What are you other favorite tabletop RPGs?

[caden_varn]

Fluff-wise, I really like Torg. I haven't played enough of the new edition to have a strong feeling for the mechanics - they have evened out some of the screwiness of the old rules, but I think they have lost a little of the soul of the game bu homogenising some stuff. But you cannot beat playing a cybernetically enhanced priest adventuring with a D&D type mediaeval sorceror, a silver age superhero and an ex-NY beat cop, fighting dinosaurs in the land that time forgot (that used to be New York city).
Then you disconnect, and you gpo blind as all your cyberware stops working, and you have cybereyes.

FFG star wars is also a fun system, if a bit more complex. Helps to have players who are on the ball with the rules & their actions, and a smaller group - I like to have max 4 players. The extra complexity is worthwhile complexity though.

Shadowrun, as others have said, is a wonderful setting, but far too complex rules-wise for me. If I want to play it, I'll try using savage worlds or GURPS as the system & port the setting across.

[Anonymouswizard]

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.

On the other end of the generics there's HERO, now available in a easier to understand one book form in multiple genres. If you ewant to be able to build any character you want the corebook then it'll serve, but the downside is that charater creation is slightly more maths heavy than GURPS.

Savage Worlds is great, but it does somewhat suffer from 'buy book X to play character concept Y', but it's getting better about it (remember when Mind Reading wasn't in the core Power list? I do). Oh, and the 'science fiction' supplement is basically focused on one style of space opera, but it's good besides that.


Unknown Armies possibly has the best setting and magic system of any RPG. When your love of cinema allows you to make goons miss you know there's something crazy and weird right around the corner. Probably a gun mage who can't shoot anybody.

[Chronic]

I play pathfinder a lot, I like it for the diversity of classes and options, It still lack the smooth running of 5e (can blame him tho, way older).

I've played dozens of rpg but recently outside d&d and PF I've pretty much settled on 3 other rpg.

Exalted 3rd edition is crunchy, but both the setting and the combat system are really cool, and it's not a broken game like the previous edition.

Blades in the dark is quite unique, playing a gang of criminal in a noir Victorian setting where night is endless is really cool. The rules are simple and it plays very differently from other rpg because it's somewhat of a collaborative story, allowing you flashbacks to explain how you prepared an heist on the go. For example you have a meeting with another gang, you don't plan anything as players, you just indicate to the gm the style of approach the group will use (stealthy etc. ) and when the gm confront you to situation you can play either in the present or in the past. Very simple, very elegant.

And last is one of the best scy fi noir setting you can find: Infinity RPG. People may know infinity as a tabletop game, and it was released as an rpg using 2d20 modiphius system (star trek adventure, John Carter of mars, mutant chronicles, Conan) and it is to me the best setting and the best variant of all 2d20 games. The realistic scy fi setting is incredible, with diverse superpowers using small teams and covert actions because war in space is so god damn expensive. While the equivalent of the Un (but actually working) is trying to keep thing in check with is own special service, bureau noir.
it use pretty much the same mechanics for combat, social and hacking
Which are the 3 pillars of the game , but they still feel different, but also interchangeable. You can use social or hacking action in combat, or hacking in social situation etc. It also provide you with what I would call low and high intensity system. For example hacking have extensive rules, but it doesn't mean you will use them if you want to hack a soda machine for a free drink. Simple situations use simple rules, complex ones use the full rules. On top of that as a 2d20 system you have the dual ressources system, with heat for the gm to generate hazards or special actions for the baddies, and momentum for the players allowing them to build further upon their successes. If players have no momentum they can give heat to the gm to buy additional dice for their test, allowing them to overcome most opposition at the risk of the situation becoming more and more volatile.
Last small concept that I like, the game assume that the players are bureau noir agents (although this is no obligation), but you have secret loyalties to a faction, and usually have secret objectives that can conflit with other players secret objectives. They are low intensity enough not to screw the mission objectives, but introduce a small amount of paranoya and foul play between players. It's very fun to watch as a Gm and according to my players it's a blast.

