Steve Greer Contributor |
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
Sorry that I am coming in somewhat late to the party, but ...
Zombieneighbours |
1. Mage: The Ascention as a whole. Simply put, no other game i can think of has nearly as rich a world as this game, because a, it draws on the richness of the real world, and b, the additional setting material is stunning. Tradition Book: euthanitos, Tradition Book: cult of ecstacy and Tradition book: hollow ones where some of the best roleplaying books i have ever read. Unlike most DnD books, i was able to read these books cover to cover without a desire to stop.
2. The exalted universe, including creation, the wyld, the underworld, malfias, yu-shan and other stranger places like elsewhere and autocthone
Few worlds are this rich, this varied or this huge... I really do love it. It is sort of the ultimate sand box, but made cooler by the face it has loads of toys in the sand box you can play with.
3. The weird west from deadlands. Cowboys, with steam powered cyberware and preacher men with the force O-will to cast out demons...
honourable mentions: Boston unvailed for mage the awakening, Wraith the oblivian and golarion, 2070's era shadowrun and ghost in the shell: stand alone complex(i will one day run a section 9 based game with shadowrun) and Interface Zero .
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
The setting for Mage: xxxxxx especially 1st & early 2nd Editions.
I cannot believe what I typed there. I must have been tired.
Trying again.
While it is true that the "Order Of Hermes" was my preferred tradition, the Atlantian Orders lack the color and panache that the actual Hermetics did.
Otherwise I still like the rest of my list.
Darkmeer |
Okay, you all asked for it:
D20/D&D Fantasy (done mostly in d20, 2e D&D, and rabidly converting a good portion of it to FantasyCraft and Pathfinder rules).
1: Planescape
2: Forgotten Realms
3: Iron Kingdoms
4: Dragonlance
5: Scarred Lands
Golarion will be on this list as well, as I get more time in the setting.
D20 Non-Fantasy:
1: Spycraft 1.0's Shadowforce Archer series (black books). It's how I think Psionics should be.
2: Spycraft 2.0's World On Fire. Great spy genre stuff, and a great way to play the game.
3: Star Wars (first and second editions of the RPG, I'm not so big on the newest incarnation).
4: Dragonstar (yes, fantasy, but also sci fi).
5: Mutants and Masterminds (first edition)
Non d20:
1: Earthdawn
2: Shadowrun
3: OWoD (mostly Vampire and Werewolf, but there was some Mage stuff that really got me)
4: NWoD
I'm not really all that picky. If we can run with concepts and have a good time with it, I'll play MOST anything.
/d
Zombieneighbours |
Lord Fyre wrote:
The setting for Mage: xxxxxx especially 1st & early 2nd Editions.
I cannot believe what I typed there. I must have been tired.
Trying again.
The setting for Mage: Ascension especially 1st & early 2nd Editions. While it is true that the "Order Of Hermes" was my preferred tradition, the Atlantian Orders lack the color and panache that the actual Hermetics did.
Otherwise I still like the rest of my list.
I was going to forgive you until i found our you are a order of hermes fan, now i will have to think of some snarky comment about beards and pointie hats and how you are everything that is wrong with the traditions...*goes back to jhor tainted planning of interesting deaths for hermetic mages.*
Freehold DM |
Fantasy based:
Dragonlance(yes, including Age Of Mortals and whatever lies in the future for the setting...because Tanis et. al. cannot save the world over and over and over again. Also including Taladas here- the greatest setting that never was!)
Dark Sun
Spelljammer(particularly Pyrespace)
Ravenloft(3e and up)
Golarion
World's Largest City/Ptolus(two different settings, I know, but I like my urban adventure)
Greyhawk
Mystara
and last but not least...Freehold! The Saga of Wune, my own homebrewed setting.
Non-Fantasy:
Werewolf: The Apocalypse(perhaps my all-time favorite game)
Hunter: The Reckoning(winner of my patented "Most Misunderstood Game" award)
Marvel Super Heroes(the first RPG I ever played)
Star Wars RPG(the second: d6 only- accept no substitutions!)
Shadowrun
And last but not least...Eileen's Legion of Super Heroes RPG, being worked on a few threads down, which keeps hope alive on the non-fantasy based homebrewed front!
ChrisRevocateur |
Fantasy based:
Dragonlance(yes, including Age Of Mortals and whatever lies in the future for the setting...because Tanis et. al. cannot save the world over and over and over again. Also including Taladas here- the greatest setting that never was!)
I actually never really liked Tanis.
My favorite Dragonlance novels were the Legends (Huma, Kaz the Minotaur, etc.) ones.
Star Wars RPG(the second: d6 only- accept no substitutions!)
