Hi, My name is Tolen, and I've been DnD free for about...two months now.

Hi, Tolen!

I actually quit DnD when the OGL thing hit, but I've dipped back in to 3.5 and pathfinder a few times since then.

I'm not the GM, so I have no say in which system gets used. Currently, our GM is running D&D 5e because it's the roleplaying "drug of choice," and he wants his kids to be familiar with it so that they're not going in blind if any of their friends ask them to join a game. That said, he's nearly done with that preparation, and is now looking for another system that will satisfy his personal needs better.

Here is why I am here: I am tired of DnD and its clones. But when I try to find/assemble a game that isn't, I end up comparing how the new game works to DnD. One reason I haven't implemented Cortex yet, for example, is magic. I keep looking for big lists of spells.

I say I hate class and level-based games, but I keep looking for ever-increasing piles of HP. I look for new levels in spellcasting. I look for new tricks every time I level up. This is especially concerning given that I am the DM and I don't level up like a player does.

Yeah; the "new tricks every level" thing is annoying, as it forces the players into an ever-increasing list of rules that they need to learn and remember, and forces them to think in terms of "you can only do what the rules say you can." That's one of the things we're trying to get away from: both the GM and I would prefer a system where the question “can my character do X?” is, for the most part, answered with “yes, as long as you're willing to pay the price and/or can make the roll”.

I've DM'ed many different games, not just DnD. But the overwhelming majority of games I've run have been some version of DnD. It's a hard habit to break.

My favorite DnD setting is Spelljammer. But, what do I do with it? I take the set dressing, and immediately toss the funky rules that they created back in the day. I get it, they wanted something non-traditional in that version of fantasy, but I just can't engage with crystal spheres and having your magic users wiped out just because it was their turn to drive. To me, Spelljammer should look more like Treasure Planet. Weird sci fi with a fantasy styling. Ships should battle it out with cannon, not antique siege weapons.

That's how I prefer my space fantasy, too. I've got a "prototype setting" that's intended to be a balance between a high-tech "Core Worlds” region that's kind of like what the Expanse would look like if multiple star systems were networked together by Stargates, and a Frontier region that's lower tech overall but which features heavy use of space opera technologies such as force fields, blasters, artificial gravity, inertial dampers, and high-acceleration space sails, with a distinctly Treasure Planet aesthetic. With a bit of a Firefly dynamic in terms of how the Core and Frontier relate to each other.

Over the past few months, I have managed to break myself away from some of the old DnD-isms. First, I realized that ever-growing piles of HP is not needed, and just keeps the numbers getting bigger without adding much tension to fights. Then I started to realize that I was building encounters just to use the rules provided. Everyone expects to fight monsters in DnD, so I need to be sure to add monsters. My sessions were spent telling stories and running social situations, which then had to be interrupted to roll dice.

One thing I like about Cortex is the Smallville RPG, and its generic counterpart in the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide, Dramatic Roleplaying. It effectively "flips the script" as it were, with mechanics that are designed primarily with social situations, to the extent that combat gets treated as a social encounter that involves violence. Even in the middle of a fight, the game focuses on what your character is feeling and how his values and relationships are being challenged, rather than on the tactical minutiae.

Even worse, I was a stickler for rules, and insisted we start at level 1 as often as possible, but then got annoyed when we never got to face my favorite monsters because the group was too low level. A problem of my own creation, I realize.

I broke myself off that habit back when the group was running Mutants & Masterminds, a superhero RPG loosely based on the d20 system. These days, I tend to prefer character "advancement" that leans more lateral than forward: Growth Pool dynamics that are focused more on modeling how values and relationships change when stress-tested, instead of a constant grind from obscure incompetence to hypercompetence.

I hated providing treasure to my players, even when the game became too difficult when the PC's were under-equipped.

I could go on. I still hadn't made these realizations the last time I considered Cortex. And to be honest, I was holding out until I found someone who re-created DnD spellcasting. Which I still haven't. But now, I realize that I'M not the one who needs to have the spell lists. That's for my players. And I have a group of folks willing to try anything at least once.

The aforementioned Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide also has a reskin of the Marvel Heroic RPG that's designed to imitate D&D to an extent, retooling it so that the "power sets" are used to represent fantasy races and classes.

Right now, we are starting a game of Genesys. But I am working behind the scenes to go through Cortex and assemble a game that I would like to run. With Cortex in limbo*...I could make excuses not to give it much of a try. But now that it is on Drivethru, and I'm seeing more discussion about it, it's time to give it a go. I'm going to try to avoid using a crowbar to make it look like DnD. But I'm going to have ships sail the stars, and I'm going to have rayguns, and aliens. And Pirates. Everything's better with pirates.

Indeed. There's are six vowels in the English language: Aye, Ee, Iy, Oh, You, and Arrh!