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#RPGaDay2018 - Day 2: What do you look for in an RPG?

I think the single most important thing I look for in an RPG is 'will the people at my table (including me) enjoy the experience of using this system?' A lot of times in the past, I've defaulted to one system or another, one game or another, because it was simple and ubiquitous and easy for me, as opposed to easy or interesting for everyone including me. So I ended up running a lot of D&D games in situations where I wasn't actually particularly interested in D&D or even in something in the D&D milieu, but because it was a familiar and easy touchstone, that's what I reached for.

These days, I'm much more about finding a good balance for my table. I'm partial to Fate Accelerated Edition, but my players prefer something a bit crunchier, so we compromise and use Savage Worlds for our RIFTS game. I would love it if I could talk my group into something a little bit more out there, like Monsterhearts or even Dogs in the Vineyard, but given the audience that's probably going to be a stretch.

I mean, I look for a lot of things eventually: is it fun? Is the playstyle compatible with me and my table? Does the game avoid problems with flat dice curves and narrative falloff due to failure (or success)? Can I hack it to tell the kind of story I want to tell? Does it make me think about corner cases, or does it feel like I can gloss over stuff in play easily enough?

But mostly, it's "will this be fun". And if not, then I'm probably not going to put much skull-sweat into it.

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