RPGs to play before you die

[Totally Guy]

I was reading this article on Gnome Stew and thought it was really good. 12 RPGs that are totally special in their own ways.

So far I've played in:
D&D 3.5
D&D 4E
Serenity
Pendragon
Core nWoD
Vampire: the Requiem
Changeling: the Lost
Tunnels and Trolls

And I've GMed:
Burning Wheel
D&D 4E
Mouse Guard

And I've been intensely reading Burning Empires, trying to get my head around it.

Considering I only got into RPGs 4 years ago, (and we're talking grown up years with a full time job) I don't think I'm doing too badly.

But of those above I think that the only ones I would actually add to my personal "Play before you die" list would be ones that were featured in the article... D&D, BW and Vampire.

So I'm still short of the 12 by a long shot...

I'd like to try Paranoia but I can't figure out which of the books is supposed to be the core rule book...

So lets talk about what has a special place in your heart.

[Teln]

Have you considered checking out Exalted, by White Wolf?

[Darth Stabber]

L5R. (Really Good)
2nd ed D&D(okay)
3.x D&D.(good)
4e D&D(bad)
Star Wars SE(Good, the improvements of 4e without the crap)
o.W.o.D.(good)
n.W.o.D.(bad)
Hero System.(good but confusing)
Burning Wheel.(good, but not balanced)
Exalted.(okay, too much of a good thing)
Gurps.(If i am playing generic RPG i would rather play Hero)
The Riddle of Steel.(The Absolute Best I have played, complicted, and magic is not balanced)
Q.A.G.S. (Fair, any system that revolves around bribing the GM with candy gets extra points)
D20 Modern (and other spin-offs)(okay, nothing to write home about)
Spycraft d20(slightly better version of above for most purposes)
Call of Cthulu(I will only GM this, my sanity is too far gone to play.)
BESM (no thankyou)

[The Rose Dragon]

Have you considered checking out Exalted, by White Wolf?

Note: it's not for everyone. In fact, it's for very few people. I'm one of those people (it is my fourth favorite system), and I have a love-hate relationship with the system, mostly leaning towards hate.

Among those in the article, I've only played Vampire, D&D and GURPS. The only one I can suggest without thousands of caveats is GURPS (well, D&D requires only one caveat: that it be Advanced).

Other than that, I suggest you play Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition as well as Unisystem. Unisystem is the best RPG system I've played, bar none, though Mutants & Masterminds is actually my favorite, despite (or possibly because of) its idiosyncrasies.

If you're old enough not to fear being childish, play Faery's Tale Deluxe. With your children, even. You play as faeries, and not the soul-eating kind. It's like reading fairy tales without the twisted aesops. It has simple mechanics

Finally, there is Qin: the Warring States, a relatively unknown yet utterly fantastic wuxia game. If you buy it, send me a PM so I can start a PbP game sometime.

Other than those, there are things like Spirit of the Century, Maid RPG, Risus, Savage Worlds (not a system I like, but certainly popular enough that it must be doing something right), but since those are not my favorite systems, I leave explaining those to others.

EDIT: Oh! The Riddle of Steel! I've never played it, and I've been hunting down a copy since forever. If you have an extra copy lying around, please PM me so I can pay you thousands of dollars for it.

[Magdela]

FATAL

Note: Make it your last one, you will die.

[Renegade Paladin]

How dare he leave off Epic RPG?

[arrowhen]

I want to play Agon, In a Wicked Age, and Apocalypse World before I die. Unfortunately, I can't even find D&D players around here, let alone weird hippie indie gamers.

[Aroka]

My top games:

HeroQuest.

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World.

The Riddle of Steel.

RuneQuest, any edition.

Cyberpunk 2020.

Conan d20.

Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.


Not exactly "a place in my heart", but definitely games to check out:

Twilight 2013

All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

Legend of Five Rings.

[Kylarra]

FATAL

Note: Make it your last one, you will die.

I thought about saying that as well.

On a more "serious" note, I'd recommend playing MAID RPG or BESM for less serious fun.

[Zeta Kai]

1. D&D 3E: Mix & match for your own brand of insanity. Try Core-only, then all books, then all + homebrew for 3 radically-different experiences. This game can simulate anything, just not everything well.
2. Call of Cthulhu: Not the D20 version, but the scary version.
3. Mouseguard: Surprisingly fun & engrossing.
4. All Flesh Must Be Eaten: The best zombie horror game evar.
5. Mutants & Masterminds: The best superhero game evar.
6. Exalted: Everything should be cranked up to 11.
7. Vampire: the Masquerade/Requiem: Use VtM's fluff with VtR's crunch for an awesome experience. Best vampire game evar.
8. Star Wars Saga Edition: Come for the SW, stay for the force powers. Best SW game evar.
9. Serenity: Gritty, fun, customizeable, full of flavor & mystery, lethal combat, hard-ish scifi, & much more.
10. Ars Magica: The way that magic should be: Awesome.
11. Mage: the Ascension: The way that magic should be: Even Awesomer. Just be sure to get a late edition.
12. FATAL: See for yourself what the "hype" is all about. Just don't play for long. Bile fascination at its finest.