Definitely. d20's alright, but cannot hold a candle to the West End Games vision of a Star Wars game.
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
Lord Fyre wrote:I was going to forgive you until i found our you are a order of hermes fan, now i will have to think of some snarky comment about beards and pointie hats and how you are everything that is wrong with the traditions...*goes back to jhor tainted planning of interesting deaths for hermetic mages.*Lord Fyre wrote:
The setting for Mage: xxxxxx especially 1st & early 2nd Editions.
I cannot believe what I typed there. I must have been tired.
Trying again.
The setting for Mage: Ascension especially 1st & early 2nd Editions. While it is true that the "Order Of Hermes" was my preferred tradition, the Atlantian Orders lack the color and panache that the actual Hermetics did.
Otherwise I still like the rest of my list.
Except, that you can't.
Neither the concept of Jhor, nor the Order of Hermes survived the transfer to the new edition.
Zombieneighbours |
Zombieneighbours wrote:Lord Fyre wrote:I was going to forgive you until i found our you are a order of hermes fan, now i will have to think of some snarky comment about beards and pointie hats and how you are everything that is wrong with the traditions...*goes back to jhor tainted planning of interesting deaths for hermetic mages.*Lord Fyre wrote:
The setting for Mage: xxxxxx especially 1st & early 2nd Editions.
I cannot believe what I typed there. I must have been tired.
Trying again.
The setting for Mage: Ascension especially 1st & early 2nd Editions. While it is true that the "Order Of Hermes" was my preferred tradition, the Atlantian Orders lack the color and panache that the actual Hermetics did.
Otherwise I still like the rest of my list.
Except, that you can't.
Neither the concept of Jhor, nor the Order of Hermes survived the transfer to the new edition.
Trust me, i know that, but i still have enought revised edition that i can stuff that i can fool my self, if not reality for a little while...
I actually really like awakening too, especially the blank badges, who rock muchly.
The Purity of Violence |
1. Glorantha
2. Greyhawk
3. oWOD, especially the Mage stuff.
4. Pendragon Britain
5. Aftermath - The Sydney campaign. Set in my home city and at the University I was soon to attend. My basic knowledge of campus layout came from a gaming supplement. Never could find all of the underground research bunkers though.
MisterSlanky |
1. Shadowrun: I've thought this was one of the most spectacularly well thought out worlds of all time.
2. Scarred Lands: There was something about Scarred Lands that called to me. Hollowfaust remains one of my favorite cities of all time.
3. Eberon: The steampunk feel really was well imagined and the setting's reputation was well deserved.
4. Planescape: I think we all know why.
5. Golarion: It's really growing on me. I like the unique feeling Paizo has created for themselves just by changing up a couple of the traditions a little.
Freehold DM |
Fantasy based:
Dragonlance(yes, including Age Of Mortals and whatever lies in the future for the setting...because Tanis et. al. cannot save the world over and over and over again. Also including Taladas here- the greatest setting that never was!)
I actually never really liked Tanis.
My favorite Dragonlance novels were the Legends (Huma, Kaz the Minotaur, etc.) ones.
How could one man b#+*# about how unfairly he's being treated and how he feels like an outsider for chapter upon chapter...
checks out a Drizzt novelOh wait..never mind...
The Taladas Novels were AMAZING...really good work. And of course, I loved the Twins series, even if I am in the (very tiny) minority that thinks the idea of Raistlin suddenly being evil was a bit of a cop-out.
Freehold DM wrote:
Star Wars RPG(the second: d6 only- accept no substitutions!)
ChrisRevocateur wrote:Definitely. d20's alright, but cannot hold a candle to the West End Games vision of a Star Wars game.You mean a game where Jedi aren't all powerful and can actually be killed by a blaster shot or two to the chops?
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
Lord Fyre wrote:
Except, that you can't.Neither the concept of Jhor, nor the Order of Hermes survived the transfer to the new edition.
Trust me, i know that, but i still have enought revised edition that i can stuff that i can fool my self, if not reality for a little while...
I actually really like awakening too, especially the blank badges, who rock muchly.
"Blank Badges?" I am not familiar with that Legacy.
In any event, what I said earlier is still true. Mage: The Awakening lacks "panache."
Freehold DM |
Zombieneighbours wrote:Lord Fyre wrote:
Except, that you can't.Neither the concept of Jhor, nor the Order of Hermes survived the transfer to the new edition.
Trust me, i know that, but i still have enought revised edition that i can stuff that i can fool my self, if not reality for a little while...
I actually really like awakening too, especially the blank badges, who rock muchly.
"Blank Badges?" I am not familiar with that Legacy.
