Game System Substitution...

[Pbartender]

How many people here feel the overwhelming urge to use a vastly different game system for particular style or genre of game?

Now, I'm not talking about using Pathfinder instead of D&D or using D20 Modern instead of Call of Cthulhu, but something little more drastic. Something along the lines of using Dread for a super hero game, or classic 7th Sea for a super-spy game.

For example...

I'm a big Star Wars fan. I've always wanted to run a good Star Wars game. For me, however, none of the systems specifically designed for Star Wars have ever evoked the same sense of cinematic and literary style that the movies and novels do. There's nothing wrong with the systems in of themselves, but whenever I try to use them for a Star Wars game it just doesn't feel quite right.

One of these days, I really want to try running a Star Wars game using the Spirit of the Century rules. I've got a hunch that those pulp-actiony rules would be a really good fit for what I'm looking for in a Star Wars game. The trouble is that whenever I suggest it, my players look at me funny and say, "Why not just use the regular Star Wars rules?" and I can't honestly come up with a better argument than, "I don't wanna use the Star Wars rules."

And Star Wars is not the only game I've felt this way about.

Has anyone else felt this way about a particular game system? Why didn't you like it? What would you replace it with? How do (Can?) you convince your players to make the switch?

Help me out here... I need some validation of my irrational point of view.

 

[Piratecat]

Dogs in the Vineyard works beautifully for an all-Jedi Star Wars game!

 

[billd91]

It's not irrational at all when you realize that systems matter. They determine the mechanical payoffs of strategies in ways that may or may not be genre-supporting/breaking. So I'm not surprised at all.

I'm not sure I'd think Dread was great for a superhero game, though.

 

[jaerdaph]

I'm putting together a Star Trek TOS game (Roddenberry, not Abrams) using Wushu Reloaded. Of all the Star Trek series, I think the Wushu rules fit TOS the best.

Wushu is so rules-light, narrative-focused and radically different from other RPGs' task resolution systems that I really want to give it a try.

 

[Pbartender]

I'm not sure I'd think Dread was great for a superhero game, though.

Me neither, but the example served...

Wushu is so rules-light, narrative-focused and radically different from other RPGs' task resolution systems that I really want to give it a try.

And that's part of what I worry about...

Do I want to change systems, because I truly think it's better for the setting or genre? Or am I just looking for excuses to try out a new system that I'm really excited about and wouldn't otherwise get to play?

 

[jaerdaph]

And that's part of what I worry about...

Do I want to change systems, because I truly think it's better for the setting or genre? Or am I just looking for excuses to try out a new system that I'm really excited about and wouldn't otherwise get to play?

I do think there can be a balance between the two, and maybe even have your cake and eat it too. I would just ask yourself, "when I read and learned these rules, was I mentally picturing or reminded of such-and-such setting while doing it?"

In my case, I've been itching to play some old-school Star Trek for awhile now. Recently I discovered Wushu, and when reading through it and seeing what others have done with it, it just screamed TOS to me. If it hadn't, I'd probably just stick with LUG Trek's Icon or Decipher Trek's Coda system. I'm not sure I would feel the same way about using Wushu for TNG though. Perhaps, but it doesn't "jump out" at me as strongly as TOS did.

 

[Piratecat]

Cerebral Paladin has kitbashed the rules of Dread to make what he calls Heroic Dread, a less forgiving system that he uses really successfully for Hornblower-esque sea games.

Some systems (like Dread) are eminently well suited for their design space. Compare that to BRP Call of Cthulhu, which succeeds despite a largely flexible and genre-neutral set of rules (except for sanity checks, which I completely love). I'm much more likely to use a slightly modified Feng Shui, GUMSHOE or d20 Modern for a Spycraft game than Spycraft 2.0 itself; the system is too rules-finicky for my taste in what should be a really cinematic game.

If you're thinking about changing genres, it's good to ask yourself if the game is going to work despite, or because of, the rules. If it's the former, changing rules may not be the best choice.

 

[steenan]

I did it to many games; sometimes I used mechanics taken as it is from a different published system, sometimes I modded it, sometimes I created my own mechanics. My most successful system switch was using Xia (made by Asklepios on RPG.net) as a base system for Exalted - it works perfectly to this day and fits the genre much better than the original mechanics.

I'm, in general, tempted to search a better mechanics each time I see the system encouraging different behavior that would be sensible and style-appropriate in given game, forcing strong focus on something else than the main theme or just being too heavy and unwieldy.

 

[Aus_Snow]

'Tis good to see more of this.