[Wraith]

I am a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, but given the choice I'd rather play Dark Heresy. Same system, same developer, just the sci-fi setting which has more scope and variety than the fantasy version.

I've recently been playing quite a lot of Star Wars, too - though I enjoyed the FFG system, I think at heart I'll always prefer Saga Edition simply because it's "D&D 3.5 In Space" and I happen to know it more fluidly. Probably doesn't help that I'm a bit of a min-maxer which I freely admit is not in the spirit of Star Wars, but I do it anyway.

SLA Industries

Very cool setting, terrible mechanics..

Same here! Second Edition is due out later this year, and from what I've seen it's a big improvement so hopefully we can cross that out very soon.

[Jaryn]

And last is one of the best scy fi noir setting you can find: Infinity RPG. People may know infinity as a tabletop game, and it was released as an rpg using 2d20 modiphius system (star trek adventure, John Carter of mars, mutant chronicles, Conan) and it is to me the best setting and the best variant of all 2d20 games.

OMG you've reminded me about Mutant Chronicles. How could I forget? I loved that game!

[PracticalM]

I enjoy in no particular order
GURPS
HERO system
Paranoia
Call of Cthulhu
James Bond 007
Toon

I like trying out different systems and I need to find out the name of the system I played at a convention that was a lot of fun, but it might have been some kind of home-brew.

Edit. I really want to like RuneQuest but I don't think I've found the right group for it.

[MilkmanDanimal]

On the other end of the generics there's HERO, now available in a easier to understand one book form in multiple genres. If you ewant to be able to build any character you want the corebook then it'll serve, but the downside is that charater creation is slightly more maths heavy than GURPS.

Savage Worlds is great, but it does somewhat suffer from 'buy book X to play character concept Y', but it's getting better about it (remember when Mind Reading wasn't in the core Power list? I do). Oh, and the 'science fiction' supplement is basically focused on one style of space opera, but it's good besides that.


Unknown Armies possibly has the best setting and magic system of any RPG. When your love of cinema allows you to make goons miss you know there's something crazy and weird right around the corner. Probably a gun mage who can't shoot anybody.

I adored HERO and Champions for years, and 4th and 5th edition HERO are easily my most-played systems after the various versions of D&D, but, man, 6th edition took a complex system that had some holes in the rules and logic and plugged all of those holes, making a system that was internally consistent and everything fit together in a logical way. It was also so damn complex it killed the system dead, and Volume 1 of the rules (because it needed two damn books to describe the rules) was about character creation alone, and was IIRC ~400 pages. Insanely, insanely difficult to learn. I could still build any character in HERO 5th off the top of my head, but the game designers put flexibility and rules consistency above everything else, and killed the system utterly dead in the process.

[Demonslayer666]

My favorite system is currently Wrath and Glory.
Star Wars (West End Games) has to be the most fun we have ever had.
Shadowrun will always be my favorite setting, followed closely by Cthulhu.
Warhammer Fantasy - everything but the character progression is great.
Vampire, The Masquerade (Werewolf, Mage)
Champions - I loved making characters for this.
Rolemaster - best critical hits.

[Anonymouswizard]

I adored HERO and Champions for years, and 4th and 5th edition HERO are easily my most-played systems after the various versions of D&D, but, man, 6th edition took a complex system that had some holes in the rules and logic and plugged all of those holes, making a system that was internally consistent and everything fit together in a logical way. It was also so damn complex it killed the system dead, and Volume 1 of the rules (because it needed two damn books to describe the rules) was about character creation alone, and was IIRC ~400 pages. Insanely, insanely difficult to learn. I could still build any character in HERO 5th off the top of my head, but the game designers put flexibility and rules consistency above everything else, and killed the system utterly dead in the process.

Champions Complete and Fantasy Hero Complete both shrink 6e down to <300 pages with much better presentation, although I'm not sure if you lose options I don't think you do. The main thing I had trouble grokking was Multipowers and Variable Power Pools, with much more trouble with the former.My main issues with it are 1) some characters just don't need some of these dtats (I'm looking at you Offensive Mental Combat Value), and 2) most people I know seem to have an aversion to basic maths in character creation.

