Are you a one roleplaying game or game system kind of guy or gal? What I mean is, do you only play one RPG (e.g., D&D) or use only one game system for all your genres (e.g., d20, Fate System, or Hero System)? I look over at my many book shelves filled with RPG books and I see countless game systems and worlds to play in. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. I mean, what do I play and do? How can I remember all those rules from all those games? Sheesh…
I remember back when I was a poor young lad and only owned Advanced Marvel Superheroes and DC Heroes. I would have bought various other games, like Dungeons and Dragons and such, but my parents outlawed RPG books in the house. So I figured the superhero RPG books–hidden in plain sight–would never be caught. And I was right, or at least they might have thought, It could be worse, it could be D&D. Which to them was Devils and Demons. But I digress. The point I’m making is, I had limited RPGs to access. I would use either Marvel Superheroes or DC Heroes as my go-to RPGs. Thus, after getting bored playing superheroes, I would use either game system to play other genres, such as fantasy, old west, and science fiction. If you ever want to play a simple Transformers game, try using DC Heroes as the system–works great! Both systems were simple, fast, and I could remember most–if not all–the rules.
Playing multiple games can get complicated and slow down the fun experience. The other week, I was playing Edge of the Empire and it had been a month since our group last played. As you might imagine, it took us a little while to get back into the groove of things. So I thought to myself, I wonder how many game groups only play one game or use only one system? The simplicity might be nice, but it would probably get old, like only eating pepperoni pizza every day. However, with one system or game, the game group might be more focused, because they would know the system so well.
I remember a friend of mine who was a one-game kind of guy. He only wanted to play the World of Darkness and that’s it. I asked him why he wanted to play that game only, and his main answer was he knew the system well.
Today there are so many RPGs, it’s probably impossible to count them all. And this can be a good thing. Think about what wonders all these systems and games bring us. For example, Smallville the Roleplaying Game totally captures the emo like aspect of the television show. You can’t do that with the d20 system or DC Heroes. And Edge of the Empire totally captures the mood of Star Wars with their cool dice along with the system that encourages engagement of the players at the table.
So what’s better: one game or many?
I wish I knew… I’ll let that be for you to decide. It seems there is an advantage to each.
Adam Lee
Latest posts by Adam Lee (see all)
- One Game to Rule Them All! - July 18, 2019
