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Scowling Dragon
2014-05-19, 03:17 PM
I'm a admitted mechanics junkie. They don't have to be complex but I enjoy reading and understanding a games mechanics.

Im looking for something FRESH! Something that does something very new. New but not stupid or hyper-simplistic (not that simplistic is bad).

Any good suggestions on some games different from:

D&D and its copycats and split offs,
Shadowrun
World of Darkness
Paranoia


I know other games but the ones above tend to be the underlining mechanics for the other ones.

Eisenheim
2014-05-19, 03:25 PM
FATE is simple on the face, but there is some interesting complexity to be found. It is certainly nothing like anything on that list. SRD available free http://fate-srd.com/

Rhynn
2014-05-19, 03:29 PM
HeroQuest. Get the older edition rather than the newer, generic one, and get some of the Sartar is Rising campaign/setting material (Dragon Pass, Sartar - Kingdom of Heroes, Barbarian Adventures to start). It's got the most "real"-feeling mythology of any fantasy world, and you are in the middle of it.

Aces & Eights, Wild West alt-history (you can just use real history, no changes are needed) with an awesome combat system. Shot clock ftw!

Twilight 2013, a game of post-apocalyptic survival with the best modern tactical small group combat system there is.

Trail of Cthulhu, the best Mythos investigation RPG.

HârnMaster, a great and straightforward RPG with a solid, reasonably realistic combat system and an awesome setting.

The One Ring, probably the best system for Late Third Age adventures in Middle Earth.

The Riddle of Steel, if you can get it. Storytelling mechanics plus the ultimate combat system for ancient, medieval, or renaissance combat; perfect for a wide range of settings, like Caribbean pirates, Sengoku-period samurai, The Three Musketeers, the Hyborian Age, etc. I guess its successor Blade of the Iron Throne may be okay, but I can't speak to it myself.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Unisystem is a great, easy, straightforward, but robust engine, and it's the best zombie RPG there is.

Burning Wheel, the RPG that focuses on characters. Also has a good combat system (even if it's not really my thing).

Mouse Guard, based on the comic. Based on BW but simplified.

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World, also based on the comic. Best use of the Fuzion lifepath character creation system, very cool and different advancement, solid game all around, awesome setting, beautiful beyond words.

erikun
2014-05-19, 03:41 PM
Kobolds Ate My Baby! might be worth looking into. It's not that unusual of a system (roll-under dicepool) but given that it is intentionally light and intentionally silly, it might be interesting to look at in the context of "how does it maintain lightness in the face of rules lawyering/munchkining?"

Plus, how does it present doing so without being annoying or aggravating?

Airk
2014-05-19, 04:14 PM
Tenra Bansho Zero (http://www.tenra-rpg.com/). Crazy anime-esque action driven by a "fanmail" mechanic that dovetails with required resolution of things your character cares about to avoid becoming a slave to Karma. It's a brilliant feedback loop like nothing you've ever seen.

Arbane
2014-05-20, 12:58 AM
Legend of the Wulin, a rather nifty game about kung-fu warriors, has some interesting ideas. Two big ones:

Pretty much everything that happens to your character is a "Chi condition" that either punishes you when you don't go along with it, or rewards you when you do, whether it be a broken arm, a hopeless romance, a curse, or the dreaded Bone-Dissolver Poison.

Some of the XP you get is 'Entanglement' which can only be spent on things like affiliation with secret societies, building a reputation, or gaining new enemies. Even munchkins will be forced into having worldly attachments!

It also has an interesting die-pool mechanic: roll a pool of d10s, looks for matching numbers - the result is (number of matching dice * 10) + number shown on dice, and you can use a second matching set for an extra action with the right kung-fu.

Friv
2014-05-20, 08:54 AM
I will never pass up a chance to recommend Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128212/Chuubos-Marvelous-WishGranting-Engine--EOS7000-ePub-only), which I can guarantee is neither stupidly complex, stupidly simple, nor anything like any of the systems you mentioned. The mechanics largely serve as a complex story-resolving mechanism rather than a task-resolving mechanism, and it's designed to play fairy tails, Studio Gibli movies, or Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Yora
2014-05-20, 09:13 AM
Mouse Guard is great. It's so very different from any other RPGs I've seen, but it can be seen quite clearly how its approach should also make a great game.

