#RPGaDay2018 Day Twenty Four

Day 24 Question:  Which RPG do you think deserves greater recognition?

Pass again.

Day 24 2016 Question:  What is the game that you are most likely to give to others?

That depends on if they are completely new to RPGs or they've been at it awhile.

I think giving the D&D Starter Set to someone with no experience with RPGs is a good route.  They'll be getting dice, a condensed version of the rules, an adventure, and pre-generated character sheets all in one box.  All they need to start playing except for pencils, friends, and snacks!  Once someone wraps their head around D&D, they can either keep going with that or branch out to other RPGs.

If on the other hand, I want to give an RPG to someone who has been playing for awhile, I would take a number of factors into consideration before handing them whatever game I'm jizzing all over at the moment.  If this is already someone's hobby I would really want to tailor an RPG gift to them specifically.  I would ask them what they've played before and liked or disliked, try and see what they already own or ask them what they already have on their shelves, and I would try and get a feel for what they like in other types of media.  For example, if the gift receiver likes Call of Cthulhu, dislikes D&D, has some World of Darkness or Chronicles of Darkness books, loves horror fiction, and has a deck of tarot cards they don't do divination with, they seem like an excellent candidate for Demon City or Night's Black Agents.  If on the other hand they love D&D, own a bunch of the official D&D books, they just watched the movie The VVitch and followed it up with A Field in England, then maybe I give them an OSR adventure like Death Frost Doom or Better than Any Man published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 

Giving whatever I like the most at the time seems self serving, unless the interests of the gift receiver align well with my own.  There is no one single RPG that is going to satisfy every player, especially if someone already had well developed likes and dis-likes.  If I were hoping to give an RPG to a person new to the hobby and I knew they had a strong dislike of the fantasy genre, I would amend my D&D Starter Set idea to something else.  I have little experience with space, sci-fi, and superhero games, so I would probably have to consult with someone better versed in those types of RPGs to get an idea for giving those as gifts.