I started a new job at the beginning of September. It’s a very different environment and I’m essentially having to learn an entirely new business, including new applications and processes.

That’s great Derick, but how does it relate to gaming?

How many times do you feel you’ve started over with a new game system?

Moving from 2nd to 3rd edition DnD felt like starting over. Many of the basics of the systems changed. Concepts like higher numbers being better across the board, and standardizing ability modifiers. Was 3.5 starting over, no – not for me.

Then DnD 4th edition, and 5th edition. I would argue that both felt like starting over.

After the introduction of 4e, my local group decided to try Savage Worlds. Now there’s some starting over. We also tried some Dungeon World (not really starting over), and Pathfinder (1st edition – again not starting over).

So the question is, why start over? We own all these books in physical form, so there isn’t an issue with not being able to find the rules or other supplements. The game may have moved to newer editions, but the materials are all there if you want to keep playing. For example, I downloaded Spelljammer (2e) from the DMs Guild a few weeks ago. If it’s not inability to get materials, it must be something to do with the players of GMs? Do we get bored with an old system when a new system comes out? If we don’t like that system why do we try something new instead of going back to what works?

Lets talk about 4th Edition DnD. Many of the players in my local group hated it. To much like a video game. Why does everyone have powers. And of course, why does combat take so long? For me, 4th edition is the reason my local group tried Savage Worlds. I think that it was partly to facilitate some different genres. Savage Worlds is great at super heroes, modern, horror, and Science Fiction (I use it now for Star Wars games). But Savage also solved issues like speed of combat powers. From a GM perspective it made prep easier and faster – once I figured out how to make it work for me.

In the case of 4e, starting over was a disaster, and essentially drove us down the path to new systems. The question is why not go back to 3.x DnD? For me there were a couple of reasons. First was prep. Creating higher level characters was a nightmare. Add the proliferation of splat books, and time spent prepping sessions from a GM perspective was difficult. 3.x DnD also included a “large” amount of specific rules (a large skills list is an example) that allowed you to flesh out a specific concept for a character at the cost of complexity.

Ultimately, I think it was an opportunity to try something new. When 5e came out we jumped right in. When SWADE came out for Savage Worlds, we adopted it almost right away. It does help that both of these systems had good reviews and went through extensive play testing.

For me personally, I’m always willing to start over with a new system, often just to see how it works and is there the possibility of stealing something for my own game. Dungeon World was a perfect example. The idea of Fronts is portable for just about any system.

So how about you? Is starting over too burdensome? Do you need to consider your own group when starting a new system? Are you a why change if it aint broke person? And if you did start over with a new system, have you ever gone back?