I've played GURPS here and there, but tend not to because it can give me a headache. I've tried a few White Wolf games but just don't like the mechanics.
- Changeling: The Lost
- Vampire: The Requiem
- Hunter: The Vigil
- Plain old World of Darkness
I also quite enjoy and is finally a system that has for myself personally good rules for mecha is Cthulhutech.
Been wanting to try out some other games but those are what I have tried played mainly. One of the ones I want to try out are Cold City and Hot War.
Eclipse Phase
Once it will be out, I'll delve into this Transhumanistic Game with glee.
Oh yes! I am really looking forward to this. Especially with the artwork being handled by the guys that did Cthulhutech. I just didn't add it to my wants to play since it isn't out yet.
Speaking of Shadowrun, I have been tempted to take it just for the use of the system. As a basis for running a Ghost in The Shell game, after taking out the magic and different races/monsters would it still be viable? Or would you recommend another game?
Edit: On that note, anyone tried any free games that are really good?
Oh, very much possible. Cut out mages and critters and you're good to go. All the high-tech you could want coupled with a very intense matrix-ruleset, esp. with the options in Unwired!
If you go for it, tell me how it works out.
Also: Eclipse Phase I know because of you, I believe. YOu reported from a con last year and told about it, wasn't it you?
Well with the new Anniversery edition out (with nice new art in that as well) I may have to give it a shot soon.
Hmm... I may have talked about it before here. But I haven't been to a gaming con (cons yes, but not a gaming one) so nope I be not that person. I found out from the Cthulhutech forum where one of the artist mentioned it.
I love Battletech, but nobody will play it with me because making characters takes so much work (which for me is why its so fun), and because its kind of hard to run the game without including extensive tactical vehicular combats, and I'm the only one who likes that kind of thing.
The easiest rpg that's actually also a lot of fun is Feng Shui. Everyone ever should play Feng Shui at least a little, so they can understand why abstraction is your friend.
Godlike, Wild Talents, and Reign all use the One Roll Engine, which is great and amazingly customizable (and again, simple), but its tragic flaw is a lack of scaling. Its about super heroes, but it can't replicate truly high powered super heroes that most people are familiar with. Also, Greg Stolze is completely awesome.
The new Savage Worlds is worth playing, if only for Deadlands. Its workable, and its fun, I just don't think the system is as solid as the other games I've mentioned.
Castle Falkenstein is fun, but, eh, I wouldn't play it too much.
Oh, and of course Star Wars Saga is pretty good, though its obviously very similar to D&D. It has scaling issues, but its almost the prototype for 4e.
PS - I have played every RPG known to man, including bizarre independent ones like Starchildren in which you are an androgynous alien who traveled to Earth to lead a Glam Rock revolution against the now oppressive Earth government. WTF?
Anyway, if people try to tell you GURPS, the Hero System, Rifts, Burning Wheel, Traveler, or Warhammer are good rpgs, they are evil liars with bad taste who want to cause you pain. ;)
1. Mage the Awakening/Mage the Ascension
2. Earthdawn
3. Shadowrun 4th Edition
4. Remaining New World of Darkness titles/Old Word of Darkness
5. D&D 4th Edition
6. Runequest (Pretty much any incarnation and BRP)
7. Palladium Fantasy RPG (Before PPE and SDC)
8. Champions/Hero System
9. GURPS
10. WEG Star Wars d6
11. A plethora of games from the last 30 years
PS - I have played every RPG known to man, including bizarre independent ones like Starchildren in which you are an androgynous alien who traveled to Earth to lead a Glam Rock revolution against the now oppressive Earth government. WTF?
Anyway, if people try to tell you GURPS, the Hero System, Rifts, Burning Wheel, Traveler, or Warhammer are good rpgs, they are evil liars with bad taste who want to cause you pain. ;)
What's a good classless game that doesn't give you a headache like GURPS?
Edit-
Ever heared of Degensis? Don't know if it's still free but I heared a lot of positive stuff about it from a few sources.
Other than that, I never played free games.
Nope, haven't heard; will look it up, thanks.
What's a good classless game that doesn't give you a headache like GURPS?
My previous post
The new World of Darkness and 4e Shadowrun easily have the best systems, mechanically. I personally like Shadowrun better, since in WoD, offense is always better than defense, but WoD is simpler.
I love Battletech, but nobody will play it with me because making characters takes so much work (which for me is why its so fun), and because its kind of hard to run the game without including extensive tactical vehicular combats, and I'm the only one who likes that kind of thing.
The easiest rpg that's actually also a lot of fun is Feng Shui. Everyone ever should play Feng Shui at least a little, so they can understand why abstraction is your friend.
Godlike, Wild Talents, and Reign all use the One Roll Engine, which is great and amazingly customizable (and again, simple), but its tragic flaw is a lack of scaling. Its about super heroes, but it can't replicate truly high powered super heroes that most people are familiar with. Also, Greg Stolze is completely awesome.
The new Savage Worlds is worth playing, if only for Deadlands. Its workable, and its fun, I just don't think the system is as solid as the other games I've mentioned.
Castle Falkenstein is fun, but, eh, I wouldn't play it too much.
Well my all time favourite game is White Wolf's: Promethean: The Created in the World of Darkness line. Other WoD games I like:
- Changeling: The Lost
- Vampire: The Requiem
- Hunter: The Vigil
- Plain old World of Darkness
I also quite enjoy and is finally a system that has for myself personally good rules for mecha is Cthulhutech.
Been wanting to try out some other games but those are what I have tried played mainly. One of the ones I want to try out are Cold City and Hot War.
Love changling the lost. Currently in a nwod game with a promethian, werewolf,mage, vampire, and changling. Its pretty neat so far.
I also like BESM, and Champions. Oddly enough dnd is the only class based system I am currently playing.
Love changling the lost. Currently in a nwod game with a promethian, werewolf,mage, vampire, and changling. Its pretty neat so far.
How are they coping with the Promethean. What with his Disquiet and all making them go nuts.
I like Paranoia.
Much laughter, though its better as a one shot than an actual campaign. I cant see anyone staying serious long enough, or even having all clones survive long enough for a campaign.
I cant see anyone staying serious long enough,
Serious? Serious and Paranoia... does not compute.
Please report to Detention level Red-13, for mandatory happiness training.
HARP and RM... but mostly HARP because it is a mix between D&D and RM:D
Detailed and realistic, but not as bad as RM... with Talents, cool races, different mechanics that allow for more of a range of success/failure...very open to optimization and tinkering...
Havent heard of either of those. Who publishes them?
I like Paranoia.
Me too:D
I wish I had the kind of money to just buy all these games. :/
Edit: On that note, anyone tried any free games that are really good?
the Pathfinder beta is pretty good, it is a mix of 3.5 and 4.0 concepts
PS - I have played every RPG known to man, including bizarre independent ones like Starchildren in which you are an androgynous alien who traveled to Earth to lead a Glam Rock revolution against the now oppressive Earth government. WTF?
What!?
There's a Ziggy Stardust RPG and no one told me!?!?!?
Scion has become one of my faves as well. Yeah it's a White Wolf game but I like it, and I normally don't care for White Wolf stuff.
If you can find an old copy the James Bond RPG from the 80s is a blast and they system still holds up well today, IMO.
What's a good classless game that doesn't give you a headache like GURPS?
Personally I use BESM and Mutants and Masterminds for classless games. My two favorite systems.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Shadowrun
Hunter: The Reckoning
Iron Claw/Jade Claw
Exalted
Bunnies & Burrows
I would LOVE to find a good superhero game, but so far I haven't seen any.
The City of Heroes Tabletop game looked promising, but Eden Studios never actually released it.
Though I bet that 4E's mechanics would make a great superhero game.
* Savage Worlds: Another game that is great for a pickup game and can handle a multitude of different settings. The best thing though, is the core book which is good for running different settings and 100% generic and only costs $9.99. Great for gaming on a budget. As a side note to someone who was looking for a superhero game, Savage Worlds can do that as well.
That's about all I can really recommend.
Its a brutal world and brutal combat game. Any use of magic could generate a side effect (from a gust of wind to being blown up or possesed by demons) Hit points are few and matter from the get go. no one walking around with 1,000 hp next to a guy with 5, everyone has roughyly the same and getting more can cost you other features. And the combat itself? Yay. everything from cross bows to chainsaw swords and plasma throwers, and each type of weapon maims diffrently.
Its also a fairly straight foward and easy system to learn. its d10 though but its a heck of a good time.
I had some fun with several editions of Shadowrun. But IMO GURPS and D&D 4e are by far the best systems available today. If I want to have lighthearted fun roleplaying with a good deal of hack & slay I go for D&D. If I want something wierd, some deep immersion role playing or simulationist style role playing I go for GURPS.
We don't play them all regularly though, so some of them progress slowly. On game day, I just pull out the one I feel like running at the time.
In addition to D&D 4E, I have an Exalted campaign, a Savage Worlds: Necessary Evil (superheroes) and a Savage Worlds: Fantasy campaign going.
We don't play them all regularly though, so some of them progress slowly. On game day, I just pull out the one I feel like running at the time.
exalted looks cool. Savage worlds is one of those I keep meaning to pick up just to look at.
Maybe this is an odd question to ask on a D&D board, but what RPGs do some of you play outside of D&D, and why?
I've played GURPS here and there, but tend not to because it can give me a headache. I've tried a few White Wolf games but just don't like the mechanics.
HERO System (aka Champions) = GURPS that isn't a headache, and actually functions properly. It is, hands down, easily the best free-form points-buy RPG pencil and paper system out there. It is likely the most thoroughly playtested system on the market, with the math being crunched by die-hards for decades to achieve a very cohesive balance. Character creation is a little long for the inexperienced, about as long as GURPS, but in-game play is extraordinarily simple, yet both internally consistent and balanced.
If you like the free-form nature of GURPS, throw out the library worth of books required to play that game to its fullest for the single HERO System hardcover that, in one book, does everything GURPS wishes it could in dozens upon dozens of books. :D
I also really like the Exalted ruleset at far as White Wolf rules sets go.
