I’m a part of a number of different tabletop roleplaying groups on Facebook, some of them larger and more general and some of them a bit smaller and more focused in what they’re about. As such, I see a lot of requests for help during the day. More often than not, these requests come in the form of people looking for recommendations for what system they should use for their home game. And what I often see is a failure of communication from both sides that would be comical were it not so prevalent. So I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about some things that you can do whether you’re asking for recommendations or offering your own to someone.
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Be specific in what you are asking for
“What system would you recommend for a steampunk or clockpunk game?”
This is an actual question that I saw very recently and is often fairly representative of how vague the questions are when they are asked within these groups and it’s probably the second most frustrating thing I come across in these discussions. When you’re talking about genre, you have to understand and realize that these are incredibly broad things that you can do a lot with and it’s going to give you a shotgun spread of different answers that may not be good fits what you actually want to do. You have to give us more information as to what kind of story you want to tell within the framework of that genre – do you want to tell an intrigue-heavy game? Something that allows for swashbuckling high heroics? Are you wanting a game that’s heavy on combat? Do you want to do something that’s more focused on the relationships the characters have developed with each other and a few NPCs like a ship crew? Are you wanting a game that’s lighter on the rules or heavier on the crunch? Because each of those is likely going to cause me to give you a different recommendation. Taking some time and giving some more details is going to do a world of good for those suggestions, provided those offering the suggestions take care to heed the following points.
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Read the entire post before offering a suggestion.
Another story time – once I saw someone asking for recommendations for a game within the sci-fi genre. They had taken some time to give some specifics as to what they were looking for including that they wanted a rules light system. The first suggestion on the list was Starfinder. You aren’t doing yourself or the person asking for the recommendations any good by not doing them the very basic courtesy of actually reading their post.
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Understand your own biases and blind spots before offering advice
This follows pretty closely with the above point. It’s important for you to understand why you are suggesting what you’re suggesting. Is it your favorite system that you’ve been running for decades through a number of different editions? Is it a game where you have mastery of the rules? That’s going to color your suggestion. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever suggest this game, but be aware that your own understanding and mastery of a game doesn’t make it “rules light” and just because you’ve cracked open a system to run a style of game that maybe wasn’t in the developers, mind when they wrote it doesn’t mean that it’s something that someone who just picked up the system would be capable of doing.
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“Universal” systems aren’t
Five. This is the minimum number of answers before someone will suggest GURPS or Savage Worlds. And don’t get me wrong, these are both fantastic systems in their own right. I’m currently in a Savage Pathfinder game right now and loving the system more and more with every passing session. But that doesn’t always make these systems the go-to for every kind of game. Yes, they can both run a variety of genres and types of game within their frameworks. But they are also written in such a way as to run a certain style of game within that framework. This also goes for games like FATE or even Genesys. They’re all fabulous systems in their own right, but you have to understand their strengths and their weaknesses.
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Remember – you aren’t just making recommendations to the prospective GM
Yes, the GM is going to be the one putting together the game and running it, but there are also several other people that will be involved with the game. The GM is likely going to have to be able to teach this game to them. Systems like GURPS require a certain understanding and even mastery of the system and a solid investment of time to be able to build a competent character. FATE requires a certain kind of thinking that not every player possesses (and that’s not a bad thing).
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Don’t be afraid to do some of your own research
There’s a world of great RPGs out there. Don’t be afraid to spend some time and cast your net out there when looking for suggestions. You might surprise yourself and find a new game that you want to try. And if you’re the one asking for recommendations, make sure you’re taking those suggestions to heart and maybe checking a few of them out.
Ben Erickson
