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Started by Myrleena, February 19, 2009, 03:51:05 PM

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Myrleena

Just curious what systems people like, and why.  I'm also hoping to spark some discussion of what types of games people like.

My Systems:
D&D 3.5 - Started Roleplaying with it, and been doing it ever since.
Hero System - I absolutely love how much I can do with it!  I've looked at GURPS, but I've never found something so versatile before. *snuggles up to her intelligent starship character*
Pathfinder RPG - I know the final version isn't out yet, but I consider it just such an amazing upgrade to 3.5 D&D.

The Overlord



I must admit D&D 3rd met with some resistance from me when it first came out, but a lot of that was well-founded. For someone that's been playing 2nd Ed since it was new, convincing me I needed all new books didn't fly much further than the Wright brothers first plane.

But, 3rd Ed cleaned up a lot of things that needed it, the feats and skill system was great, paring down the saving throws was great, combat was streamlined. It's a very workable system.


But 3rd Ed is where I get off the D&D train...I'm convinced 4th Ed is made and playtested specifically for the mentally challenged, there's no better way to say it.

Myrleena

No arguments from me there.  I bought the 4th edition books just to give the game a chance, but after that first playtest... *shudders in horror* I was practically crying "Give my wizard back his spells!  I want Fireball more than once per day!"
I'd suggest taking a look at the Pathfinder RPG.  They cleaned up a lot of the problems I had with the 3.0 and 3.5 rules, including simplifying the skills.  Besides, their beta pdf is free!

thewhiterabbit

I'll stick 3.0 & 3.5. I enjoyed World of Darkness and others along that line too. Sadly they were harder to find GMs for though.

Mnemaxa

#4
....hmn. Let me see.....

Rifts.
Shadowrun.
D&D 2nd, 3rd, 2.5, Pathfinder.
Splatterpunk.
Call of Cthulhu.
Nightbane.
Rolemaster.
GURPS.  Lots of GURPS.
Morpheus (one of the very first indies!).
WW Vampire the Requiem. (Eh.)
WW Kindred of the East. (Nummy.)
WW Werewolf the Apocolypse.
Weapons of the Gods (There is nothing better!)
WW Aberrant.
Mutants and Masterminds.
Mage version 1 (loads of fun!), Mage the Ascension (powered down so they wouldn't outshine the vampires), Mage the Awakening.

I think that's it.  Red means I gamemastered it as well.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Avi

I'm gonna be trying out my first 4e campaign this weekend, and frankly... thus far it looks decent to me.  Reading over the rules and such (I found a free PDF of the PHB), I don't find much to gripe about.  Then again, all I played before was 3.5e, and that was only a couple times.  I do understand the complaints about wizards, though, but I don't play them as a rule, since I don't have the patience to play a supporting/long-range class.  I prefer to have a bit more physical power, so I stick to fighters, rangers, or paladins.  In the discussions I've had about it, most people seem to either like the more-simple mechanics, or hate them. 
Your reality doesn't apply to me...

Myrleena

Okay, I suppose I should make it clear.  I think 4th edition is a decent game in it's own right, but I don't really consider it D&D.  It's simple and easy to play, but it takes out most of your choices, at least to me.  And what I love about roleplaying is choices.  That's why I love 3.5/Pathfinder/Hero.

Avi

I will admit, it makes it a bit harder to have a unique character, yes.  But at the same time, that's kind of a boon, since it makes players put much more into character development and developing in-character quirks.  Personally, I find that much more appealing than being able to nitpick what exact items and such your character carries. 

As an aside... it's possible that they will provide more of the missing variety in subsequent supplement books.
Your reality doesn't apply to me...

Mnemaxa

Please, no 4e vrs. 3.5 D&D sidetracks.  I have seen enough of those kind of threads to know that it only ever goes downhill. 


The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Nadir

Freeform! *ducks and runs*

Myrleena

Agreed.  I just stop posting in those, too tired of it, and I don't like to argue.  I noticed Aberrant on your list, and was curious what it's like.  I heard of it when I was considering running a superhero game, but I ended up going with Hero.  What are your thoughts on it?

I also understand freeform's attraction, but when I want non-scripted combat...I'm afraid I prefer a system.  I do like freeform though.

Mnemaxa

Aberrant was one of the last of the White Wolf 'Players Cannot Win' games in the vein of the Old World of Darkness books.  It is actually a precursor to their psychic game Trinity.  Your character has quantum, which is essentially mutational energy.  The energy can grant great powers, but the more you possess, the more it tries to twist and alter your character.  It was actually excellently designed, and made character creation easy.  Unfortunately, like all their games of that time period your character was doomed, from the start, period, to eventually mutate nd suffer as the more power he gained, the more quantum mutations occurred to him. 

Like vampire, the only way to gain any measure of character growth  in power was to be doomed.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Myrleena

Ouch, sounds like fun.  :D
I'm actually serious about that.  My character histories usually doom my characters from the start, so it wouldn't be that big of a change.  I'll have to see if anyone I know has a rulebook I can look at.  I've only played Exalted of WW systems, so I don't know much of it.  Fortunately my girlfriend was a storyteller for a Vampire chat, so...