In any event, what I said earlier is still true. Mage: The Awakening lacks "panache."
I wholeheartedly agree. I would much rather have seen White Wolf go in a completely different direction with Mage(much like they did with Hunter), than to make what to me seemed like a watered down version of their original idea.
Zombieneighbours |
Zombieneighbours wrote:Lord Fyre wrote:
Except, that you can't.Neither the concept of Jhor, nor the Order of Hermes survived the transfer to the new edition.
Trust me, i know that, but i still have enought revised edition that i can stuff that i can fool my self, if not reality for a little while...
I actually really like awakening too, especially the blank badges, who rock muchly.
"Blank Badges?" I am not familiar with that Legacy.
In any event, what I said earlier is still true. Mage: The Awakening lacks "panache."
The blank badges are sort of a new look at the Hollow Ones, with a large chunk of the Invisibles thrown in for good measure. The blank Badges are a free council legecy who are dedicated to the war against the Lie, and have continues the name less war, long after the free council as a whole has dropped it. They are obsessed with Anonymity, and use it as a weapon.
The base legacy power is one of the coolest in the game, in that they may treat their occultation as status in any institution, provided that they make atleast a token effort to fit in, and that token can be as little as putting on a tie. Once you done, people just for get you where there.
I disagree, awakening has every bit the style and Panache, of ascention, in places it even has more...come on, who can't love the redword from boston unvailed, it represents a far better and more interesting antagonist than mage the ascention ever produced(not including the semi-protagonists of the technocracy). Seriously, the closest thing ascention has is Bimbo Yaga, who's only cool because she is Penny D's arch nemesis.
Both games are awesome, but very different. It is a little like comparing apples and oranges.
I'd also challange the idea that it is eurocentric, certainly the corebook can give that impression, but atlantis is just the most common name for the first city. Secrets of the ruined temple gives something like 20 other interpritations of what 'atlantis' was, including a really cool post-modernist theory of atlantis, where it is in fact all around us, we just can't see it because we are so court up in the lie.
If you don't have them, get secrets of the ruined temple and Tome of the mystries, they really are essential books for making mage the awakening shine as brightly as it can.
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
Lord Fyre wrote:In any event, what I said earlier is still true. Mage: The Awakening lacks "panache."I disagree, awakening has every bit the style and Panache, of ascention, in places it even has more...come on, who can't love the redword from boston unvailed, it represents a far better and more interesting antagonist than mage the ascention ever produced(not including the semi-protagonists of the technocracy). Seriously, the closest thing ascention has is Bimbo Yaga, who's only cool because she is Penny D's arch nemesis.
Both games are awesome, but very different. It is a little like comparing apples and oranges.
I'd also challange the idea that it is eurocentric, certainly the corebook can give that impression, but atlantis is just the most common name for the first city. Secrets of the ruined temple gives something like 20 other interpritations of what 'atlantis' was, including a really cool post-modernist theory of atlantis, where it is in fact all around us, we just can't see it because we are so court up in the lie.
Of course. For obvious reasons, I never went much beyond the WoD Core Rulebook and Mage: The Awakening.
If one's first impression of a game system/setting is a bad one, then one tends not to spend more money on it.So, the contents of Boston Unveiled, Secrets Of The Ruined Temple, or Chicago are completely unknown to me.
Or perhaps I lack the "Clarity" or "Wisdom" to feel a "Primal Urge" to get this books.
If you don't have them, get secrets of the ruined temple and Tome of the mystries, they really are essential books for making mage the awakening shine as brightly as it can.
The "World of Darnkess" shine? Isn't that contrary to the basic idea? ;)
And you realise that the Tome Of Mysteries is currently out of print.
(In any event, are you suggesting that I (an former Hermetic) should check out the Silver Ladder? - Or what that make me your second worst enemy in the world?)
Zombieneighbours |
Zombieneighbours wrote:Lord Fyre wrote:In any event, what I said earlier is still true. Mage: The Awakening lacks "panache."I disagree, awakening has every bit the style and Panache, of ascention, in places it even has more...come on, who can't love the redword from boston unvailed, it represents a far better and more interesting antagonist than mage the ascention ever produced(not including the semi-protagonists of the technocracy). Seriously, the closest thing ascention has is Bimbo Yaga, who's only cool because she is Penny D's arch nemesis.
Both games are awesome, but very different. It is a little like comparing apples and oranges.
I'd also challange the idea that it is eurocentric, certainly the corebook can give that impression, but atlantis is just the most common name for the first city. Secrets of the ruined temple gives something like 20 other interpritations of what 'atlantis' was, including a really cool post-modernist theory of atlantis, where it is in fact all around us, we just can't see it because we are so court up in the lie.
