What kinds of RPGS do you like?

[Meg]

What do you look for in your game?

[Zeke]

[SentryGun]

Greetings - new memember - first post -

I agree that the setting is great as long as it is open to some gaming ideas.  Eberron is alright, but I have a love/hate relationship with fantasy settings.

I enjoy modern settings and future, scifi settings.  I really enjoy Transhuman Space from Steve Jackson Games, which is an amazingly detailed setting, almost too detailed at times. 

I also like Star*Drive for the Alternity setting, and the like. 

Brian K

[Josh]

I love the setting of Transhuman space.  And I dislike the GURPS system intensely. 

To me that is the gaping hole in gaming.  There is no good Science Fiction/Future/Space game currently out there.

Or maybe there is and I haven't seen it yet.

What I really want is, Transhuman Space, with a better system. 

[SentryGun]

I have never had an issue with the GURPS setting.  My players took to GURPS readily, but it is a matter of experience with the system.  I have another friend who was introduced to GURPS through a Supers game, and the first editions of Supers are...um...yeah. 

I think that first encounters with the game systems really determine a persons feelings towards them, some love Hero, I can't wrap my head around it, mostly because I associate a really bad gaming experience with the GM. 

D&D is probably the same thing, I don't like fantasy that much, so the system, and especially advancement and prestige classes drive me crazy.  GURPs with points, is open, and the way I introduced to my players is by stating "we are playing this game...blah, blah, blah", what do you want to play, and make it up.  So, people's experience with the system were positive. 

I guess the system also speaks to the types of games I play, I really enjoy gritty games, where the players cannot shack off hits from weapon fire and sword play, buy need to think and consider what they are doing. 

Since I prefer the modern/scifi eras, gritty settings appeal to me.  Cyberpunk 2020, and the ilk, good times.

Brian K

[Zeke]

I think you should try Aces and 8s, even though it is most definitely not sci-fi. It's a wild west game and it is so gritty it's practically gravel. It has rules to determine the hit locations for individual shot gun pellets. I demoed the combat at Gen Con, and even though it's not for me, It's pretty well conceived and you might have a lot of fun with it.

[SentryGun]

I have not been able to get a copy of Aces and Eights, apparently there is a second print run being done in January.

I use to play, back in the day, Millenium's End, which had the template system as well.  Complicated system to figure out as well, if I remember correctly.

[Josh]

I guess the system also speaks to the types of games I play, I really enjoy gritty games, where the players cannot shack off hits from weapon fire and sword play, buy need to think and consider what they are doing. 

Since I prefer the modern/scifi eras, gritty settings appeal to me.  Cyberpunk 2020, and the ilk, good times.

Brian K

"gritty" is a great topic for a podcast.

[SentryGun]

When thinking about the term "gritty" it covers alot of ground.

Could be worked into an interesting episode indeed.

[silais]

Well, call me a traditionalist but I've always enjoyed playing D&D the most.  I love reading other systems (I'm a mechanics whore), but have just never found them as much fun to play.

GURPS is great for the versitility of what you can do with it setting wise, but it's too character focused for my tastes.

Settings wise, I don't like Ebberon.  'High Magic' just turns me off.  It makes the game feel like a fracken MMO.  I like settings that don't have a clear pantheon (inactive/distant dieties.)  And probably the biggest thing is that the major races are as 'multicultural' as the humans are, so there is no 'elven culture'. 
All this usualy means writing my own setting.

Saddly I can't get too creative with the races; my players don't like it when the major races are any less human than an elf.  I think one of them summed it up best when they said "People relate to each other based on the possibility of sex.  I really have a hard time feeling sorry for an orc princess."  Anyone else have that problem?

[Josh]

Saddly I can't get too creative with the races; my players don't like it when the major races are any less human than an elf.  I think one of them summed it up best when they said "People relate to each other based on the possibility of sex.  I really have a hard time feeling sorry for an orc princess."  Anyone else have that problem?

I have definitely had this issue as a GM.  Players will often feel no sympathy for non human creatures so the characters reflect that. 

[logan9a]

What do you look for in your game?

Simplicity and speed.

[Josh]

What do you look for in your game?

Simplicity and speed.