Airk
2014-05-20, 09:31 AM
I will never pass up a chance to recommend Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128212/Chuubos-Marvelous-WishGranting-Engine--EOS7000-ePub-only), which I can guarantee is neither stupidly complex, stupidly simple, nor anything like any of the systems you mentioned. The mechanics largely serve as a complex story-resolving mechanism rather than a task-resolving mechanism, and it's designed to play fairy tails, Studio Gibli movies, or Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Is there any news on the 'full' version of that yet? As much as I like ePubs, I also like pretty pictures, and I'm not real excited by the idea of paying $10 for the ePub now and $15 for the PDF later if I can expect a $15 PDF+ePub bundle in the future.

Delwugor
2014-05-20, 03:51 PM
There are already great examples, Fate and Burning Wheel being my favorite. You could also check out Apocalypse World, d6 systems (WEG games such as old Star Wars), Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Heroic and Classic Traveller, all of which I've enjoyed as different gaming systems.

Friv
2014-05-21, 06:29 AM
Is there any news on the 'full' version of that yet? As much as I like ePubs, I also like pretty pictures, and I'm not real excited by the idea of paying $10 for the ePub now and $15 for the PDF later if I can expect a $15 PDF+ePub bundle in the future.

That is fair. And no, no specific news on that front. My current estimate is "Before Exalted 3rd Edition".

Terraoblivion
2014-05-21, 07:38 AM
Is there any news on the 'full' version of that yet? As much as I like ePubs, I also like pretty pictures, and I'm not real excited by the idea of paying $10 for the ePub now and $15 for the PDF later if I can expect a $15 PDF+ePub bundle in the future.

Probably not too long. All but one chapter is ready for printing according to Jenna Moran's tumblr.

Jay R
2014-05-21, 09:41 AM
If you are a mechanics junkie, and moderately good at basic math, then I highly recommend the Hero System (Champions, Fantasy Hero, etc.).

For people who dislike fiddling with the mechanics, it's not a good system at all, but for those of us who like the infinite ability to customize a character, it's wonderful.

For instance, I once set up a Bard whose magic required a focus (musical instrument) singing, gestures (playing), with an area effect of the sound of his voice, and a five minute casting time.

You don't have to do any of the math during the game. I have a friend who enjoys the game, doing no math at all. I set up his character according to his ideas, and he has no problem playing it.

neonchameleon
2014-05-21, 12:44 PM
I'm a admitted mechanics junkie. They don't have to be complex but I enjoy reading and understanding a games mechanics.

Im looking for something FRESH! Something that does something very new. New but not stupid or hyper-simplistic (not that simplistic is bad).

Any good suggestions on some games different from:

D&D and its copycats and split offs,
Shadowrun
World of Darkness
Paranoia


I know other games but the ones above tend to be the underlining mechanics for the other ones.

First recommendation: Fiasco (http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/). It's a completely different type of game to anything you are used to. New as in 2010, and fairly simple to run (and only takes 1-2 hours) but absolutely awesome in play. See the Tabletop playthrough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJxQ0NbFtk) for how it works in play. I don't think you will get much more of a change than that. Seriously, every roleplayer should, in my opinion, own a copy of Fiasco. And it's the game to break out when the group is missing people.

Second recommendation: Apocalypse World (http://apocalypse-world.com/). It's light, fast, and startlingly deep. The mechanics seem simple but the deeper you look at them the more there is there, and the rhythm is based on freeform play so it's as immersive as they come. Its offspring Monsterhearts (http://http//buriedwithoutceremony.com/monsterhearts/) is also one of the most immersive games I know, with a powerful ruleset, but the idea of playing the emotional entanglements from teen horror doesn't work for every group. (Note: Dungeon World also fits into this family - but is not in my opinion a very good example of it).

Third recommendations: Firefly (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128012/Firefly-RolePlaying-Game-Corebook) and Leverage (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/85727/Leverage-Roleplaying-Game). Both part of Cortex+ (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/117419/Cortex-Plus-Hackers-Guide?term=Corte) (the two out of license games Marvel Heroic (http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167) and Smallville are also excellent). Cortex+ is a toolkit for building a system that's light, fast, evocative, and fairly swingy. You probably want the Hackers Guide - but of the games listed, Leverage is the best competence-porn Con/Heist game I'm aware of (complete with flashback scenes), and Firefly's the only game that plays the "Team of misfits" (think Police Academy or other such comedies) with escalating consequences that I've seen work smoothly. Marvel Heroic feels like a four colour comic book, and Smallville is teen drama/angst (and the oddest of the four). And because they are from the same family the comparison and contrast between the mechanics is a joy.

