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Bartmanhomer
2018-09-04, 12:50 PM
Hey everybody. It's been awhile since I posted here. I'm looking a different RPG that isn't D&D and Pathfinder. The type of game that I'm looking for is more roleplaying and less action and fighting. Can anyone recommend any games that's good for me please? :smile:

Koo Rehtorb
2018-09-04, 12:50 PM
Can you be more specific?

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-04, 12:58 PM
Can you be more specific?

Something that's is more dramatic or comedy. But with more roleplaying and little less fighting.

Koo Rehtorb
2018-09-04, 01:00 PM
Play Poison'd.

flond
2018-09-04, 01:01 PM
Something that's is more dramatic or comedy. But with more roleplaying and little less fighting.

That's a very broad category but...ok.

I'll throw in chuubos marvelous wish granting engine, which is a diceless game made in part for pastoral sort of play. It's designed to focus on a feelings and moments more than combat, and while it has cool powers tends to use them more for comedy or drama.

And I'll also throw in freemarket. A card based system set on a space station in the future, it's focused on building things, and due to future tech, killing someone is only useful if you're doing it as art or want them to forget the recent past.

Lorsa
2018-09-04, 01:19 PM
Something that's is more dramatic or comedy. But with more roleplaying and little less fighting.

Do you mean that the rules have less combat mechanics, or that the play itself is less focused on fighting? Because any game can have a lot of fighting, or little, depending on the GM and the campaign.

I mean, the reason why you are asked to be more specific, is that there are tons of games that is "more roleplaying and less fighting" compared to D&D. The second biggest title, for example, World of Darkness, would fit that requirement (can also be played either for drama or comedy).

Then you also have games like Fate, or Cortex, or if you're looking for fantasy Burning Wheel, there's Eclipse Phase if you want transhumanist survival horror, you have Ars Magic for medieval wizards etc etc. There's so many RPGs out there that the phrase "more roleplaying and less fighting than D&D" basically describes every game other than D&D.

Maybe this can help you: https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-pen-and-paper-rpg_s-v1

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-04, 01:26 PM
Oh, I love the Vampire RPG Game. That sounds like a game that I want to try. :smile:

Andor13
2018-09-04, 01:51 PM
7th Sea is a fun Swashbuckler and Sorcery system set in a quasi-historical pseudo-europe. Magic is specific to each country and restricted to nobility (and by-lows.) To the Vestenmayar will be working with runes, while an Avalonian employs glamour and a Vodacci Fate-Witch... well, you can probably figure that one out.

Ars Magica tends to be RP heavy, but maybe not so much comedy, although you can always sic the faries on any mage who takes themselves too seriously.

An anime system like Teenagers From Outer Space or Big Eyes Small Mouth might serve although campaign focus will heavily determine how much combat you see.

... I realizing that all my suggestions are old. It's been a while since I looked at the new game market.

Anymage
2018-09-04, 01:59 PM
The various iterations of Vampire have a couple of important caveats. They define interesting settings with no way of encouraging the players to go along with that, and the rules engine can be a little clunky at times. On the upside, everybody does get magic powers, and which powers you invest your xp in does allow for more distinct feeling character builds. Ironically, the best version of the vampire ruleset I've seen is the current version of Exalted. Which is about mythic heroes, so does tend to involve a fair amount of adventuring and fighting.

If you want to take a giant leap in the other direction, Toon is nice for being easy to pick up and get into. You play cartoon characters. The rules openly encourage acting cartoonishly, so people tend to play along.

Lorsa
2018-09-05, 12:10 AM
Oh, I love the Vampire RPG Game. That sounds like a game that I want to try. :smile:

The old Vampire: The Masquerade has issues with being... well, old (design wise), and is criticized for having a very heavy meta-story that tables are supposed to follow.

The new Vampire: The Requiem has issues with not being the old Vampire and is criticized for not having any meta-story to follow. The revised Requiem (Blood & Smoke or 2.0) is one that I consider the best one.