Mnemaxa

It is one of the better done systems they had, and really fun if you can discard the 'doomed by your own nature' aspects of the system.  On the other hand, there are options, and those options are the basis of the main badguys. ^_^  Who might not really be so bad after all....

My friend collects RPG's and Boardgames, so if there is a game out there, chances are I've heard of it at the very least. 

Additional games: 
Torg.
Forgot about that one. Only played it a few times.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Lithos

#14
There are two three exellent games that I would like to mention here:

Unknown Armies

Magic system in Unknown armies among other things is great, everything is based in paradox of some sort. Like, if you are practicing bibliomancy... the more comprehensive library you have the stronger you are... but you must never read any book. And who would not like game with Voodoo :P

Blue Planet

Blue Planet is exellent game and I love the lethality of combat system, but it is percent chance based system pretty much so nothing unique in that way. The world itself is unbelievably detailed and fun.

I wont say more of either cause everyone can wiki em anyway  :)

Edit: Was sure that this was mentioned allready but was not I think so here:

Legend Of The Five Rings

Great world, Great combat / magic system
There is no innocence, only layers upon layers of guilt
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Myrleena

I'll admit to being rather new to most types of systems.  Heck, I only started D&D by accident.  I was at my local game store waiting for someone to show up to play Magic:the Gathering, with, and a guy was starting a 3.0 teaching game, so I got hooked.  Eight years later, and despite being the youngest member of the gaming group, I'm always the one running games. *sigh*

The Overlord

Quote from: Myrleena on February 19, 2009, 11:33:28 PM
 Eight years later, and despite being the youngest member of the gaming group, I'm always the one running games. *sigh*


Yeah I know exactly what you mean. Getting a game started can be tricky enough, but a GM is only as good as his or her players, and if you think starting one is a chore, keeping it alive can be as fun as root canal and brain surgery rolled up into a ball and stuffed into a sack of rabid ferrets on crack cocaine.

All my forum games seem to be populated by worthless slugs, liars, and Fletcher Christians. That why when City of Heroes/Villains releases Mission Architect I'm going to be all over that shite, putting out all my ideas for an entire MMO.





HairyHeretic

Legend of the Five Rings

Exalted

Dark Heresy

Qin

I'll edit this post later and put in more detail on why I like stuff.
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Thufir Hawat

#18
Well, here we go ;D!
GURPS, because I can do anything with it, and it's easier for me than HERO. Besides, I like bell curves in my dice spread!
BRP, especially China, because it goes fast and it's almost as versatile as GURPS. It's also easily customizable.
WFRP, because I like career and lifepath-based character creation. It also has a very cool setting. Of course, same goes for Dark Heresy, and lots of other systems, but this one is the most popular one.
UA2, because it always gives and takes at the same time, you always have to make some exchange when your character advances. I kind of like that. I also like the madness meters.
The Riddle of Steel, because it makes you answer the riddle if you want to play and have fun at all. It also has a very cool system, even if a bit crunchy.
Exalted, because it has a cool setting with lots of references to existing mythologies. Creation needs you, too! That one is despite the system, though. It has its own kind of cool moments, of course.
I'm sure I forget some system. But then, nobody's perfect. Yeah, not even me! Some of us just come closer to it :P!
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HairyHeretic

Riddle of Steel .. fun system, but damn you want to pick your fights carefully. I still have fond memories of playing that, and my Sir Mandorallen wannabe knight ordering an entire castle to surrender to him  ;D
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Thufir Hawat

Quote from: HairyHeretic on February 20, 2009, 05:13:54 PM
Riddle of Steel .. fun system, but damn you want to pick your fights carefully. I still have fond memories of playing that, and my Sir Mandorallen wannabe knight ordering an entire castle to surrender to him  ;D
That's a bonus for me. I don't like pointless fights ;)!

And that's one of the cool moments that come with such systems ;D!
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HairyHeretic

TBH I'm surprised I managed to survive that game. My knight challenged the Kings Champion at a tourney, when the knight jousting with him threw the fight, beat him, then beat two of his friends who charged out, and stared down 2 others. Because I'd crippled 3 of the kings knights, including champion, I got appointed champion, challenged his chief adviser who was running a slaving operation, killed him, and then took a portion of the army off to deal with the evil wizard behind it all.

That was the point I got to ride over the hill, up to the castle and order them all to surrender.

That got the expected response of "You and whose army?"

*army marches over the hill*

Gods, but that was a great moment  ;D
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Thufir Hawat

That's precisely why it was such a great moment. You could have died, yet you faced the odds and turned it in your favour!
It's obvious I favour highly lethal systems, isn't it?
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HairyHeretic

You'd probably enjoy L5R then. Not quite the same level of realism as RoS (shock and blood loss rules), but it is entirely possible to die from one lucky hit, even if you're an experienced character. Generally you can take a few hits, but no more than a handfull.
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Lithos

Still, it is priceless in a good way when your experienced samurai is out of action for few months and takes permanent stat loss from lucky hit from some meaningles Eta's spear in small insignificant skirmish.

I love L5R
There is no innocence, only layers upon layers of guilt
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