AEG's L5R game, with the roll-and-keep engine, is a very sweet system in the same vein of simplicity as White Wolf games.
Call of Cthulhu is a fun %-based, extremely dangerous world to play in.
Dark Heresy, the Warhammer 40K game is similar in that regard, and likewise a fun game.
I like the direction that the diceless Marvel RPG was taking, but the implementation was too rough. That's a neat idea for a system that would benefit greatly from a new edition with major tweaking.
I like Mage from oWoD, but haven't checked out the newer version. It's also really the only WoD setting that I like due to various reasons. The main problem with the system that I've seen is that anything so freeform can lead to a lot of DM fiat that screws the characters over, so it really requires a good DM.
Star Wars Saga Edition is a good game as well, especially since it's balanced enough to keep the Jedi characters from stealing the spotlight.
Shadowrun was a good system, but I haven't played enough of its fourth edition to say how I feel about it. 'Classic' Battletech... I used to play it back when it was Mechwarrior, so I'm not sure how much has changed.
Avoid Palladium whenever I can, although I am in a Robotech game using that system, wishing the rules weren't so contradictory. (not to mention it confuses my poor dice)
Mekton Zeta: the premier RPG for humongous mecha.
Maid: For those of us who wish to dress up in handmade fantasies, or whose fantasies involve dressing up as handmaids.
Don't Rest Your Head: Seriously, don't.
Alternity: Pure Love.
Castles & Crusades for when you want to go Old-School but don't have the pre-3E rulebooks; captures well the feeling of D&D in its early years.
Star Wars RPG, current edition. A great balance of rules and fluff; 4E should have been closer to this rules set, IMHO.
Regards,
V
I'm currently playing:
* GURPS - My wife's fantasy supers game
* OVA - Two games: one set in Naruto universe, one where we change GMs every half-hour
* Shadowrun 4e
* D&D4e
* Hunter
The new WW games seem pretty good, but haven't had a chance to play any.
I've had nothing but bad experiences with ORS-based games. (Random hit locations?!
) As always, though, YMMV.Not much mention of indie RPGs in this thread. I'm gonna have to pimp In a Wicked Age. It's provided me with quite possibly the most fun I've ever had playing an RPG.
Yeah, not enough love for the weird small press games, story games and other indie games. I think Dogs in the Vineyard* is the best designed rpg I've ever seen, and enjoyed playing Otherkind** a lot (both by Vince Baker, who's responsible for In A Wicked Age as well). I also liked: Lacuna*, My Life With Master****, and a bunch of others.
And in the very, very slightly more traditional realm, I really like Feng Shui, Over the Edge, Unknown Armies and Nobilis. Except for D&D, my tastes in gaming skew toward the odd and inspiring.
Dogs in the Vineyard:You play Mormon cowboys travelling a slightly fictionalized Old West righting wrongs and facing moral quandaries.
Otherkind:A fantasy or maybe fairy-tale rpg. It was available for free online for a while, but now can only be found via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Had a really nifty dice system for resolving conflicts.
LacunaKinda surreal conspiracy/dream investigation game. Like crossing the movie The Cell with old episodes of The Prisoner.
My Life With Master:You're minions of an evil villain, trying to build up enough self-esteem to resist his horrific orders.
Feng Shui (Hong Kong action movie ass-kicking),
Nobilis (your PCs are gods. What do you do with godlike power?),
Unknown Armies (modern horror/occult weirdness... like an rpg written by Chuck Palahniuk and Tim Powers),
Over the Edge (originally written as a William S. Burroughs rpg, by your good friend Johnathan Tweet)
Maid: For those of us who wish to dress up in handmade fantasies, or whose fantasies involve dressing up as handmaids.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, this is my favorite RPG bar none.
(In no particular order)
Shadowrun (3e and 4e)
Call of Cthulhu (5e)
Star Wars D6
Eden Studios' Unisystem games (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Buffy, etc)
New World of Darkness (All of them, but my fave is Werewolf: The Forsaken)
Legend of the 5 Rings
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Dark Heresy (Warhammer 40K Roleplay)
Exalted
Gamma World
That's about it that I can think of for now.
EDIT: Forgot one. The Discworld setting for GURPS.
I've heard of Dogs in the Vineyard, but I haven't had a chance to read the rules. As for Otherkind, again it's a game I've never read, but I did recently come across the basic dice mechanic: http://www.lumpley.com/archive/148.html I've also seen a two-page game that implements it quite well called GHOST/ECHO. My current non-D&D group will be trying it out next week.
Deadlands/Hell on Earth (non D20/SW versions. The old one with a deck of cards and poker chips)
Various WoD games (Mage probably being my favorite)
CoC (Chaosium version)
TMNT/After the Bomb (a hybrid game we still play today, Palladium ruleset. basically a post apocalypse game where most of the surviving members of any species are mutants.Good fun.)
But i have played a ton of games over the years. these are just the ones I run for my groups.
love,
malkav
I would LOVE to find a good superhero game, but so far I haven't seen any.
Back in the 80s, my gaming troup used to take a break from D&D to play the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG. Rules lite, for good old fashioned beat-em-up fun. Google it -- there are sites that have PDFs of the rule books and adventures for download.
Maybe this is an odd question to ask on a D&D board, but what RPGs do some of you play outside of D&D, and why?
I've played GURPS here and there, but tend not to because it can give me a headache. I've tried a few White Wolf games but just don't like the mechanics.
My favorite game is Ars Magica (fifth edition). It, in my opinion, has the best magic system (in fact the four best magic systems)and the most interesting advancement system of any game I've played or read.
I play D&D on alternate weeks because my fellow players lack my discerning taste
.Maybe this is an odd question to ask on a D&D board, but what RPGs do some of you play outside of D&D, and why?
I have played between 50-100 rpgs and owned even more, but the following are the only others, other than 3e DND, that I like and am still willing to play.
I. My favorite games that I play
Mutants and Masterminds 2e: Imo, not only the best superhero rpg, but the best rpg. 90+% of Champions flexability, but much faster. I have been running it for about a year. Soon, it will also have a supplement for Mecha and Manga.
d20 Modern: Honestly, this is my favorite WOTC game (as long as I ignore the WOTC supplements). With third party supplements and a couple of house rules, it is a good modern game capable of handling multiple genres including
- Cyberpunk (Terminal Identity: Uplink 1.0)
- Espionage
- Gothic Conpiracy (Blood and Relics 2)
- High School combined with any other genre (Modern High)
- Horror (Blood and Blades: A Profiler's Guide to Slashers, Blood and Brains: Zombie Hunter's Guide, Blood and Spooks: Ghost Hunters Guide)
- Martial Arts (Blood and Fists),
- Post Holocaust (Darwin's World 2),
- Pulp (Thrilling Tales)
- Time Travel (Blood and Time)
- Victorian (Imperial Age)
- WWII (Blood and Guts 2) and modern warfare with some of the supplements
- Western (Sidewinder: Recoiled)
Rolemaster: One of my friends likes running it and it is a nice change of pace from DND fantasy.
Grim Tales
True20: I like the rules, but haven't had a chance to take it for a test run.
II. Other games that I would like to play more often and don't: Shadowrun (2e or 3e), James Bond 007, and Top Secret: SI.
III. Games that I would play if someone wanted to run:
Advanced Villains and Vigilantes, DC Heroes 2e or 3e, and Marvel Superhero Adventure Game (using the community supplements by Steve Kenson and the online community), and a heavily house ruled Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game (the TSR version). However, I would still prefer M&M over any of these.
Toon
Edit: IV. Games that I will not play (for most based on mechanics), but I consider worth owning due to setting (and, in some instances, the magic system)
Ars Magica: Love the setting, I like the mechanics, and the magic system is second to none. I am just not a fan of the troupe style of play.
Cyberpunk: 2020: setting
Earthdawn:Great setting
Legend of the 5 Rings: Great setting
7th Sea: Great setting
Warhammer Fantasy: Great setting
oWoD: I like the setting and Mage, imo, has one of the best magic systems following Ars Magica.
It is actually my primary system - D&D 4E is my secondary game. It does everything I want in a game system (including divorcing setting from rules, so I can do my own worlds much easier). My approach to gaming fits the ruleset to a T. It's been my #1 go to system for 24 years now.
Ok, what I'm actively either playing or running:
- D&D 4e (Running)
- World of Darkness Mage/Werewolf/Second Sight (Running)
- Star Wars Saga Edition - Dark Times game (Running)
- Exalted 2nd Edition (Playing)
Notice a trend there...
As for just own, and try to run/play here and there:
- Call of Cthulhu (BRP version, 6th Edition)
- d20 Modern
- Trinity
- Aberrant
- Adventure!
- Savage Worlds
- BESM 2
- Tribe 8 1st Edition
- Heavy Gear 2nd Edition
- Nightbane
- Palladium Fantasy
- Farscape RPG
- Lord of the Rings RPG (Decipher)
That is just what I currently own. Chances are, if it is in English I've at least played it once.
I am the Lord of the Geeks!
* Savage Worlds: Another game that is great for a pickup game and can handle a multitude of different settings. The best thing though, is the core book which is good for running different settings and 100% generic and only costs $9.99. Great for gaming on a budget. As a side note to someone who was looking for a superhero game, Savage Worlds can do that as well.
Agreed. I got lucky and got a used copy for $1.50. I am considering just using that game when I need a break from the above, you can get characters and a basic adventure idea running in a hour tops. Heck, with their one sheets, you don't even have to make the adventure yourself.
I would LOVE to find a good superhero game, but so far I haven't seen any.
The City of Heroes Tabletop game looked promising, but Eden Studios never actually released it.
Though I bet that 4E's mechanics would make a great superhero game.
We rather enjoyed Silver Age Sentinels but nowadays we just use GURPS for supers games (like my wife's previously mentioned fantasy supers game).
-Call of Cthulhu
-Gammaworld (4th Ed)
-Marvel Superheroes (TSR version)
-Sengoku
-Star Wars Saga
- Shadowrun: Huge fan of the setting. I'm a big fan of cyberpunk and my friends love fantasy, so this is a nice middle-ground game for us to play.
