What are you other favorite tabletop RPGs?

[bendking]

I hope this is in the right forum. I'm interested in what other games this community is interested :)
I personally have only played D&D so far.

[stoutstien]

Star trek adventures has some very interesting concepts like living campaigns and the ability for players to trade boosts to dive rolls now and risk penalties later on. The momentum idea has a good feel and prompts teamwork.

It's a tad clunky overall but it does have a lot of fresh ideas and is a blast to play even if you aren't a fan of the franchise.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Pathfinder's my usual number 2. But I also really like (in no particular order):

Mekton Z
Giant Guardian Generation
Shadow of the Demon Lord (newcomer for me!)
Shadows of Esteren
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Numenara

I've recently been learning Savage Worlds and GURPS. I like learning new systems.

[Misterwhisper]

World of Darkness and almost all their associated books.
- Changeling is great fun
- Werewolf is good but not as good as OWOD
- Vampire is the same as werewolf
- Promethean is absolutely amazing if you have a great GM
- Normal human is probably my favorite TTRPG
- Don't care for Geist

Shadowrun is great to run and have a blast with but loot is unbalanced.
Decades of evolving mythos, and can get really creative.

OWOD Vampire and Werewolf were what I originally started with, still amazing after over 20 years

Did not like: Fate, Numinera, or W40k

L5R was ok 1st edition but we had a crap GM

Mutants and Masterminds was just plain dull, everyone had the same bonuses to everything.

I have played dozens more but the rest were pretty meh or just not good.

[Magic Myrmidon]

My go-to for everything non-fantasy is Savage Worlds. Very versatile, and more simple than GURPS. Only problem is it's bland on its own. If you add a setting book, though, it usually becomes pretty fun. The setting Interface Zero is the best Cyberpunk RPG I've found for my purposes.

I used to love Legend from Rule of Cool. Ran a long campaign of it up to level 12 or so. Problems: It's kind of a nightmare on the DMs side. I LOVE the ethos behind its design, and being a player is freaking awesome. For for GMs, it's a TON of work, both prep and during the game. Lack of a Monster Manual really hurts it. Also, it's a dead game now, so I feel kinda bad trying to get people into it.

L5R is waaaaay outside of my wheelhouse, as far as themes and setting go, but I've always been impressed by the way it ensures your character has some cool plot hooks that tie you into the setting.

[huttj509]

Aesthetically: Shadowrun
Mechanically: OMG not shadowrun!

Friends are starting up a SR 5e game (played 3e in the past), and, like, the system is really granular. REALLY granular. Intimidatingly granular.

For example, 1 ranged attack: roll dice equal to your Agi + Weapon skill, with a dice bonus from a smartlink or laser sight, and a dice penalty from wound modifiers, and the recoil if you've fired more rounds than your weapon's recoil compensation + Str/3 +1 since you last did an action other than shooting. Note your hits (5/6 on a d6), with a cap of the weapon's accuracy.

Now the defender rolls their defense pool (reaction + intuition - wounds and situational modifiers - penalty if attacker used burst fire, full auto, or a complex action full auto). Subtract this from the attacker's hits.

If the net hits is >0, add this to the damage value of the weapon. if this is greater than the modified armor value (armor - armor pen of weapon/ammo), it will be physical, else stun damage. Defender now rolls body + mod armor and reduces the damage value by the successes.

Oh, and if the damage taken at one time is greater than the character's physical limit they're knocked down.

you have 6 different types of light pistols, 7 heavy pistols, etc.

Everything in Shadowrun seems to be coming at the angle of "hey, this makes a difference in real life, we should model it." Which sounds great in theory, but bloats really quickly.

[Tawmis]

D&D is my main jam (because there's variations of it - Forgotten Realms, Homebrew, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, etc).

But I was also a big fan of STAR FRONTIERS (and wish this could get a new treatment), the old school Star Wars RPG (just began playing the newer one from Fantasy Flight), and I even enjoyed the (not so well known) ElfQuest RPG, though it was very, very, very limited (which I think was its downfall and cause for it not being known and so short lived, even among ElfQuest readers).

And I've not played this one in EONS - but I did love the Marvel RPG (FASERIP).

[Dienekes]

Riddle of Steel remains the best melee combat rpg I’ve ever played in. Sadly, it does just about everything else mediocre to poorly.

Star Wars Saga Edition is probably my favorite variant of the d20 system on a mechanical level. Only, I prefer straight fantasy to Star Wars.

D6 Star Wars got me into ttrpgs and will always have a place in my heart. But it’s pretty wonky if you know how to stretch the system, and I enjoy character building more than the system really allows.

Mutants and Masterminds is fun to just create weird things. Playing as a large sized multi headed snake armed monstrosity is somewhat difficult to make work in most systems. But Typhon was a really fun character for me. That said the sense of progression is somewhat limited. And you’ll always get that guy who abuses the power array rules to do basically anything.

[Man_Over_Game]

Aesthetically: Shadowrun
Mechanically: OMG not shadowrun!

Friends are starting up a SR 5e game (played 3e in the past), and, like, the system is really granular. REALLY granular. Intimidatingly granular.