[Cespenar]

The original title (and thus, this one) is misleading. These are simply systems, they can't provide a specific experience on their own, hence the phrase "before you die" doesn't make sense.

/tangent

[The Rose Dragon]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten: The best zombie horror game evar.

And if you don't want zombies, that's OK, the game will serve you incredibly well for near-well everything (not for superheroes, but that's what M&M is for). It's part of the Unisystem games I mentioned.

[Jorda75]

I know it might sound lame on the surface but I had a blast GMing a game of BESM D20. It had all the familiar rolling mechanics of 3.5 combined with really great customization for characters. I ran a Naruto themes game as well as a super hero game and the system worked amazingly well for both. A clever GM can create virtually any ability/enemy/scenario they want with this system.

As mentioned above I also suggest giving LO5R a try, the combat is brutal and realistic and if you are familiar with Japanese or samurai culture you and your players are in for a real treat.

[Bayar]

When the Grim Reaper comes for my soul, I will challenge him to a game of Timecube RPG. That game is impossible to lose, since your 4 cornered character comes full circle and gets reborn or something when you die.

Then again, the reaper might just take me away anyway for suggesting playing Timecube RPG.

[Ormagoden]

1. Shadowrun
2. DnD 3.X
3. Ad&d
4. Dream Knights: A LARP I used to run
5. Werewolf:The Apocalypse
6. Vampire: The Masquerade
7. Free-forum AOL chatrooms
8. Rifts
9. "The Doom Campaign" d20 Modern (before d20 modern existed) based on the Doom video game series (before the doom remake).
10. Cyberpunk
11. _______ A Homebrew game
12. Dead Reign

[Postmodernist]

Something you don't see a lot of, but a game I genuinely love and am mentioning here so it doesn't get neglected: Unknown Armies. The noir, conspiracies, and crazy magic. Simple and efficient system, brutal, and fascinating. Play with grown-ups.

[Morty]

I'd really like to play Riddle of Steel one day, but even if I manage to get my old group back, it's not a game for them... they'd probably get into a big fight real quick and get brutally slaughtered.
I'd also like to play GURPS. In fact, I'd probably like it more than D&D. If I get my old group back, I'll try to persuade them to play a post-apocalyptic campaign.

[The Dark Fiddler]

A while ago there was a game that somebody brought a picture of here from /tg/. It was a Penguin RPG in Finnish(?), and the discussion ended with a group getting together to translate it into English.

Why is this game not on the list? Is it because (as far as I know) it hasn't been finished yet? (Also, does anybody have news on that?)

[Aroka]

The original title (and thus, this one) is misleading. These are simply systems, they can't provide a specific experience on their own, hence the phrase "before you die" doesn't make sense.

/tangent

They absolutely can, because the systems are tailored for different kinds of experiences, and they come with settings with their own style.

The Riddle of Steel can provide you with the experience of using the smoothest and most realistic melee combat system ever written, with tactical depth that leaves you reeling.

HeroQuest provides you with a mythic experience in a setting of incredible magical, religious, and cultural verisimilitude.

Twilight 2013 gives you a military post-apocalyptic survival experience with the coolest modern combat mechanic ever - not many RPGs have an initiative system where you can actually snap-shot an opponent dead between the time he pulls a grenade's pin and the time he throws it, just because of lucky timing.


Edit:

I left Fading Suns off my list. Best space opera RPG ever..

[Raistlin1040]

I was at PAX last year, and they actually talked about Dread. I've played D&D, Dread, and will soon be playing Vampire. There were two others they talked about at the PAX thing I was at (Dread, Mouseguard, Burning Wheel, and then two others, I should clarify). One was set up in a TV show format, where every character had a certain amount of "Screen Time" or something, and could use each session to put certain amounts of focus on themselves, and then the next "episode" they would be on the backburner. The other one was sort of like GhostBusters, where you were tasked with hunting down the Supernatural. I think this one actually used dice, but it had a "Great Fail<Fail<Success<Great Success" mechanic.

[Totally Guy]

The other one was sort of like GhostBusters, where you were tasked with hunting down the Supernatural. I think this one actually used dice, but it had a "Great Fail<Fail<Success<Great Success" mechanic.

Could it have been Inspectres by Jared Sorensen?

I've heard he does good stuff but I decided to preorder Freemarket because he collaborated with Luke Crane (who I already know is awesome). Hopefully It'll be out soon...

[Birstel]

I'm just waiting for the Dresden Files RPG books I ordered to arrive.

[Totally Guy]

I forgot to mention that I'm currently reading Pendragon as I won a PDF at a convention. They called it the "Good Roleplaying" prize... No... I just rolled the right number to make the GM railroad work out.

[arrowhen]

The TV themed one is almost certainly Prime Time Adventures.

