Experience a New RPG in Just 4 Easy Steps

Learning a new RPG can seem daunting. It doesn’t have to be. Here’s how to experience a new RPG the easy way. (If you just want the 4 steps, page down a bit!)

Why Play Something Else?

If we love our main RPG, why try something else?

New Techniques

Different RPGs call for different approaches to gameplay. The Fate and the Dresden Files RPGs have revolutionary ideas on how we can build a world together (which inspired this approach useful for D&D and other games). Gumshoe games like Nights Black Agents have innovative approaches to running mysteries and providing clues. Shadowdark might help us get better at running an adventure or encounters by rolling on tables and improvising. Phoenix Dawn Command might encourage us to provide a list of items in encounters that the characters can decide how to use, perhaps even with a Torch card for initiative. Games like Gamma World 4E, Numenera, and Spycraft can help us pick 2-3 terms that describe our characters and guide play.

Some RPGs provide vastly different experiences, others similar ones. Many of the RPGs created by Free League, such as Blade Runner and Alien and Walking Dead, have similar concepts. In those games, the idea of what an adventure or a character is? Not that different from the expectations you have for an adventure or character in a game like D&D, even if the actual mechanics differ. A game like Who the Devil Are You? by Monte Cook Games is very different, with the adventure springing from a single image placed on the table and characters created based on that image with just a few character concepts to guide play. We learn skills like improvisation, how to create more vivid descriptions based on a few ideas, or how to reward players for roleplaying and cool ideas.

New Systems

RPGs often have great systems we can port into our games. We may employ these systems all the time or just for specific situations. We might implement “popcorn” Balsera initiative when the characters have made a great plan and we want players to drive who goes next in initiative. Or, for a cool monster we could steal the Speed concept from Phoenix Dawn Command and have a monster act every x character turns. We might use an Escalation Die from 13^th Age to represent the frenzy of an arena battle, but we might use 13^th Age’s One Unique Thing for all of our character backstories. There are so many great concepts, from hexcrawling charts in several RPGs, the travel and exploration found in The One Ring, or the concept of Fronts in Apocalypse World.

As we will discuss below, we don’t need tremendous expertise to benefit. Josh Storey on Gnome Stew discusses how he played one Powered by the Apocalypse game, but uses the concept of Fronts often!

Deep Dive Into a Genre

While games like D&D can handle a surprising breadth of genres well, many games really focus on a specific genre. The RPG’s every aspect is focused on that type of game, helping players and GM have a great experience. Trail of Cthulhu by Pelgrane Press is a great horror/investigation game in a modern or near-modern era, while Mothership or the Alien RPG provide fantastic sci-fi horror experiences where you know your characters will probably die. Deadlands really delivers on weird wild West, even using poker chips and cards, pardner. These deep dives can help us create better experiences the next time we use a game like D&D with that genre.

Switch GMs

A new RPG can be an opportunity to let someone else be the GM for a change, giving the typical GM a break. Switching GMs helps more players appreciate the GM role.

A Break

Playing another game gives us a break so that when we return to our favorite game(s) we are refreshed and looking forward to it. We may even return with new ideas, systems, and techniques.

When I created the Success in RPGs video, Hone Your Skills, I emphasized playing other games. As designers, playing other games fills us with invaluable new perspectives and inspiration.

Sounds Hard?

Playing another RPG sounds hard. The game might come in a 300-page hardback, or it might be an older game with a whole line of supplements and adventures. That can be really intimidating, for sure. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are four steps to make picking up a new RPG easy.

Step 1. Set the Goal: Fun, Not Mastery

We are intimidated by the concept of mastering a new 200-300 page RPG… but what if we instead set the goal as having fun with the game? As GM, we can tell our players that we aren’t aiming to master the game, nor for them to do so. It’s okay for players and GM to make mistakes, look up a rule, or improvise with whatever seems fun. Especially if we may not play the RPG for long, there is little point in achieving high mastery if we have a good time.

And, look, most of us didn’t understand half of the rules in AD&D or Basic, but we played anyway. I ran for years without understanding the difference between indoor and outdoor ranges for spells and movement. It didn’t matter. We had a blast.

With our goal being fun, we can now orient ourselves properly. All we need to do is understand the basics enough to run an adventure. A typical 300-page RPG tends to have very little core rules content.

Take the Blade Runner RPG. Of its 229 pages, 19 pages cover everything you need for combat and skills. Another 27 round out the system. A total of 46 pages, and most of this we can skim. The rest is for players to create characters, setting and lore we can skim, and stuff like gear.

Numenera? 416 daunting pages. However, the How to Play section is 3 pages! We can skim the character section, read the 28 pages on gameplay and the 19 in the section for GMs. 50 pages, much of which we can skim.

