Your Favorite "Other" RPG and what you might want for it


Other RPGs

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I am, for the most part, a firm d20 kind of guy - and have a wide variety of variations. However I really like Trail of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and nWoD for those specific types of games. I have played or am familiar with GURPS (3rd ed), MERPS, BRP/COC, Burning Wheel, Shadowrun and a few others. A lot of the Cubicle 7 offerings intrigue me and I have joined Monte Cook's Kickstarter for Numeria.

What are your favorites? What level of support do they have? What would you like to see for them that you don't have?

Scarab Sages

Smallville RPG is by far my favorite. However, I haven't found that much support for the product by Margaret Weis Productions, and it's not even that old. I would like to see more examples of character creation that strays from the show and into original territory.

-Perry


Personally, I've always have been a fan of Shadowrun and Rifts. My problem has been that no one I know wants to play either game ("I Can't be bothered to think of anything more complicated than 'I swing my sword, is it dead yet?'") That was an actual quote btw.

That being said, I found out about Numenia (sp) this afternoon and I am really considering throwing my 70gp into the pot when I get paid.

Scarab Sages

My favorite "other" rules, and ones which could use some game development love are Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) and Albedo. The BESM play rules are very simple and easy, but other than that it's one of those point-buy "tool kit" games. I tried running a fantasy game with it but had to stop due to the need to design every single monster and magic item from scratch. Albedo is a very overlooked Sci-Fi game with good "hard science" types rules. However, it's optimized for just one setting--not surprising seeing that it's meant to model the comic book it's based on. I'd like to see a more setting-neutral version of the rules for it.


I am very fond of the WW storyteller system. It's fairly universal, very intuitive and is supported by an almost obscene amount of products. For more story-based games, I really like Over the Edge, which is probably the simplest RPG system in the world.


Mmm...

The Laundry:

Its getting slow, but good support. What I would Like to see is. More Mythos Dossiers, a book dealing with the Oppo and friendly agencies, and their own peculiarities, a book on the invisible collage, and a campaign, based around a mole hunt in the the heart of the laundry, inspired by the Bernard Samson books by Len Deighton, and the George Smiley books by John le Carré. Add a touch of "MoN"


GURPS (4th edition is improvement over 3rd), Call Of Cthulhu and Basic Roleplaying in general, Storytelling System (new World Of Darkness - mechanically better than old one), Legend Of The Five Rings (again 4th edition is the best), Over The Edge looks good but haven't GMed it yet.


I've become very fond of The One Ring. At the moment it's just the rules, one book of adventures, and one free adventure. There is material on the schedule, so things are moving. I'm really looking forward to a book on Rohan and Rohirrim characters, eventually.


I know these guys are working on expanding their support of WoD products.

Silver Crusade

I had a blast with a Rifts campaign when younger, but we've tried it recently a couple times and it just wasn't the same.

Personally, I love BESM as well. Unfortunately most of the genres don't mesh well with my home group.

Exalted is one I've only managed to play at a con aside from a home game disaster. It devolved into a maddening scenario where two of the player's became obsessed with finding the biggest way to break the system. That ended before it got started.

I've only tried Shadowrun 3e, but that was a pretty enjoyable campaign as well. It's one I wouldn't mind playing again.


Xzaral wrote:

I had a blast with a Rifts campaign when younger, but we've tried it recently a couple times and it just wasn't the same.

Personally, I love BESM as well. Unfortunately most of the genres don't mesh well with my home group.

Exalted is one I've only managed to play at a con aside from a home game disaster. It devolved into a maddening scenario where two of the player's became obsessed with finding the biggest way to break the system. That ended before it got started.

Yeah, friends tried to compel me to GM it but while the setting is fine, I had no patience for the engine. Also, too much epicness for my taste.


There are only 2 game systems that I play. Pathfinder and HackMaster (new edition).

The system that I prefer is HM. Second by second combat, attack speed based on weapons, there is no dumpstat as all stats are useful for all classes, opposed rolls for combat and skill checks, penetrating (exploding) die rolls, shields that are actually useful and armor rules that just make sense (heavier armor makes you easier to get hit but absorbs damage).

There are lots of advanced (optional) combat rules as well that you can include or not, depending on your group gaming style.

Oh, and the HackMaster Basic is now a free download. You dont even have to register at KenzerCo to download it.


Besides Pathfinder, my three favorite systems are Star Wars Saga Edition, Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition, and Anima: Beyond Fantasy.

