Let me start out by saying that I am suffering serious “Elf Fatigue.”
What that means is that I am getting tired of running Fantasy Based games, and I am looking for something different. (Hence this thread) :(
But what decent RPG settings / systems are there out there?
I sympathize. I've been thinking it might be fun to try a superhero based game...but alas, I'm feeling 'system fatigue' as well and don't think I have the mental real estate to devote to another system.
I did find this free, simple - although admitedly light-hearted system: Risus, so if I do take the dive into creating such a game I think I'll go thusly.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
A summary of World of Darkness combat (as this is easily my favorite combat system ever):
Fighter 1: I want to hit Fighter 2 with my longsword.
Storyteller: Okay, the longsword has a damage bonus of +2. What is your STR + Melee?
Fighter 1: 3 STR and 3 Melee is 6 total, plus the 2 from the sword is 8.
Storyteller: Okay, Fighter 2 has a Wits of 2 and a Dex of 3. The lower of those two scores is his Defense, so his Defense is 2. Also, he has chain armor on, which increases his Defense by another 2, giving a total of 4. Reduce your attack pool by 4 and roll.
Fighter 1: *rolls 4 dice* Okay, a 6, 8, 1, and a 9.
Storyteller: Okay, 2 successes. Fighter 2 takes 2 damage. Fighter 2, your action.
Fighter 2: I want to hit Fighter 1 with my greatsword.
Storyteller. Okay, the greatsword has a damage bonus of +4. What is your STR + Melee?
Fighter 2: 4 STR and 3 Melee is 7, plus 4 for the sword is 11.
Storyteller: Okay, Fighter 1 has a Defense of 2 as well and chain armor for another 2 Defense. Subtract 4 from your pool and roll.
Fighter 2: *rolls 7 dice* Wow! A 6, 8, 9, 10, 10, 4, and 2.
Storyteller: Okay, that's 4 successes and you get to reroll 10s for more.
Fighter 2: *rolls the 2 10s again* A 9 and a 6.
Storyteller: Okay, that's a total of 5 successes. Fighter 1 takes 5 damage. Since Fighter 1's Stamina is 2, he has a total of 7 health levels (5 + STAM). Another hit like that will kill him. Also, since he took more damage than his STAM score in one round, he'll be at a 2-die penalty for all actions in the next round. Additionally, since he has less than three health remaining, he's suffering a -2 wound penalty for all actions until he recovers health. Things are not looking good for Fighter 1...
etc. etc. etc.
A summary of World of Darkness combat (as this is easily my favorite combat system ever):
[Edited for brevity]
So, in relevance to the question, you are advocating something with nWoD. Any particular sub-type [Changeling, Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, etc.]?
But what decent RPG settings / systems are there out there?
I really really enjoy Mutants and Masterminds from Green Ronin. It's also not much of an investment. With the core book, Freedom City, and Crooks (probably one of the top 3 best looking RPG books ever ever) you're set. Good good stuff and super customizable.
Although you might want to change the setting there is BESM.
|
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
So, in relevance to the question, you are advocating something with nWoD. Any particular sub-type [Changeling, Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, etc.]?A summary of World of Darkness combat (as this is easily my favorite combat system ever):
[Edited for brevity]
Huh, it appears that the boards ate my prior post. There was a post before the combat one talking about my recommendation and some of the reasons I liked nWoD. Now it's gone...
*cry*
Anyway, in brief, I like the core nWoD. Just the basic stuff. Playing ordinary humans when spooky stuff goes down. I am, however, also very fond of Mage: The Awakening because of the unique magic system.
I have run Espionage, Pirates, Special Ops and Supers (as well as Fantasy obviously). For espionage campaigns, I just use the internet for reference material and ‘game world’. If you want adventures, I steal from James Bond, Top Secret and Spycraft. The same for Special Ops.
For pirates, I again turned to the internet. G.U.R.P.S. Swashbucklers is an excellent resource. Skull and Crossbones was o.k., but in my opinion, G.U.R.P.S. Swashbucklers was a better resource. I also found some adventures for a game called, oddly enough, Pirates right here on Paizo.
For supers I usually bastardize Marvel or DC. I may toss in system specific characters.
I have run Espionage, Pirates, Special Ops and Supers (as well as Fantasy obviously). For espionage campaigns, I just use the internet for reference material and ‘game world’. If you want adventures, I steal from James Bond, Top Secret and Spycraft. The same for Special Ops.
For pirates, I again turned to the internet. G.U.R.P.S. Swashbucklers is an excellent resource. Skull and Crossbones was o.k., but in my opinion, G.U.R.P.S. Swashbucklers was a better resource. I also found some adventures for a game called, oddly enough, Pirates right here on Paizo.