Arbane
2018-09-05, 12:39 AM
Here's a whole bunch of suggestions (https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/177677291987/as-someone-who-has-only-played-dnd-5e-what-are), and they're all free or very cheap.

CarpeGuitarrem
2018-09-05, 09:06 AM
If you like Vampire, look into Urban Shadows (http://www.magpiegames.com/our-games/urban-shadows/); it's a game about the politics of different supernatural creatures in a city, and the mechanics are snappy enough to make tons of intrigue happen in just a single session.

I got to play a hapless wannabe scriptwriter in LA who fell in with a werewolf pack leader and got menaced by mages, to the point where he ambushed the mage meeting and shot the lead mage in a fit of rage. It was glorious.

Anonymouswizard
2018-09-05, 09:40 AM
I'm going to recommend Unknown Armies. It has an amazing setting (despite being yet another 'modern day+magick'), inventive magick (it's postmodern), and a combat section which begins by listing sic ways to avoid combat (because it's swingy and deadly). Oh and magic manages to skirt the line of being powerful enough to be useful and limited enough not to dominate the game even if one Adept class can generate five significant Charges a day.

Plus one type of Adept gets a Traffic Accident spell. What more could you want.

kivzirrum
2018-09-05, 01:51 PM
I don't know if this is the sort of thing you're interested in, but Blades in the Dark is pretty cool.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-05, 02:03 PM
I don't know if this is the sort of thing you're interested in, but Blades in the Dark is pretty cool.

I'm very open with so many games. Tell me more about the Blades In The Dark. :smile:

Manga Shoggoth
2018-09-05, 02:11 PM
If Toon! is still going it is great for very fast (and hilarious) games. Can be played with as much and as little combat as you want.

Kaptin Keen
2018-09-05, 02:16 PM
Hey everybody. It's been awhile since I posted here. I'm looking a different RPG that isn't D&D and Pathfinder. The type of game that I'm looking for is more roleplaying and less action and fighting. Can anyone recommend any games that's good for me please? :smile:

My opinion: Every RPG has huge problems. The huge problems of D&D are well known, which is it's main advantage as a system.

Others have less well known problems, simply due to the system being known by fewer people/players. When I branch out from D&D, it feels like the problems of most other systems are more glaring than those of D&D. For that reason, I tend to prefer games that are either really good fluff and story wise - as in, the setting is enormously well written. Or games where the rules are more sort of loose guidelines.

The best games I've found are Shadowrun/Earthdawn, and Vampire: The Masquerade. All three are frankly somewhat awful, but still provide excellent, fun games. Despite the systems being, as I said, awful. Three quarters of Shadowrun is basically inplayable.

Segev
2018-09-05, 02:31 PM
I am a big fan of Exalted, which is designed to be over-the-top and has lots of ways to use mechanics outside of combat (though how good those mechanics are is...variable and subjective).

BESM (3e is the best of the editions) is a good generic system. Built for anime, it really is more general than that. It is breakable, being a simple-ish points-based system, but it's flexible and no more breakable than 3e D&D or PF.

Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is set in magic ancient China/Japan (China in size and its imperial house structure, Japan by its clan structure that rules most of the land), and while most of its mechanics focus around combat, it has at least some effort at mechanics for handling the high levels of social interaction and politics it is meant to enable.

IF you want very rules-lite, RISUS is a free system you can web search for by name and find. You give yourself a handful of traits and assign dice from your pool of 10 to them as your character generation. IIRC, it's dice pool/count successes based, and is more a quick resolution-of-conflict system for a nearly freeform sort of gameplay than it is a solid game system in and of itself.

kivzirrum
2018-09-05, 04:43 PM
I'm very open with so many games. Tell me more about the Blades In The Dark. :smile:

You've got the right idea--I find that gaming is a much more enjoyable hobby when one keeps an open mind! :smallbiggrin: Blades in the Dark is a sort of dark fantasy urban setting, where the players play as a gang of rogues/thieves/general scoundrels. The rules are heavily streamlined in that direction, but they emphasize roleplaying and have some pretty clever elements. The rules are based on a heavily modified version of PbtA, which is not usually my favorite system, but Blades is very much its own thing, and I think it's really fun.

