Besides D&D, what are you playing?

[ccs]

At the moment;
RPGs
Running: 5e
Playing: PF1
Likely coming soon: Playing Fantasy Flights 40k Rogue Trader RPG - it'll alternate with the PF1 game.

Minis
Age of Sigmar
Bolt Action
Flames of War (WWII, Team Yankee, WWI, 'Nam/Arab-Isreali - wich one depends upon week/players)
Likely coming soon: some 40k 9th edition.

_Board Games
Assorted - depends upon who brings what.

 

[vendolis]

My main game is The Dark Eye (TDE). It is pretty unknown here, but the largest fantasy RPG in the German-speaking world. It has been around for over 35 years and a rich setting history. Its 5th edition (which is available in English) has been streamlined from previous editions, and though it is still a pretty crunchy system, it plays very well at the table. Characters in this system are far less powerful than in D&D or PF, and Magic is not the solution to everything. The game is less focused on combat than on solving situations in different ways. I really like the dice systems since their randomness is more evenly distributed.
Its weakness is the character generation, whereas a beginner you are overwhelmed with the options (it is a point-buy system with templates for species, cultures, and professions). There are some character generators that make the process more comfortable, and the Archetypes they have are very playable for beginners. The other weakness is large scale combats with a lot of actors. It can become a drag and take a long time. Though you will try to avoid those, since battle is more deadly and the effects are longer-lasting (and there are no resurrections), e.g., it takes you over a day to heal up from one average sword hit.

The key for me, though, is the world, the lore is very dense and evolves over time. Within the last 10 years, there have been significant changes to the world and events that people can play along in campaigns they release. A lot of changes are starting to happen in the current times, and it is foreseeable, that in some years from now, the world has changed dramatically.

 

[Ibrandul]

My main game is The Dark Eye (TDE)

TDE’s appeal (for me) also rests on:

—its a crunchier system than D&D but mechanically more interesting than Pathfinder

—fighting monsters isn’t 2/3 of the game like it is (at least mechanically, and usually in practice in my experience) in D&D. It’s just as well supported to run a combat-light (or even combat-free) mystery story, and actually some of the published modules are like this. And overall the game is more human(oid)-centered than monster-centered.

—low magic, or at least rare magic, so magic feels, well, magical. The setting is also, as you mentioned, really robust and appealing, with a palpable “Old World” European feel. (The main setting guide really deserves the silver Ennie award it won a few years back.)

—still heroic fantasy (which I like a lot), but much less superheroic. D&D and Pathfinder never feel remotely real to me; TDE does. You can play “ordinary” characters like an artist or a shepherd or a pastry chef (yes, that’s a real character type in the core books, and not just for laughs)!

 

[PabloM]

The key for me, though, is the world, the lore is very dense and evolves over time. Within the last 10 years, there have been significant changes to the world and events that people can play along in campaigns they release. A lot of changes are starting to happen in the current times, and it is foreseeable, that in some years from now, the world has changed dramatically.

And how this metaplot affect your own games?

I ask because I generally tend to escape games with a plot that progresses over the years to have more freedom in my own games.

 

[Ibrandul]

And how this metaplot affect your own games?

I ask because I generally tend to escape games with a plot that progresses over the years to have more freedom in my own games.

I can’t speak for vendolis, but for me the metaplot doesn’t affect the games that much. But it’s still a plus for me, because I like following that as a separate thing from play sessions. I guess it’s a little like Dragonlance—a setting I can tell you have fondness for—in that there are big canonical metaplot stories but those can be integrated into a group’s games or not. Also, TDE’s metaplot is both much more coherent than (say) the metaplot of the Forgotten Realms has been for most of the past 35 years, and it’s also much slower-moving (even “major” events aren’t as frequent or as cataclysmic).

 

[Jeff Albertson]

It started in December, for some reason I became disillusioned with 5th Ed/D&D (for reasons not appropriate to this thread) after decades of D&D love:

I am now totally back into and more into the BG action (the BG explosion I was unaware of for the last 20-years is mind-blowing), wow, so many delicious games.

The only problem is, aside form co-op, I am soloing (multihand, etc) as much as I can, but I need some more humans to make these games come alive...

 

[PabloM]

I guess it’s a little like Dragonlance—a setting I can tell you have fondness for—in that there are big canonical metaplot stories but those can be integrated into a group’s games or not.

Hehehe, you're right. It has been so long since my campaign broke with the official Dragonance story that I find it hard to remember that there is a canon.

(...) and it’s also much slower-moving (even “major” events aren’t as frequent or as cataclysmic).

oh! with this you bought me. It is definitely an interesting approach: the plot progresses but in small things.

 

[PabloM]

The only problem is, aside form co-op, I am soloing (multihand, etc) as much as I can, but I need some more humans to make these games come alive...

Please (please!) try Ironsworn. It´s amazing for solo games (or group ones, by the way).

 

[Ibrandul]

oh! with this you bought me. It is definitely an interesting approach: the plot progresses but in small things.

To be fair, they aren't all small things. But the big things are infrequent, and often they're slowly built up over the course of many years. There's a current metaplot thing affecting the deific pantheon, called the Starfall (which I think is what vendolis meant by "a lot of changes are starting to happen"). That metaplot event has been "going on" for five or so years now, and shows no sign of concluding soon. But it's not pervasive in the setting—for the most part you could easily play a campaign where that's not even mentioned, without having to veer away from the canon. However, if you were playing a campaign based in one of the few places that was majorly affected (one city was destroyed at the start of the storyline) then you'd have an immediate choice to make.

Reading the tea leaves, though, one can guess that this metaplot event will lead to a big shake-up in the pantheon. So at some point every GM might have to make a firm choice whether to go with it or not. Still, it's hard to imagine the TDE creative team handling something like that hamfistedly, like (sticking with the Forgotten Realms example, probably the worst offender you could imagine in this regard, and the #1 reason many players today loathe metaplots) TSR/WotC handled the Time of Troubles (when DMs were instructed to respond to the death of the god of murder by abruptly killing off all assassin PC's!!!!) or the Spellplague (when they totally transformed about half the world and the setting timeline was suddenly advanced by 115 years!!!) or the Sundering (where the timeline was advanced another 10 years and many regions of the world that had changed in the previous time jump were suddenly "reset" by literally just popping back into existence from another dimension!!!). The TDE team is much better than that.

 

[wilcoxon]

Currently, I'm involved in games for Symbaroum and Pathfinder 2.

I've been trying to find a Dark Eye game to play in (I played a couple of sessions at Ulisses Con online) but so far haven't found one with room and that fits my schedule.

Other games I have relatively recently played or ran include Savage Worlds, Quantum Black (Ubiquity), Arcanis RPG (not the 5e setting), Shadowrun, and Metal, Magic, & Lore. In the more distant past, there was Rolemaster, Crimson Empire (renamed Cursed Empire due to legal issues), Twilight: 2000, Millennium's End, and Traveller.