| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am loving Burning Wheel for all the ways it is not Pathfinder.
I love Pathfinder too, but if you want a high-crunch, high-roleplay, high-realism game, it's a blast — IF you can find anyone else willing to play/learn it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am a HUGE fan of Call of Cthulhu and Hollow Earth Expedition. If you enjoyed Indiana Jones growing up like I did, HEX emulates that style to an amazing degree in my opinion. I've had lots and lots of fun with it.
Call of Cthulhu, on the other hand, is just delightfully well put together. It's the most fun as far as horror type game styles are concerned that I've had.
And as far as scratching my Star Wars itch, I think Star Wars: Saga Edition (out of print now and hard to find) is actually my favorite rule set of any table top game ever printed. I've never had more fun with any game than I've had with that system.
Two of my favorites are Big Eyes Small Mouth and Champions.
We use Atomic Highway by Radioactive Ape Designs! for all our Post Apocalyptic needs.
For fantasy, I am really enjoying 13th Age. It was designed by individuals who worked on both 3E and 4E D&D, and it combines good elements from both plus some new mechanics that make the game flow quickly and smoothly. Fights take half the time (or less) than typical 3E/4E combats. Minis are not needed, just useful. And the authors/designers encourage you to crib mechanics and ideas from other D20 games to use in 13th Age (or use such from 13th Age in your D20 game).
I really like the new Star Wars RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games. I have raved about the game/system in many other threads, so I won't add much here.
Other good RPGs...
Castles and Crusades: Recreating "old school" D&D using OGL. Very much feels like playing D&D in the 80s, with all the positives and negatives. Also encourages tweaking the system to your liking.
Legend of the Five Rings: Story rich, role-play heavy game set in a fantasy version of feudal Southeast Asia (primarily heavy in Japanese flavor). If you love Asian-themed games, this is IMO the best out there.
Savage Worlds: Rules lite, can be used for any genre. Combat is quick and deadly, so be aware that it isn't like a D20 dungeon-crawler. Both big-bad monsters and PCs can be one-shotted on a (un)lucky roll. The system really shines in "modern" applications, like pulp settings and horror.
I have also hear good things about FATE, but as I am invested in so many systems as it is I haven't picked it up.
Numenera, Westward, RIFTs (if you like complex rule systems), World of Darkness (and the PDF options that let you turn it into any kind of RPG)!!!