- Deadlands: Wild-west and steampunk with Lovecraft horror? Epic win.
- Fallout PnP: This was only released on the net in PDF format, but yes... it is based on the PC game. It was actually well written, and the guy who made it almost created a D20 version as well (which unfortunately went unpublished).
- Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition: This game holds a place in my heart for being the only game I actually have fun with while I GM. Most of the time it takes me a while to make an adventure for my players, but M&M is practically built for improv play... and I love it.
I'm gonna throw it out here and say that I'm with everyone who says they want to play Eclipse Phase. I've been salivating for that game since I've heard about it, and I'm about ready to just demand an artless copy of the books so I can finally have it.
I would recommend:
-Marvel Superheroes (TSR version)
Are you talking about the one from the 80s or the SAGA version of the game... because the one from the 80s was awesome as hell!
"In a Wicked Age" by Vincent D. Baker of "Dogs in the Vineyard" fame, is a blast. You get to have fun beating the stuffing out of your friends, with sultry Sword & Sorcery storytelling.
And GURPS 4th ed. is not as bad as it's reputation. You can actually scale the level of complexity to what you want, you know.
Are you talking about the one from the 80s or the SAGA version of the game... because the one from the 80s was awesome as hell!
The 80's, baby, great vibe, totally caught the feel!
I was always a little hazy on the rules for shredding armour, though (Wolverine vs. Sentinels etc).
I have also been working on a 4th Ed d20 style Marvel system.
I wish I had the kind of money to just buy all these games. :/
Edit: On that note, anyone tried any free games that are really good?
Loads. Go check out Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment, Returner's Final Fantasy RPG, Thrash (made by Ewen Cluney, the guy behind translating Maid RPG for America), RuneSlayer (made by J.C. Connors, using a modified version of an unreleased edition of RuneQuest), Legendary Quest, and Circe for starters. The free RPG world is massive, and it's how I actually supported my gaming habit when I was younger.
The 80's, baby, great vibe, totally caught the feel!
I was always a little hazy on the rules for shredding armour, though (Wolverine vs. Sentinels etc).
I have also been working on a 4th Ed d20 style Marvel system.
I loved the task resolution system. That Green/Yellow/Red success system was perfect for superheroes, since with a little luck (or judicious use of Karma) anything was possible, and the mechanics reflected that. The only thing that ever bothered me was character generation... it was awful. You either ended up a god or a mundane turd, and usually never in the middle. I eventually just had my players write up a hero, and I would assign stats based on the concept they gave me.
The only thing that ever bothered me was character generation... it was awful. You either ended up a god or a mundane turd, and usually never in the middle. I eventually just had my players write up a hero, and I would assign stats based on the concept they gave me.
To be honest, we never really looked at character creation, as we would always play (well, my players) existing heroes (and use karma to up FASERIP and develop new power stunts).
A group of my friends and I have been playing it for years, and we haven't even hit all the different invading realities yet. :DMaybe this is an odd question to ask on a D&D board, but what RPGs do some of you play outside of D&D, and why?
I've played GURPS here and there, but tend not to because it can give me a headache. I've tried a few White Wolf games but just don't like the mechanics.
Can you give me a better clue what you're looking for in a game? Easier? Faster? Less/no prep time? Distributed GM duties? More dramatic? More Tactical? More detailed? I've played an awful lot of games and many are better than others, but only when seen in a certain light.
For example Capes is a great game: Zero prep time, No GM, simple mechanics, fast dramatic conflicts, and generates good stories. However if you want to control the setting/storyline like a DM does, or have detailed tactical fights...you're out of luck with Capes.
At the other end of things, Fudgeis a free classless traditional RPG, but how good it is really depends a lot on the GM and their willingness to prep things. Its descendant FATE is also more traditional (and has a free version), and has some interesting character generation and resolution mechanics.
Hope that helps.
Up until 4e, WoD had become by far my favorite PnP RPG game, over-coming my fanship of D&D after years of it being on top. Mostly I started disliking D&D (but still GMing it,) in the later years of 3.5e. When the new edition of World of Darkness came out, I simply loved it.
World of Darkness is very free-form. There is no dungeon roaming in WoD, no levels, no classes, just freeform roleplay, and a very simple ruleset that allows for infinite variation. The system is so easy to convert that people have created all kinds of games based on the world of darkness, from star wars wod to pirates wod. Playing WoD is extremely fun, with the right group. Some groups try and play it like D&D with lots of monsters, treasure, etc. Others know to play it like it is, a dark fantasy experience. With a good ST (I mostly ST myself,) you can be brought right into a dark world of the undead, werewolves, malicious spirits, even the fey.
IMHO D&D 4e took a bit of it's ideas from WoD. Not gameplay, but the ideal that simplicity = better gameplay. That combat doesn't have to have hundreds upon hundreds of little rules, different classes that offered a significant variation on power level and skill, and above all that a game that is basic and easy to learn and play yet be balanced and extremely enjoyable.
So yea, I've played a lot of different RPGs and while D&D has long been my favorite (except the era of rules-heavy 3.5e later-level play,) but I always have a fond heart for World of Darkness. I just love the hell out of it.
I've always found GURPS's character generation and gameplay to be fast and intuitive, though admittedly not as fast as D&D. Plenty of GURPS's rules make more sense than D&D's, though--e.g. armour actually absorbs and reduces damage instead of making you "harder to hit," etc.
I've noticed over the years, that, when converting a diehard D&D player to GURPS, they do tend to get headaches if they don't leave all their D&D assumptions about character generation and gameplay at the door.
That's not to say that I hate D&D, though. I play D&D when I'm feeling too lazy to muster the intellectual investment that GURPS requires; I play GURPS when I feel like sinking my teeth into something with more substance than D&D can offer me.
I am de-lurking to answer these with one word:
Edit: On that note, anyone tried any free games that are really good?
What's a good classless game that doesn't give you a headache like GURPS?
Risus.
http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm
Risus is billed as an "RPG Lite" but its so flexible and fun, you can un-lite it if you want more serious play.
The rulebook is free and it's only four (4) pages long, and that's only because of all the good examples included. There is also tons of great RPG resources on his (S. John Ross's) website, most of which may be of interest for GMs of any game system.
Enjoy.
Modern style game I use White Wolf's World of Darkness in particular Mage and Vampire.
Fantasy setting I use D&D or Dangerous Journey which is game developed by Gary Gygax in the early 90s.
For Sci-Fi I like the Traveller and Living Steel games. Living Steel has long been out of print but it has the most realistic gun combat system you can get. Bullet kill.
For more futuristic Cyber Punk style games I play WOD or Shadow Run.
Siiigh...
Are you talking about the one from the 80s or the SAGA version of the game... because the one from the 80s was awesome as hell!
Marvel Superheroes from the 80s was the first RPG I ever played! Holy crap I had totally forgotten until just now!
I was like, 11 years old!
To me, the best magic system is oWoD Mage: the Awakening (I actually haven't played the nWoD mage, but from what I understand it's not as freeform.) Old M:tA had extremely free-form magic. You basically didn't have spells, only the power to bend reality as you saw fit based on how deeply you had delved into different 'spheres' of magic. It was great fun to play because each player used their magic differently. My players who were to used to D&D couldn't easily get the concept and mostly threw around D&D-like spells. Those who had played oWoD in the past did some amazing things. It was a fantastic setting and fantastic magic system.
Any of you who have played oWoD mage (and perhaps nWoD Mage, like I said I haven't played it, nor do I own the book.. though I keep meaning to,) still think Ars Magica has a better magic system? I'll have to check it out if so.
I'm surprised nobody has mentiond Ars Magica. It's pretty complex, but the magic system is second to none.
I like the setting and love the magic system, but not the troupe style play.
Any of you who have played oWoD mage (and perhaps nWoD Mage, like I said I haven't played it, nor do I own the book.. though I keep meaning to,) still think Ars Magica has a better magic system? I'll have to check it out if so.
Mage has a great magic system, but I still like Ars Magica better.
I loved the task resolution system. That Green/Yellow/Red success system was perfect for superheroes, since with a little luck (or judicious use of Karma) anything was possible, and the mechanics reflected that. The only thing that ever bothered me was character generation... it was awful. You either ended up a god or a mundane turd, and usually never in the middle. I eventually just had my players write up a hero, and I would assign stats based on the concept they gave me.
In the original boxed set Campaign Book, one of the ways you could create a character was described just like that -- the player comes up with the concept for an original hero, and the player and GM work together to assign stats and powers.
For some reason, they removed this option from the advanced version, but of course, there was no reason one couldn't do it anyway.
The advanced version, BTW, isn't really a different version, just a slight expansion of the rules to take care of some things that pretty much occured to everyone anyway, like skill v. skill rolls, and some new combat actions and tactics.
Check out: http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/ and browse the download section.
Check out: http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/ and browse the download section.
I can't find a download section.
Edit- found 'em on another site: http://www.marvelrpg.net/core/core.html
The only thing that ever bothered me was character generation... it was awful. You either ended up a god or a mundane turd, and usually never in the middle.
Marvel was the first supers system that I ever played. I had other problems with the system including
- the rankings being too broad and many rank numbers being meaningless except for extra health and starting karma. They needed to split each of the of the ranks from Remarkable to Unearthly
- popularity was a poor substitute for an actual charisma/presence stat. A lot of heroes may not have high popularity scores, but they can sure be intimitdating (without having negative popularity), persuasive and/or commanding even outside their costumes. A better system would have been to just have a charisma/presence stat and a talent for popularity which gave a rank bonus and a weakness for prejudice and/or infamous along with other talents for things like persuasion and intimidation.
- poorly researched characters
- relying on the strength benchmarks from the Marvel Handbooks
- Combat may have been fast, but it didn't duplicate the source material- especially grappling.
- lousy system for weakneses
I eventually just had my players write up a hero, and I would assign stats based on the concept they gave me.
You didn't have to roll random. That was only one of two systems (or was it three) in the rulebooks- one of which was character modeling. There was also a point system in Dragon magazine, iirc.