Like, the problem with the system is seeing how all the parts work, and most of it is pretty basic stuff. The main nice thing about HERO 6e for me, weirdly, is the removal of derived statistics and making you buy them directly, giving all that control over the minor details of your character in exchange for not too much more work. Because it just makes it clear that your acrobat doesn't need to have high OCV just because they have a good Dexterity, and that it can be saved for characters who regularly get into combat.

But I do understand the arguments over it being more complicated than most systems, it is. But that complexity does have it's upsides, and I'd rather play it than most other generics or superhero games, and significantly more than D&D (although I'll take any point buy system over D&D).

[Jay R]

These are the games that have made my role-playing experience wonderful, from 1975 to the present. If you don't like these games, fine, and I hope you have games you love as much as I love these.

Dungeons and Dragons. The original three-pamphlet set with the Greyhawk supplement that made it playable. The one that started it all. When I started playing, you could read the entire ruleset in less than an hour, and create a character in less than five minutes.

Chivalry and Sorcery. The first attempt at realism. It showed us all the best, and all the worst, that realism could bring. It is the most lush, vivid, glorious, realistic, carefully detailed, immersive, unplayable mess ever designed.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The first attempt to cover everything in the rules.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. A complete change to the approach to designing D&D characters.

GURPS. The most extended universal system, with an incredible desire to be accurate. When the designers started a table of weights for various weapons, they didn't think about balance or play value, they brought in a bunch of weapons and weighed them.

Hero System. The way to design exactly the character I want, for any value of character. [If arithmetic gets in your way, you won’t enjoy character creation, but that’s not a problem for me.]

Flashing Blades. The system fits the setting perfectly - rules-light, fast-paced, and you can focus on the situation, not the minutia. Five dueling styles. Each character has a unique Advantage and Secret. I would never play a musketeers-era game with anything else.

TOON. It works. Everybody can stay in character, and everybody understands the underlying philosophy. [What would it be worth to you to play a game in which everybody can stay in character?]

Pendragon. This game is a well-researched, loving tribute to the King Arthur mythos that is the foundation of all role-playing, and of virtually all fantasy written in English.

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective. A very elegant system, in which (for example) you simulated looking through the newspapers for a clue by ... looking through the newspapers for a clue.

Again, these are the games that have made my role-playing experience wonderful, from 1975 to the present. If you don't like these games, fine, and I hope you have games you love as much as I love these.

[FaerieGodfather]

Street Fighter: the Storytelling Game. Just got done describing this on the RPG Pub as one of my "irrational loves" in gaming: a system I dislike from a company I hate, a mostly unfaithful adaptation of what was at the time a very sparse canon of lore. But I love it so much.

Barbarians of Lemuria. The perfect lightweight system for sword & sorcery or any other sort of heroic genre. Only problem is your characters start off "fourth level" in D&D terms and only really advance to "ninth".

Dresden Files Roleplaying Game. Not a fan of the Gothic Horror elements that are so pervasive in Urban Fantasy, but they're mostly handled well without the warped moralizing of the World of Darkness. The Fate system is a perennial favorite.

Flying Swordsman is the only clone of the D&D that D&D always should have been.

[Veldrenor]

Monster of the Week. Character building has a History section where you determine how you know and are connected to each of the other characters, so you've got ideas for a group dynamic before the game itself really starts. The playbooks are a lot of fun and allow for a surprising amount of customization despite relatively small ability lists, and I quite enjoy how the Apocalypse World system is designed so that actions aren't solely pass/fail.

I'm also enjoying Pathfinder, although that might be more because of the group and the characters than the game itself. I like the character-building metagame, combining this feat with that class feature and this magic item can be a bit like assembling a clock and then watching it start ticking, but the gameplay becomes a little dull in mid-to-high levels due to the sheer power of spells turning combat into Rocket Tag.

[Chronic]

OMG you've reminded me about Mutant Chronicles. How could I forget? I loved that game!

I must admit I haven't played this one, is it good?
(So in retrospective I should have said that infinity is the best 2d20 setting outside of mutant chronicle I haven't played).