Friv
2018-09-05, 07:18 PM
Blades is phenomenal. I particularly like the way that its rules enhance faction politics and claiming turf for your gang; it's an aspect that is missing from a lot of things.

(I will also second Chuubo's, although I'll note that it can be a hella mess the first time you play it, especially if D&D and its derivatives are your only real RPG experience. It just comes at play from such a weird direction, and is written by someone for whom that direction was second nature and thus didn't need a lot of explanation, that it can take players a while to really get it.)

comk59
2018-09-05, 07:35 PM
I'm very open with so many games. Tell me more about the Blades In The Dark. :smile:
If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I'd call Blades a grimdark Dishonored with a focus on building up your gang, your reputation, and planning heists.

I mean there's a LOT more to it than that, but it's how I'd pitch it to a friend in passing.

Bohandas
2018-09-05, 08:01 PM
Something that's is more dramatic or comedy. But with more roleplaying and little less fighting.
Paranoia for comedy and drama, Toon for just comedy.

Mutazoia
2018-09-05, 09:57 PM
Paranoia for comedy and drama, Toon for just comedy.

Don't forget Teenagers from Outer Space (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/25121/Teenagers-from-Outerspace?it=1)!

Nifft
2018-09-05, 10:03 PM
You could always play 1e AD&... wait, no.

Okay, how about Starfind... nevermind.

There's always BECM... oh right.

Maybe take a look at Fourth Ed... uh, oops.

Damn, what games aren't D&D or Pathfinder?

Berenger
2018-09-06, 12:22 AM
For more or less classic "adventurer party" fantasy: The Dark Eye (caveat: I'm german and use the original version, I don't know how extensive, well-made and available the english translations are).

Games by White Wolf Publishing in general (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wolf_Publishing#RPG_Products). I personally played Vampire, Werewolf and Scion. The combat engine is a bit clunky and it is quite easy to min-max characters with extremely low or high combat efficiency if desired, but I think this is fine because the non-combat stuff tends to be the actual campaign focus instead of "filler" you have to get over with to get to the "action".

Shadowrun has an absolutely great setting if you are into a blend of magic and modern tech. The rules are... not bad, but extremely granular and complicated. You have to spend some serious time to get familiar with them, so I specifically do not recommend it if you just want a change of pace for a one shot or a few sessions.

Blaede
2018-09-06, 02:49 AM
If you want to play something more dramatic, try Warhammer ! :smallsmile:

comk59
2018-09-06, 07:05 AM
Something that's is more dramatic or comedy. But with more roleplaying and little less fighting.

Oh, I can't believe I forgot this, but Mouseguard is pretty great at both comedy and drama, and is all around an excellent system. Especially if you like Redwall.

Yerok LliGcam
2018-09-06, 08:56 AM
7Dsytem.

it's an awesome dice system that's genre agnostic, so you can do vampire, star wars, D&D, or any other theme you can think of.

the thing about the rules is that the skills are all "build your own" type, so no classes, and no levels, you just get skills more... skilled. haha

but the thing i love about the game is that because the system doesn't focus on abilities that allow you to hit something harder, they encourage all sorts of stuff.

here's the base skills that branch out into literally whatever you and the DM decide falls into that category:

physical
mental
social
creative
senses
education
emotion
constitution

so for example, you might earn the two base ranks (through 5 successes) in education by all sorts of checks like remembering history, or how locks work, or how to help someone recover from a cold.

then you can branch out your education into all sorts of things

the art of assassination
the art of medicine
the art of _______

the character development in my experience DMing about 3 campaigns using this system now, encourage all sorts of flavor.

i still have my die hard run in swinging players enjoying the physcial and constitution trees
but i have one guy who LOVES the creative tree, where he's branched out into crafting and smithing and now makes traps that take down his enemies.

you can even watch me play a game of it on youtube where the creator ran a game for me (i'm one of his patrons on patreon) just look up oslo and the slitherers or 7dsystem on youtube.

enjoy!