I can't find a download section.
The navigation bar has drop down menus with links. They still have a couple of my house rules (mostly adaptations from other supers games) from the old marvel mailing list on that site.
And, if you can deal with the pop-ups, Ty Stateshas another good site. Again, hosting some of my houserules and a write-up of the Human Fly (not the villain, but the heroic stuntman) that I did with someone else.
I can't find a download section.
Edit- found 'em on another site: http://www.marvelrpg.net/core/core.html
The menu isn't too clear. Click on "Other Stuff" and a drop-down menu appears. One choice is "Downloads" - from there, they have just about everything ever published, and then some!
Man, I used to love that game, great fun.
BESM (2nd edition Revised)
A fast and elegant multi-genre system that covers everything from martial arts to mecha. You can do just about anything with the simple core rules. I used to like GURPS, but I'll never touch it again after finding BESM. Stay away from BESM 3e - they made a mess out of the system.
Dragon Storm
A CCG RPG...that'll scare off a lot of people right there. But its very easy to play, has cool characters, exciting combat, and the gorgeous cards do enhance the game a lot. At least it didn't go the 4e route, of being a game that's really supposed to be card based but doesn't give you cards! :p
Iron Claw
The anthromorphic animal characters may be a plus or a minus, but the system has a great blend of simplicity and detail, and its got the most interesting experience system of any RPG I've ever seen.
Marvel Adventure Game
Lousy character creation and advancement rules, but possibly the most thematic super-hero RPG system ever made. The card based system gives players a lot of control over what goes on in the game.
Marvel Super Heroes
The old TSR game is pretty dated, but still a fun and clever game. Anyone who's played and liked it will probably have FASERIP and the rank system memorized
Call of Cthulhu
Stay away from the D20 version. This classic of investigators stumbling onto secrets humanity was not meant to know pretty much defined the investigative/horror RPG genre.
Savage Worlds
I really want to like this system; its nicely designed, and for a $10 price tag has to be the best gaming value around. But it never seems to match up with anything I want to run. Maybe one of these days I'll find a fit for it.
Paranoia
Its hilarious, its evil. Admittedly, the rules are mostly a waste. It can be every bit as much fun to play with whatever stray rules (or lack thereof) that you feel like.
7th Seas
Swashbuckling action! A great system that focuses nicely on drama, with lots of genre rules.
Legend of the Five Rings
Fantasy adventure based heavily on Japanese mythology. The world is richly detailed, and the system is exciting.
Heavy Gear
If you want to mix some miniature/board gaming mech combat into your RPG, this is the way to go.
Some I don't recommend:
GURPS - much too clunky. An incredibly complex character building system that doesn't accomplish anything. Go with BESM or Savage Worlds instead.
World of Darkness - ok, I used to love WoD. Before the dark times. There's no way I'll give White Wolf a penny anymore.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The show was great. The RPG really sounds like it wants to emulate the show, but falls badly short, and winds up feeling like a lot of catchy lines tagged onto bad mechanics.
Rifts - love the world. Love the character ideas. The mechanics look like someone took 1st ed AD&D rules and piled on stray stuff for a few decades. Which is about how the mechanics evolved.
Any of you who have played oWoD mage (and perhaps nWoD Mage, like I said I haven't played it, nor do I own the book.. though I keep meaning to,) still think Ars Magica has a better magic system? I'll have to check it out if so.
I am a great deal more fond of the System in Ars Magica than that in OWoD Mage. Yet these things are always matters of personal preference. I played both first and second editions of MtA but I've never delved in to all of the supplemental material (I've read at most a dozen of the suppliments and probably mostly obscure ones).
The Ars Magica system produces magi that are (in my experience) more varied in magical abilities than Mage. Mechanically I think that this is because Ars Magica virtues and flaws are much more mechanically important than the optional merits and flaws rules in MtA and the magic system divides effects into 50 categories (created with fifteen skills) rather than nine.
Also Hermetic Houses seemed in practice to me to be much less prescriptive than MtA traditions however I can't think of any game mechanics or setting reason why this should be. It just always worked out that way in play.
GURPS - much too clunky. An incredibly complex character building system that doesn't accomplish anything.
I guess with GURPS it's basically love it or hate it. I have played 7th Seas and while I like the background, I wasn't impressed by the system. In fact the 7th Sea campaign I played was the first campaign I know that broke down because of the system (and I have DMed and played in lots and lots of campaigns)
A friend wanted to DM an LFR campaign. I read through the book and decided that I would prefer GURPS as the system. He agreed. I created an L5R character and then converted it to GURPS. The conversion was so fast and smooth I was impressed by GURPS again - and I play it for 20 years or so.
The problem with GURPS character creation is, that it gives you far too many options. You need a very clear understanding of the setting, the campaign world, and the type of character you want to play, or you totally get lost.
For GURPS newcomers I would recommend the following: Either create your character in an other system and then convert it, or stick to templates.
Risus.
http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm
Risus is billed as an "RPG Lite" but its so flexible and fun, you can un-lite it if you want more serious play.
The rulebook is free and it's only four (4) pages long, and that's only because of all the good examples included. There is also tons of great RPG resources on his (S. John Ross's) website, most of which may be of interest for GMs of any game system.
Enjoy.
Yeah, Risus works really well in actual play.
I ran a Superhero game in Risus that was one of my best gaming experiences in my 21 years of gaming, and I attribute alot of the fun of it to how easy the system was to run.
It's six pages, however, not four. :D And I highly recommend the Risus Companion which is another 64 pages of Risus goodness.
Likewise, Deadlands and 7th seas are really good games with rich backgrounds and some interesting mechanics, though I haven't been able to play much of either system. What I have played, I have really liked.
For superhero games, I haven't seen anything that beats the versatility of Villians & Vigilantes, though M&M seems to have a pretty good system. I never much liked TSR's version of the Marvel game. It was simple, but having been raised on V&V, it just didn't cut the mustard for me.
I also have a fondness for Gamma World, moreso for the world-view than the actual mechanics. I think my favorite character ever was my mutated-rabbit-turned-warlord from that game.
Overall the best system I've run across is the Serenity/Battlestar Galactica system. It really gives me the impression it is a revised, mature version of Alternity (which was a pretty good system in itself, except for doing XP).
And then, of course, there's the game I'm working on...54 Fantasy. In fact, I'll be trying out my "beta" of the system this weekend at Coastcon.
That's about it really. GURPS is overly complicated for pretty much everything, and World of Darkness, while okay, isn't really my cup of tea.
For superhero games, I haven't seen anything that beats the versatility of Villians & Vigilantes . . .
Wow, THAT brings back memories! I forgot all about V&V. Great game. I do recall that our gaming group left it behind in favor of Marvel, but I suspect that had more to do with the fact that it was Marvel than the game mechanics themselves.
Geesh, what a trip down memory lane!
My non-D&D favorites, in no particular order:
Hero System. My #1 for years, though I almost exclusively ran non-super campaigns. Saga and 4e are giving it a run for first, though...
Star Wars Saga.
7th Sea (the original d10 rules). One of the best merging of rules and background I've ever seen (it's system-sister Legend of the Five Rings looked pretty good, but I only played it once or twice).
Feng Shui. Over The Top movie action!
Deadlands. Another excellent mix of rules and flavor: drawing poker hands to cast spells or invent mad-science devices!
Savage Worlds. Quick-and-dirty system that holds up very well across action genres. Perhaps my con-event favorite to run, since it's easy to set up and easy to learn.
I don't care for GURPS as a game - but it has some of the finest sourcebooks, with the widest selection, of anything. You can almost never go wrong buying a GURPS sourcebook for any campaign you run.
Honorable mention to Ars Magica, Dogs in the Vineyard, Hunter, and Mage, all of which I've either never played or only tried once, but always wanted to explore. So many games, so little time...
7th Sea (the original d10 rules).
By the way, I was talking about the d10 rules, when I mentioned our campaign. I have never played the d20 rules, but everyone who knew them told me that they are horrible.
The problem with the 7th Sea rules is, that they just don't work as they are written. We had a DM who was uncomfortable about house ruling and after some totally wierd rules incedents she wanted to switch to Fusion. Unfortunately switching rules systems in mid campaign is one of the things that almost never works...
I liked the character creation, though. I also liked my character. But unfortunately game balance in 7th Sea is close to non-existant.
Alternity
Its amazing how much of this system got into the later editions of D&D. Haven't played it yet, but it looks like a very sound game.
Burning Wheel (and Burning Empires)
Haven't played this one either, but I'm always trying to get someone to try it out. ;)
Burning Empires is basically the same system in a sci-fi setting, in the Iron Empires comic book universe.
Spirit of the Century
I don't actually plan on playing this one, one of the designers just did a hell of a job demoing it at GenCon one year so I decided to support him. :D
HERO (FRED)
Definitely everything that GURPS wants to be, except with the rules helping instead of getting in the way all the time.
Fading Suns (not the d20 one)
Played the computer game first, picked up the RPG from a FLGS liquidation. Still haven't played it.
Rolemaster
What? Yeah, I don't think this one is ever hitting the table.
RuneQuest (3rd edition)
Had a hard time making sense of character creation on this one. Haven't played it.
Qin: The Warring States
I want to play this one so badly! Relatively simple rules with some interesting combat mechanics. Uses the Yin-Yang dice! (2d10, take the difference. 0 on the die is treated as 0. Doubles = critical success, except for 0 0 which is critical fail)
Games I don't have, but have played in:
Everway
WotC's foray into RPGs before D&D 3e. Diceless, using a deck of cards for resolution. We had a lot of fun with it.
Risus
I'm too much of a power gamer to get into this one.
GURPS
Played in a Supers game some time ago... it was interesting, but HERO really covers it better.
Paranoia
Never again.
World of Darkness
Kobolds Ate My Baby!
Ok, I came into this one expecting something terrible, but it was actually pretty fun.
Back in the 80s, my gaming troup used to take a break from D&D to play the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG. Rules lite, for good old fashioned beat-em-up fun. Google it -- there are sites that have PDFs of the rule books and adventures for download.