[Leon]

Dungeon World

[Jorren]

In no particular order:

Call of Cthulhu (particularly the Delta Green material)
Tribe 8
Apocalypse World
Traveller
Mage The Awakening

Haven't played D&D in years and don't really miss it anymore.

[2D8HP]

1) King Arthur Pendragon is my favorite game, whether the 1985 rules, the 2016 version, or any version in between

2) Dungeons & Dragons , oD&D + supplements + AD&D Monster Manual + All the World's Monsters + Arduin Grimoires (basically everything available in 1977)

3) 1978 rules RuneQuest

4) 1977 rules Traveller

5) 1981 rules Call of Cthulu

6) Stormbringer whether 1981 rules, '97, or in-between.

7) Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which came out in 2010 and is largely, but not completely, based on 1981 rules "B/X" D&D.

I'm also very found of the Castle Frankenstein, and 7th Sea settings.

[Pleh]

Star Wars Saga was a bit mpre than 3.5 in space. It was also a prototype for a few 4e concepts they were working on that feels to me like it helped streamline 3.5's clunkiness a bit.

I've had a copy of the Serenity RPG book by MWP for years. The d12 system never caught on with my group, but I always loved the character creation setup.

One year I ran a PBP ATLA game using a few core Saga edition mechanics and the Serenity RPG traits and flaws. As with most PBP games, it didn't get too far, but it was fun while it lasted.

[Mordante]

D&D 3.5 Like it because of the vast recourse materials. Lots of fluff, lots of freedom

Talislanta I think the combat system is better then that of D&D. weapon skill vs weapon skill and armor work like damage reduction. Also no character levels en no HP increase


vampire the Masquerade. (Owod) I would love to run a game. But I really don't have the time to do so.

[Democratus]

Traveller

There has never been a better time to get into this classic SciFi RPG. Mongoose has been furiously publishing over the last few years and has created several boxed campaign sets:

• Pirates of Drinax: Players are given a Letter of Marque and a ship to ply the Sindallian Main. Avast!
• The Rift: Explore the empty reaches of the Great Rift and find adventure in the isolated islands of civilization
• Element Class Cruiser: Join the Imperial Navy! Meet strange and interesting creatures. And kill them!
• Deepnight Revelation (coming soon): Crew a deep-space exploration vessel and embark on a multi-year mission to discover strange, new worlds!

[Dimers]

Particularly good stuff that I've tried:
Shadowrun, for setting and for incidentally learning about some cutting-edge IRL technology
13th Age, for doing the best job at having mechanics without letting them get in the way
Deadlands, for setting and for a couple thematic and innovative mechanics -- best initiative system I've seen
Mage the Ascension, for paradigm

I'd like to play Human-Occupied Landfill at some point. Wish me luck.

[SimonMoon6]

I miss DC Heroes.

Yeah, Mayfair's DC Heroes RPG is pretty much the gold standard of superhero game systems designed to simulate comic book superheroes. (Most superhero game systems forget about the whole "simulating comic book superheroes" idea.) It has none of the crunch of the tedious games (like Champions) but all of the style and flavor of actual comic book superhero combat. Running fights is easy. From a GM's perspective, it's just about the perfect game. Coming up with stats for an enemy on the spot is super easy, for example. No flipping through books or doing lots of arithmetic or anything like that. (What can the bad guy do? Write it down, assign numbers, you're done.)

There is no other game that actually simulates comic book style superheroes while also being both super flexible and super easy to use. If a character can be described as they would be in a comic book, you have exactly enough information to write down their stats. (Well, TSR's Marvel Super Heroes RPG (with FASERIP) does have some of these advantages, but it's a game where a high Agility does not make you harder to hit, it only gives you more hit points, so that's not a very "simulationist" game to me.)

And the best thing about having a versatile, easy, and flexible superhero game system is that, since superhero comic books really cover EVERY genre (superheroes, science fiction, swords and sorcery, etc), then you also have a game system that can handle every genre of game, making it a perfect game system to run a multi-genre game in. (Yeah, don't even think about GURPS or Rifts or any of that junk. Although, to be fair, GURPS works fairly well for very very low powered characters and worlds.)

