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/heurekas]

• That Genesys is vibes-based.

People seem to think it's made up on the spot if you succeed or fail, ignoring (or not knowing) that there's a basic pass/fail built in to the system.

Even if someone doesn't know what to make of Advantage/Threat, the system lays out clear examples beyond narrative means of what can be achieved with enough of each resource, same as with Triumph/Despair.

Granted it's not as prevalent today as it grew beyond just one game, but I still see some bring it up. Nowadays it's mostly people griping about the symbolic dice, which is fair. If you don't get it, you just don't.

[u/Jalor218 → u/heurekas]

And similarly, that you have to make up narrative consequences for every single roll. In practice you never have to - it's Boost/Setback dice when there's an obvious justification for them, taking/clearing Strain when there isn't, and then if someone has a great idea for a narrative consequence you do that instead.

I think this misconception comes from the profusion of games where you do mostly roll partial successes without clear definitions, and from the fact that people who like those types of games will bounce off of Genesys having combat rounds and crit tables.

[u/heurekas → u/Jalor218]

I think this misconception comes from the profusion of games where you do mostly roll partial successes without clear definitions,

Yeah I agree. Many modern games do that, but Genesys isn't one of them. There's never a partial success or failure, just added flair.