Heh, beat me to it by a mile (just noticed this thread)
I was going to state that I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old Marvel Superheroes FASERIP system that somebody (I think it was actually TSR?) did. Happy memories there.
Of course, Mutants and Masterminds is probably the best thing to happen to superhero rpg's in ages.
Outside of that genre, I've played...so much...hard to remember it all.
2nd through 4e DnD
Vampire and Hunter in the old World of Darkness lines. Changeling in nWoD.
Both Scion and Exalted round out White Wolf for me.
Had very brief periods with BESM, 3rd edition Shadowrun, and Lord of the Five Rings.
Had decidedly longer interactions with Warhammer Fantasy and Dark Heresy.
Really, REALLy like the Returner System Final Fantasy RPG.
Um...I'm brain fried, can't think of more, but I'm sure there's many.
(And Poke'thulu for the win!)
Paranoia
Never again.
See, that's why I like it... :angelhide
I also like L5R, strangely enough (though not solely for) for its potential for lethal combat. I find it fitting to the setting that one can end a battle with a single blow, in spite of disliking such things in D&D or other games; it works quite well with the concept of things like duels, which are a huge part of the L5R CCG and the setting in general. I also love it because unlike other games I've played, I've found that it is surprisingly good for one-on-one sessions and a lot of entirely combat-free sessions; it is not really built around the necessity of a party, and there's a lot of social maneuvering and interplay without the need to fight it out.
I've played around a bit with BESM 3e, and actually found it better in some aspects than BESM 2e, but a bit more complex and awkward in others. Our group had plans for various games that never really got off the ground, but we generally agree that 3e is slightly cleaner a system. It's interesting, but at the same time, it has a huge potential to get crazy, at least when my usual groups get a hold of it. :P
In spite of its innate over-the-top nature, I really like White Wolf's Scion game; there's something that appeals to the insane mythology buff in me about getting to play a modern-day child of one of the gods, though our groups have never gone beyond the first "level" of it--Hero, as opposed to getting into Demigod or God--simply because we realized that it can quickly break down simply due to the sheer overpowered-ness of it all. Our DM has even said he doesn't have a clue what sort of challenges he could create for us if we ever did try it, given how hard it is to challenge even a Hero-level Scion. Comparably, in spite of their being built on essentially the same system, I never got into Exalted; I just never could get into the fluff.
I like the concepts of Star Wars SAGA, but I really never have gotten the chance to play it, simply because no one I game with is really quite as much the Star Wars fan as I am, and that's taking into account the fact that I'm probably only slightly more than a casual fan.
I like the system for nWoD, and I'm hoping to get a Changeling: the Lost game rolling one of these days. It's the only meta-setting I can stomach out of the WoD, beyond the baseline setting's rules for mortals which is fairly generic and adaptable to a lot of themes. I like the system also for similar reasons as why I like Shadowrun's system; I like point buys and dice pool systems, and I think it allows for slightly more dynamic action scenes in combat, and it feels less like the social interactions can hinge on one dice roll going awry or not; I'd almost say it feels subtler to me, I guess.
I'm also looking forward to the Dresden Files RPG I've heard is in the works, but I have no real knowledge of the FATE system it's based in to comment on it.
I've tried out the whole World of Darkness thing, but I don't think it's really for me.
Currently, I play:
Star Wars Saga Edition
Mutants & Masterminds
Spirit of the Century
Grimm
and whatever I cook up using the Cortex System
I'd like to play:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (and/or Dark Heresy)
Big Eyes, Small Mouth
and a couple of other things I'm forgetting right now.
Alternity
Its amazing how much of this system got into the later editions of D&D. Haven't played it yet, but it looks like a very sound game.
Funny, I got the impression that D&D ran away from using anything from Alternity. Overall, I think it got treated rather poorly. It was a good system.
World of Darkness
The best time I ever had roleplaying was with a 2E Vampire game. Werewolf I could never get off the ground and Wraith was just too weird to get anyone to try.
And come on, how can you not love a game where death comes so fast and furious that you are given a six-pack of lives at the start of the night?
And the port-mortem at the end of the night? Priceless. Our GM would always read out all the absurd notes passed to him over the evening:
"When he hits the ground, I shoot him."
"When he lands, I shoot him."
"I use my power to make his armor taste like alligator treats."
"I sabotage the speakers to play the Computer Loyalty Song on a loop"
I sooo loved the fact that the 1st Ed. DMG had info about converting between the two games....
First edition Dragonquest - with Greater Summoners and Black Magic - was great. Our DM withheld the books so we each only knew our piece of it. The starting adventure is excellent.
First edition Runequest - with Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror, and the classic Griffin Mountain setting. I ran that for maybe two years. The Crimson Bat - what a monster.
Earthdawn especially with the addition of blood magic and the Parlainth setting. I ran Earthdawn for a year or two. Loved Horrors and especially Thought Worm.
First edition Chivalry and Sorcery gave me ideas to use in a lot of other settings. I liked the two expansions - one deals with sieges and mass warfare, the other with barbarians. Inspirational, but the rules are clunky. I loved that you could develop up small feudal settlements in stupid detail
It is worth reading even if you never play it (I ran only a few sessions).Bushido which is the inspiration for L5R, and plays beautifully so long as you can embrace the idea of inequal station... and lethal duels. The guy playing our ranking Samurai really made trouble for the rest of us, and that was excellent fun! Oh, and I found it plays best if all players run melee types, and the DM reserves the Shugenja. Magic felt mysterious, powerful, and scary that way, and the social and melee skills collectively have plenty of interest in them.
If you were to try just one of the above, I'd highly rate trying out Bushido.
-vk
Comparably, in spite of their being built on essentially the same system, I never got into Exalted; I just never could get into the fluff.
You know, now that DriveThru is offering the corebook for Exalted 2e as a free download (until next Sunday, I think it was), you wouldn't really lose anything by checking it out. I only own the first edition and even then the crunch was a little too heavy for my taste (notably, the endless Charm trees and their intricate interactions), but at least it's interesting to compare what has changed in the meantime.
Oh, and the two RPGs I run regularly are Nobilis and Praedor (you probably wouldn't have heard of that one, naturally enough, since it's a Finnish sword-and-sorcery game based on the comics by Petri Hiltunen).
I love that dang game. Great one. YOu can get a free pdf of the main rule book right now.
This is the second time in two days that I've advertised this, which means I'm slowly but surely turning into a prick, but if you're a fan of the Redwall novels, The Sword of Martin is for you.
As far as free RPG's go, you can't go amiss with 1km1kt. You'll be hard pressed to find a more welcoming and helpful group of people online.
I recently learned that Sufficiently Advanced had been made available for free from 1km1kt, released under the Creative Commons license. That one's definitely worth a look if you take an interest in, say, the Culture novels by Banks.
Maybe this is an odd question to ask on a D&D board, but what RPGs do some of you play outside of D&D, and why?
I've played GURPS here and there, but tend not to because it can give me a headache. I've tried a few White Wolf games but just don't like the mechanics.
Hunter is pretty good from White Wolf (actually it's my favorite of their systems)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying is a fantastic game.
Dark Heresy is A++ as well.
Of course there's
Star Wars Saga
James Bond 007 - The 1st skill-based game system that I ever played. The system was/is quite playable. My opinion may be biased though; I'm a HUGE James Bond fan. I loved the fact that it had stats for all the familiar NPCs (M, Q, Moneypenny, etc.). I've GMed it, and it wasn't a big chore.
Star Wars (1st Ed.) - This is the 2nd skill-based system that I played/GMed. It was very fast and loose. Easy to GM it. Loved the sourcebooks.
It Came From The Late, Late, Late, Show - For a light-hearted one-shot, you can't get better than this.
This game has been a massive hit with all the crews I've DMed it for, and lead to more wonderful lines and in-jokes than any other game I've played. Very open ended character generation, fairly simple system and loads of fun powers (metagame awareness, walking armoury, get out of dying free).
I like some of the settings, but I like realism in my games. I love Dark Sun, but I don't like the D&D system for it.
Other games I play are,
Old World of Darkness: I tried the new system, but I didn't like it.
- All: The Dark Ages
- Mage: The Ascension
- Vampire: the Masquerade (more Ricean and Requiem than V:tM)
Cyberpunk 2020: It's a lot better than Shadow Run. It's the same type of theme, sans the Elves and magic.
They way I divide things,
- WoD = Past
- CP: 2020 = Future
I was also a fan of Gamma World and Star Frontiers. They had a lot of faults, but that was to be expected way back then. They were fun to play.
And while I have not played it I have heard that the Serenity game is supossed to be fun.
For science fiction, FASA's Leviathan, Centurion and Interceptor games were very good. I found them more fun than Battletech. Those games are more based on '70s/'80s style science fiction.
Fulvminata is a cool Roman roleplaying game that is based on if Rome had discovered gunpowder. It unfortnately suffered from poor distribution and a poor distributer, but I have played it a few times and had a lot of fun.
I was going to convert that to OWoD.
Amber Diceless RPG- A fanatastic setting and a game that focuses completely on the roleplaying elements. There are several fantastic conventions each year all over the US, one in the UK, and one in France, for Amber roleplayers and I attend two of the US conventions fairly regularly.
Savage Worlds- Before 4th ed, this was my favorite game system for running D&D settings. It has some good game mechanics that work well for lots of settings.
Mutants and Masterminds- My favorite system for my favorite genre- Superheroes! I also am a fan of Champions, but M&M does the genre well with a lot less book-keeping.
GURPS : Made characters, got feed up, never played...
MODERN D20 : Decent game but Star Wars Saga Edition outclasses it.
Call of The Cthulhu (Yes, the classic d100 version was much better then the revamped d20 version. And had funny comics!)
Paranoia (Any edition is fine. It's just a great game in general!)
That's really all I can think of. All other systems to be just seem clunky and fake.
I can't stand most other systems. Just too much to remember for too little gain. The only systems I've liked other then d20 were
Call of The Cthulhu (Yes, the classic d100 version was much better then the revamped d20 version. And had funny comics!)
