shop the shelves at the game store looking for the latest editions, newest systems, or variants providing tweaks to what they have. They already have what they want. They have a game that provides for their desires and their enjoyment.

If you are a player of a single system, take pride in it. I understand you enjoy it and you consider it the best one out there. Your enthusiasm can be contagious when introduced to the right person and it is that enthusiasm that helps build this hobby.

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