Fluff-wise, I really like Torg. I haven't played enough of the new edition to have a strong feeling for the mechanics - they have evened out some of the screwiness of the old rules, but I think they have lost a little of the soul of the game bu homogenising some stuff.

I agree with all of that. (I'm also a little bummed that the 1st edition's final adventure where the heroes win didn't pay off the whole "Mara-1 turned the super religious world into a cyber punk world, giving them all sorts of extra awesome technology... but that's supposed to hurt them somehow?" from the very beginning of the TORG story.)

Two of the things I loved about TORG, 1st edition that are absent in the 2nd edition:

(1) Atheism was a valid character choice that was just as important and useful as any other religious belief system. This is something that I haven't seen in any other game system. The devs for the new version have decided that atheism will never play such a role ever again, stating something like they didn't want atheism to be seen as anti-religion, because that would be negative somehow.

(2) The open-endedness of rolls would cause it to be possible for ridiculous results to happen. Now... not so much. You can only do so much, no matter how lucky you are in the new edition. Like, in the 1st edition, if the die roll for casting a spell would add the results to the spell's duration, a ridiculous die roll could cause a ridiculously long duration. In the new edition, that can't happen. You can only get a "good" result or an "excellent" result, not a +35 to duration (on a logarithmic scale) result.

Talislanta I think the combat system is better then that of D&D. weapon skill vs weapon skill and armor work like damage reduction. Also no character levels en no HP increase

I remember being fascinated with Talislanta at one point. The sheer number of character races to choose from was staggering. My friends and I at the time made characters... but never got around to playing it. Looking back, I think other parts of the game might not be that exciting (monsters all seem pretty bland piles of statistics, for example), but I recall little gems almost everywhere else in the game, like the treasure system. I remember (when making a character) trying to spend gold to get interesting jewelry, rather than the D&D standard of trying to sell jewelry to get gold. But maybe I was just obsessing over the wrong parts of the game...

[Anonymouswizard]

Eh, simulating comic book heroes isn't the be all and end all of superhero systems, if you want weird powers handled smoothly you want Wild Talents.

Sure, in DC Heroes you can have heat vision, but in Wild Talents I can turn organic matter into Sodium with an AU power with Mass as the quantity of both the Attack and Useful quantities for four points per die. For eight points I can get two hard dice (always roll a ten) for it and automatically succeed on all rolls, although I should probably get six hard dice to make it very damaging and fast, that's forty eight points. Maybe increase the duration of the Utility effect for +1 per normal die, and increase the range so I don't have to touch what I'm turning into Sodium for +2 per die. So that's seven points per standard die, so if I still want to be really fast and damaging in my sodium creation I need to spend seventy seven points, fine for a major power in a superhero campaign where you get 250 points.

Or let's say I want the power to move at exactly 0.78c. That sounds like an ADU or possibly AADU power (I can attack people by moving really fast near them or running into them, dodge attacks by moving out of the way really fast, or just move to places at 0.78c). Probably a couple of drawbacks there, because you're going to be doing a lot of damage to your surroundings. The power to have any solid object moving directly towards me instead hit a random object within a meter of me is just a D power, while being able to teleport by entering and exiting vehicles is a U power.

Like, Wild Talents as written kind of sucks at emulating four colour superhero comics, but it's not supposed to and outright admits that. One of the things it is intended to do is handle out there superpowers very well, which it does elegantly through the A(ttack) D(efence) U(tility) system. Because occasionally you want to play a superhero who can make farmyard animals stampede in the direction of your choice.

[kyoryu]

Fate

Various PbtA games

GURPS

You could talk me into Savage Worlds or BRP games

Old school D&D, run as a megadungeon

[Powerdork]

Lately I've been really into Ironsworn. It's free!

In terms of other games: MASKS: A New Generation has been a blast, and I'm really excited to play Armour Astir once it leaves the playtest! Songs for the Dusk holds promise.

Legend is near and dear to my heart.

