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Prior to the advent of the d20 system and OGL, it was no big deal for a lot of gamers to learn different gaming systems. It was just something you did when you played various types of games.
However, since the rise of d20, I've noticed that a large number of gamers suffer from what I call the "One Ring Effect".
One Game to rule them all, One Game to find them, One Game to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
I hear and see it pretty regular:
"Eh. I'm not really wanting to learn another system."
When I was younger, we loved getting a new game just to see how it's system stacked up. We'd go down to the local shop, pick up some new game and next time your group got together you'd go:
"Check it out! I just picked up Hellfire Warriors of RAH!!!!.
And your fellow gamers would get excited, roll up characters and test drive the new system.
Now, it seems when you do that you get:
"Meh. Is it d20? If its d20 I might try it."
Why did this change? Why do so many people view d20 as the One True Way?
I like variance in systems. I like having different ways to play a game. I love my AD&D but don't want every other game to mimic its mechanics.
I play mostly in d20 3.5 but but I have played 2e as well that was a good baby step because it is at least the same system. Still working on the d percantile CofC system and althogh it is kind of difficult I like it.
I got Grimm but haven't gotten around to playing in it. D20 is the greatest, and its power is unequaled!
...What, me addicted?
I think a lot of people never wanted to learn new games, but did so because they wanted to play in new settings. the OGL made that not needful. People used to walk to work too, but now we have cars.
Even so, I do see what you mean. Maybe more people are vocal about it now. I still learn and play new games. I just don't play them much if I don't end up liking them.
Also, older versions of D&D don't seem to have been as asatisfying as many of us find 3e. Why stick with something if it leaves you wanting more. If 3e does that less, people are less likely to put in the effort to look for something better.
And, on a personal note, I don't have as much time as I used to. learning a new game is less fun thatn playing a game, and I often don't have tiome for both.
However, since the rise of d20, I've noticed that a large number of gamers suffer from what I call the "One Ring Effect".
One Game to rule them all, One Game to find them, One Game to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
<snip>
Why did this change? Why do so many people view d20 as the One True Way?
Who are all these folks that suffer from the one ring effect? Just curious.
As ever,
ACE
I love Palladium's Heroes Unlimited. Just very much fun for me to play and DM. The system rocks and I rock in it
I admit I occasionally suffer from the One Ring Effect.
I don't get to go out and shop for new game books very often, so when I do I want to look at a nice variety of them. If time is limited, I limit my shopping to the games I play. Too often, this is the way it works.
We have had members of our group suggest other games in the past, but with no success (other than one Rifts campaign, which all but one of us enjoyed, but hey, power armor is a great selling point). I like to sit down with the books and read through them all at once to get both a feel for the mechanics and an idea about the nature of the world. If books are limited to just one of us, I can't do that, so I don't feel a strong urge to try out the game. I don't care to play a game without knowing the rules. I'm not looking to break them, but I'd rather not build a character that incidentally has a fatal flaw that ends up dead five minutes after play starts. Or find out I really didn't have that flaw and should have lived if I'd known better. Case like this came up with Aeon a while back, where I created a character blind, without knowing really how things worked. He was OK but I didn't really care for things. I had no idea what I could really do (didn't help that I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing either). A previous experience with Werewolf (don't remember which edition) hadn't made me real fond of that system of mechanics either. End result: I can be hard to sell on new systems.
P.S. I used to love Marvel Superheroes, long before d20 came about. Still love Rifts, just because our parties tend to cause tremendous amounts of property damage doing our thing in the most comical ways possible. So I'm not a total elitist on the topic. Normally.
I've been playing several other systems over the years, though at the moment people I game with are happy with D&D...but for one-shot games and short campaigns GURPS is unbeatable since the system is so flexible you can sneak in all kinds of surprises...(players get some basic starting info like "create a cliffhanger character for 30's India", but DM doesn't have to do any special work to accommodate nazis or Cthulhu or zombies or superheroes, or all of the above)
Maybe we will get an itching for non-fantasy or fantasy of different vein at some point, and change the system.
I think Dungeon Grrrl hit on it. OGL. Now every third world game designer does not have to re-invent the wheel as a framework for their game world.
I try new games. Although, I am rather picky about the new games I try.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I think CofC might actually work better with Chaosium's system than with d20. I know the d20 Young Kingdoms book was drek compared to Stormbringer.
Chaosium CofC is much better than d20 CofC, in my opinion (I own both). This coming from someone who started playing RPGs in 2003.
I think a lot of people never wanted to learn new games, but did so because they wanted to play in new settings. the OGL made that not needful. People used to walk to work too, but now we have cars.
...
And, on a personal note, I don't have as much time as I used to. learning a new game is less fun thatn playing a game, and I often don't have tiome for both.
Both excellent points. I concur. There are far more settings available now than there ever were too, to the point where I have difficulty finding time for the things in print that I want to try out.
Many new games nowadays also are lightly derived from d20 and that's not a bad thing. Spycraft and Serenity are two neat systems that aren't closely 'wed' to D&D, but use some rules in common.