Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sowelu]

There's a billion and a half RPG systems out there.  And...let's face it, a lot of the big popular systems are the equivalent of AAA computer games.  They have easy-to-grasp systems, and aren't too hard to get into.  Often their systems are cool and unusual, but they're still well-enough known that you can find a book at any local hobby shop.

This isn't about them.

Let me start off with one of my favorite systems, even though I've only played one campaign of it.  Deadlands.  It takes place in the "Weird West", kind of an alternate-history Wild West where everything went to hell.  Like...really went to hell.  THAT hell.  It's about 2/3rds of the way to Call of Cthulhu, except with a very different setting and totally unique game mechanics.  If you liked the mood and "oh god we are outmatched" feeling of Call of Cthulhu, but wanted to actually win against your enemies on a semiregular basis, you might like Deadlands.

First, let me start off on the dice system.  It's pretty cool, I like it.  You have the usual assortment of stats (things like strength, agility, etc).  And (simplified), your stats are rated by die type.  So a seriously weak guy has d4s in strength, while a maximally non-supernaturally-strong guy has d12s.  You also have points in skills that are tied to attributes.  These are the numbers of dice you roll.  Three dots in Rifle, and d8s in Deftness?  You roll 3d8 to shoot.  You only take the highest die...but if you roll the maximum value (IE, an 8), you roll again and add to that die.  You also get a limited number of Fate Chips per session, which you can spend for extra dice, or to add another die to your highest value...or you can save them to cancel out damage, or to get extra experience at the end of the session.  Feel like taking your chances?

Being wounded really sucks, as you might expect.  Each limb gets five wound points, and an only-slightly-elaborate system transfers weapon damage into wounds.  Your highest wound anywhere on your body subtracts directly from most rolls.  Yeah, life is not very good when that happens, especially when you're only rolling D6es.  Don't get hurt.  This isn't D&D.

...But enough about the mechanics.  The West is weird for a reason!  There's demons out and about, and they really, really want to bring fear to the world.  Fortunately, you can actually have some amount of super powers.  Hoyle was a demonologist, and Hucksters who studied his works have learned to make deals with devils to cast spells, through essentially-instant games of poker; your skill determines how many cards you draw to make the best hand you can for damage or awesome effects, but don't fail to make anything or it's...bad.  Mad Scientists (YES!) have a similar mechanic, but can create things over time, powered by the recently-discovered Ghost Rock (think 'all the power of uranium, but it burns like coal and is barely used up').  A fairly inexperienced mad scientist can get the inspiration to make gatling pistols or some sweet body armor, and no, they are impossible to assembly-line.  A gifted Mad can make autocarriages, ultra-fast trains, jetpacks, sleep rays, or...well, just like the Huckster...how good of a hand can you draw?  There's also priests who can channel the powers of God, and there are Native American powers...  It sounds like it could get silly, but trust me, it's not.  With a talented GM, this game is designed to be scary. as. fuck.

I like it.  What do you like?

[hemmingjay]

Paranoia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29

[Soulwynd]

FATAL

[Dwarf]

FATAL

That was necessary.

[Viken]

Demon: The Fallen - A White Wolf game from the World of Darkness series that brought everyone the beloved Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon:_The_Fallen

[nenjin]

Ah yes, Deadlands. Such an interesting set of mechanics. They never really played out that well in game though, IMO. Being a huckster is damn hard, and quite dangerous. Deadlands is the kind of game you play once, shelve it for a few months, then come back and have to relearn the rules system all over again. The setting was totally awesome though. And I loved that magic actually worked off of playing cards.

I'll add R.I.F.T.S. It definitely does NOT have a user-friendly rules set. But it combined just the right amount of magic, futuretech, psionics and interdimensional tomfoolery to make for a flavorful game. The Coalition, Juicers, Glitterboys, Ley Line Walkers...so many different ways to approach a thoroughly magical world.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. God I love that system. I'm a sucker for career-based mechanics, and stat-based growth. Pity it never took off the way some other RPGs did.

Call of Cthulhu. A solid % based mechanics system, coupled with the COMPLETE AND TOTAL INABILITY TO DEAL WITH THE MYTHOS. It's a game with perhaps the greatest sucker punch of all. You spend all this time upgrading and specializing your character, to deal with all the non-Mythos game play challenges....only to watch everyone in the party succumb to the horrors and insanities produced by the Mythos near the story's end. Any game where Insanity is it's own character value gets a thumbs up from me.