Of course. For obvious reasons, I never went much beyond the WoD Core Rulebook and Mage: The Awakening.
If one's first impression of a game system/setting is a bad one, then one tends not to spend more money on it.So, the contents of Boston Unveiled, Secrets Of The Ruined Temple, or Chicago are completely unknown to me.
Or perhaps I lack the...
I currently have two of the mage the awakening splat book, one is the free council, the other is the most awesome order of all.
I am sorry that you lack both the wisdom and gnosis to truely appreciate mage: the awakening. That said, the chicago book sucked muchly so no loss there.
I will freely admit that the core book almost put me off, but i thought the mechanics where really much more sound than ascention. I initially stayed interested because I thought it would make a better system to run ascention with(one where when i read how to work out what was happening with paradox, i wouldn't get a different way of doing it every time....*grumbles and shakes a fist at revised edition mage the ascention.*), but as more came out, the more i read and the more i saw it as an awesome, but entirely different game.
If your interested in playing a hermetic style character then actually, you could do worse than checking out the Mysterium(second most awesome order) book, which is really very good and has a lot of house Bonisagus, House Solificati, House Shaea and House Fortunae elements. That said silver ladder are interesting, but i cant comment on the quality of the order book. That said, mysterium, guardians of the vail and free council books are all excilent.
Tome of mysteries being out of print is really very unfortunate, because it is an eccential. Basically, the other half of the magic system that should have been in the core book is in tome of mysteries.
Ofcause, however much i like awakening, we have to be honest, the real reason to buy WoD is Changeling: the lost. :D
Lord Fyre RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32 |
Ofcause, however much i like awakening, we have to be honest, the real reason to buy WoD is Changeling: the lost. :D
With this, I would give no arguement. Changeling: The Lost is some of the best stuff White Wolf has ever produced.
Werthead |
1. Planescape, the demented lovechild of E. Gary Gygax and Neil Gaiman, raised by MC Escher and schooled in the art of WTF by Hieronymus Bosch. Unbelievably tough to DM (immersing yourself in the faction descriptions from the box setting and playing TORMENT until your eyes bleed is probably the best way to do it effectively), since selling the alien setting, especially to players used to vanilla D&D, is tricky. They also get annoyed when they try to kill the Lady of Pain and end up mazed somewhere. With players in the right mood, nothing can beat this setting.
2. Forgotten Realms, the epic fantasy ur-setting. Others came before, others are deeper and more original, but no fantasy setting has the same insane breadth and scope of the Realms in their heyday (for me, late 2nd Edition). Any kind of campaign and almost any kind of sub-setting can be fitted into the Realms to make it the ultimate setting. Weakened by over-reliance on NPCs, lame novels and world-shaking events in 3rd Edition. Blown up in 4th Edition for no readily explicable reason. Home to several of the most awesome CRPGs ever made (including the one where Drizzt is gloriously upstaged by a semi-retarded guy with a killer hamster).
3. The Weird West from Deadlands. Like mid-19th Century America, but not. Steampunk meets the American Civil War with magic-wielding Indians and hordes of undead. GMing the setting can be radically enhanced by reading China Mieville beforehand.
4. Westeros, from the two attempted Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying games. The opposite to the Forgotten Realms, being restrained, realistic, incredibly deep and well-realised with lethal politics and brutal combat. GMs advised to be on the lookout for players 'sneakily' playing characters like a dwarf call 'Myrion' from 'House Bannister' in an impressive display of cheesy unoriginality.
5. The StarCraft setting for the Alternity game. Ignoring the 'borrowings' from WH40K, this is a pretty smart (and often darkly humourous) SF setting. You'll never be shorter of players in South Korea. Warning: you may have to slap players into line the fifteen thousandth time someone yells, "My life for Aiur!" or starts doing all ten voice quotes from the Firebat across the table.
Dr. Dark! |
1. Original Forgotten Realms - I used to have an encyclopedia like knowledge of the realms - then it got silly.
2. Original Greyhawk - Classic 1st ed stuff
3. Warhammer - Love the depression it gave to my players
4. Warhammer 40k - Just for the big guns, tanks and tyranids
5. Cthulhu - Who needs a reason
5. Cyberpunk 2020 - We used to have some great sessions playing this. The era was just right to, early 90's. Night City was great
6. Rifts - loved the concept and background, but the game was virtually unplayaple in my oppinion after the 765th!!! supplement came out.
(Maybe this should be re-released by another company using a different rules system but with the great background.
7. Mutants and Masterminds - cos I would love to live in Freedom City.