Mutazoia
2018-09-06, 10:00 PM
If you want comedy AND drama, you could always try this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?290243-High-School-Harem-Comedy-(Game-System-PEACH)) :smallsmile:

detritus
2018-09-08, 01:58 PM
Paranoia :)

Kite474
2018-09-09, 10:21 AM
First I would recommend Rogue Trader. In the Grimdarkness of the 41st Millium there is only HIGH ADVENTURE! In it you play a trade prince and their crew off to spread the Emprah and search for profit across the galaxy. While focused alot on combat the system very much can be played in a more dramatic fashion. Uses a D100 system and its just awesome.

Next I would recommend MASKS: A New Generation of Heroes! The Deconstuctor is raging havoc across the city, you’ve got a test tomorrow, and your really not sure how to handles these feelings youve got for your old childhood friend. In it you play Teenage superheroes much like the Teen Titans trying to balence all the trials and tribulations of their lives. Its absolutely push for emotionally heavy games which your players and characters trying to find out just who they are and who they want to be. Uses 2d6 and a fluid statline (they are all based on emotions) is a Powered by the Apocalypse game

Durzan
2018-09-09, 12:15 PM
Call of Cathulu.
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.
L5R.

Eradis
2018-09-09, 05:14 PM
Oh, I love the Vampire RPG Game. That sounds like a game that I want to try. :smile:

All rounder and easy to learn, easier to use: World of Darkness. If you intend to host that game, once you get the basic of this D10 system, you will be able to improvise about anything you want and it's fairly easy to integrate whatever mechanics you like. Top it with Vampire: The Requiem for the ideal vampire setting. Some prefer the older version of this one, but since I'm used to this version which simply adds the vampire specific features on the World of Darkness character sheets, it's my to-go with when it comes down to vampires. You choose a clan/bloodline and from within you can pick the powers you want. Vampires in this game are closer to those in the movie Interview with a Vampire than the more mainstream versions. All the stuff I've played with those system were homebrew though, so I have no idea of pre-built adventures.


***

If you want something even more unorthodox, I recommend Kids on Bikes. As the title suggest, it is made to play kids. Although you can play teenagers and adults alike. The general idea of this fairly new tabletop rpg is to recreate ambiance à la Stranger Things or à la IT. E.i. in the 80's. Since its intended purpose is to push player to impersonates (not sure it's the right word here) children, the core system makes physical danger actually dangerous. It is based on the difference between each roll of an opposed check. Small difference, small impact; big difference, major change. Of course, it comes down to the Game Master to adapt the consequences of said result. Even with a big difference, if we're talking about a fist fight between the bully and a character, I wouldn't kill the character, but instead injured him for a prolonged amount of time versus a bullet would be between a miss, a grazed limb or a fatal shot depending of the roll. That's for the action part, but the same goes for the rest, it's just easier to explain with the more visual of the lot.

Hope it helps and let us know what you pick for your next session! Hell, tell us how it went if you manage the time.

Gr7mm Bobb
2018-09-09, 05:40 PM
Threads a bit TL so DR... fight me. Anyway, I have enjoyed both Savage worlds Deluxe (supers, and interface zero settings), and fatecore. Savage provides a stripped down rpg that offers the base pieces to re-create most characters from low to high power in modern, sci-fi, and fantasy settings. The graduated dice system provides a nice change up from the normal d20 grind and the HP-less design and detrimental combat results can deter most murder-hobos.

Jama7301
2018-09-10, 06:58 PM
This thread is my friend. I like this thread.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-10, 07:41 PM
This thread is my friend. I like this thread.

I'm so glad that you're enjoying it.

