RPGaDay #2: Unique

For #RPGaDay 2019, the second word prompt is Unique.     

      I never really got into Dungeon Mastering #Dungeons&Dragons and was much more effective as a player. I really got my Game Mastering stripes with #Earthdawn. During that time period we also played some #Earhdawn, #TORG, and #Shatterzone games with an excellent GM. I read up on Shatterzone and I loved the SciFi setting. I love TORG's setting too, one idea I had was the TORG box set with all the pregenerated characters was all the heroes left on Earth, the PCs had that many times to get it right (run out of characters and its game over Earth) but never ran into that set at the local game store but did find Shatterzone. But then I attempted to GM the game myself and found the damage dealing system to be a grok problem  for me and the players (The K/O/Shock/Wound system) as it is a lot different than the subtractive and additive damage systems of D&D and Earthdawn respectively (You subtract hit points in D&D with 0 being KO/-10 slain in those days, and in Earthdawn you start at 0 and add up to your KO/Death Ratings). The players also couldn't quite understand the unique Initiative Card system as it was a huge departure from roll and go in D&D and Earthdawn and the 2d10 rolling mechanic where the roll modified existing skills rather than being the number used to determine success. I also learned that when starting a new game, giving players access to all the books was not a good idea. I had a player playing a Psionic race from the Contacts book and just overpowered a lot of opposition through mind control in the one unique session of Shatterzone that I ran. It was a game I loved playing but did not like Game Mastering.  Another lesson learned was do not over invest in a game until you've tried it out otherwise you have a lot of shelf space for a game not in use. Less of an issue in a world of PDFs though. We didn't play a West End Games again for a while but got to play the #DCUniverse later on when Ted ran the game. This one was a d6 pool type of game and was a lot easier to understand because we had experience with #Shadowrun in the interim.