Getting a system out of your system?

[Callan S.]

This link is a thread about making the same character over and over, because certain things with that character just aren't resolved.

I was wondering if this could also apply to systems themselves?

Recently I've been thinking of running Rifts for example. I wrote down my goals in regards to why I'd run it and one included 'just getting off a good game of it and then retiring from it for some time'.

Can you get that with a system itself...you just didn't get something done, so you sort of find yourself coming back to as to resolve loose ends?

[Mojo]

I think that is certainly possible, and for GMs can extend to stories as well as systems.

Doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes until we learn...

[Decurio]

Noon, I think what you are aiming for is a sense of completion.

To take a long-running example from my own experience, I habitually run wizard characters in Dungeons and Dragons and have done so since I was ten; I have always wanted to play that character from first level to the absolute heights of power to experience the entire arc  that journey would entail.

It never happened.  For whatever reason, no campaign I have ever played in ever lasted long enough to complete the arc.

Think about it-most systems have an expected "experience arc" that PCs are expected to undergo, and by not experiencing the full arc, theres never a sense of completion.  Its like going on a date with the same person over and over and over again and you never progressing past the second date.  Bleagh! :)

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Oh, I dunno about the "completion" issue - I have encountered and satisfied this urge on several occasions, and until I started taking steps to do it, was haunted by the urge for - in at least one case - over two decades.

I rreeeally wanted to play Tunnels & Trolls when I bought Fifth Edition, in 1977 or so. I didn't actually get to do so until last year, and during the interim, I never picked up the book without a wave of enthusiasm and frustration. Less extreme examples include Marvel Super Heroes (about 14 year lag) and Call of Cthulhu (about 10 year lag)

I'm not talking about knowing about a game and merely not being interested, then playing after all. Nor am I talking about the simple lag among acquiring, developing interest (might precede acquiring), and playing that's fundamental to the hobby. I'm talking about literally being haunted by features of a system, with the sensation that I'm missing a way to play that I might like or at least should experience for comparison.

So for me, it's not a matter of wanting to get somewhere or see something happen for a particular game - it's a matter of wanting to experience the system itself, integrated with all the other features of Exploration too.

My current long-term "system orphans" include old-school RuneQuest (I plan to use the modern Slayers), Earthdawn, Over the Edge, Prince Valiant, and Alternity.

Best,
Ron