[EggKookoo]

Sure, in DC Heroes you can have heat vision, but in Wild Talents I can turn organic matter into Sodium with an AU power with Mass as the quantity of both the Attack and Useful quantities for four points per die. For eight points I can get two hard dice (always roll a ten) for it and automatically succeed on all rolls, although I should probably get six hard dice to make it very damaging and fast, that's forty eight points. Maybe increase the duration of the Utility effect for +1 per normal die, and increase the range so I don't have to touch what I'm turning into Sodium for +2 per die. So that's seven points per standard die, so if I still want to be really fast and damaging in my sodium creation I need to spend seventy seven points, fine for a major power in a superhero campaign where you get 250 points.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, it looks kind of complex, but it's actually really simple. Although they was late at night and I think I got my maths wrong twice, it should be nine points per die, for eighteen points per hard die, so one hundred and eight points for six hard dice. On the other hand you can pick up five wiggle dice in charm for 100 points and be as charming as humanly possible.

It basically boils down to:
-Define power
-Does it let you attack? Does it let you defend? How many useful things does it let you do? +2 points per die each
-For each quality defined above does it affect a mass, work at a distance, or have a measurable duration?
-Apply extras you want, and flaws you want, altering cost per die.
-buy dice, hard dice, and wiggle dice.

Like, if you don't want to go through the first four steps you can just pick from the list of prebuilt powers, but they're mostly boring useful standard stuff. No stitching together explosive kittens from fur and meat, no causing anything lime green to undergo spontaneous rapid nuclear fission, no causing mental health problems via acupuncture...

This is a game where the designers worked out how to build 'turn off the sun' as a power and put it in the first edition rulebook. The somewhat complex power creation is intentional because it's not supposed to make you feel like you're playing four colour superheroes, but it is the most intuitive power creation system I've come across in a game, even if it can cause balance issues if everybody isn't on the same page (although honestly not more than something like Mutants & Masterminds or HERO). When you can have Captain Cheesecake, The Recurringly Exploding Boy, Bananaman, and Major Damage in the same group a power creation system is doing what's intended (for reference those characters respectively summon cheesecake out of thin air, violently convert their mass to energy before coming back to life, turn into a flying brick after eating a banana, and cause collateral damage).

[Telwar]

In no particular order:

Shadowrun: This has basically been my favorite game since high school. I personally like 4e, 5e seemed like a poor set of changes and 6e seems like a dumpster fire. We're going to do a one-shots with the quick-start box soon.

FFG Star Wars: Sure, you need weird dice, but it works really well and has a lot of crunchy bits. Our current game is running down, but I hope we do another campaign.

13th Age: I just love this so much more than 5e it's not funny. It makes logical sense and the mechanics work really well. I'd like more options, though.

[caden_varn]

I agree with all of that. (I'm also a little bummed that the 1st edition's final adventure where the heroes win didn't pay off the whole "Mara-1 turned the super religious world into a cyber punk world, giving them all sorts of extra awesome technology... but that's supposed to hurt them somehow?" from the very beginning of the TORG story.)

Two of the things I loved about TORG, 1st edition that are absent in the 2nd edition:

(1) Atheism was a valid character choice that was just as important and useful as any other religious belief system. This is something that I haven't seen in any other game system. The devs for the new version have decided that atheism will never play such a role ever again, stating something like they didn't want atheism to be seen as anti-religion, because that would be negative somehow.

(2) The open-endedness of rolls would cause it to be possible for ridiculous results to happen. Now... not so much. You can only do so much, no matter how lucky you are in the new edition. Like, in the 1st edition, if the die roll for casting a spell would add the results to the spell's duration, a ridiculous die roll could cause a ridiculously long duration. In the new edition, that can't happen. You can only get a "good" result or an "excellent" result, not a +35 to duration (on a logarithmic scale) result.

We never got as far as the final adventure (we graduated, basically, and that stopped RPGing for a decade or so).
I definitely agree on the open-ended rolls - part of the fun of the system was adding your attack bonus to your damage - so the better you hit, the more damage you do. The extra dice for good/outstanding is weak in comparison, and most ot the time you just end up doing base damage, making combat a nickel & dime shock damage affair.