Knaight
2018-09-10, 09:54 PM
I'd take a bit of a systemic approach. First, play a lot of smaller, easily learned games that lend themselves to one shots - this helps you get at least a bit of a grounding in what you like (though if "smaller" itself is a negative abort this plan earlier), and deliberately go pretty far afield in them, though not only pretty far afield. Given your focus on comedy and drama and away from combat I'd suggest:
Everyone is John
Fiasco
Microscope
Rivers and Lakes
Fate Accelerated Edition
Chronica Feudalis
Nemesis
Carnage 3:16
Shock: Social Science Fiction
Cortex Dramatic


I wouldn't expect you to like all of these. Heck, I don't like all of these. Still, which ones you do and don't like can be informative.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-10, 09:59 PM
Aye Carumba! There are so many games, I can't decide which one to start with! :eek:

Nifft
2018-09-11, 12:13 AM
Aye Carumba! There are so many games, I can't decide which one to start with! :eek:

Roll some dice on a meta-game table to decide what to play.

Knaight
2018-09-11, 03:01 AM
Aye Carumba! There are so many games, I can't decide which one to start with! :eek:

That's about how it goes - and this is why I suggested a more systematic approach, and starting with easily learned, quickly played stuff. It's basically the fail-quickly model, where you try a bunch of things, rule out the ones that don't work quickly, and from there can try the things that have a bit more time investment to find out if you like it or not.

Also I'd add Warbirds to the list. It is a game that assumes a fair amount of combat, but it's also a game about dealing with the social aspects of celebrity, cultural conflicts, etc. which makes it a lot more drama focused than baseline D&D.

Anonymouswizard
2018-09-11, 03:15 AM
There's another light possibility. Crash Pandas (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/250065) is a game about playing a bunch of racoons engaging in underground street racing in LA. All players are driving the same car, and aren't allowed to discuss their actions before revealing them simultaneously, leading to chaos. The rest of the rules are simple, and intentionally humorous. The game also recommends that NPCs never comment on the whole 'racoon' thing.

Willie the Duck
2018-09-11, 07:32 AM
Aye Carumba! There are so many games, I can't decide which one to start with! :eek:

There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands, of RPGs made in the past 4-5 decades. You are going to have to make some decisions on what you actually want to do (in terms of theme, genre, or something). Do you want to focus on the complexity of the rules, the focus (such as on comedy and/or drama), or the lack of combat? Or something else?

It's kind of cool that this is such an open ended thread, but 'I want to play an RPG, and not D&D or the like,' is also kind of like saying "I'm hungry, and don't want pizza again tonight," --that's fine, but it leaves you with a bazillion other options.

Knaight
2018-09-11, 08:25 AM
There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands, of RPGs made in the past 4-5 decades. You are going to have to make some decisions on what you actually want to do (in terms of theme, genre, or something). Do you want to focus on the complexity of the rules, the focus (such as on comedy and/or drama), or the lack of combat? Or something else?

There's definitely thousands - I'd even be confident in tens of thousands, though that's the last reasonably safe zero that could reasonably be added.

Jama7301
2018-09-11, 02:35 PM
There's another light possibility. Crash Pandas (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/250065) is a game about playing a bunch of racoons engaging in underground street racing in LA. All players are driving the same car, and aren't allowed to discuss their actions before revealing them simultaneously, leading to chaos. The rest of the rules are simple, and intentionally humorous. The game also recommends that NPCs never comment on the whole 'racoon' thing.

Yo, wait, what? That sounds friggin' sensational.

Anonymouswizard
2018-09-11, 03:26 PM
There's definitely thousands - I'd even be confident in tens of thousands, though that's the last reasonably safe zero that could reasonably be added.

I'd certainly agree to thousands, and wouldn't be shocked if the figure managed to hit 9000-10000 without including all the homebrew systems.


Yo, wait, what? That sounds friggin' sensational.

The guy's done a few other one page RPGs, but Crash Pandas is definitely the best (followed by Jason Stathan's Big Vacation in my view, although YMMV). It's not something you could get a long running campaign out of, but I could definitely see a month long street racing campaign coming out of it.

House Greyjoy
2018-09-12, 08:10 AM
Nobody's recommended octaNe yet, so, octaNe.

"The psychotronic game of post-apocalyptic trash-culture in America. It's mutants, monkeys, masked wrestlers, loud cars, fast women and rock guitars. In short, everything good in life...and you can drive as fast as you want."