I'd also strongly second the following:

Fate Core/Fate Accelerated. One of the biggest non-D&D systems around and one of the smoothest. Competent pulp action excellently written and pretty close to being a generic system. Excellent system design, and impressive in play.

Mouseguard. Burning Wheel is impressive - and Mouse Guard is a focussed refinement.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine. Well worth the look for diceless, slice of life. Which is utterly different to anything you are used to.

Eonas
2014-05-21, 04:08 PM
I cannot say enough about Clinton R Nixon's extremely underrated Donjon (http://open.crngames.com/src/donjon.html) (which is legally free). Here's the concept: when you search for a secret door and succeed, there actually is a secret door, whether the DM intended there to be one or not. Furthermore, depending on how well you succeeded, you get to make up some facts about the door you find (such as 'the door is large', or 'the door is inscribed with runes', or whatever). If you fail the test, then the DM gets to screw you over by making up facts about your failure, but you get to do the actual narration. The way the game's set up mechanically is simultaneously very abstract (making 'Janitor' as viable a character concept as 'Incantatrix') and very concrete.

The result is kind of like taking the Gygaxian dungeon crawl aesthetic, and using hippie indie mechanics to give the players much more creative control over the game. It's improvisatory, tactical, creative, and (if you can try not to overthink it) almost invariably fun. And unique as hell.

ReaderAt2046
2014-05-21, 04:10 PM
CraftyGame's Mistborn Adventure Game has a very unusual mechanical system, one that I've never seen duplicated elsewhere.

First, you form a dice pool. The base size is dictated by the relevant stat (so if you're trying to dodge a blow or punch somebody it's your Physique, if you're trying to change the law it's your Influence, if you're trying to telekinetically manipulate some coins it's your Steel, etc.) You then add one die for every relevant Trait (Traits are descriptive phrases, everyone starts with five and there are ways to get more), add a die if you have positive Circumstances, and maybe add other dice for miscellaneous reasons. Your final dice pool will be between two and ten dice in size (if you get more than 10, each extra die becomes a free Nudge. If you get less than 2, your Result decreases by one. I'll explain those terms in a second.)

Now you have your dice pool. Next, you roll the dice. Remove all sixes, these become Nudges and are put aside until later. Next, find the highest pair of dice. This becomes your Result. (If you rolled no pairs, your Result is 0.) You can select a lower pair if you want a bad Result, but I can't think why you would. If your Result is greater than or equal to the Difficulty of the action, your roll succeeded. If not, it failed. So for example, let's say your Physique 5 character was running away from the Inquisition and needed to jump a gate (Difficulty 3) to escape. You have the Trait "Escape Artist", so you have a pool of six dice. You roll, and get 4 2 2 6 1 4. Your Result is 4, and you succeed with one Nudge.

After you roll, you get to apply Nudges. Nudges can be used in two ways. If you succeed a roll, Nudges make your success more...successful. Nudges on a success grant a variety of bonuses, such as increasing damage on a successful attack, allowing you to recover a point of Health, adding another die to your next pool, causing an opponent to lose a die on his next roll, etc.

If you fail a roll, then for every point by which your Result falls under the Difficulty, the Narrator may assign a Complication. Complications are small penalties, such as losing a point of Health, losing a die on your next roll, losing a Beat (basically skipping your next turn), etc. If you failed by 3 or more, the Narrator can instead assign a Complication to the entire party. Luckily, if you rolled any Nudges, you can use them to buy off Complications on a 1-1 basis. Note that even if you reduce the number of complications to 0 and then have more Nudges, you can't turn success into failure.

Doorhandle
2014-05-22, 04:21 AM
I'm a admitted mechanics junkie. They don't have to be complex but I enjoy reading and understanding a games mechanics.

Im looking for something FRESH! Something that does something very new. New but not stupid or hyper-simplistic (not that simplistic is bad).

Any good suggestions on some games different from:

D&D and its copycats and split offs,
Shadowrun
World of Darkness
Paranoia


I know other games but the ones above tend to be the underlining mechanics for the other ones.

