TTRPG Game Systems that have good gameplay?

[Deaxsa]

As title. Are there any tabletop role-playing game systems that you know of, that have good gameplay? That is, the act of calculating or determining an outcome is exciting? I get that a lot of that is dependent on the DM, but there's definitly a physical element that I feel is lacking in this department.

When one plays a videogame, this is as easy as actually playing the game. You position yourself by tapping keys under your fingers, drag the mouse, fire the gun with a click - a satisfying boom echoes in your ears - and your enemy is vanquished gone before your eyes in a satisfying splash of red. The same, I find, is hardly true in TTRPGs. When playing D20, for example, you tell someone you want to do something, grab your 5g piece of plastic, you softball it across a small playing area, and, then you add your 2 modifiers - wait no three... wait no I was wrong two - and you compare numbers.

This is frustrating to me, that the physicality of playing a game is totally dependent upon imagination. This is one of the reasons, I think, to like shadowrun - if you're good at a task, you are throwing literal fistfuls of dice. It has a sense of (literal) gravity.

So: What systems do you find this to be less of a problem in, and what do you do to ameliorate the lack of physicality or sensory input that TTRPGs provide?

[Quertus]

This is one of the reasons, I think, to like shadowrun - if you're good at a task, you are throwing literal fistfuls of dice. It has a sense of (literal) gravity.

Neat concept. This would apply to any WoD / White Wolf games, and explain why throwing a Fireball feels so rewarding.

In ShadowRun, though, one of my best characters threw very few dice: maybe 6 for melee (but with such huge advantages, someone throwing 20 would likely lose to him), and 2 in computers (he was the only one in the party with the skill).

[EggKookoo]

Neat concept. This would apply to any WoD / White Wolf games, and explain why throwing a Fireball feels so rewarding.

It's also why my 5e rogue player loves his sneak attacks so much.

[Trask]

Some of the most fun TTRPG gameplay I've ever had was a heavily houseruled OD&D using spells from an OSR book called "Wonder and Wickedness". The things that made it most fun were houserules to initiative and positioning that made it all abstract and gridless, but still have a strong sense of place (scouts, first rank, second rank, third rank and soforth). Combat took place in dungeon hallways 90% of the time so it was a coherent system pretty much all the time. There were also a fair bit of houserules for each kind of weapon type, since every weapon deals 1d6 damage they all have their own special little abilities (axes cleave, sword parry, spears reach through 1 rank, maces make hitting heavy armor easier). There were also grenades and nets and lots of mundane weaponry involved, and because of OD&D's low power curve, low hp, everything felt REALLY deadly and also really fast paced.

And the spells (which completely replaced the traditional D&D spells) were almost all of the non damaging, not tactical, and weird variety. Stuff where you can disassemble your body like legos and control each part, or have your eyes float out of your head to look around and you can still see through them.

It was just a blast honestly, it felt almost like a modern military game except there were swords and magic involved. It was fun to hit and calculate damage because it was all so simple. There something satisfying about a 1d6+1 damage being DEVASTATING, even though that seems like a pretty small amount in most D&D adjacent games. It was exciting that even powerful guys could be beaten down pretty easily because of the extremely low power curve, and you never felt like you had to metagame HP totals or whether this encounter was within your grasp. Everything was within our reach if we were clever enough. It was all just very fun to actually do.

[Mutazoia]

This is frustrating to me, that the physicality of playing a game is totally dependent upon imagination. This is one of the reasons, I think, to like Shadowrun - if you're good at a task, you are throwing literal fistfuls of dice. It has a sense of (literal) gravity.

WEG Star Wars D6 (and OL D6) has this as well. The higher your skill or attribute, the more dice you have to roll.

[Xaotiq1]

Deadlands classic uses multiple dice pools, playing cards, and poker chips or other bennies in its game-play. Clunky rules, but awesome.

[Rakaydos]

Star wars / Genesis, by FFG, is another dice pool that doesn't use numbers. The good dice have advantages and successes, the bad dice have failures and complications, leaving you a pool that could be " you succeed and, " or " you succeed but, " or " you fail but, " or " you fail and also, " each degrees of success fail, and degrees of advantage / complication.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

In terms of delightful physicality, I'd be remiss not to give a nod to Mythender. Bucketfuls of dice, and a special "Mythic Die" that you're encouraged to use a massive d6 for.

[THEChanger]

When I think of immersive mechanics in an TTRPG, the first that comes to mind is the horror game Dread. Instead of rolling dice, drawing cards, etc, when a Player Character attempts an action outside the scope of their abilities, they make a pull...from a Jenga tower set up in the middle of the table. It really ties in that feeling of suspense and, well, dread a horror game wants into the mechanics of finding out if you succeeded or failed.

[Telok]

So what we're looking for is a game with a decision mechanic more interesting than a d20, characters who are significantly and reliably more capable than random commoners but aren't the most powerful thing around.

What level of math &or in-play complexity are we looking for?

[Mutazoia]

So what we're looking for is a game with a decision mechanic more interesting than a d20, characters who are significantly and reliably more capable than random commoners but aren't the most powerful thing around.

What level of math &or in-play complexity are we looking for?

We should probably ask what genera you are looking to play...that will help narrow down the available choices.