I really hate that they have made magic, psionics & miracles use exactly the same system. OK, the old system for miracles was a better in theory than in practise (expecting multiple characters to have the same faith to power miracles), but they could have made it a bit different - I don't think there should be backlash on miracles, for example.

I also dislike that fact that around half the spells I currently have access to are Alteration, with the other 3 magic skills fighting it out for the rest. Apportation is particularly poorly served.

[Friv]

My current top three:

Blades in the Dark is an absolutely beautiful heist-running game for desperate criminals in a grim magical city (a little bit Dishonoured, a little bit Fallen London) who are slowly building their gang and territory. It runs like a dream, and I love the flashback and engagement mechanics for creating a smooth balance between "we want a plan going in" and "we don't want to spend the next hour putting that plan together IRL."

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is a super-crunchy narrative game in which players advance by finding quiet moments and triggering interesting story beats, with mechanical and narrative advancement intricately tied together.

Monster of the Week is a monster-hunting Powered by the Apocalypse game, in the style of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "Supernatural." It's a particularly streamlined and fast-paced version of PbtA, with a decent investigation mechanic to keep things interesting.

Honorable Mention: Rhapsody of Blood - A PbtA dungeon crawler in which successive generations of heroes attack an ancient, evil Castle. The editing is a bit rough, and while it's a decent game for players new to PbtA but familiar with D&D, the GM should really be familiar with a couple of other PbtA games first, but we're playing it right now and having a phenomenal time.

Aesthetically: Shadowrun
Mechanically: OMG not shadowrun!

Related - Shadowrun would be very easy to skin in Blades in the Dark...

[SimonMoon6]

Eh, simulating comic book heroes isn't the be all and end all of superhero systems,

I can understand that point of view, even if I don't actually agree with it.

Sure, in DC Heroes you can have heat vision, but in Wild Talents I can turn organic matter into Sodium with an AU power with Mass as the quantity of both the Attack and Useful quantities for four points per die. For eight points I can get two hard dice (always roll a ten) for it and automatically succeed on all rolls, although I should probably get six hard dice to make it very damaging and fast, that's forty eight points. Maybe increase the duration of the Utility effect for +1 per normal die, and increase the range so I don't have to touch what I'm turning into Sodium for +2 per die. So that's seven points per standard die, so if I still want to be really fast and damaging in my sodium creation I need to spend seventy seven points, fine for a major power in a superhero campaign where you get 250 points.

See, that's the problem with almost every other superhero game system. Too much attention is paid to excruciating details.

In DCH, you can turn one substance into another substance, no problem. Maybe you use the Transmutation power or if you are fancy, you use Matter Manipulation. If you want to deal with the volume, no problem, the amount of volume could be the result of your die roll. Powers don't need to be faster than they are because every power requiring dice just uses a "dice action". Range is built in to the Transmutation power (and the range is usually big enough that nobody needs to have more, though there are ways...), so you don't have to add stuff to the power to do that, but you could take the range away if you wanted. Etc. It's all already there and you don't need to focus on the nitpicky details. Why would that be fun?

Or let's say I want the power to move at exactly 0.78c.

I think any superhero game system should be able to do that quickly and easily. In DCH, that's a speed of about 29 APs (I think... I'm away from books right now), so you just need flight of 29 APs or Running of 29 APs (or Swimming of 29 APs if you're aquatic) or... if you want to do more than just move with that, if you want to attack and dodge and so forth at that speed, then you need Superspeed of 29 APs. And that's it. You don't have to build any normal standard powers like this. They're already in the game system.

Because occasionally you want to play a superhero who can make farmyard animals stampede in the direction of your choice.

That's just the Animal Control power. That's not fancy or intricate... or at least it shouldn't be.

By the way, can I just say how much I hate that meme? It's like, "Look at all this hard math"... and it's like junior high geometry... with maybe a dash of trigonometry at the end that goes by so fast you can't see it. I mean, where's the hard math? That's not even college level math (well, for anyone who was prepared for college anyway... I know some people have to take remedial classes like algebra at the college level, but it's just sad).