The RPG Recommendation Thread Reloaded

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I wile ago, I made a thread where Playgrounders list the pros and cons of different games. It died, because there was an awful lot of bias, and many arguments were born. I now have created a thread with the same concept, only a new format which attempts to solve the problem. I hope this exparament is not - like its predecessor - destined to burst into flames and plummit to its doom.


Labyrinth Lord
An old-school fantasy roleplaying game with a simple, gritty rules set and a retro feel.

Play if you enjoy:

• Older editions of D&D.
• Simple, flexible rules.
• The dungeon crawls of yore.
• Swords & Sorcery fantasy.
• Focus on character archetypes.

Deathwatch and Black Crusade
A very dark science fantasy game set in a nightmarish militaristic future.

Play if you enjoy:

• Relentless, brutal violence.
• The Starcraft franchise.
• The H. R. Giger aesthetic.
• GrimDark.
• Fighting for a cause greater than yourself.
• Gears of War.
• Ridiculously oversized weapons.
• Mowing down legions of mooks.

Call of Cthulhu
A cosmic horror game in which the characters are tortured in a verity of ways.

Play if you enjoy:

• Survival horror games.
• Hentai.
• Gritty, realistic rules.
• The Alien franchise.
• Vivid descriptions of people having horrible things happen to them.
• Running away from monsters.
• keeping track of ammunition, and running out at inconvenient times.

Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition
The latest iteration of D&D, in which the players take on the roles epic heroes who slowly become superhuman beings.

Play if you enjoy:

• Anime.
• The World of Warcraft aesthetic.
• Tactical combat.
• Being a hero.
• Balance.
• Character optimization.
• Team based strategy

Mouseguard
A roleplaying game in which the players take on the roles of tiny anthropomorphic mice struggling to survive in a harsh, gritty environment.

Play if you enjoy:

• Beautiful art.
• Dice pool mechanics.
• The Redwall series.
• Wilderness survival.
• Slaying giant monsters.
• Being an underdog.

Pathfinder
A d20-based fantasy roleplaying game with a rich setting, detailed rules, and a powerhouse creative team.

Play if you enjoy:

• Detailed settings and lore.
• Intricate rules.
• Deep character customization.
• Big, thick, beautiful books.
• Inspiring art.
• Inspiring descriptions.

Feel free to add your own.

[Grinner]

Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition
The latest iteration of D&D, in which the players take on the roles epic heroes who slowly become superhuman beings.

Play if you enjoy:

• Anime.
• World of Warcraft.
• Tactical combat.
• Being a hero.
• Balance.
• Character optimization.

I feel like that should be contested. Seeing as they pretty much tell you how to optimize characters in the 4e PHB, there's little enjoyment to had in optimizing 4e characters.

D&D 3.5 on the other hand, with its massive and relatively permissive ruleset, is far better for that hobby.

[DrBurr]

I feel like that should be contested. Seeing as they pretty much tell you how to optimize characters in the 4e PHB, there's little enjoyment to had in optimizing 4e characters.

D&D 3.5 on the other hand, with its massive and relatively permissive ruleset, is far better for that hobby.

Lol thread can't last 1 reply without disagrements

I would disagree with the WOW and Anime assertions on 4e, I personally hate wow and love 4e and don't see why people compare them and really theirs no specific relation between anime and 4e, especially because anime is a medium with hundreds of genres and styles besides naruto and dragonball.

I would think 4e has more these appeals

• Tactical Combat
• Being a Hero
• Balance
• Team based strategy
• Flexible classes
• Easy DM Management

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I would think 4e has more these appeals

• Tactical Combat
• Being a Hero
• Balance
• Team based strategy
• Flexible classes
• Easy DM Management

I wouldn't say that 4e has easy DM management. Its too east to not give the PCs enough toys (making them underpowered), or give them toys which are too powerful (making them annoyingly overpowered). Its also hard to portray a sense of danger when the PCs are so hard to kill. I say this having DMed 4e for a double-digit number of hours. Its a good game, it just doesn't have overly easy DM management.