For example, 1 ranged attack: roll dice equal to your Agi + Weapon skill, with a dice bonus from a smartlink or laser sight, and a dice penalty from wound modifiers, and the recoil if you've fired more rounds than your weapon's recoil compensation + Str/3 +1 since you last did an action other than shooting. Note your hits (5/6 on a d6), with a cap of the weapon's accuracy.

Now the defender rolls their defense pool (reaction + intuition - wounds and situational modifiers - penalty if attacker used burst fire, full auto, or a complex action full auto). Subtract this from the attacker's hits.

If the net hits is >0, add this to the damage value of the weapon. if this is greater than the modified armor value (armor - armor pen of weapon/ammo), it will be physical, else stun damage. Defender now rolls body + mod armor and reduces the damage value by the successes.

Oh, and if the damage taken at one time is greater than the character's physical limit they're knocked down.

you have 6 different types of light pistols, 7 heavy pistols, etc.

Everything in Shadowrun seems to be coming at the angle of "hey, this makes a difference in real life, we should model it." Which sounds great in theory, but bloats really quickly.

Ugh, yeah.

That's also not including the whole Astral Projection/Hacking minigames your other allies are doing while you're shooting your gun in slo-mo time.

Those rules were just as convoluted, if not more. Nothing like waiting for your hacker and your GM to be whispering for 20 minutes, talking about his 10 rounds to your 1, as the GM comes back to "Well, your hacker failed...and he raised the alarms".

Cool in concept, but I'd just use something like 5e's Modern UA for a similar world.

[Pex]

I'm fond of Ars Magica. It is my favorite magic system. There's a logic to it.

[Xaotiq1]

Classic Deadlands. Clunky rules at times, but fun.

[micahaphone]

I love Stars Without Number - it's a sci fi game with real good GM tools for generating entire solar systems of content, it feels fairly rules light for something based on an old school game (Traveller, the OG sci fi rpg), and there's still enough flexibility to create most any character concept.


Edit: A cool mechanic to SWN is that most skill checks are done with 2d6, so having a small bonus from your class is hugely beneficial, and you'll trend towards an average, but combat is still D20 based - quick, swingy, highly lethal!

I agree that Shadowrun is aesthetically amazing but mechanically rough, I've seen some fan projects to make shadowrun but with mechanics from other systems, like Savage Worlds, Fate, or Cortex. I'm sure there's gotta be a guide to running shadowrun in dnd5e out there somewhere.

[Waterdeep Merch]

I'm fond of Ars Magica. It is my favorite magic system. There's a logic to it.

I've always liked the 5×5 magic system. Esteren has something similar, but it's not up to what I've seen of Ars Magica.

How are the base mechanics at the table? Reasonable to understand?

[Yakmala]

Besides D&D, which I've been playing off and on since I bought my original white box set in the late 70's, I've always been a big fan of the Hero system, including Champions, Fantasy Hero and Justice Incorporated. I also played quite a bit of Cyberpunk 2013 and 2020.

[ZorroGames]

Last time I played a non-D&D TTRPG was when there was only one version of Traveller.

If I had time to dedicate to a SFRPG I might consider Starfinder or Star Wars.

But I choose not to...

So 5e and 5e alone for me I guess.

[DeathbyDoughnut]

That's an easy question for me to answer:

Paranoia ^XP/20th Anniversary edition.

FFG's Star Wars.

Mutants and Masterminds ^3e.

Fate Core/Accelerated.

[SunderedWorldDM]

I like ICRPG, and I port a lot of it into my 5e games (which I think was a big goal of the design, taking mechanical and flavorful tidbits and being able to insert them into any d20-ish game). I really recommend it to anyone who wants their d20 games to get faster, simpler, more intense and more narrative-based. It has some crazy cool stuff in there!

I'm also a big fan of PbtA games for a similar reason, whenever I want to play a pickup game with buddies around I use some variation of 2d6, 10+ success, 7-9 success at a cost, 6- fail. It really makes for an easy to run and really to-the-point sort of game, which really works for some game concepts and not so much others.

I have a soft spot for Cubicle 7's Doctor Who RPG, because I'm a big Whovian, but I have to say, when I get around to running a campaign of it, I'm going to have to cut up the combat and chase rules. Outside of those instances, the game design is really great, and Story Points are a really fabulous mechanic that 'sells' the DW universe, the rules for conflict get really shoddy the closer you look at them. If you want to run this, I recommend using this resource for some great rule patches: http://storygame.free.fr/TOYBOX.pdf

I have Savage Worlds, but I've never liked it. It feels incohesive, like a bunch of subsystems that work really well stapled together. I mean, why do you need a deck of cards for initiative and nothing else?! How the heck are you supposed to figure out how to hit something, what with the three rolls you have to make against three different numbers and a contested check or whatever goes down?! It makes little sense to me.

Other than that, I really don't run too many games that I've said "wow, this is a neat system." Though I might want to check out some of the reoccurring titles on these lists!

[JakOfAllTirades]

Ars Magica is my favorite fantasy RPG, not just for its excellent magic system but also for its immersive pseudo-historical setting.

I couldn't find a modern hard SF/space opera noir RPG setting I liked, so I created my own.