For supers I usually bastardize Marvel or DC. I may toss in system specific characters.
I am suprised that you did not suggest Hero (having seen you frequently on the herogames.com boards).
However, with the 6th edition coming out, I don't know. :(
I am suprised that you did not suggest Hero (having seen you frequently on the herogames.com boards).
What do you think I ran all those campaigns with?
I am suprised that you did not suggest Hero (having seen you frequently on the herogames.com boards).What do you think I ran all those campaigns with?
Well, you only actually mention GURPS, James Bond, Top Secret, Spycraft as systems. (You make no mention of Hero. :P )
Have you tried Savage Worlds? You can get a hardcopy of the full-color core rulebook for $10. Yep, I said $10 and that's brand new. Like the system itself, it's a bit of a paradigm shift in marketing.
You can try out the system with the free Test Drive download on their site and see some of the settings out from Pinnacle themselves.
Plus, Pinnacle has a free license for other publishers to print stuff for their system, and there are already different licensee products out there and more on their way, covering different kinds of settings.
On top of that, the fan support is awesome with a variety of conversions of different settings that can be found on the fan's Savage Heroes site and Sharkbytes, the online fanzine.
Don't know what kind of system appeals to you, but it's one to consider.
Well, you only actually mention GURPS, James Bond, Top Secret, Spycraft as systems. (You make no mention of Hero. :P )
As resources. Most people here already know I am a raving Hero fanslave. I have made a bit of a nuisance of myself. Tee Hee.
Well, you only actually mention GURPS, James Bond, Top Secret, Spycraft as systems. (You make no mention of Hero. :P )As resources. Most people here already know I am a raving Hero fanslave. I have made a bit of a nuisance of myself. Tee Hee.
Then it is a good thing that Question Man is not here, as he would have given me dozens of links by now. LoL
|
Let me start out by saying that I am suffering serious “Elf Fatigue.”
What that means is that I am getting tired of running Fantasy Based games, and I am looking for something different. (Hence this thread) :(
But what decent RPG settings / systems are there out there?
Oh, oh.. I know this one!! *raises hands*
try Paranoia, its fun for everyone.its set in a world much alike the one in 1984, the players will be in secret organizations and have clones.. many of them =)
Also, if you like comics, theres this one called The Red Star, and they made a RPG from it, a good one.
Its set in russia and some ppl have magic, I dont want to spoil the fun from the comic, and its a must read.
And last, but not least, Call of Cthulhu. A great terror game, that will diverge drastically from the usual "I see, I attack, I kill". if you know H P Lovecraft works, you probably know that the most frightening thing is not knowing what you are facing, the monster lurks mainly in your immagination. ah, and its the only RPG (that Im aware) that as the characters grow stronger, the begger the possibility that tehy will become NPCs, or end up in some asylum.
Yep yep - they even had an ad campaign back in the day touting it as the one and only FRPG without elves. Very cool stuff.Check out some of the old Talislanta stuff. I had one of the original books back in the 80's and just recently bought Talislanta 4th Edition Big Blue Book.
Okay, no elves. But they still are a Fantasy RPG.
Heck, elves are not really my problem (despite the title). I am just looking for a different genre - Shadowrun or even Changeling for instance.
Likewise, I heard a Rumor that Paizo writer Nick Logue was doing something with d20 Future . . .
I ran a d20 Future campaign in the Firefly verse with one group of gamers, and am planning on doing it again with my current group. It was fun, but I allowed too much non-canon stuff, and it became too weird. And my old group was used to playing "evil" campaigns, so when they were trying to steal a racehorse from a train, they just blew up the cars in front of and behind the racehorse car. Killed a bunch of school kids and farmer types, and didn't even care. Then the Hands of Blue went after them because they were too dangerous, and they landed their shuttle on top of one of them.
I'd suggest the unisytem that Eden studios puts out, you have Buffy tVS, Angel, Army of Darkness, the ones I personally own and also AFMBE, and Terra Primate but I've never played those two.
I would also suggest WOD, and try a straight humans game, that can be a blast.
|
|
Heck, elves are not really my problem (despite the title). I am just looking for a different genre - Shadowrun or even Changeling for instance..
Talaslanta is definitely different but it is still fantasy. When I want to get away from fantasy I tend to go towards Call of Cthulhu, 7th Sea, or Traveller.
I have made a bit of a nuisance of myself. Tee Hee.
"It's that damned CLOWN car, again!"
"Oh, crap..."
