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View Full Version : Good System for Dungeon-Dweller Game?



StoryKeeper
2009-12-03, 11:31 PM
My group tend sto like to play the evil character and/or the monsters haunting the dungeons waiting for PC's to swing by and try to stop their nefarious plans. Now we've been doing this in D&D for a while now, and it's working out alright, but I was hoping you kind people could point this poor game master towards some different games that would suit our play style.

Basically I'd like:
*Something that lets the PC's play "bad guys." Could be anything from the innocent tribe of goblins being attacked by the xp-hungry PC's to a game that encourages attempts at world domination.
*Something flexible. Not a requirement, but it would be nice to have variety in character creation.
*Something that's not too difficult to learn. I have enough trouble getting them to play something other than DnD as it is.
*Something that's easy to run. Not a requirement, but it would be nice for me to reduce my work load. ^^

I already have Kobolds Ate My Baby which they've liked fairly well, and as I mentioned, we've used DnD. The game can be serious or light-hearted.

Edge of Dreams
2009-12-04, 12:05 AM
Mutants and Masterminds can be fun to play as a group of villains. It's superhero comic-book themed. Not the best mechanics, but stupidly open-ended character creation that I love.

Kol Korran
2009-12-04, 12:19 AM
why not use one of the systems you know and just try a bit of a different story/ plot/ hooks?
a simple example (which maybe you have used)- take one of the known campaign worlds (such as forgotten realms, eberron, or grey hawk) and then choose one of the notoriously evil yet very unsuccesful groups/ organizations that has a special twist, and have your players be part of it, and try and make it work. for example in Eberron:
- they could be pirates in the lazhar principalities.
- the could be twisted creations of the daelkyr, emphasis on abberations, psionics, and fighting the forces of nature and so on.
- they could belong to the emerald claw- emhpasis on undead, though they can be alive. a good foe in the silver flame
- the lords of dust- they could start as fledging demons/ devils, doing many strange devious schemes all over the world, as they gain levels they might also upgrade their fiendish self. main opponents- dragons! (and their followers)

these are but examples. i hope this helps
Kol.

Satyr
2009-12-04, 08:46 AM
*Something that lets the PC's play "bad guys." Could be anything from the innocent tribe of goblins being attacked by the xp-hungry PC's to a game that encourages attempts at world domination.
*Something flexible. Not a requirement, but it would be nice to have variety in character creation.
*Something that's not too difficult to learn. I have enough trouble getting them to play something other than DnD as it is.
*Something that's easy to run. Not a requirement, but it would be nice for me to reduce my work load. ^^

You probably want Gurps. These rules allow you to play pretty much anything you ever wantd (and a few things else you never thought of, but you want to play anyway). It is the most flexible game out there, easily adaptable to pretty much any campaign, setting or style you want to play. The game is complex by including many, many varieties and options (and you prrobably want to preselect the options oand rules of the game you want to play), but the rules are also very elegant and streamlined, and once you have understood how the system works (which isn't that hard, either), you can pretty much do whatever you want. Most importantly, these are the least arbitrary rules you will probably ever find. They make sense. Which makes it extremely easy to use them - almost always does the system work exactly in the way you expect how it should work.
This inner logic and plausibility makes it also extremely easy to run the game, and while it includes a certain preparation, the game works so well in itself and the rules are so intuitive that you can easily trust on them and concentrate on the story, plot, and NPC's.

In nine out ten games, you can replace ther intended system with Gurps, and you willl have a better gam afterwards. It's like the philosopher's stone of roleplaying games -turning dull lead into pure RPG gold.

StoryKeeper
2009-12-05, 12:31 AM
I might look into GURPS. I'd kind of like something that lends itself to the type of game I have in mind automatically though. Kobolds Ate My Baby is obviously meant for this. 3.5 DnD is all about dungeon crawls and building weird character,s so all I really have to do is give the players different stat cards, etc.

Mutants and Masterminds looks like it might be fun, but I don't think I could get anyone in the right mindset to play a supervillain without making it TOO ridiculous (ridiculous can be fine, but I can't see it working with MnM with my group.)

As for using old systems in a new way, we've only ever played 3.5 and (very briefly) 4.0, and we're already using 3.5 for a monsters campaign.

BobVosh
2009-12-05, 01:41 AM
Another vote for GURPs.

As much as M&M is toted for generic do everythingness, I think it wouldn't work as well as GURPs.

Some of WoD stuff could work well, but it won't be generic fantasy. Works better if you go all vampires, or werewolves, etc. WoD is extremely simple to play in if the ST knows the rules. Not so easy to balance from the ST's side, though.