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It's not always easy to know what role-playing game you want to introduce your group of friends, and other players in the group who will soon become friends with you, to. Tastes are always going to run contrary to your own for each member of the group, and that is unavoidable. However, there will always be similarities in taste among all of the members, although their collective interest may yet run contrary to yours.

The only way this does not become a problem is when you, as the GamesMaster (GM) do one of two things:

1) Tell your group, "this is the game I have in mind, this is what I'm running," and

2) Acquiesce to your group, "okay, let's give this one a try"

Going with #2 is almost always better than going with #1 because you're not looking to jade your fellow players, especially if they are your friends, because you want to force your way of thinking upon them. You may be asking, "Okay, so why doesn't someone else take over the group?" That is an excellent question and one I've asked myself several times over the years.

The Core Group I was in, The Rocky Mountain Knights, which several of my friends and I founded but has since gone on to bigger things, were all very good about taking a lead role in running a game, and for years we would switch off between games periodically. D6 Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, MechWarrior 2nd Edition, Aliens, Rifts, and Shadowrun were our staples; six different rule sets, universes, backgrounds, etc. You may be wiping your brow with a hanky right now and thinking, "That's too much, man. I just want one for the entire group." You would be right to think that way.

Consider that our role-playing group, even twelve years ago, had a total of around seventy years of role-playing experience between the six of us. All of us owned copies of the same games among ourselves and understood how the rules worked, making it easier for each of us, being the GM for that week, to concentrate on the storyline more than the mechanics of the system. Don't be intimidated into believing you have to serve multiple games to your friends, as that is not always the right way to go.

There is nothing wrong with concentrating on a single role-playing game for your crew of friends, although the more experienced you all become, the more someone else may stand up and say, "Okay, it's time for you to take a break and let me in there with my ideas and this new system." Ultimate control is a bad thing, and allowing your friends

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