Have you tried Savage Worlds?  I would say that it has the best setup for simplicity and speed available.  Even when making characters.



 

[logan9a]

If I didn't have Heroic Cthulhu, I'd probably have tried Savage Worlds.

[atanakar]

I use D20 Future. Its okay.
Star Wars Saga Edition is better BUT I'm really tired of SW. It was a cool vision of the future 30 years ago.
Now it feels dated.


For Old Timers :
-Recently rediscovered Star Frontiers (TSR 1982) - visit : http://starfrontiers.us/

[Josh]

I use D20 Future. Its okay.
Star Wars Saga Edition is better BUT I'm really tired of SW. It was a cool vision of the future 30 years ago.
Now it feels dated.

-Tried GURPS recently and found it contrived.

For Old Timers :
-Recently rediscovered Star Frontiers (TSR 1982) - visit : http://starfrontiers.us/

For "future" games there are a number of suggestions.  The big problem is that there is no good general purpose future game.

Our Episode 7 has a number of suggestions and here is a summary of future ones:

Dune-likehttp://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/search.php?mode=search&page=1
http://burningwheel.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28
Dune as in the Frank Herbert Novels

Star WarsIron Empireshttp://www.burningempires.com/
This is a world envisioned by Chris Moeller.  Essentially it is an RPG where you save your world from invaders.

Super Herohttp://www.mutantsandmasterminds.com/
Not exactly the future but could be used to make a future game

Space Action Adventurehttp://www.battlestations.info/
This is a fun game where you play characters and space ships.

Toolbox: True20
Of the toolbox games this is the best, so you can put together the game you want.

Warhammer 40K - Dark Heresy
Since the episode this game came out.  It is not the game it bills itself as but it is a cool action adventure game with a cool setting. 

The Other Toolbox - Savage Worlds
SW is awesome and it can be used to make an AA Future game. 

[logan9a]

I'd say what I don't like in my games is level and class based.  Sure, it's simple but there are some issues.

I tend to run long games that go on for a year at 20hrsx52 weekends.  Bit longer than the average games I've experienced over the last three plus decades of gaming (which generally last three whole sessions).

Level based doesn't work for that well. 
Class based I find simplistic.

I'll probably have to bring up more why's and where fors in a gamer talk some time.

[Tazendra]

For me the people I game with are more important than the system. Its harder to find good people than a specific game. In general terms, I like many different gaming systems.

Ars Magica, Earthdawn:  I loved the settings of each of these games. The fluff in both is very cool.

D&D 3.5:   I love this one for the large number of available players, and the enormous number of material available.

Champions, Feng Shui: Sometimes you just want to play something totally over the top.

[pfooti]

I love all sorts of games, mainly because I love all sorts of settings and flavors.

I'm a devout Shadowrun fan, have been since 1st ed. I feel like they really killed the game with 4e, and that 3e was a great "sweet spot" for the rules. On the other hand, I love what GURPS has done in 4e. So, it seems like 4e isn't necessarily a bad thing in any given game system.

Currently, I'm working on a somewhat-expansive GURPS campaign centered primarily on an occult investigation group in the post-WWII era. X-files in 1947, if you will. It's amazing how much stuff you can do with GURPS. I statted out the entire Iron Man movie using GURPS (big nerd, I know).

The game I miss the most is Amber. It's an amazingly fun system, completely minimalistic, but when the "party" is a squabbling bunch of demigods (essentially), it's very hard to GM. So, all the Amber games I've been in have eventually degenerated and disintegrated. Too bad, that. Any east-coast amberites, drop me a line.

The game I miss the least is Rifts. I love the campaign setting for Rifts, but I'm an anti-fan of the crunch. I use a lot of my rifts stuff in world creation, but the game is painful to play.

That's me in a nutshell. Also, hihi to everyone. Glad to be here.

[Tazendra]

I'm a devout Shadowrun fan, have been since 1st ed. I feel like they really killed the game with 4e, and that 3e was a great "sweet spot" for the rules.

I agree with this 100%. I picked iup Shadowrun just as they were putting out second edition, and played regularly through third edition. I drifted away when they released fourth edition, its not my cup of tea.