The first two are dead/out of print, but they had very respectable levels of support while they were still alive. I can't think of anything off-hand for either one that I really want that wasn't released.

The last one is still around, but support is slow. The game's been around for about 3-4 years here in America (the game was originally published in Spain), and only 5 supplements (GM Screen, Setting Book, Ki Book, Monster Book, and Magic Book) have been released here. There are about 4 others out in Spain that have yet to be released. Based on the title of one of them (Prometheum Exxet) they're going to release the Psychic Book that I've been wanting. The only other things I can think I really want is the second volume of the Setting Book (the one out now only covers the Eastern (Old) Continent, not the Western (New) one), and maybe a full campaign/more adventures. So far, the only published adventure was the one packaged with the GM Screen. Really fun system if you're looking for a blend of Eastern and Western fantasy concepts in a fairly high-power setting.


Arishat wrote:
I've become very fond of The One Ring.

Same for me here.

I have long enjoyed Tolkien's Middle Earth as a campaign setting but until now, no game system really included any of the themes of Middle Earth (never mind the spellcasting disconnect) beyond bashing orcs with a sword.

With hope, friendship, corruption and other central themes of the Lord of the Ring intelligently weaved into the system, cubicle 7's The One Ring got my attention as a roleplayer, a (rather critical) Tolkien fan and a wannabe game designer.

good stuff, really!


Im a firm believer that a good GM can transcend a mediocre game system.

I do find, however, that systems that are customized for the genre of the game to be the most satisfying.

So, for eldritch horror, it's hard to beat Call of Cthulhu.

For superheroes, I prefer Hero System (Champions).

For modern-day or near-future games, I like GURPS.

Of course, I haven't played in any system other than d20/PFRPG in five or six years now.


Been playing Earthdawn 3rd Edition. Redbrick is no more a FASA seems to have gotten the game back. It's a good system. Hope they don't change everything too much.

Sczarni

I've enjoyed running a couple games of Call of Cthulhu, and I tried to build a rules-light homebrew based on CoC once (that didn't really work out, but I think I had some good ideas).

I'd really like to play or run a White Wolf game sometime. Maybe a Hunter: the Vigil game based on the TV show Supernatural. :)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

My current favorite game systems are M&M (2e, though 3e is fine), Savage Worlds, GURPS (4e), and Pathfinder, roughly in that order, though it changes based on the genre.

I had fun running the new Mistborn game at Pacificon this last weekend, but I doubt any of my regular groups are going to go for a campaign.

I love the fluff of Shadowrun and Exalted, though the rules aren't my favorite. Exalted 2e is too damned much work to GM for; I'm hoping the upcoming 3e really fixes that. If it does, we might fire up another Exalted game after the Deadlands Reloaded campaign wraps up.

FATE is pretty fun, but I've only played one-shots at cons, never ran it or played a campaign.

I've always wanted to try Earthdawn, but never had the chance. Maybe when FASA comes out with new books, I'll be able to figure out which ones to get.


Trinite wrote:

I've enjoyed running a couple games of Call of Cthulhu, and I tried to build a rules-light homebrew based on CoC once (that didn't really work out, but I think I had some good ideas).

I'd really like to play or run a White Wolf game sometime. Maybe a Hunter: the Vigil game based on the TV show Supernatural. :)

I've heard really good things about Stealing Cthulhu for a rules light horror game.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Trinite wrote:
I'd really like to play or run a White Wolf game sometime. Maybe a Hunter: the Vigil game based on the TV show Supernatural. :)

As a fan of both the game and the show, that would be pretty cool.

However, aside from the protagonists, Supernatural really doesn't have anything that distinguishes it from the norm. So... do you mean you'd want to play as one of the Winchesters? Because, if not, how would it be any different from a generic HtV game? I guess you could include some of the signature characters (Crowley, Meg, Castiel, etc.). Hmmmm...


I'm looking forward to trying out the new rules for the Iron Kingdoms rpg. The setting itself is very well done, and it's got a really cool, gritty feel to it.


PF is my "other" game. WoD (all flavors) is first and foremost in my heart. That being said, Earthdawn, Deadlands, 7th Sea, CoC, and Torg are all near and dear to me.

Fatespinner wrote:
However, aside from the protagonists, Supernatural really doesn't have anything that distinguishes it from the norm. So... do you mean you'd want to play as one of the Winchesters? Because, if not, how would it be any different from a generic HtV game? I guess you could include some of the signature characters (Crowley, Meg, Castiel, etc.). Hmmmm...