That would be BRP, Chaosium's house system which has also been used in games such as RuneQuest and Stormbringer. Incidentally, it was recently published as a generic RPG in its own right.
So this game is NOT rules light, however I believe that the New World of Darkness and Shadowrun may have been inspired by it. (no proof just hersay)
In the Burning Wheel you use a dice pool of d6s (set by your skill with a bonus from your attribute) vs a static target number that is set by your "shade". The shades are black for regular people, grey for heroic people, and white for gods. You count the number of successes you get vs the number of success you needed. The more you use a skill (to a point) the better you will get with it. Your goals that you set for your character can also improve your dice pool. You can have things like "when scouting I always have my bow out" and "I will avenge agents of the white hand for destroying my village". You build characters through a lifepath system. Say I was a human born in a city, then I want to become a captain, I will have to sign into a basic solider, then perhaps the city guard and may be 30 years old before I hit captain. Each step adding age and skills to my character. There is no set world but the traits of the Elves and Dwarves remind people of Middle Earth.
The Burning Wheel
So this game is NOT rules light, however I believe that the New World of Darkness and Shadowrun may have been inspired by it. (no proof just hersay)
Eh, how exactly? I'm not seeing any instantly obvious similarities between BW and WoD, or at least any that weren't already present in the old World of Darkness which predates Burning Wheel by more than a decade.
Full disclosure first: I am a Talislanta author. I helped with the 4th edition, co-wrote the Midnight Realm and Codex Magicus supplements, and contributed a lot to the 5th edition.
That said, I was a fan of Talislanta way back in 1988 - long before I was an author. The setting is the richest and most detailed I have encountered in any role-playing game. There are over 50 playable races, each one fully detailed with cultural notes, background, history, religions, role-playing suggestions, etc. The world has a rich history from which a GM can draw an endless supply of inspiration.
As the advertisements in the old paper-and-ink Dragon magazines used to say, "NO ELVES". Meaning you won't find elves, orcs, dwarves, or any other stereotypical, mytho-european, tolkien-esque fantasy tropes. The races are unique to the Talislanta setting. This is both a boon and a challenge to the role-player.
The system is very streamlined. Jonathan Tweet (one of the designers of 3rd edition D&D) worked on the 3rd edition of Talislanta, and many of the advancements D&D3e received were inspired by his work on Talislanta. 3rd edition Talislanta was published by a little-known company called Wizards of the Coast, long before they started selling card games.
The only die you need to play is a D20 (making it the predecessor to the "d20 System".) All rolls, be they climbing a mountain, picking a lock, swinging a sword, or casting a spell, follow the exact same system:
1d20 + Attribute + Skill - Difficulty.
0 or less : Mishap
1 - 5 : Failure
6 - 10: Partial Success
11-19: Full Success
20+ : Critical success
That's it. You can learn everything you need to play in about 5 minutes, making it a very rules-light system.
Oh, the artwork throughout the editions of Talislanta has always been amazing. Many of the artists from Tal later went on to work on other fantasy projects like Magic: The Gathering, Blue Planet, and others that I can't recall at the moment.
In my opinion, 4th edition Talislanta was the best incarnation. It was a single hardbound book that encompassed the entire RPG: setting, magic system, character creation, GM's guide, monster manual, etc. It also had the best editing, index, and glossary I've seen in a role-playing game book. If you can find a used copy of it on Ebay I suggest snagging it.
5th edition, which came out a couple of years ago, suffered from the new publisher. While it's still the same RPG I knew and loved, the editing was not up to par and a few glaring mistakes remained in the finished books. This edition is currently available on Amazon.com.
I am currently in talks with a new publisher to work on a 6th edition (or perhaps just a revision and re-edit of the 5th edition... not sure yet.)
Eh, how exactly? I'm not seeing any instantly obvious similarities between BW and WoD, or at least any that weren't already present in the old World of Darkness which predates Burning Wheel by more than a decade.
Not Old World, just New World. Theres a few things like the new interpretation of willpower and the static target number, compare successes that are similar. These of course may have developed on their own.
Theres a few things like the new interpretation of willpower and the static target number, compare successes that are similar. These of course may have developed on their own.
Personally, I'd suspect that any major changes to the mechanics were the more or less inevitable result of streamlining the system into its current incarnation. Having a fixed threshold for success is much more convenient, after all.
Personally, I'd suspect that any major changes to the mechanics were the more or less inevitable result of streamlining the system into its current incarnation. Having a fixed threshold for success is much more convenient, after all.
Sure, I just see that you have Burning Wheel 2002 -> New World of Darkness 2004 -> Shadowrun 4e 2005
all of which have some similarities in the core mechanics. I don't mean to imply that they are direct copies just I can see some influences within the way the devs streamlined and what Luke Crane had come up with. Some of the devs @ White Wolf has said a few times that indie games are great because they can push mechanics in a way that big name rpgs just can't afford to try. Some have also implied that they look at the indie games for ideas that may make sense to be adapted into their own lines.
Like I said theres no proof, I just think someone read BW and thought parts of it are great Ideas... Now how can we put that in our game.
Sure, I just see that you have Burning Wheel 2002 -> New World of Darkness 2004 -> Shadowrun 4e 2005
all of which have some similarities in the core mechanics.
Yah, but despite some spit and polish the new Storytelling System still isn't fundamentally different from the old Storyteller, which already in the Nineties was sometimes accused of ripping off Shadowrun's dice pools (or if you go further back in time, Prince Valiant, the original "storytelling" RPG with its coin flip system). And the single most criticized change in the current mechanics is the one-roll combat resolution, which is certainly nothing like the use of scripts in Burning Wheel.
Yah, but despite some spit and polish the new Storytelling System still isn't fundamentally different from the old Storyteller, which already in the Nineties was sometimes accused of ripping off Shadowrun's dice pools (or if you go further back in time, Prince Valiant, the original "storytelling" RPG with its coin flip system). And the single most criticized change in the current mechanics is the one-roll combat resolution, which is certainly nothing like the use of scripts in Burning Wheel.
Actually, I prefer the OWoD to the NWoD. And there's not much, but enough I guess to resell all the books again...
Anything to do with the future or science fiction, I prefer Cyberpunk 2020.
Anything to do with the past or fantasy, I prefer OWoD; I really like Dark Ages: Mage and think that game is perfect for a fantasy type game.
I never was a fan of D&D or Palladium's hit point system. I like somewhat realism in my games.
Actually, I prefer the OWoD to the NWoD. And there's not much, but enough I guess to resell all the books again...
Then again, look at new game lines like Changeling: The Lost. That's completely different from the old Dreaming, and more coherent than it ever was (and I liked the oWoD version).
I didn't really follow Changeling, the old or new versions. It sounded a bit off from the idea of noir setting I was getting from Vampire and Werewolf.
"Noir" isn't exactly a term I'd use about Werewolf, old or new... But yes, Changeling: The Dreaming often felt out of synch with the other oWoD lines, with the possible exception of Mage: The Ascension which especially in its second edition cheerfully blended together just about every genre out there. Changeling: The Lost, however, is definitely a horror game in keeping with the current basic setting. It goes back to the old idea of faeries as mad soulless godlings who treat mortals as their playthings, and the PCs are among the few who have managed to escape from their clutches.
I really like Dark Ages: Mage and think that game is perfect for a fantasy type game.
Oh Dark Age Mage how I love thee! Without you I wouldn't understand ANY edition of Mage.
I haven't played many RPGs outside of D&D, but I'm familiar with a few:
Catholic Space Nazis Dark Heresy: It's set in WH40K universe. It's a RPG. It has amusing Crit charts. What is there not to like?
Abuse Victims: The Therapy Changeling: The Lost: A truly depressing game. White Wolf really outdid themselves. You are kidnapped by supernatural creatures, abused for their pleasure and amusement, turned into something not quite human and then escape. The the Four Courts mirror the five reactions to abuse. Yes, that was intentional.
Show
The worst thing is, if you grow powerful enough, you become one of the True Fae.
I Wish To Be The Little GirlMaid: You are a Maid.
...And possibly also a kleptomaniac catgirl who's secretly a spy for the UN, or a battle cyborg with amnesia and enough firepower to level a small nation, or just a guy who happens to enjoy a bit of crossdressing. I have this one, too.
...And possibly also a kleptomaniac catgirl who's secretly a spy for the UN, or a battle cyborg with amnesia and enough firepower to level a small nation, or just a guy who happens to enjoy a bit of crossdressing. I have this one, too.
Sounds fun enough, but the idea of a party roleplaying maids is more than a bit disturbing imo ;)
Sounds fun enough, but the idea of a party roleplaying maids is more than a bit disturbing imo ;)
We played the game on Saturday, as it happens. The session ended up becoming this "Walk the Earth" Kung Fu affair in the Wild West, after the Master gambled away his ranch and became a hunted man over a slight misunderstanding involving a prize heifer, which naturally enough required his loyal maids to deal with one bizarre bounty hunter on their trail after another.
That sounds beyond crazy. I still think the whole concept somewhat between absurd and slightly offensive, but maybe because I never quite got into that anime genre... I might try it at some point.
The idea is that any given scenario will always include "the three Ms": the Maids, the Mansion, and the Master. In other words, the PCs are always employees, servants or minions competing for the favour of one major NPC in a position of authority, or at least plotting to take his or her place somehow. But the details of what exactly is going on may vary wildly, so that it's perfectly possible for, say, the Master to be Darth Vader, with the Death Star as the "Mansion" and a cadre of Imperial security guards as the "Maids" (and hey, someone has to keep even planet-busting doomsday weapons clean). As the intro chapter puts it, although the game's geared towards silly slapstick comedy of the usual harem anime type, you can pretty much use it for all sorts of adventures, unless you're interested in a "realistic portrayal of modern maids" which really wouldn't work out that well.