My favorite published SF RPG's are Transhuman Space (love the setting, but not the ruleset) and Blue Planet. (FFG edition)

My favorite general-purpose rules set is Savage Worlds. It works for pretty much any genre, and I used for my homebrew SF setting.

The gaming group I'm currently in only wants to play D&D, so none of the above are on the menu right now.

[EggKookoo]

I miss DC Heroes.

[Son of A Lich!]

Mutants and Masterminds is my favorite system period. It's so fast and it has an initial curve to learning how to DM, but when you get it down, the crunch is just so Goood for being behind the screen. I think this system really taught me the ins and outs of DMing far better then a decade of D&D did.

Dread is really good for everything that M&M isn't. If you want a low magic thriller, where the players are trying to solve a murder mystery or any situation where the teams are clearly and openly lopsided in power, Dread is a great system to keep everyone engaged and moving toward a goal. It's surprisingly good for a beer and pretzels goofy game too; I've always wanted to have a game where players play as Goblins trying to pull off some impressive heist in a fantasy city, and when the players inevitably die, a new goblin takes over to keep the player in the game. I've done similar goofster games before where TPKs were expected (Like a Corporation owned star ship similar to Paranoia in tone), and it's always good for a laugh.

I'm always a DM, so I haven't played White Wolf Games. Its kinda like spicy food; people who like it, love it to no end. For everyone else, it's just a pain. I prefer a more Cartoony tone to my sessions and the White Wolf series just doesn't gel for me.

[opaopajr]

Call of Cthulhu.
In Nomine by Steve Jackson Games.
oWoD: Changeling, Vampire, Kindred of the East, Dark Ages.
L5R 1e. Legend of the Burning Sands.
Cyberpunk 2020.
Kult.
Astonishing Sorcerors & Swordsman of Hyberborea.
Dungeon Crawl Classics.
Advanced Fighting Fantasy.
GURPS Lite.
CJ Carella Witchcraft.
West End Games Star Wars.

y'know, mostly the 80s and 90s stuff that stands the test of time.

[Zetakya]

OWoD Vampire Revised, but with the metaplot completely ignored, none of the bloat from the other gamelines included, and a whole lot more mystery.

[Lucas Yew]

In order of preferrence from top to bottom, then everything else is currently wavering in my mind;

- Pathfinder 1E (especially with Akashic/PoW/Psionics/Spheres 3PP replacing Core stuff)
- WOIN
- Mutants & Masterminds
- Pathfinder 2E

(D&D 5E fits here)

- Forthright
- Fate Core

- GURPS (might have been an absolute #1 if it was legally free like OGL/CC-BY-SA)
- HERO System (ditto #4 ditto)
- OVA (ditto #6 ditto)
- Savage Worlds (ditto #8 ditto)
- Ars Magica (the most recent edition)
- Cypher System

Note that I actually bought and own all of these either as physical books or PDFs.

[LordNibbler]

I have really enjoyed:

Call of Cthulhu
Solomon Kane (Savage Worlds Ruleset)
Warhammer Fantasy
Rogue Trader

All of these settings were great. Like 5e though, they get really bogged down at high levels when the characters have so many abilities and options. Then again, with Call of Cthulhu most of my characters went insane early enough this wasn’t a problem.

[Denosol]

SLA industries

Very cool setting, terrible mechanics. I also started a Fading Suns game recently. So far so good.

[ImproperJustice]

Savage Worlds has been a great and easy system to run and use for a variety of games. Especially for main stream folks new to RPGs.

I love doing pulp adventures, sci-fi, and it works pretty good for Rifts.


But Stars Without Number is the game I love. So much you can do, and the tools are so vast and easy to use. It’s fun and I love how easy it is to encourage your imagination to develop some fantastic worlds and adventures.

I love letting PCs take the worlds it builds and watching them make it their own.
Had one group play as Star Spanning Mercenaries, another that were Xeno Archeologists, and my favorite being a group of Farmers, who grew a planet wide agricultural empire and then acted as smugglers of relief services in a war torn part of the galaxy.

[Sigreid]

It's old, and out of print but the West End Games Star Wars game is my favorite.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I hope this is in the right forum. I'm interested in what other games this community is interested :)
I personally have only played D&D so far.

Corporation (Cyber Punk but you don't play the punk... You play the Corporate lap dog and it's amazing), Heroes Against Darkness (somewhat of a 3e + 4e), and 13th Age (another 3e+4e but 3e and 4e peeps made this one) are ones I recommend.

[Samayu]

Used to play Shadowrun. We played since the beginning, so learning the complicated rules wasn't a problem. But now I'm out of it, so I can't go back. I loved it. It had the richest game world of any system. But we played it for 20 years, and it kinda ran its course. Now we just do D&D. I never liked the D20 systems, but its easy to learn, and the generic fantasy world is also easy to learn.

My other favorite game is Paranoia.

[Jaryn]

OWOD Vampire
7th Sea
Rogue Trader
WFRP
Call of Cthulhu

That would probably be my top five. An honorable mention to Fireborn, which I didn't get to play enough of, but which I found really intriguing and enjoyable when I did.