I think the Supernatural mythology is different enough then H:TV that you can build on it without using much in the way of signature cast.

After all:

Spoiler:
If Sam are Dean are Michael and Lucifer and Chuck is a prophet then it's not a far stretch to say that there's some "apostles" out there they may have a part to play outside of events of the series.


WoD, old for fluff, new for crunch. All I really want is for the Demon: The Fallen conversion guide to be more like the one for VtM and less like the one for WtA.

Dark Archive

Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition, and FFG's 40K games. Love gritty percentile based systems, and an extreme love of both settings. Frankly, I wish the 40K line would slow down a bit, Only War feels like it might be starting to jumpt the shark a bit, and the 2nd edition line is dead, but feels complete enough.

The One Ring RPG. Simple, elegant and evocative. It sounds funny, but I really hope they release an art book one day hahaha ... some of the materials are nothing short of breathtaking.

Legend of the Five Rings 4th. Gorgeous materials, and the system is refined to near perfection now. Really it just needs to keep doing what it's doing and stay focused.

Star Wars WEG D6. What can I say, sometimes the classics are still the best. Ya, it can break down at high levels, but played in the middle level Empire Strikes Back range it's a thing of beauty. With the conversion guides available online for all the other versions, you don't have to feel like you're left out either.

Other noteable favorites; Shadowrun, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed., Outbreak Undead, Dragon Age, AD&D, Battletech, d20 Modern, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ;)


Irontruth wrote:
Trinite wrote:

I've enjoyed running a couple games of Call of Cthulhu, and I tried to build a rules-light homebrew based on CoC once (that didn't really work out, but I think I had some good ideas).

I'd really like to play or run a White Wolf game sometime. Maybe a Hunter: the Vigil game based on the TV show Supernatural. :)

I've heard really good things about Stealing Cthulhu for a rules light horror game.

I think you mean Cthulhu Dark. Stealing Cthulhu is more a guide to scenario building than a game. Graham is a really nice bloke, and one of the best scenario writers operating in the Cthulhu scene right now, you should check out his trail of Cthulhu scenarios The dying of st margarets and the dance in the blood.


That too. Stealing Cthulhu is still useful and cool.

I'm not a huge fan of the Gumshoe system unfortunately. Though the scenarios and settings can be useful for other games, but overall, horror isn't my style.


Irontruth wrote:

That too. Stealing Cthulhu is still useful and cool.

I'm not a huge fan of the Gumshoe system unfortunately. Though the scenarios and settings can be useful for other games, but overall, horror isn't my style.

I doubt I would still be roleplaying if it where not for horror roleplaying of one sort or another.


There's nothing wrong with it, just not my primary cup of tea. I'm also not a horror movie fan either. When I have enjoyed a horror game, my character usually dies quickly in either an entertaining or gruesome manner. I don't like long horror stories. I also doubt I'll run a horror game.


What I love: Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok .......discovered recently and major love affair! ^^ with Fiasco also being a recent fave!!

What I like: Pathfinder, Warhammer Fantasy, Amber

Moved, needed to find another gaming group with similar tastes and I lucked out!!! ^^


World of Darkness, specifically the nWoD. I've bought pdfs of pretty much all of the non-Vampire: The Requiem books (not that I dislike V:tR, it's just not my favorite). Werewolf: The Forsaken, Changeling: The Lost, and Hunter: The Vigil are all just stellar, and the blue book line is pretty good too. I like Mage: The Awakening when it focuses on the Abyss and other insidious reality-subverting stuff, not so much for the Atlantean material. Promethean: The Created is good if not overbearingly tragic, and I can take or leave Geist: The Sin-Eaters. oWoD in general was so hit or miss that it's very hard for me to say what games that I liked or hated as a whole.

Deadlands is an old favorite, although I vastly prefer the classic material to the Savage Worlds stuff. I also like Shadowrun, but haven't actually had a chance to play a game yet. Ditto for Legend of the Five Rings, although I think the current edition is awesome.

Mutants and Masterminds is my favorite superhero rpg, although I'd kind of fallen away from it when Green Ronin moved away from the Freedom City setting in 3e.

Warhammer 40k is by far my favorite setting that I don't actually play in. I'm big on the lore, the fiction, and the fandom, but don't have nearly the money or the interest to get involved with assembling or painting an army. I have considered getting started on Dark Heresy and Deathwatch, though, and the sister game Warhammer Fantasy RPG.