I have, however, revised the list. I think you will like the new one better.

[SamBurke]

This is nice to see up again!

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Mouseguard
A roleplaying game in which the players take on the roles of tiny anthropomorphic mice struggling to survive in a harsh, gritty environment.

Play if you enjoy:

• Beautiful art.
• Dice pool mechanics.
• The Redwall series.
• Wilderness survival.
• Slaying giant monsters.
• Being an underdog.

Also, why hasn't anyone else added any RPG profiles? It takes, like, three minutes.

[tedthehunter]

I wouldn't say that 4e has easy DM management. Its too east to not give the PCs enough toys (making them underpowered), or give them toys which are too powerful (making them annoyingly overpowered). Its also hard to portray a sense of danger when the PCs are so hard to kill. I say this having DMed 4e for a double-digit number of hours. Its a good game, it just doesn't have overly easy DM management.

I have, however, revised the list. I think you will like the new one better.

I think it would be fair to leave that on there for the more experienced RPG fans. 4e does present most of the difficulties to the DM that all RPGs do, but I think by comparison it's far easier to learn, and to manage than many RPGs out there.

More on topic, I'm pleased to see this thread, and I'll be lurking quietly with no more arguments

[The Dark Fiddler]

Don't Rest Your Head
You've been unable to sleep for some time. And then, in your sleepless state, you managed to see something you weren't supposed to see: The Mad City. And now that you know about it, it knows about you. It doesn't like people knowing about it. But in your exhaustion and your madness you've gained abilities to fight back.

Play if you enjoy:

• Simple rules (all summed up on a single page in the book)
• Dice pool mechanics.
• Horror games.
• An established, yet malleable setting.
• Being an underdog and a real chance of losing.
• Modern, mostly-mundane settings.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Burning Wheel

A fantasy game set in the tradition of writers such as Tolkien and Howard, with a gritty ruleset and character-driven drama.

Play if you enjoy:

• The old-school D&D feel, but with new-school mechanics.
• A rich, diverse skill selection.
• Creating a highly fleshed-out character.
• Story and character-driven sensibilities on every page.
• Intense drama.
• Playing around with lots of optional subsystems. (The game starts simple, and builds on itself.)
• Brutal combat.
• Organic character creation and advancement.

[eggs]

I'll throw a couple of these in.
Fiasco

A story-based game based on movies like Bottle Rocket, Fargo or Pulp Fiction.

Check it out if you like:

• Building complicated stories of tangled goals and relationships
• Coen brothers movies
• Stories that resolve in an evening of play
• Narratively structured, but largely freeform storytelling
• Trying to lose everything your character's ever loved
• Lots of free modules
• Neurotically color-coded dice

InSpectres

A light game about supernatural investigations, and the professionals who do them.

Check it out if you like:

• Rolling dice to see who tells the story (instead of what happens)
• Movies like Ghostbusters or Men in Black
• Reality television-styled character confessionals
• Mysteries that even the GM doesn't have figured out

Dust Devils

A Western game about frontiersmen with histories that they haven't left behind.

Check it out if you like:

• Players making story decisions
• Character building focused on the skeletons in the characters' closets instead of their attack modifiers
• Poker hands as a game engine
• Spaghetti westerns

3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars

A game about Space Marines Space-Marining.

Play if you like:

• Light but tactical gameplay
• Surprisingly deep backstories
• Splattering d100 Electric Puppymen at a time with your Chainsaw gun
• Starship Troopers
• Telling stories to escape untimely demise at the hands of invisible homocidal robots
• Hating your home

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Pathfinder
A d20-based fantasy roleplaying game with a rich setting, detailed rules, and a powerhouse creative team.

Play if you enjoy:

• Detailed settings and lore.
• Intricate rules.
• Deep character customization.
• Big, thick, beautiful books.
• Inspiring art.
• Inspiring descriptions.