Branching Out Past D&D

[Count Chumleigh]

One game you should definitely try to lay hands on is White Wolf's Adventure! Tales of the Aeon Society. Not only is it a loving tribute to the old pulps and serials of the 1920's, it is unique among the RPGs I have encountered in that it has an elaborate, well-executed system of rules for breaking the rules in the name of pulling off the amazing coincidences you see in those films. (Arguably, Mage does the same thing, but the operative phrase here is "well-executed," which I don't think Mage is.) For instance, that assassin who just leaped out from the shadows at you might just happen to be your old boarding-school chum and decide to spare you. Or there might miraculously be an extra parachute in the emergency locker. Or you might happen to be driving Professor Farnsworth's experimental submersible car--on loan from the university, of course--when the dam breaks. All in all, Adventure! is a wonderful system--onle of the few perfect games I have ever encountered.
Other than that, um ... the Serenity RPG is quite good, and Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved, while using the D&D ruleset, feel a lot different from traditional D&D.

Cheers,
--Count Chumleigh

P.S. Oh, and Werewolf: the Apocalypse is alright if kept simple, so if you can find a used copy of it online and are willing to stay away from all the blankety-blank supplements you might enjoy it.

[Ethdred]

One game you should definitely try to lay hands on is White Wolf's Adventure! Tales of the Aeon Society. Not only is it a loving tribute to the old pulps and serials of the 1920's, it is unique among the RPGs I have encountered in that it has an elaborate, well-executed system of rules for breaking the rules in the name of pulling off the amazing coincidences you see in those films. (Arguably, Mage does the same thing, but the operative phrase here is "well-executed," which I don't think Mage is.) For instance, that assassin who just leaped out from the shadows at you might just happen to be your old boarding-school chum and decide to spare you. Or there might miraculously be an extra parachute in the emergency locker. Or you might happen to be driving Professor Farnsworth's experimental submersible car--on loan from the university, of course--when the dam breaks. All in all, Adventure! is a wonderful system--onle of the few perfect games I have ever encountered.

I played something like that once - it might have been GURPS, but it was a swashbuckler version. The adventure was set in the English Civil War, but had lots of flavour from 3 Musketeers/Errol Flynn etc. You basically had a better chance of suceeding depending on how ludicrous your idea was, and there was always a handy rope/chandelier/curtain/whatever to swing on impressively. I only played it once but it was good fun

[Ethdred]

They're not d20 rules for RuneQuest. It's BRP RuneQuest, just made and published by Mongoose (Issaries, Inc. still holds the trademark). There's been some changes in the mechanics (opposed skill or characteristics tests work), but the basic system is still the same as always. I'm having no trouble at all using old spells, cults, and monsters - I just need to rearrange the skills (since they redo the available array of skills every time; this time, they've cut down on the number of skills, which is good).

The fact that there's now a RuneQuest SRD (the basic book, the Companion, and the monster book are available free in text format, here) may confuse some people, but it just means there's an SRD. Minor publishers (mostly online PDFs) have already taken advantage of this opportunity and put out tiny little supplements. The Glorantha: the Second Age stuff will be coming from Mongoose (as will the Lankhmar stuff), and that's the most important part anyway (especially when spirit magic and proper cult rules are in those books). The Third Age Glorantha stuff is still coming out through Issaries, Inc. and SJG.

Thanks for that - I'd got the idea from somewhere that it was D20 stuff. Glad it's backwards compatible - a while ago a guy at work was having a post-wedding clearout and gave me all his old RQ stuff - and he had a lot! I haven't even read it all yet (though your recent posts on RQ/Glorantha have been making me want to get back to it)

[Dairun Cates]

I'd like to start a game with a different ruleset in the near future. I've never played any roleplaying system but D&D, and I'm interested in trying a new system that may suit my tastes and those of my players better. Which systems do you guys like? I'm interested in a system that:

• Allows for relatively painless NPC generation. I'm sick of spending an hour and a half statting out a caster only to watch him die after three rounds of combat. DMGenie and related programs go a long way, but I'm looking for something a bit less time-consuming.
• Supports a sci-fi or superhero storyline. Fantasy is cool, but after four years of D&D I want a little variety at the table.
• Can be learned without hours and hours of study. We're all in college, and if there's one thing my players don't want, it's extra reading.

Your thoughts?

Well, For relatively painless NPCs:
Risus, Paranoia, BESM (if you use templates), The Marvel Universe RP system (just put down some numbers), Feng Shui, In Nomine's also pretty easy if you can find it, and Serenity

Sci-fi or Superheroes:
Risus, Paranoia, ... Okay. Fine. The same list, but add Heroes, Fuzion, BESM d20, DC Heroes, Star Wars d20, and Exalted

Learned Quickly:
Most of the above can be learned easily and understanding d20 makes most of the stuff out there already learned for you.

Ultimately, it depends on exactly what you want to do and how over the top you like to be. Personally, I've run a lot of those system or have at least read them thoroughly. Risus is great fun but best for one shots. Ditto Paranoia. BESM is cheesy and fun as hell but makes for horrible balancing issues (3E fixed some of it, but not nearly all).

I'd say to go ahead with something like Exalted or Feng Shui for over the top antics, or maybe In Nomine for some good old fashion angels versus demons. If you trust your players, BESM is super fun. I have also heard wonderful things about mutants and masterminds, and I LOVE the dice rolling mechanic for Serenity which uses only skills and attributes and opposed rolls. If you're a little more specific, I know a lot of other GM's and could search for something PERFECT for you. But yeah, welcome to the world of GM's that own multiple systems.