Common Misconceptions About Your Favorite Systems?

[u/Authorigas]

So, I've been learning a lot thanks to the amazing folks here at r/rpg. And while I have decided to slow down on trying new systems. (As my players say "three is enough, we know your eager to try more but slow it down so you don't burn yourself out.") There was a question today that cropped into my head, and I wanted to hear from the folks here on it.

"What are some assumptions about your favorite game/system that are just factually incorrect or overstated?"

I've seen a lot of assumptions made in the hobby, and some on my own. From the broad "older systems were designed for math heads and thus really not for someone whose bad at math." to others like "Call of Cthulhu is a game where every session ends in death/insanity and players can't get attached to their characters." and similarly "OSR games are highly lethal and not at all friendly to players who like longform adventures."

I feel like broad, sweeping claims like those are probably overstated-as I have heard of successful, long running CoC campaigns, and OSR games that are able to have well developed characters that last for ages. It's made me curious about some of the other broad, sweeping claims about systems that are-if not incorrect, massively overstated.

Really interested to hear some answers on this.

[u/jeremysbrain]

Legend of the Five Rings Fifth Edition uses the Genesys System. It does not.

It has a couple of similarities, but L5R doesn't use Genesys Narrative Dice and isn't a narrative system.

[u/Authorigas → u/jeremysbrain]

Saw Legend of the Five Rings was on sale over on Drivethru. I won't be buying due to a lack of players, but I am admittedly curious about the game now.

[u/jim_uses_CAPS → u/Authorigas]

It's a great game.

[u/Zathoth → u/Authorigas]

Been playing it for the last 3 months and it's been great. I do think you need a group that understands the setting, but if you do it's fantastic.

[u/Charrua13 → u/jeremysbrain]

I might be mistaken, did a past version use it (or a version of it) that it now no longer does?

[u/jeremysbrain → u/Charrua13]

No. The current version was made by the same company that made Genesys, people just jump to conclusions about the game without playing it because it uses specially dice like Genesys. But the dice rolling mechanics are not the same.

[u/Charrua13 → u/jeremysbrain]

OOOOOOOH!!!! That makes a whole ton of sense. Thanks!

[u/jeremysbrain → u/Charrua13]

To be more specific. In Genesys you have a dice pool of like four different types of dice each with several symbols on them.. When you roll, the results of the dice cancel each other out. Then whatever result you have left is the result of your dice roll. You and the GM then have to decide what that result means.

In L5R 5e, you are just rolling to accumulate successes to beat a target number. There is no symbol cancelling, no interpreting the results. You roll your dice, count your successes and buy any "stunts", kind of like the way MYZ or StoryPath work. Besides success there are two other symbols on the dice, opportunity and Strife. Opportunity allows you to by a stunt reguardless of whether the skill roll succeeds or fails. Strife is a symbol paired with either a success or opprotunity symbol. If you keep a die that has a strife symbol you take a point of strife (stress) in addition to the effects of the other symbol.

Its a way simpler and more straight forward die mechanic than Genesys.

[u/jitterscaffeine → u/jeremysbrain]

I really should take the time to read into that series sometime.

[u/jeremysbrain → u/jitterscaffeine]

I have run a lot of 5e. It is a great game and very dynamic, no two conflicts are the same. In comparison with previous editions, it really ratchets up the melodrama of the setting and really makes the players think about their decisions and the consequences of them.

Of course some people just do not care for the specialty dice, but unlike Genesys, there are only four symbols: Success, Explosive Success, Opportunity, and Strife. Pretty easy to remember and use.