Combat system couldn't be easier: 1d6.

RP opportunities forever.

Character roles (aka Classes):
Alien Naturalist, Ape-Man Islander, Bad-ass Mofo', Capuchin Monkey, Classic Smartcar,
Crazed Aviator, Crusty Sea Captain, Death-Rock Siren, Desert Chieftain, Disco Robot Gigolo,
Drag Strip Queen, Elvis impersonator, Fast-Food Ninja, 'Frisco Diver, Greasemonkey,
Hard-Rock Caveman, Helljack, High-Plains Drifter, Ingenious Tinkerer, Japanese Superhero,
Killah Klown, Masked Luchador, Metallurgist, Monster Smasher, Mutant Trucker,
Old Sawbones, Ostrich Wrangler, Outlaw Biker, Plucky Kid, Punk Rawk Zombie,
Renegade Mobster, Repo-Man, Road Warrior ,Roller-girl, Six-String Samurai,
Smartcar Rustler, Speed Racer, Straight-Laced G-Man, Stuntman Heretic, Swashbuckling Pirate,
Techno-Shaman, Two-Fisted Padre, Ultra Vixen, Weird-but-Cute Pet, Worm Surfer

It's Heavy Metal Everything. On ice. With a side of disco fries and a napalm-whiskey milkshake.

Devils_Advocate
2018-09-12, 10:49 PM
I'll mention Dead Inside as something geared to be nearly the opposite of typical dungeon crawling play. Because the player character's affliction is spiritual in nature, not only is it generally not helpful to kill things and take their stuff, it is often far more useful to heal them and give them your stuff.

At least, that's what I've read about it; I haven't played it myself.


Here's a whole bunch of suggestions (https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/177677291987/as-someone-who-has-only-played-dnd-5e-what-are), and they're all free or very cheap.
Incidentally, WTF -- the last entry in that list -- is an absolutely beautiful work of self-parody on Jenna Moran's part. I find the prospect of actually attempting to play it vaguely frightening, but it may be considered worth reading regardless.

A few excerpts:


You
We will not explain who you are at length. You should already know who you are. If you are an object or a philosophical zombie, you should avoid playing this game if at all possible.

The shadow node represents the willful ego that does not want to play WTF.

"It's unplayable!" you cry.

"She's gone off the deep end this time!"

We love nothing so much as to exceed ourselves and grow, and struggle against nothing so hard as our transcendence.

Rhedyn
2018-09-13, 09:43 AM
Hey everybody. It's been awhile since I posted here. I'm looking a different RPG that isn't D&D and Pathfinder. The type of game that I'm looking for is more roleplaying and less action and fighting. Can anyone recommend any games that's good for me please? :smile:My go to recommendation is Savage Worlds, but that is action focused.

So I would recommend FATE or GURPS. GURPS 4e really isn't that much more (and may even be less complicated) than Pathfinder. For a traditional game that focuses less on combat/action GURPS has a lot going for it if you use rules as a way to immerse yourself.
FATE is more a Storyteller game where characters are balanced by Narrative impact rather than ability.

Knaight
2018-09-13, 02:18 PM
So I would recommend FATE or GURPS. GURPS 4e really isn't that much more (and may even be less complicated) than Pathfinder. For a traditional game that focuses less on combat/action GURPS has a lot going for it if you use rules as a way to immerse yourself.

GURPS is pretty action focused in a lot of ways, though it works just fine for low action games. As for how complicated it is I'd definitely come in on the less-than-Pathfinder side. D&D manages to elide a lot of complexity in familiarity, and Pathfinder inherited that.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-13, 02:33 PM
My brain is about to explode. So many games. So many decisions. I can't choose! :eek:

Willie the Duck
2018-09-13, 02:41 PM
My brain is about to explode. So many games. So many decisions. I can't choose! :eek:

Pick a genre, or complexity level, or what you want to do in-game, and narrow down from there.