It can be fun to learn as we go. Is there a downtime system? We can probably learn it when we get to that point, or even look it up together. We can ignore rules for crafting, kingdom building, spaceship selling, or whatever else is unlikely to come up during our adventure.

When we read the rules, we can focus on getting the basics. We don’t need to memorize much, especially if we follow this next point…

Step 2. Check for Quick-Start Guides and Cheat Sheets

Most RPGs have quick-start guides. Many of these are free. Want to learn Fantasy AGE? Their free quickstart teaches the fundamentals, has plenty of player options, provides pregens, and comes with an adventure. The whole thing is just 37 pages, and the last 21 are pregens and the adventure. We can read 16 pages of rules in no time at all! If we have fun, we can buy the full rules. Even if we own the RPG, the quick-start can help us learn the game quickly for our first session.

Here is another example. Modiphius just released a free quickstart for Star Trek Adventures 2E! The rules and character info are on just 24 pages, followed by a short scenario and pregens.

We can also search online for fan-created cheat sheets or GM screen inserts. These are often simple documents that provide at-a-glance must-have information to run a game. We can also make our own with very little time investment. For example, for Blade Runner, I own the GM screen but it doesn’t list the game’s skills. That’s a thing I need as a new GM, so I quickly pasted them into a document and printed it to hang over my GM screen next to the names of the characters.

If you are running an official adventure, you might look it up and see if there are reviews or tips that will make it easier. You can similarly find overviews of how to play a game. For example, Richard Malena has nice overviews of Fantasy Age, Phoenix: Dawn Command, Numenera, and various board games.

But, don’t overdo it. We don’t need to spend hours watching videos. Our goal is fun, so we just watch long enough to get an overview and we only need a cheat sheet for a few important things (typical target numbers, which dice to roll for common checks, etc.).

If you really want a sweet experience, check to see whether the RPG has a Starter Set. These are often priced below the normal profit margin, to entice you to jump into the game. You get a lot for relatively little. The Free League starter sets are amazing! For Blade Runner you get full-color handouts, maps, pregens, the adventure, and a slimmed-down version of the rules! With any purchase, take that cost and imagine you play 3-4 sessions. That’s your cost for the game per session. If the players are willing to chip in, a new RPG becomes absurdly cheaper than going to the movies.

One more option. You may want to play a game first. Web sites such as Demiplane, RPGMatch, StartPlaying, and others can all help you find a game master who can run you through that RPG so you can learn from them. I love buying a new RPG and then playing it at a convention like GameHole before I run it for my friends.

Step 3. Short Experience

Don’t start with a huge campaign that will require tons of reading and prep and then multiple sessions to finish. You and your players may not enjoy that deep an experience.

Instead, focus on a very short experience. I recommend one to three sessions. Many starter sets and quick guides will provide that length, which is perfect for getting a taste of the RPG. If it goes well? Then you can usually find an official adventure that extends the experience.

For your first session, use a session zero approach that includes reviewing the rules and pregens, or creating characters together. Leave yourself enough time to run at least two scenes from the adventure you are using, so everyone gets a taste. This also means very low prep for you, and helps you get some experience with the game before your next session where you spend all of the time GMing.

For each session, we get together with a clear understanding of our goal of having fun. Positive can-do attitudes, forgiving both GM and players if mistakes are made. We embrace learning together and seeing what the system can do.

Step 4. Stop and Assess

After your first short experience, pause to reflect how the game has been going. First and foremost, are we enjoying this game enough to continue? If we are, we can find a longer adventure or create our own campaign. RPG companies often create products specifically to extend the starter set or quickstart experience.

If there are parts of the game that seem confusing, we can go back and read up on those or do some searches online for how others handle them. If we really love aspects of the game, we can go back to a deeper read of the rules and see how to flesh those aspects further.

We can also contemplate changes. Maybe we really like the simple play of Shadowdark, but we want a few more character classes and monsters. We visit the web site and find that Arcane Library has many options to extend play. Or, we might want to modify the game in some way based on what we like in other games. For example, when running Blade Runner we really enjoyed characters making tough choices. We didn’t love how lethal the game could be. So, I modified the critical hit tables so that a lethal injury is far less likely.  

There may be aspects you don’t like, and that’s okay. Numenera… I don’t love as GM how I don’t roll dice. Other GMs love that. I can change that aspect, or I can just play Cypher games every now and then. It’s okay if a game is fun just as a short experience.

Steal It for Parts

Whether you like the game or not, stop and make a note of what aspects inspired you. You may want to bring those aspects into the next campaign of your usual RPG. Update your Campaign To-Do List with ideas!

Hopefully you agree. Trying a new RPG can be relatively easy and a ton of fun, inspiring our games for years to come. 13^th Age’s Escalation Die and One Unique Thing live rent-free in my brain, every day. What RPG systems or innovations inspire you?