(I appologize to everyone who has never played Champions and will miss the joke)
Heck, elves are not really my problem (despite the title). I am just looking for a different genre - Shadowrun or even Changeling for instance.
If you can find a copy, Alternity is a decent system for a modern, near-future, or far-future game. There's even some pretty good setting material (Dark*Matter for modern/near-future and Star*Drive for far-future). It's also similar enough to 3.x that you should be able to learn the system fairly easily.
|
I'd second the Eden Games, especially Witchcraft (Core Rules can be downloaded for free! - that should also help to determine if you like the unisystem at all) and Buffy (well if you like the scenario. mee and my players (some of which never seen the show) have a blast with the game). And If you don't mind buying and using PDF's instead of hardcopys, check out Alternity for a great sf game (stardrive for space opera, dark matter for conspiracy gaming) I think they're about 5$ per PDF, so its not to expensive as well. I bought the books when they were published by tsr and it's still my favored sf game.
(I appologize to everyone who has never played Champions and will miss the joke)
Watch it, or I will sick Foxbat on you.
"It's that damned CLOWN car, again!"
"Oh, crap..."
(I appologize to everyone who has never played Champions and will miss the joke)
Best character in the entire suppliment! :P
(I appologize to everyone who has never played Champions and will miss the joke)Watch it, or I will sick Foxbat on you.
Whatever. He barely even rates as an annoyance. Now, if you threatened me with the Flashmen...
That is exactly what he wants you to think.
Tee Hee the C.L.O.W.N. car is nasty, Foxbat annoying, but you must really watch out for Biff the wonderDog
You mean . . . Court Fool?
To take this thread in a different direction has anyone played the Saga Edition of the Star Wars RPG?
I currently have both the original d20 version of Star Wars and the West End Games version, but if I were to try to build a new group, I know those rules might be hard to come by.
So, is the new version of Star Wars any good? Is it worth buying and getting together a group for?
|
|
Tee Hee the C.L.O.W.N. car is nasty, Foxbat annoying, but you must really watch out for Biff the wonderDogYou mean . . . Court Fool?
No I mean Biff the Wonder Dog. He Has a 14D6 Primary attack and a OC of 19 Not to mention a PD and ED of over 40.
No I mean Biff the Wonder Dog. He Has a 14D6 Primary attack and a OC of 19 Not to mention a PD and ED of over 40.Tee Hee the C.L.O.W.N. car is nasty, Foxbat annoying, but you must really watch out for Biff the wonderDogYou mean . . . Court Fool?
I don't know. I think that Court Fool is more annoying. :P
I second (or is it "third" by now?) Call of Cthulhu as a great game of cosmic horror. It's a nice change of pace, and a relatively easy setting to get into.
While Chaosium's version of the Call of Cthulhu rules will always reign supreme in my eyes, you might have an easier "system transition" from other d20 games if you use d20 Call of Cthulhu.
(Ducks the flames from the purists.)
To take this thread in a different direction has anyone played the Saga Edition of the Star Wars RPG?
I currently have both the original d20 version of Star Wars and the West End Games version, but if I were to try to build a new group, I know those rules might be hard to come by.
So, is the new version of Star Wars any good? Is it worth buying and getting together a group for?
This was getting lost in this thread. So I have branched it off into its own.
Yeah Probabaly.
It is my Area of Affect and No Normal Defense that really gets to people.
Yeah Probabaly.It is my Area of Affect and No Normal Defense that really gets to people.
Stop eating so many burritos. :P
that's why I choose 75% damage reduction, it helps but is by no means perfect.
Did I mention my Damage Reduction Drain?
WotC's StarDrive setting was quite good. Space Opera setting with bits and pieces from other sci-fi games, but implemented very well. FTL travel was dangerous, the races were all super cool, and it was based on the Alternity system, but you can adapt it to any rule set as the setting book is mostly fluff.
Conan is another great setting. Yes, it's a little bit fantasy but in a swords and sorcery way. Everybody is human but you still have insane sorcerers running around summoning demons and stuff, and weird monsters erupting from the depths of the earth sometimes. It's got some neat little additions to fantasy games too, like the high living rule where you lose 50% of your treasure each week of downtime if your total is over 50 silver pieces, spending it on whores, booze, gambling, or any combination of those.
I would recommend Savage Worlds for both of these settings as the rules engine, since it handles any genre you can think of.
that's why I choose 75% damage reduction, it helps but is by no means perfect.Did I mention my Damage Reduction Drain?
30 points of Hardened Power Defense should be pretty good protection against that... and a bargain at 37 Active Cost.