Some of the eleven sample scenarios in the book play with variations on that set-up, too. In "Please Be Our Demon King", the PCs are literally maids from hell, who are trying to take care of a traditional fantasy dungeon full of monsters and traps after their old ruler has been vanquished, and who have now started interviewing potential candidates to be their new Dark Lord. In "Black Cat Mansion", they've been sent to clean up a haunted countryside manor so that their Master, a spoiled teenage brat who never actually makes a personal appearance during the game, can then move in to live on his own. And in "Miko RPG!" they are not maids as such at all, but rather shrine maidens charged with protecting a demon-plagued Shinto temple where their Master is the snake god Igukami who doesn't even have a physical presence at all.
It takes less than 15 minutes to make a PC if you have no clue what you're doing. It takes less than 5 if you know what you're doing. Really easy system, and we're running it right now and having a blast.
Exalted: Crazy Awesome adventuring as a God-King.
I almost forgot:
SEXalted: You have sex with anything that moves. And some things that don't. If you are a Furry Lunar, when you do it with animals, you create beastmen.
Gurps
Cyberpunk 2020
Marvel Superhero Saga (The TSR card based game)
Vampire: The Masquerade
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Heavy Gear RPG
Games that didn't quite make the cut:
Rifts (We didn't get past the character creation before we decided to just bust out the Gurps books)
In Nomine (The game had great flavor, but we felt that the mechanics were a little weak)
Fudge-My bread and butter, a very well designed system, where you plug in the variant rules you want and get playing. And there are a lot of variants.
Blood Sweat and Steel-Fudge based Sword and Sorcery. A lot heavier.
Burning Wheel-Too heavy for my taste, but still incredibly well designed. Scripted combat is genius for instance.
Mouse Guard-A simpler Burning Wheel, with an awesome setting. Don't argue, it is.
Wushu-My RPG of choice for one shots.
Risus-My other RPG of choice for one shots.
Mutants and Masterminds-I would love to play this, but its a bit heavier than I would like when it comes to GMing.
Of the lot of these Wushu, Risus, and Fudge are free and easily avaliable. Blood Sweat and Steel needs to be tracked down, and is still in development.
Best western game would be aces and eights absolute best gun combat system out there plus game teaches you there is other stuff to do besides fight as its pretty lethal to do that buy a deck of cards when you buy the game.
Best super hero game is 4th edtion champions 5th is a ok second choice and avoid 6th edtion like the plague.
best sci hmm maybe Morrow project or twilight 2000
What does everyone think of Heroes Unlimited? Has anyone played it and liked it?
It has a major flaw of being Palladium. Some people hate the system (I am neutral mostly as I have fond memories of it back in the day).
It also is misleading, its not unlimited heroes.
For a street level super heroic game you could do worse.
For a golden age high concept game, you could do Much better (HERO or MnM I would reccomend with SW coming close behind that).
For Iron Age it uh...it is actually fairly close.
I hope that helps.
My favorites:
10. WEG Star Wars d6
Have you tried WEG's new(er) d6 system games? d6 Fantasy, d6 Adventure, d6 Space?
I would recommend the following.
------
D6 system
Mechwarrior 3rd edition
RuneQuest
ShadowRun 4th edition
Fallout PnP 2.0 d100 system
* can not remember the name, but a Polish company had a neat system that was classless. It was real simple and streamlined, but complete. Introduced to me by a friend when I was stationed in Germany.
That is my main hangup on GURPS - don't get me wrong the system is great, but my group and I spend more time trying to find the details, then we do role-playing.
Yeah, if you want to play GURPS with all the rules it is a nightmare. However we usually just use the rules we know out of our heads and make up the remainder on the fly, which works pretty well.
Yeah, if you want to play GURPS with all the rules it is a nightmare. However we usually just use the rules we know out of our heads and make up the remainder on the fly, which works pretty well.
In that case, why not just play FUDGE? "make it all up on the fly" :-)
I would also suggest the ORE systems, Nemesis being free, Godlike having a free version. Its very interesting in how it works, and not very heavy.
Just to add my own suggestions.
Changeling the lost is all kinds of win.
Call of Cthulhu is really very cool, but it can be a challange to write for.
Artesia: Adventures in the known world: This is hands down my faverate RPG of all times. The system does not even attempt to provide balance, but rather acts as an awesome roleplaying system rather than Roleplaying game system. If your prepared to put the effort in to run it, and have strong, character driven roleplayers in your group who are prepared to play within the spirit of the game, rather than munchkin then is really is the most rewarding game in all the world.
These are the non D&D games I run or play in regularly.
Arduin
Bureau 13
Call of Cthulh
Mutants and Masterminds
Shadowrun
What we really would like is a good space based game, any suggestions?
Bel
OVA RPG (Wise Turtle Publishing)
1. Very rules-light.
2. Different systems for different stories. I find D&D to be built to handle stories like The Hobbit (you keep track of your attacks, equipment, loot, race, and your talent at using them), but OVA keeps track of character personality, relationships, & inner determination, and is conducive to stories wherein those are the driving forces. It's also more generic in setting (you're not limited to archetypes or tech levels).
I'd like to play either Legend of the Five Rings RPG or Tenra Bansho. I'm holding out until Tenra Bansho is actually released in the US. L5R is meant to tell samurai political/battle saga (measuring clanship, glory, & face), and Tenra Bansho has an interesting science-fantasy setting based on Japan's Warring States period and a very story-telling focused system.
I like Gurps myself. I use the Gurps Lite Supplement and add more detail as I need it.
I just got the Vorkosigan book for Gurps 4e. This book is very well produced - like all the other Gurps 4e hardbacks. One nice thing I like is that it can be played many ways, just like Gurps Traveller Interstellar Wars.
I will probably play this book out as written the first time around, then use it as a Traveller module after that. Other ideas include using it as a Star Wars adventure, etc.
The illustrations are stunning and the book is a good reference for the Vorkosigan fans out there as well as Gurps fans. I'm a Gurps fan and it is just as well produced as the other Gurps 4e book I own.
The book is very well written and a big asset to my collection. Ive gotten all the 4th edition hardbounds - this makes a nice collection now that I got the Vorkosigan book. The page count in my 4th edition hardback collection is about 5,000 pages - which is quite a nice amount. To me, the one book a month origonal schedule for publishing Gurps hardbounds was a bit much, however one a year is way too few. The amount of hardbacks is what they released in 2007 - four which seems to be about right.
I'd STILL get those basic books - Black Ops, Cliffhangers, WW2, etc. out as 4th edition hardbacks asap.
Overall, if you are a fan of the Vorkosigan Saga - get this book and if you are looking for a great Gurps adventure to play get this book for that.
One last thing I like is the fact that Gurps lite is included making this a stand alone product. Nothing else is required to play it.
Anything beyond that is an optional rule.
What scares most people when they first look at GURPS is that a lot of the work and math is front-loaded. What I mean by that is the majority of the number generation and crunch takes place during character creation. Once you're in the midst of the actual game, there's not a whole lot to look up which isn't on your character sheet unless you're using an optional rule such as spraying fire or things like that; even then, it's no more difficult to look up how those rules work than it was to look up how the turning rules worked for a Cleric in D&D 3E or how exactly a skill challenge is supposed to work in the current edition of D&D.
I'd suggest trying GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It keeps the robust options of GURPS alive, but it cuts out a lot of options which aren't typically necessary for a dungeon crawl type of game. The templates provided in DF are even analogous to races and classes as presented in most other rpgs.
What I like about GURPS is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. You can make it abstract and simple like GURPS lite or you can grab the Basic Set; turn all of the optional rule switches to on, and keep track of every bullet, ounce of weight carried, and your character's mother's maiden name if you want to. Whatever the play style, the tools are there to build what you want. You just need to do a little work to put it together. It's a little like the difference between a set of Legos and an Erector set.
An Erector set is a bit more complex, but you have more freedom as far as what you can build with the pieces. On the other hand, if you want quick and fast construction without a lot of variance, Legos might be the best bet.
I used to think Palladium was great back in the day, played some Heroes Unlimited, but now, looking back, the rules set just seems way too cumbersome.
Yah, but despite some spit and polish the new Storytelling System still isn't fundamentally different from the old Storyteller, which already in the Nineties was sometimes accused of ripping off Shadowrun's dice pools (or if you go further back in time, Prince Valiant, the original "storytelling" RPG with its coin flip system). And the single most criticized change in the current mechanics is the one-roll combat resolution, which is certainly nothing like the use of scripts in Burning Wheel.
Actually, I prefer the OWoD to the NWoD. And there's not much, but enough I guess to resell all the books again...
Anything to do with the future or science fiction, I prefer Cyberpunk 2020.
Anything to do with the past or fantasy, I prefer OWoD; I really like Dark Ages: Mage and think that game is perfect for a fantasy type game.
I never was a fan of D&D or Palladium's hit point system. I like somewhat realism in my games.
Actually, I prefer the OWoD to the NWoD. And there's not much, but enough I guess to resell all the books again...
Then again, look at new game lines like Changeling: The Lost. That's completely different from the old Dreaming, and more coherent than it ever was (and I liked the oWoD version).
I didn't really follow Changeling, the old or new versions. It sounded a bit off from the idea of noir setting I was getting from Vampire and Werewolf.
"Noir" isn't exactly a term I'd use about Werewolf, old or new... But yes, Changeling: The Dreaming often felt out of synch with the other oWoD lines, with the possible exception of Mage: The Ascension which especially in its second edition cheerfully blended together just about every genre out there. Changeling: The Lost, however, is definitely a horror game in keeping with the current basic setting. It goes back to the old idea of faeries as mad soulless godlings who treat mortals as their playthings, and the PCs are among the few who have managed to escape from their clutches.
I really like Dark Ages: Mage and think that game is perfect for a fantasy type game.
Oh Dark Age Mage how I love thee! Without you I wouldn't understand ANY edition of Mage.
I haven't played many RPGs outside of D&D, but I'm familiar with a few:
Catholic Space Nazis Dark Heresy: It's set in WH40K universe. It's a RPG. It has amusing Crit charts. What is there not to like?
Abuse Victims: The Therapy Changeling: The Lost: A truly depressing game. White Wolf really outdid themselves. You are kidnapped by supernatural creatures, abused for their pleasure and amusement, turned into something not quite human and then escape. The the Four Courts mirror the five reactions to abuse. Yes, that was intentional.
