RPG Purchasing Advice

[MasterGhandalf]

So, I've been looking at picking up one of several relatively new RPG systems (or a major product for a system whose core book I already own) before Christmas, but have been unable to come to a conclusion. Therefore, I thought I'd ask around for advice regarding which of these products would be best worth my time and money.

The products I've been considering are:

13th Age Core Book
Numenera Corebook
Shadowrun 5th Edition
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide

So, GITPers, which of these do you think would be the most worthwhile purchase? Thank you for your opinions?

[TheThan]

Really this depends a lot on not only what your tastes are, but also the tastes of the people you frequently game with.
It’s not efficient to buy a game you like, when nobody else at the gaming table is interested in it. even though you are.

So I’d think long and hard about what the other players likes and dislikes are. You may even want to ask them their opinion first.

[erikun]

I agree, it does depend on your tastes. Why are you interested in picking up a new system?

I know that I enjoy seeing new mechanics, new material, and new settings, and so something like Shadowrun or Star Wars would interest me more than the rest (which are very similar to D&D). You may have the exact opposite reaction, and may prefer 13th Age (very similar to D&D3e, from what I understand) or more Pathfinder to use in your games.


I will note that Star Wars: Edge of the Empire requires a specific set of dice with their own symbols to run. The book might have a standard-to-fancy dice conversion so that you could use your standard d20, but I wouldn't assume so. You'd likely need to buy a set of Edge of the Empire dice, or pick up the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game first (which includes a set of the dice). Not sure if that will factor into your final decision or not.

[CombatOwl]

So, I've been looking at picking up one of several relatively new RPG systems (or a major product for a system whose core book I already own) before Christmas, but have been unable to come to a conclusion. Therefore, I thought I'd ask around for advice regarding which of these products would be best worth my time and money.

The products I've been considering are:

13th Age Core Book
Numenera Corebook
Shadowrun 5th Edition
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide

So, GITPers, which of these do you think would be the most worthwhile purchase? Thank you for your opinions?

Can't comment on the first two.

SR5: It's... okay. There are some seriously questionable editing choices. It's quite badly organized, but on the whole SR5 will probably end up in a better place than 4th. But it... needs a lot of work from the DM. I'm running an SR5 game, and I've basically had to resort to houseruling large swaths of the book because some of the rules are nonsensical or contradictory (for example, bullets being stopped cold by a third of an inch of steel, but being able to pass straight through an infinitely think brick wall with only a -1 to the DV).

I've got five pages and counting in houserules and FAQs. But after doing all of that, the game does run fairly well. Word of warning, they don't have full rules for everything in the book. There are a few cases where they reference upcoming books for full details on some fairly basic stuff (matrix searches, for example).

SW:EOTE: I played the playtest and it was pretty good. I haven't found a group to play it with regularly, so I haven't bought the core book yet. Set aside some extra money to buy some of the special dice the game uses--it really improves the game vs. using regular dice and looking up stuff on the symbol table.

PF:ISWG: Not really equivalent. It's a good addition to PF if you're running Golarion.

As an aside, have you considered Fate Core? I don't know your group or what you like to play, but it is a very good system for quite a lot of games. Often you can play other settings using Fate with very minimal conversion effort. It's also quite inexpensive (and you can get the core PDF for free, legally, since it's creative commons licensed).

[MasterGhandalf]

Okay, for clarification, I'm mostly looking for right now for meaty worldbuilding stuff (always love meaty worldbuilding stuff, which is the main reason I went ahead and threw the Pathfinder Campaign Setting in their, even though I know it's the odd one out), and to familiarize myself with the basics of a new system more with the hopes of someday playing rather than any immediate plans for doing so (honestly, I tend to collect more stuff than I've ever used). I also enjoy the process of character creation as a fun way to pass the time in-and-of itself. Hence why I'm open to a fairly wide variety of ideas:smallsmile:.

So to sum it up, I'm mostly looking for strong worldbuilding, cool, efficient character creation, and something meaty enough I can spend a lot of time poring over it.

[DSmaster21]

I can attest to the fact that the Inner Sea Guide is excellent in terms of fluff and gives you quite a lot in that respect (I run pf with it, MM1, and CR and a Screen (since this is all I have, I look it up everything in the srd)).

As for SR, I have heard some negative things about the binding and stuff but I (or rather my parents) bought me a copy of the CR for Christmas so if it sucks, well sucks to be me, I would be glad to learn to play with you (I'm sure someone here can help us).

For Star Wars Edge of the Empire, I have put it on my amazon christmas list so hopefully I will get a copy of the Dice, Screen and CR of that too (though I guess I probably won't get much else). Again I will be a newbie and would love to work with you (and/or others) on learning it before I try to get my friends to play (and get stuck DMing 3+ Times a week again).