Anonymouswizard
2018-09-13, 04:04 PM
GURPS is pretty action focused in a lot of ways, though it works just fine for low action games. As for how complicated it is I'd definitely come in on the less-than-Pathfinder side. D&D manages to elide a lot of complexity in familiarity, and Pathfinder inherited that.

Yes, but it is a lot more front-loaded. Character creation isn't as simple, but once you get past that it's actually a decent bit simpler than Pathfinder.

Jama7301
2018-09-13, 05:21 PM
I am so conflicted with GURPS. I strongly dislike character creation for it, but I love the flexibility. I get bogged down with option paralysis and not knowing which skill would be useful for the game (Palming? Pickpocket? holdout? Slight of hand?), but I really appreciate that you can run practically any type of game in it. It also has one of my favorite narrative characteristics in Gizmo. Which, I suppose, could be replicated by some Aspects in FATE.

I feel like I'd like it more if I or my GM just took a big bold (theoretical) marker and started crossing off options.

Anonymouswizard
2018-09-13, 05:27 PM
I am so conflicted with GURPS. I strongly dislike character creation for it, but I love the flexibility. I get bogged down with option paralysis and not knowing which skill would be useful for the game (Palming? Pickpocket? holdout? Slight of hand?), but I really appreciate that you can run practically any type of game in it. It also has one of my favorite narrative characteristics in Gizmo. Which, I suppose, could be replicated by some Aspects in FATE.

Yeah, as I said, it's very front loaded. A lot can be solved by knowing when a default is high enough for you and how some of the skills are suitable for different situations or have hidden benefits (although it never came up in-game I once pointed out that by taking Boxing over Brawling my character had traded the ability to kick for a bit more potential respect). Yes a lot of skills overlap because they're useful for different situations and a lot of games roll them together, but I also like the ability to be better at palming objects and hiding things on my person than pickpocketing and other 'sleight of hand' skills.


I feel like I'd like it more if I or my GM just took a big bold (theoretical) marker and started crossing off options.

...You're supposed to do that. The last time I tried to run GURPS I still used about 300 skills, but I'd cut down the list of Advantages and Disadvantages to about 100 each.

2D8HP
2018-09-13, 05:45 PM
So many good games have been mentioned in this thread, but I'll add Mythic Iceland and Pendragon to the list.

Jama7301
2018-09-13, 05:47 PM
Yeah, as I said, it's very front loaded. A lot can be solved by knowing when a default is high enough for you and how some of the skills are suitable for different situations or have hidden benefits (although it never came up in-game I once pointed out that by taking Boxing over Brawling my character had traded the ability to kick for a bit more potential respect). Yes a lot of skills overlap because they're useful for different situations and a lot of games roll them together, but I also like the ability to be better at palming objects and hiding things on my person than pickpocketing and other 'sleight of hand' skills.



...You're supposed to do that. The last time I tried to run GURPS I still used about 300 skills, but I'd cut down the list of Advantages and Disadvantages to about 100 each.

If he scratched things, it was not noticeable enough, I suppose. There were things that were cut due to the setting, but beyond that, it was still incredibly open and hard to figure out what would come up at all.

A mismatch of tastes to game, which happens. It was fun to learn some things from the exposure I did have though.

I think that's part of the reason why I like this thread so much, and I will idly go through DriveThruRPG and pick out some new stuff, and why I'm setting up a bunch of one-shots for friends in different systems. Getting exposure to these new systems has actually helped me when I go back to D&D or Shadowrun, because it lets me know where I can change things, or cut thing, and what's really important to the type of game I like to run.

Hooray, horizons and their expanding expanses.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-13, 05:53 PM
Keep the games coming everyone. That give me more time to think and decide which game that I'm going to play. :biggrin:

Drascin
2018-09-14, 05:29 AM
Aye Carumba! There are so many games, I can't decide which one to start with! :eek:

Well, that's why people said you should try to narrow things a bit.

What aesthetic are you feeling like? Fantasy, scifi, pulp, cyberpunk...?

What mood are you feeling like? Serious, comedic, ironic, melodramatic...?

