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View Full Version : What do you want from a new RPG?



Tyndmyr
2010-10-11, 03:46 PM
We've all been there. A few bucks in our pockets, surveying the variety at the local game shop, trying to figure what shiny new system to try next.

How do you decide? Is it the setting? Great mechanics? Is there a price point that generally is your limit? Do you expect books over a certain price to be hardbound? Is a trusted publisher or brand name significant? How important is good art? Do you enjoy special releases with extra goodies or nostalgic things, such as the recent red box used for D&D, or do you prefer to just pick up the book?

Personally, Im a bit scattered, and have shelves upon shelves of rulebooks, some of which I've never run a game for, and Im curious how other people decide what to get.

The Rose Dragon
2010-10-11, 03:50 PM
One of two things:

1) A wonderful setting (setting-compliant rules optional, but nice)
2) Good and adaptable rules that make me go "wow, I can base a setting on this"

Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Jobin
2010-10-11, 03:51 PM
Mechanics of the game can't be too limiting, but most importantly will my friends be interested in playing too.. Cant play alone.

Tyndmyr
2010-10-11, 03:59 PM
Mechanics of the game can't be too limiting, but most importantly will my friends be interested in playing too.. Cant play alone.

That's a biggie. There's been a few that I've looked at curiously, and reluctantly replaced them knowing it was just too odd to get my friends to try it.

SigCorps
2010-10-11, 04:30 PM
While setting is top, mechanics are a close second. I would love to see a fantasy game without classes. A skill / feat style of character development. Although most folks I know would still recreate your standard character archetype.

Pyre_Born
2010-10-11, 04:36 PM
While setting is top, mechanics are a close second. I would love to see a fantasy game without classes. A skill / feat style of character development. Although most folks I know would still recreate your standard character archetype.

This ^ , I have gone from d20 to True20/Mutants and Masterminds for this sole reason. I like a game that is easy to customize mechanics wise. Something that lets you fit in any type of campaign you want. Classless is my favorite because it's easier to make classes if you want them then it is to take the classes away

Another_Poet
2010-10-11, 04:37 PM
I base nearly all of my purchases on reviews from rpg.net (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/). Or at least, I make a point of perusing them once a week or so, and if something catches my interest there then I go look at it on the shelf.

I like to have some idea of what I'm purchasing before I spend my money - and the blurbs on the box seldom go into much depth. Reviews usually describe mechanics and gameplay, so I find them valuable even if I disagree with the reviewer's opinion of whether it's fun or whether the art is cool. Even if the product is a book I can page through, reading about an actual gameplay experience is nice.

ap

pife
2010-10-11, 04:41 PM
For me, it's almost all setting. The mechanics have to at least be tolerable, but if I find myself daydreaming about the setting and things I'd like to try in it, I'll end up buying the system, sooner or later. Price doesn't much matter to me, nor does the publisher. The art.. Well, I held off on buying DnD 3.0 for over two years, mostly because the art put me off so much. (I later came to sorta stop hating it so bad)..

But bottom line, it's all about the setting for me.