BECMI is Old School

[Lunamancer]

SCHWA is awesome. A little backwardsee, but awesome. If the twitter die-roller would handle the system easier, I'd run that. I had really wanted something simple, but OSRIC won out as that was what it was designed to use. Already it's causing issues for the newbie gamer who knows twitter well but has never played AD&D (some Lejendary Adventure, SCHWA, and maybe a few others) but he still finds gaming a foreign thing. What was cool is how he always tried completely crazy things with LA and my eyes would open wide knowing it was a good idea and then set me to figuring out how to adjudicate it.

I can relate to that. Our group is playing LA, but I was just informed by the LM a few hours ago that we'll be switching to D&D because some of the newbs are having difficulty getting traction. He's my brother, and it's his game, so I'm going to let him do what he wants, learn from his mistakes, but otherwise help him out where I can. But as a player in his game, I can speak to what I feel, and I can certainly speak to what I observe. And it ain't the game system. So I don't anticipate the shift to a different RPG will improve things.


The problems I'm seeing are:
1) The start-up blues. We're kind of thrown in to a ready made situation without clear individual motives/goals nor an idea of how we relate to one another, both as players and characters. Things are improving as we go on, and I suppose things are better than having no ready-made situation and no clear motives/goals. But individual motives/goals and initial introductions are something that could improve (and improve the fun). This is true regardless of system.
2) Most players don't know the rules. This is also something that's improving as we go and we'd face the same challenges regardless of system. A primer on how the system works procedurally (like what it means when the GM shouts common things such as "roll initiative," "roll to hit," "roll damage," "make a check against . . .," etc.
3) Combat is just f---ing slow on line, no matter how simple the system is. Just get used to the fact that it's going to feel like everyone involved in this big battle is wading in molasses. Personally, that does make the game slightly less fun. To some of the new players, or those form whom combat is not especially engaging, it's killing the experience for them entirely. Again, that's just not going to change with the system.
4) A good character sheet can go a long way to helping #2 and #3. All relevant stats and modifiers should be conveniently listed and accounted for. The irony here is, in this instance where system might matter, good systems fair worse than bad systems, as I consider good systems to be those that, while being lite and simple in and of themselves, because they adjust organically to specific situations, in practice it involves too many variables to do this effectively.

Sort of a disclaimer: Now that you can find several examples of actual play posted to YouTube, it makes me realize, even in live table-top gaming, people seem to just play f---ing slow by my standards. No wonder why so many gamers bitch about every last thing on line. Flush game theory down the toilet. I just solved the internet. People are playing the game too slow.

So the advice here is again regardless of system. Know your craft. And teach or make sure your players know what they're doing, too. Demand competence. Learning the game = Respect for your fellow players. Settle for nothing less. Having a guy who knows Twitter but not AD&D, or a guy who knows AD&D but doesn't know Twitter is clearly a reality. But it shouldn't be a permanent state of being. These should be viewed as temporary challenges. Not conditions that dictate how you must tailor your game set-up. It's certainly not something that can't be changed in a month or so if everyone works at it.