Show
The worst thing is, if you grow powerful enough, you become one of the True Fae.
I Wish To Be The Little GirlMaid: You are a Maid.
...And possibly also a kleptomaniac catgirl who's secretly a spy for the UN, or a battle cyborg with amnesia and enough firepower to level a small nation, or just a guy who happens to enjoy a bit of crossdressing. I have this one, too.
...And possibly also a kleptomaniac catgirl who's secretly a spy for the UN, or a battle cyborg with amnesia and enough firepower to level a small nation, or just a guy who happens to enjoy a bit of crossdressing. I have this one, too.
Sounds fun enough, but the idea of a party roleplaying maids is more than a bit disturbing imo ;)
Sounds fun enough, but the idea of a party roleplaying maids is more than a bit disturbing imo ;)
We played the game on Saturday, as it happens. The session ended up becoming this "Walk the Earth" Kung Fu affair in the Wild West, after the Master gambled away his ranch and became a hunted man over a slight misunderstanding involving a prize heifer, which naturally enough required his loyal maids to deal with one bizarre bounty hunter on their trail after another.
That sounds beyond crazy. I still think the whole concept somewhat between absurd and slightly offensive, but maybe because I never quite got into that anime genre... I might try it at some point.
The idea is that any given scenario will always include "the three Ms": the Maids, the Mansion, and the Master. In other words, the PCs are always employees, servants or minions competing for the favour of one major NPC in a position of authority, or at least plotting to take his or her place somehow. But the details of what exactly is going on may vary wildly, so that it's perfectly possible for, say, the Master to be Darth Vader, with the Death Star as the "Mansion" and a cadre of Imperial security guards as the "Maids" (and hey, someone has to keep even planet-busting doomsday weapons clean). As the intro chapter puts it, although the game's geared towards silly slapstick comedy of the usual harem anime type, you can pretty much use it for all sorts of adventures, unless you're interested in a "realistic portrayal of modern maids" which really wouldn't work out that well.
Some of the eleven sample scenarios in the book play with variations on that set-up, too. In "Please Be Our Demon King", the PCs are literally maids from hell, who are trying to take care of a traditional fantasy dungeon full of monsters and traps after their old ruler has been vanquished, and who have now started interviewing potential candidates to be their new Dark Lord. In "Black Cat Mansion", they've been sent to clean up a haunted countryside manor so that their Master, a spoiled teenage brat who never actually makes a personal appearance during the game, can then move in to live on his own. And in "Miko RPG!" they are not maids as such at all, but rather shrine maidens charged with protecting a demon-plagued Shinto temple where their Master is the snake god Igukami who doesn't even have a physical presence at all.
It takes less than 15 minutes to make a PC if you have no clue what you're doing. It takes less than 5 if you know what you're doing. Really easy system, and we're running it right now and having a blast.
Exalted: Crazy Awesome adventuring as a God-King.
I almost forgot:
SEXalted: You have sex with anything that moves. And some things that don't. If you are a Furry Lunar, when you do it with animals, you create beastmen.
Gurps
Cyberpunk 2020
Marvel Superhero Saga (The TSR card based game)
Vampire: The Masquerade
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Heavy Gear RPG
Games that didn't quite make the cut:
Rifts (We didn't get past the character creation before we decided to just bust out the Gurps books)
In Nomine (The game had great flavor, but we felt that the mechanics were a little weak)
Fudge-My bread and butter, a very well designed system, where you plug in the variant rules you want and get playing. And there are a lot of variants.
Blood Sweat and Steel-Fudge based Sword and Sorcery. A lot heavier.
Burning Wheel-Too heavy for my taste, but still incredibly well designed. Scripted combat is genius for instance.
Mouse Guard-A simpler Burning Wheel, with an awesome setting. Don't argue, it is.
Wushu-My RPG of choice for one shots.
Risus-My other RPG of choice for one shots.
Mutants and Masterminds-I would love to play this, but its a bit heavier than I would like when it comes to GMing.
Of the lot of these Wushu, Risus, and Fudge are free and easily avaliable. Blood Sweat and Steel needs to be tracked down, and is still in development.
Best western game would be aces and eights absolute best gun combat system out there plus game teaches you there is other stuff to do besides fight as its pretty lethal to do that buy a deck of cards when you buy the game.
Best super hero game is 4th edtion champions 5th is a ok second choice and avoid 6th edtion like the plague.
best sci hmm maybe Morrow project or twilight 2000
What does everyone think of Heroes Unlimited? Has anyone played it and liked it?
It has a major flaw of being Palladium. Some people hate the system (I am neutral mostly as I have fond memories of it back in the day).
It also is misleading, its not unlimited heroes.
For a street level super heroic game you could do worse.
For a golden age high concept game, you could do Much better (HERO or MnM I would reccomend with SW coming close behind that).
For Iron Age it uh...it is actually fairly close.
I hope that helps.
My favorites:
10. WEG Star Wars d6
Have you tried WEG's new(er) d6 system games? d6 Fantasy, d6 Adventure, d6 Space?
I would recommend the following.
------
D6 system
Mechwarrior 3rd edition
RuneQuest
ShadowRun 4th edition
Fallout PnP 2.0 d100 system
* can not remember the name, but a Polish company had a neat system that was classless. It was real simple and streamlined, but complete. Introduced to me by a friend when I was stationed in Germany.
That is my main hangup on GURPS - don't get me wrong the system is great, but my group and I spend more time trying to find the details, then we do role-playing.
Yeah, if you want to play GURPS with all the rules it is a nightmare. However we usually just use the rules we know out of our heads and make up the remainder on the fly, which works pretty well.
Yeah, if you want to play GURPS with all the rules it is a nightmare. However we usually just use the rules we know out of our heads and make up the remainder on the fly, which works pretty well.
In that case, why not just play FUDGE? "make it all up on the fly" :-)
I would also suggest the ORE systems, Nemesis being free, Godlike having a free version. Its very interesting in how it works, and not very heavy.
Just to add my own suggestions.
Changeling the lost is all kinds of win.
Call of Cthulhu is really very cool, but it can be a challange to write for.
Artesia: Adventures in the known world: This is hands down my faverate RPG of all times. The system does not even attempt to provide balance, but rather acts as an awesome roleplaying system rather than Roleplaying game system. If your prepared to put the effort in to run it, and have strong, character driven roleplayers in your group who are prepared to play within the spirit of the game, rather than munchkin then is really is the most rewarding game in all the world.
These are the non D&D games I run or play in regularly.
Arduin
Bureau 13
Call of Cthulh
Mutants and Masterminds
Shadowrun
What we really would like is a good space based game, any suggestions?
Bel
OVA RPG (Wise Turtle Publishing)
1. Very rules-light.
2. Different systems for different stories. I find D&D to be built to handle stories like The Hobbit (you keep track of your attacks, equipment, loot, race, and your talent at using them), but OVA keeps track of character personality, relationships, & inner determination, and is conducive to stories wherein those are the driving forces. It's also more generic in setting (you're not limited to archetypes or tech levels).
I'd like to play either Legend of the Five Rings RPG or Tenra Bansho. I'm holding out until Tenra Bansho is actually released in the US. L5R is meant to tell samurai political/battle saga (measuring clanship, glory, & face), and Tenra Bansho has an interesting science-fantasy setting based on Japan's Warring States period and a very story-telling focused system.
I like Gurps myself. I use the Gurps Lite Supplement and add more detail as I need it.
I just got the Vorkosigan book for Gurps 4e. This book is very well produced - like all the other Gurps 4e hardbacks. One nice thing I like is that it can be played many ways, just like Gurps Traveller Interstellar Wars.
I will probably play this book out as written the first time around, then use it as a Traveller module after that. Other ideas include using it as a Star Wars adventure, etc.
The illustrations are stunning and the book is a good reference for the Vorkosigan fans out there as well as Gurps fans. I'm a Gurps fan and it is just as well produced as the other Gurps 4e book I own.
The book is very well written and a big asset to my collection. Ive gotten all the 4th edition hardbounds - this makes a nice collection now that I got the Vorkosigan book. The page count in my 4th edition hardback collection is about 5,000 pages - which is quite a nice amount. To me, the one book a month origonal schedule for publishing Gurps hardbounds was a bit much, however one a year is way too few. The amount of hardbacks is what they released in 2007 - four which seems to be about right.
I'd STILL get those basic books - Black Ops, Cliffhangers, WW2, etc. out as 4th edition hardbacks asap.
Overall, if you are a fan of the Vorkosigan Saga - get this book and if you are looking for a great Gurps adventure to play get this book for that.
One last thing I like is the fact that Gurps lite is included making this a stand alone product. Nothing else is required to play it.
Anything beyond that is an optional rule.
What scares most people when they first look at GURPS is that a lot of the work and math is front-loaded. What I mean by that is the majority of the number generation and crunch takes place during character creation. Once you're in the midst of the actual game, there's not a whole lot to look up which isn't on your character sheet unless you're using an optional rule such as spraying fire or things like that; even then, it's no more difficult to look up how those rules work than it was to look up how the turning rules worked for a Cleric in D&D 3E or how exactly a skill challenge is supposed to work in the current edition of D&D.
I'd suggest trying GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It keeps the robust options of GURPS alive, but it cuts out a lot of options which aren't typically necessary for a dungeon crawl type of game. The templates provided in DF are even analogous to races and classes as presented in most other rpgs.
What I like about GURPS is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. You can make it abstract and simple like GURPS lite or you can grab the Basic Set; turn all of the optional rule switches to on, and keep track of every bullet, ounce of weight carried, and your character's mother's maiden name if you want to. Whatever the play style, the tools are there to build what you want. You just need to do a little work to put it together. It's a little like the difference between a set of Legos and an Erector set.
An Erector set is a bit more complex, but you have more freedom as far as what you can build with the pieces. On the other hand, if you want quick and fast construction without a lot of variance, Legos might be the best bet.
I used to think Palladium was great back in the day, played some Heroes Unlimited, but now, looking back, the rules set just seems way too cumbersome.