What genre do you feel like? Some mystery, shonen action, melancholic fairytale, two-fisted 30s pulp, highschool hijinks...?

How different do you want it to be from D&D? A game like old Vampire, which shares a lot of basic mechanical assumptions with D&D-style games, could be easier to get into than something like Chuubo, but at the same time it won't give you the same feeling of "oh man this is completely different!"

What level of complexity do you want? D&D is traditionally closer to the "mechanically heavy" than the light part of the spectrum, but there are heavier games, and also plenty of lighter ones.

And so on. There's kind of a lot of games around!

Willie the Duck
2018-09-14, 07:43 AM
Keep the games coming everyone. That give me more time to think and decide which game that I'm going to play. :biggrin:


Well, that's why people said you should try to narrow things a bit.

Multiple times. Bartmanhomer, you're listed as 'troll in the playground,' are you collecting post count on this or the like? It's all fair if it is, since the thread serves a purpose for anyone else looking for new ideas. I'm just curious since you keep not narrowing the field.

Milo v3
2018-09-14, 07:47 AM
Multiple times. Bartmanhomer, you're listed as 'troll in the playground,' are you collecting post count on this or the like? It's all fair if it is, since the thread serves a purpose for anyone else looking for new ideas. I'm just curious since you keep not narrowing the field.

To be fair, Troll is just one of the ranks that everyone goes through after enough posts.

Bartmanhomer
2018-09-14, 09:11 AM
Well I made my decision on which game to play and it's Vampire: The Masquerade.

Arbane
2018-09-14, 04:30 PM
As some wise RPG sage said, "GURPS is like a cow. Don't try to eat the whole thing, just cut off a slice you like."

OP: Good luck with the vampiring!

Koo Rehtorb
2018-09-14, 05:37 PM
I suggest playing https://store.steampowered.com/app/2600/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Bloodlines/ first to get into the proper mindset.

Cluedrew
2018-09-14, 08:03 PM
To be fair, Troll is just one of the ranks that everyone goes through after enough posts.When I first joined I thought it was the "Banned" rank. I'm not sure why, it would have been kind of funny though. Or "Troll out of the Playground".

Still I would recommend Roll for Shoes if you want really silly and really (really) rules light. Otherwise go with something else.

And I added 15 new games to my ever growing list of role-playing games. Including Pendragon, which I am surprised was not already on that list.

Metahuman1
2018-09-14, 10:28 PM
Fate and Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition can both be tailored to the OP's request, but I am sure they've been mentioned.




Something that I have never played but heard about once is a system called Vagabond. It is evidently a comedy game system about moving about the Multyverse, via portholes in public restrooms. Were you get things like The Believed Reality Power (Picture Wily E. Coyote running off a ledge and needing a moment to notice he's in the air before he falls.), The Rogers And Hammerstine Power (That Disney thing were everyone breaks out into song and dance, even if it makes no sense for them too.). The Murphy's Law power (Point out anything, no matter how statistically unlikely, that can go wrong, and it does.) and The Trench Coat Power (You have a trench coat and you can pull practically anything out of it, physics and economics be damned.).


It sounds like it might fit the bill.

Arbane
2018-09-15, 12:36 AM
Something that I have never played but heard about once is a system called Vagabond. It is evidently a comedy game system about moving about the Multyverse, via portholes in public restrooms. Were you get things like The Believed Reality Power (Picture Wily E. Coyote running off a ledge and needing a moment to notice he's in the air before he falls.), The Rogers And Hammerstine Power (That Disney thing were everyone breaks out into song and dance, even if it makes no sense for them too.). The Murphy's Law power (Point out anything, no matter how statistically unlikely, that can go wrong, and it does.) and The Trench Coat Power (You have a trench coat and you can pull practically anything out of it, physics and economics be damned.).


It sounds like it might fit the bill.

Tales From the Floating Vagabond (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Floating_Vagabond)? That one's been around quite a while.

PS: OP - there's apparently a sale (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/rpg_systemsale.php) on White Wolf PDFs (including Vampire) on DrivethruRPG for the next week.