[Soulwynd]

I remember there was this RPG you played with a common deck of cards instead of dice. It was sort of fun to play. I cannot seem to remember the name, however. The best thing about it was that not even the GM knew what you had so he couldn't exactly be ready for a sudden player surprise that could turn the game around.

[puke]

falkenstien?

[BishopX]

I'm a big fan of Hack Master, and Spirit of the Century myself.

Hack master is a spoof of 2nd ed. AD&D, it's absurdly complicated and makes fun of D&D all the time. It's also incredibly broken and can be devastatingly lethal in the Hands of the right DM. Highlights include a D10,000 critical table, character death during character creation, the complex geometrical estimation skill, more than 10 versions of the spell fireball, 1st level character capable of dropping a dragon in 1 round and Space Hippos with flintlocks.

Because Wizards of the coast has no sense of humor much of the system is sadly no longer being published. It can still be found though.


Spirit of the Century is a FATE variant system produced by Evil Hat Games, it's pulp action set circa 1922. It's intentionally somewhat cartoon-ish and tends to lead to incredibly over the top situations. like FATE, and it's predecessor FUDGE, the are no stats or levels. Characters are made up of aspects (basically tag-lines), a skill pyramid and 5 stunts. Everything in the game uses 4d6. What distinguishes Spirit of the Century is it's heavy reliance on fate points. Fate points are basically plot line karma, character get fate points when their aspects get compelled, and then use fate points to power abilities, give bonuses to rolls and dictate parts of the plot. This tends to lead to negotiated plots rather then having the GM railroad a group through a module.

Evil Hat has also published a rpg based on the Dresden Files, which uses a similar system, although it looks a bit darker. I have no experience (yet) playing or running anything in it, but it looks pretty cool.

[scrittah]

I remember there was this RPG you played with a common deck of cards instead of dice. It was sort of fun to play. I cannot seem to remember the name, however. The best thing about it was that not even the GM knew what you had so he couldn't exactly be ready for a sudden player surprise that could turn the game around.

Munckin?

[nenjin]

Munchkin doesn't require a GM, and is a CCTG anyways.

+1 for Hackmaster. I wish I had found it years earlier when I did a lot more roleplaying. It has one of the most awesome character back story generators evar. I remember in one game, we had a somewhat suicidal Elven prince (Prince McGillicutty) in the party. We entered a town where all weapons were peace bonded, and in the middle of rant about something, he drew his sword for dramatic flair and was arrested.

So the mage in the party decides he's going to go to the courts and legally argue for his release, while the rest of the party was breaking into jail to free the suicidal prince.

That wasn't a product of the rule system per se. But that's the kind of tone Hackmaster sets for the game.

[Soulwynd]

falkenstien?

I believe that's the one. If it's the one with a steampunk setting and pterodactyl dragons with ancestral memory.

I had tons of fun with it.

[Viken]

I have another one, Shadowrun.  Awesomeness meets Futuristic runs straight into a big black bus full of Magical goodness that literally splits reality. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun

Never played Fourth Edition though, only 3rd.

And R.I.F.T.'s was good, if way too complicated. XD  Once had a sentient Teddy-Bear character that had a rip in its hind in where a Dragon had blessed him like a gaint bag of holding. He could pull the strangest things out of his arse. It was awesome.

[Soulwynd]

Shadowrun isn't underrated, maybe a bit not well known, but not underrated. It's awesome.

[Sowelu]

Shadowrun is probably the third most well-known RPG in existence right now.  If you go to any bookstore...and I mean, like, a Borders even...in the narrow RPG shelf, you get just about two shelves of D&D, half a shelf of new World of Darkness, and a quarter shelf of Shadowrun.  Anywhere that D&D is sold, so is Shadowrun, and in great enough quantities that people who are just glancing at the non-D&D parts of the shelves can't avoid noticing it.

At least, that's the way it is in the Seattle area.

It is kind of amusing to see how it evolves with time though.  Back in the early days people had big bulky cyberdecks, and they jacked into physical access points.  In 4th Edition, people have cell phone sized computers, storage is effectively infinite and transfer times are for the most part instant, and you can hack wirelessly.