Shonen final burst has an interesting card-based system, with much thought to both tactics and how to best emulate it's genre. Look at the combat here. (http://www.shonenfinalburst.com/system-preview.html)

Mythender also has an unusual system both for combat and other issues with a lot of attention paid to making mechanics fit the (metal as hell) setting. You need buckets of dice for it though. (http://mythenderrpg.com/)

Brutal has a simple dice-pool mechanic, but the way it handles stealth, magic and especially attack bonus and and multiple attacks is worth a look. (http://www.brutalrpg.com/Frames.asp)

Also, while I wouldn't call the fresh, it seems like you haven't tried any percent-based games (d100 or 2d10). Dark heresy and it's derivatives are the best-known- But I would seriously consider giving Encounter Critical (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm) a look for sheer mind-stabbing insanity.

Knaight
2014-05-22, 07:09 PM
Give the ORE games a shot: Nemesis, REIGN, and Wild Talents in particular.

The short version with the mechanics is that you roll a pool of 10 sided dice. However, you look for matches, instead of just things that come up the same number - the number of matching dice determines how fast things happen, the number on the matching dice how well. 1,2,3,4,5 is a failure, as is 6,7,8,9,10. 3,3,3,3,3 is a pretty glorious success, provided that speed is essential and the task isn't super complex. 10,10,1,3,5 is a success, and while it's not exactly fast it gets things done.

Nemesis is free and pretty short, working for modern horror. REIGN is a much bigger game, aiming more for fantasy - it's also not free.

tenbones
2014-05-27, 10:09 AM
As has been said:

FateCore - is brilliant.

I'd also suggest Savage Worlds.

If you're wanting a blisteringly powerful toolkit view of d20 (imo - fixes about 99% of the problems in 3.x/PF): Fantasy Craft

Grod_The_Giant
2014-05-27, 03:54 PM
Mutants and Masterminds 3e has a pretty cool character creation system, even if it's pretty standard d20 in play. It's point buy, but there's also a Lego-like element to it: to make a "power," you have to combine various Effects and Modifiers. Say you wanted to make stone spikes shoot out of the wall and impale opponents. You'd start with the basic Damage effect and add Ranged, Indirect, and maybe a Limited of some sort ("targets must be within 10ft of earth or stone.")

I've heard cool things about Microscope (http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/), which claims to be a "fractal world-building game."

The GUMSHOE system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUMSHOE_System)is built to handle investigations, which normally are kind of hard to do with RPGs.

Hiro Protagonest
2014-05-27, 04:02 PM
HeroQuest. Get the older edition rather than the newer, generic one, and get some of the Sartar is Rising campaign/setting material (Dragon Pass, Sartar - Kingdom of Heroes, Barbarian Adventures to start). It's got the most "real"-feeling mythology of any fantasy world, and you are in the middle of it.
Then you can go to gog.com and buy King of Dragon Pass. :smallwink:

Mouse Guard, based on the comic. Based on BW but simplified.


Mouse Guard is great. It's so very different from any other RPGs I've seen, but it can be seen quite clearly how its approach should also make a great game.

*still needs to get Mouse Guard*

Rhynn
2014-05-27, 04:22 PM
Then you can go to gog.com and buy King of Dragon Pass. :smallwink:

KoDP is just perfect. The art styles are stunning and suit their purposes so well (one style for gods and HeroQuests, one style for the real world, etc.). You can create a whole HQ/RQ campaign just by playing KoDP for a day and writing down stuff that happens, then using it to create scenarios and events.

Absolutely everyone should play KoDP.

Kaun
2014-05-27, 06:46 PM
Dungeon World
Mouse Guard
Numenera
Eclipse Phase
Burning wheel
Savage worlds

All worth reading even if you never play them.

Khedrac
2014-05-28, 01:23 AM
It's not exactly new, but it's very different so may be "fresh to you" - Lost Souls.

Setting-wise it's another variant of playing undead in the modern world, but it is not like any of the WoD stuff I have played.

System-wise is where it gets interesting - in combat the DM makes no rolls.

There's a table of combat results and players roll D% for their characters to generate a result somewhere between "Catastrophic" and "Awesome" (the table includes "Poor", "Passable", "Good" etc.).
The players do this for both attack and defence. The monsters simply have an attack and defence rating (e.g. "Poor" or "Superior"). Damage is determined by the mount you surpass (or fail to) the monster's rating and the weapon's multiplier.

Simple, fast and different.

I did manage to play it a bit, some of the players really enjoyed it so it seemed to work OK.

More details can be found here (http://www.hauntedattic.org/lostsouls.html).