Bonus points for any non-D&D or D&D derivative systems.
My first RPG was Palladium Fantasy way back when my grognard uncle invited me to his groups table. I still don’t really grok it, but it was pretty formative of my ideas of what an RPG could be. The lack of balance and extreme existential threats as part of ordinary encounters included.
Needless to say, I haven’t found a group for this system in a looong while, eheh.
Lancer ! I did one short scenario (6 sessions IIRC) and the system and combat were a blast ! The story a little bit less, it was a homemade one for the GM. But apparently the published ones are quite good.
Mage: the Ascension. It’s the only system I’ve ever played where I really felt like I knew MAGIC, rather than just a handful of pre-scripted tricks.
Warhammer RPG, Earthdawn 3rd ed or Hero System is my owned top games that see too little game time.
Mutant Undergångens Arvtagare is also sorely missed on the table
Played a lot of dark heresy 2 during corona online with friends. It’s a bit complicated with quite a few skills, but really fun. And because our gm was nice, we barely died :D
Oh God, Palladium. That was… A way to do things.
I fucking love G.U.R.P.S. Is it ground breaking? No. Is it fun to smash 6 different flavors together, hash out what survives, and run a short adventure or a few one-shots? Hell yeah! It’s not often I run into anyone who has a fondness for the system. Hell, I get kinda excited if someones even heard of it, even if they didn’t have a great experience.
Also rather enjoyed Ironclaw. I see it written off as “That Furry TT”, but I had a good time with it. Would happily play more.
I find in practice that I prefer d20hero/mutants and masterminds over GURPS. It has all the same flexibility but WILDLY less math.
I was explaining to an acquaintance the reasons why I was transitioning my group to GURPS from DnD, and she said she learned GURPS first and they’re the same. And I was just kinda gobsmacked that 1. she’d heard of it at all and 2. she learned it first.
Scion (White Wolf). Maybe Eclipse Phase. Mutants and Masterminds.
For years, all our group played was Palladium (Rifts, FRPG, and Heroes Unlimited), but I don’t think I’d ever go back to the system given other options. Combat took forever (possibly bc the GM’s threw ungodly amounts of enemies at us and refused to have anyone retreat, ever) and it felt like it just generally took forever to do anything. Also, there’s not really many adventure modules in any of the books (apart from Sourcebook 1? Just random ideas for things, but nothing to tie it together). We’ve since gone to a few other systems, but I still like to run one-shots and try out new systems whenever I can. I’ve had Year Zero in my sights for awhile and I’m prepping to run Mutant Year Zero, hoping it goes well.
Rifts was my first TTRPG and it opened up the whole RPG world to me. Absolutely loved the blend of magic and sci-fi.
Combat system was clunky as hell though.
Blades in the Dark and Lancer for the haven’t played at all yet answer. I think both sound really cool!
One system I’d love to play more of is the D6 system that the old West End Games Star Wars used. I know they made a generic version and I always liked those mechanics. It was super fun.
My first RPG was called “Het Oog des Meesters”, translated from the original German “Die Schwarze Auge”. It was probably pretty bad compared to AD&D but I loved it as a kid. In the one hand I’d love to play it again. On the other hand, playing might ruin my memory of the game. Like rewatching a bad cartoon from your childhood.
The Dark Eye is still alive and well. The current edition is still a pretty crunchy and traditional RPG experience compared to say dnd 5e but it’s a lot more modern than the older ones.
And the world building is still one of the best out there for any TTRPG imo.
F.A.T.A.L.World of darkness (Vampire: the masquerade/Werewolf: the apocalypse). I’ve never played it, but a friend of mine was really enthusiastic about it and from what she told me it’s really fun.
I love Old WoD games. Vampire less so, but Werewolf, Mage, and Demon: the Fallen are among favorites ever.
I am from that player generation who played the WOD games in the early 00’s. Like nobody around was playing D&D, it was VtM, Dark-age, Werewolf, Eastern-Vampires, Mage, hunter and so on.
These games are greats, the system has a good balance between light and crunchy, the setting is amazing with a shit ton of secret, and the idea of playing power struggles as the apocalypse comes was pretty cool.
That said, these games also have their own issue. A big one is their tendency to behave like D&D with tons of sourcebook. Moreover each sourcebook/game are written by different people leading to contradiction in the lore, not a big deal except when everyone pretends to be an expert on the lore. Another big one is that you sell a game where you play monsters struggling to keep their humanity and political power game, and you end up having a system about killing and fiighting I believe the 5th edition solved some of these problems. A last one is that it’s really hard to get player to cooperate, not necessarily a big deal if everyone is aware of it, but there is the point where No, I don’t see why I’d play that quest, especially with these people comes to the table.
But still a very great set of games
Any of the crazy, mostly-single-page, mostly-free RPGs made by Grant Howitt. They start off sounding almost sensible (Death was the Only Road Out of Town, System Shutdown), then start pushing the boundaries (Honey Heist, TRAMFORCE), before going all in on the madness (Seans Bean star in: A VERY NORTHERN CHRISTMAS, Jason Statham’s Big Vacation). Great for a last minute one-shot with zero planning required and maximum laughs produced.
I would love to do more Thirsty Sword Lesbians
Numenera, far future setting for Cypher System. I’m the forever DM and I haven’t been a player since I played the Skein of the Blackbone Bride oneshot at GenghisCon that got me into it at least 5 years ago.
I’ve always wanted to play Cypher in the Numenera system. I have been using the Cypher items in my dnd game but I wanted to use the whole system
Dm me If you’re interested in a text game, I’m running one with three players on discord. Also there’s an official 5e-numenera conversion
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Traveller seems like it would be fun with the right group
It is, tell ya.
Man, I wanna play Lancer so bad!