Prose Descriptive Qualities by Atomic Sock Monkey is my favorite rules-light system. Truth & Justice is good for super-heroics and the basic PDQ rule set is great for everything else, especially games based on other IP.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is good fun for zombie games, as well as Eclipse Phase for bleeding-edge transhuman sci-fi. I like Trail of Cthulhu, but freely admit that I haven't tried out any of the other various Lovecraft games beyond Wotc's D20 version or Cthulhutech, including the Chaosium stuff. I recently bought the core Unknown Armies book basically because TV Tropes made it sound interesting (and it is).


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Cyberpunk

Any Superhero RPG

Space 1889

What do I want for it?

Players...


Call of Cthulhu.
And I desperately want a reprint of Beyond the Mountains of Madness. I'll be damned if I'm going to fork out $200 on ebay for someone's dog-eared old leftovers.


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I would love to see someone bring out new material for James Bond 007, originally published by Victory Games. It had a slick, fast-moving D100 system which fit the cinematic theme of the Bond movies perfectly.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Currently (kind of) in print: WoD, like many have said, I'd like the OWoD stuff with the NWoD engine.

As to old school, Star Frontiers (pre-Universal table) and Marvel Superheroes (the TSR version, with FASERIP) I'd like more universe info for the former, and updates for the later.

Sczarni

The CoC one-shots I wrote were actually inspired by Thomas Ligotti -- whose stories are like Lovecraft, if Lovecraft had had the stylistic chops of Jorge Luis Borges.

I too would love to take a shot at oWoD with nWoD mechanics. When I was in high school I was fascinated with Mage: the Ascension -- and never got to play it even once.


With caring for two little boys I only have time for one gaming group. And Pathfinder it is for my team based RPG of choice.

But the RPG I spend the most time with is my own Narrative Adventures Made Easy. Two player. Works both with or without miniatures, maps, or dice. My wife and I can play it when on a walk or while watching the boys play at a park.

Shadow Lodge

Irontruth wrote:
I've heard really good things about Stealing Cthulhu for a rules light horror game.

I find someone posting on the Paizo boards needing a more rules-light ruleset than BRP to be hilarious.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Mutants and Masterminfs 2e is my favourite game.

But I've always wanted to try Lady Blackbird and Fiasco


Few games spring to mind:

Legends of Anglerre and Runequest (the 6th edition looks fantastic but haven't had a chance to try it).

And it's fairly dead - but I would always look at anything from EPT - the religious book is possibly the greatest guide to how a variety of gods would actually work in a fantasy realm (e.g. people duck down and accept that all of them, no matter what their bent or inclination are worth worshipping - traditional morality goes out the window in the face of an actual divine being)


Pathfinder is my main game with Conan D20 a close second, I know 3.5 system well so it makes my games easier to run. We also play D&D 1st ed and a homebrew fantasy and steampunk/mars game one of the players cobbled together (works very well).

Other than that I have tried/had pretty much everything in my time, faves include WOD, Shadowrun, Deadlands, WFRP 2nd ed, West End Star Wars and Earthdawn 3rd ed.

The problem is with the small group we have new systems are not to thier taste and anything too complicated (shadowrun)or too simple (Savage Worlds) becomes null and void, also they don't like SCI-FI so much either. Plus I don't have the cash to buy the books anyway so I stick to what the group likes so I don't waste money. I would so love to get Shadowrun though if I had some money spare.


I am writing my own game system and setting at the moment. Unfortunately, not in a capacity worth sharing yet (I shared a tiny sliver of it during the ARG play-test), but I hope for it to be at least my favorite and the favorite of a few more out there when it's finished.

A genre-blending tactical fantasy RPG, with easy rules that promote tactical depth and pick-up-and-play action, a cooperative storytelling atmosphere that's easy to improvise, and a diverse setting you won't see anywhere else. At least, that's my lofty goal.


Kthulhu wrote:
Irontruth wrote:
I've heard really good things about Stealing Cthulhu for a rules light horror game.
I find someone posting on the Paizo boards needing a more rules-light ruleset than BRP to be hilarious.

Glad I could make you laugh, because I would not consider that a "rules light" game. It's lighter than D&D, but not particularly.

Shadow Lodge

BRP is pretty modular, it CAN be fairly heavy, but the Call of Cthulhu variation is pretty g@$!~&n rules-light. If you can do percentages, have a copy of the resistance table, and have played a game or three, you're pretty much ready to play with nothing else but character sheets.