I've also always wanted to play a grueling killer-DM, roll up a replacement character every half hour Gygaxian dungeon crawl.

[Balain]

Let's see a list of RPGs I think everyone should play before they die.

1. Basic D&D
2. 1st edition D&D
3. 4th - 6th edition Call of Cthulhu
4. Amber
5. Ars Magica
6. Bunnies and Burrows
7. Toon
8. Cyberpunk
9. Parinoia
10. Pendragon
11. Runequest even with the ducks lol
12. Rolemaster
13. Vampire/werewolf/mage/mummy/hunter/changlling/wraith/(3rd edition I think)

14. MERP
15. TMNT
16. Bushido

[Raistlin1040]

Inspectres and Prime Time Adventures were the names, thank you. I've not played either of them, and I'm not sure I could get my group to go alone with them, even if I wanted to. D20 is great, d10 will work, but something radically different might be somewhat confusing. Thank you though, that was bothering me.

[Satyr]

The three games I think are the most recommendable:

Fear Itself: A pretty much unknown game about horror. It uses the same rules as Trail of Cthulhu (which is the little known remake of Call of Cthullhu, which happens to be better in every instance of the game) but it is not limited to the Cthulhu Mythos.

Unknown Armies: This is a game about mindscrews. And postmodern magick. Like anything that writes magick with a 'k' and describes itself as postmodern, Unknown Armies has its issues, but the thing it does - you know, wizards hidden in the real world - it does much, much better than any other comparable game of a similar genre (you know, like the two Mage: The Something games).

DeGenesis: Okay, it's a German RPG, so it will probably remain pretty obscure, but DeGenesis is the best written game I have yet seen. The rules aren't that great, but the setting's depiction - both in the texts and in the awesome artwork - is, at least in my opinion unmatched. Oh, and you can get the core book as a free download.



The three games I really want to play:

Riddle of Steel. As far as I know, this game fits to my sense of aesthetics, but is not as klunky, as let's say Harnmaster.

Earthdawn. It's strange - know the rules, I prepared several characters for it, I even own the current core books - but for one reason or another, I have never played a single session of Earthdawn. I think the system works well enough and I like the setting quite well even though I'm usually no friend of high magic settings, but I never played it.

An intelligent fantasy setting. I want a setting which was based on smart, logical concepts, and was implemented without any larger brainfarts or standard stereotypes and an ongoing, well thought out and plausible metaplot. Yes, I know, these don't exist. But if one doesn't apply certain quality standards, things won't improve at all.


And of course, the three RPG's I'd rather die than play (again):

Seventh Sea. Why anyone could show interest in a less interesting, less plausible and in every regard inferior bad copy of a Early Modern Europe is beyond me. The constant racism sickens me.

A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. Not the first one by (the new defunct) Guardians of Order which was based on D20, and therefore quite mediocre (and included an alternative, but incomplete alternative set of rules to tease the reader), the terrible 2nd game by Green Ronin, which is a mediocre game on its own, but completely fails to capture the moot and setting of the books it is supposed to be based on.

Savage Worlds. Hooray for plagiarism and the blatant lie that a) this is a generic game (it isn't) and that if you repeat often enough that your game is fun! people will start to believe it. This game doesn't even suck. It is only bland and mediocre, but constantly and obnoxiously overhyped.

[The Rose Dragon]

DeGenesis: Okay, it's a German RPG, so it will probably remain pretty obscure, but DeGenesis is the best written game I have yet seen. The rules aren't that great, but the setting's depiction - both in the texts and in the awesome artwork - is, at least in my opinion unmatched. Oh, and you can get the core book as a free download.

They were once translating it into English. I'm still waiting for them to finish it.

Until then, I will keep studying German until I'm good enough to read it.

[frasmage]

I'd like to try Paranoia but I can't figure out which of the books is supposed to be the core rule book...

Paranoia is by far my favorite RPG.
I admit i should run the game more frequently (mostly get into long campaigns of D&D and white wolf), but every time I start up the ol' computer, everyone has a blast. I always run "Zap" style games, because they tend to be the zaniest.

as for the core book, look for the current edition "Paranoia XP," which looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Paranoia-RPG-R...8533410&sr=8-2

[Comet]

A while ago there was a game that somebody brought a picture of here from /tg/. It was a Penguin RPG in Finnish(?), and the discussion ended with a group getting together to translate it into English.

Why is this game not on the list? Is it because (as far as I know) it hasn't been finished yet? (Also, does anybody have news on that?)

Still workin' on it! It's taking longer than expected, due to factors outside our control (they always say that, don't they?), but we're ridiculously close to the finishing line now, as far as translation is concerned.

On that note, if you know how to read Finnish or if it's ever translated, Stalker the Roleplaying Game. The world of the famous sci-fi story Roadside Picnic, with an extremely efficient diceless system called FLOW. Lots of fun, kind of like a classic Gygaxian dungeon crawl in the modern age with plenty of character work and drama "out of the zone".

Definetly a diamond, that one.