Kthulhu wrote:
BRP is pretty modular, it CAN be fairly heavy, but the Call of Cthulhu variation is pretty g&@%~%n rules-light. If you can do percentages, have a copy of the resistance table, and have played a game or three, you're pretty much ready to play with nothing else but character sheets.

I am inclined to agree with Kthulhu on this.

You can write ever rule that matters in call of cthulhu on two sides of A4(and one of those sides is the resistance chart). Even with all the little corner case rules , such as impaling, which don't really have that much to do with the spirit of the game can probably be fit on four double sides of A4.


Zombieneighbours wrote:
Kthulhu wrote:
BRP is pretty modular, it CAN be fairly heavy, but the Call of Cthulhu variation is pretty g&@%~%n rules-light. If you can do percentages, have a copy of the resistance table, and have played a game or three, you're pretty much ready to play with nothing else but character sheets.

I am inclined to agree with Kthulhu on this.

You can write ever rule that matters in call of cthulhu on two sides of A4(and one of those sides is the resistance chart). Even with all the little corner case rules , such as impaling, which don't really have that much to do with the spirit of the game can probably be fit on four double sides of A4.

That's sounds somewhat rules light, but to me rules light fits on a single page. Or games where once you fill out your character sheet, all the rules are contained on that. Four double sided pieces of paper is 8 pages. It's certainly lighter than Pathfinder, or most versions of D&D. Back in 1985, it would have been one of the lightest games out there. Over the Edge really set the standard for rules light in 1992 though, a single page of task resolution rules.


I think your confusing rules light and rules lightest. ;) Call of Cthulhu is lighter than the vast majority of games out their, and older than almost any other rules light game you can mention. It is pretty much the grand daddy of such games. Okay, it isn't as light as Cthulhu Dark, but that isn't automatically a good thing.

I've played Cthulhu Dark with Graham, through two adventures from Cthulhu Apocalpse: Dead White World. While I love his adventure design, I to this day think the experience would have been better if we had been playing with stripped back CoC, or better still ToC, as the level of abstraction involved in Cthulhu Dark drained all of the nuance from a character.


Savage Worlds/Old School Hack/2E AD&D/Labyrinth Lord/Castles and Crusades
Savage Worlds because it is quick and lethal. Old School Hack because it is a fun pick me up game if no one shows up but a few and it has similarities with Savage Worlds and 1E/2E.


Zombieneighbours wrote:

I think your confusing rules light and rules lightest. ;) Call of Cthulhu is lighter than the vast majority of games out their, and older than almost any other rules light game you can mention. It is pretty much the grand daddy of such games. Okay, it isn't as light as Cthulhu Dark, but that isn't automatically a good thing.

I've played Cthulhu Dark with Graham, through two adventures from Cthulhu Apocalpse: Dead White World. While I love his adventure design, I to this day think the experience would have been better if we had been playing with stripped back CoC, or better still ToC, as the level of abstraction involved in Cthulhu Dark drained all of the nuance from a character.

You'll notice I started out my previous post stating that this was my opinion, not fact.

To me, when someone says "rules light", in my brain I hear "one page of rules". CoC is old, but OtE blows it away as far as actually making a light system, and that game is still 20 years old (10 years younger than CoC). It beats CoC by a factor of 16 (1 pages vs 16 pages).

T&T would be hard to sum up in a few pages, but it was lighter than D&D, so does that make it the granddaddy of "rules light"?

There are a few games that take less than a page. Dread needs maybe 2 paragraphs. Hit a Dude requires two sentences.


I did pick up on that. I am not intentionally claiming factual status for my opinions either. I hoped the winkie emote would make it clear I wasn't picking a fight.

My memories of T&T was greater complexity than DnD, but it has been a long time.

I suppose for me, the core of rules-lite is this "Can I remember everything I need to resolve a typical session?"

CoC is one of a hand full of games that achieves that for me(part of it is familurity, but mostly it is simplicity and focus.)

Liberty's Edge

We generally play Earthdawn or Pathfinder.

We have a lot of the first edition ED stuff. My friends are really enjoying the flexibility of it and all the stuff they can pull off.

I have played Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, DC Heroes, Champions, Paranoia, Deadlands, White Wolf games. Started my gaming with AD&D 2nd edition, then Earthdawn came out and the group switched to that. We fell in love with it and it became the game standard for a long time.

I wish my current group would let me run something else besides ED or PF. I do like to play other games as well.

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