3 Favorite Things About Your Favorite System

dragoner said:

Just to throw some positive vibes back into the forum. Tell us the 3 favorite things about your favorite system

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Talislanta 5E

I'll start with a caveat - for our most popular games, this system plays a role as the backbone, with all of the details hashed out by my permanent gaming group. We played it, we loved it, we keep formatting it to fit our needs, no matter the occasion (except those whimsical times we want a more 'lite' system).

1) Success Chart: Roll a d20, add modifiers, reduce by the enemy's appropriate modifier. Does away with base defense values (10+), and instead focuses on a simple chart mechanic.
------ Result of 0 or less, Critical Failure.
------ Result of 1 - 5, Failure.
------ Result of 6 - 10, Partial Success.
------ Result of 11 - 19, Success.
------ Result of 20+, Critical Success.

2) Player Agency: As you can vaguely guess by the chart, the creature rolling the die has a bit of advantage. During a monster's attack, a player can choose to roll a defense roll instead of the monster rolling the attack, but doing so increases your multi-action penalty - meaning your attacks and future defense rolls will be less accurate.

3) Flexibility: It's honestly a very bare bones system as a whole, which made it ridiculously easy to modify it a hundred different ways.

OP - Thanks for the thread. What a fun read.
No way I could play this system now due to time, but when we were young MERP/Rolemaster appealed to our uber-geekness.

Critical Tables: Having it describe you lopping off someone's head or shoot through the eye - fantastic!

Parry: Deciding whether you want to attack all out or save some of your attack to parry was a lot of fun.

Boxes: Gaining a level and filling in those boxes on the character sheet (think they were worth five points) and visually seeing your skills improve was excellent.

Xaelvaen said:

Talislanta
1) Success Chart:
2) Player Agency:
3) Flexibility:.

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I know you only get 3, but "still no Elves " deserves an honorable mention.

This thread is a great idea. Have really enjoyed reading others top three.

One of my top two games is Wrath and Glory (WanG), but I couldn’t limit myself to three!

1. The Wrath die is the simplest implementation of turning a “yes/no” result into a “yes, but”, “yes, and”, “no, but” and “no, and” I’ve ever encountered. (And taking Ruin gives the GM a simple solution if there are no clear complications.)

2. Wrath (and Ruin) is a resource that allow re-rolls, can be given as a roleplaying reward and can be used for players to add elements to scenes is a simple way to add interesting tactical play and player input. Wrath points sway critical scenes from failure to success, and Ruin can push it back the other way.

3. The initiative system with back and forth between players and GM ensures each side has a chance to shine and the players need to think about their priorities. But spending Glory or Ruin can shake up the order.

4. Campaign and critical cards add interesting options and randomness to the game, but in an easy to use format. I thought I’d hate them for over complicating the game and requiring a prop, but I’ve seen campaign cards dramatically change the direction of the adventure and criticals change the course of combat.

Honourable mentions: Tiers of play, simple archetypes, asymmetrical die results, and brutal weapons.

The first release had some clarity and rule issues, but I can’t wait to see a streamlined version from C7.

Scott Christian said:

OP - Thanks for the thread. What a fun read.
No way I could play this system now due to time, but when we were young MERP/Rolemaster appealed to our uber-geekness.

Critical Tables: Having it describe you lopping off someone's head or shoot through the eye - fantastic!

Parry: Deciding whether you want to attack all out or save some of your attack to parry was a lot of fun.

Boxes: Gaining a level and filling in those boxes on the character sheet (think they were worth five points) and visually seeing your skills improve was excellent.

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Regarding Paryy - one of the things that strikes me as missing in 5e is a bit of the softer offense vs defense choices. The old flavors of power attack and defensive attack (give up to-hits for bonus damage or AC vs melee) seem missing or replaced by their more all-or-nothing extremes. Easy enough to add. Might also be on some magic items.

Tony Vargas said:

I know you only get 3, but "still no Elves " deserves an honorable mention.

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I'm sure it is blasphemy, but I have indeed used their system in worlds with Elves >.>

I totally missed this thread but I'd like to asd my favourite fantasy rpg by far: Shadow of the Demon Lord

The standouts:

1. Multiclassing built in
Characters advance from level 0 to 10. By the time you get to level 7 you will have chosen three classes. Each one gives you a few level of benefits and that's it. Furthermore, there are no pre-requisites.

I love this system because it is so flexible and infinitely expandable. I love the theme and choice it gives you. Would you like to be a priest spellbinder gunslinger? Or a warrior wizard mage knight? How about a Rogue oracle miracle worker? With 16 expert and 64 master classes in the core book alone there's so many choices and expansion books add more (e.g, the freeport companion has lots of piratey goodness)

The magic schools
Like the above, the magic schools are hugely expandable and offer enormous variety. Even the strongest magic classes will likely only master 2 schools at best. There are 30 schools in core alone, and expansions also add other schools.

I love this from a player and from a gm perspective. If i want a water mage i just give them the water school spells. Perhaps i want a battle mage? Battle school. A witch? Curse school. The schools mean thst i can have two magicians in the party that are totally different from each other.

3. Backgrounds not skills
There are no set skills. Instead you choose a number of backgrounds and can add more at certain pevels and depending on class choices. They come in categories, but you essentially have liberty to make these up. When something applies to your background then you can get a bonus to your non combat rolls.

Some people dislike this kind of system but I love it. I love that you can make a goblin horse rancher from the lowlands, or an occultist that used to be a university professor. I find that skills systems never fully can anticipate all the situations players will find themselves in and this just feels so much more thematic to me.

There's more but these are my main ones!

CubicsRube said:

I totally missed this thread but I'd like to asd my favourite fantasy rpg by far: Shadow of the Demon Lord

The standouts:

1. Multiclassing built in
Characters advance from level 0 to 10. By the time you get to level 7 you will have chosen three classes. Each one gives you a few level of benefits and that's it. Furthermore, there are no pre-requisites.

I love this system because it is so flexible and infinitely expandable. I love the theme and choice it gives you. Would you like to be a priest spellbinder gunslinger? Or a warrior wizard mage knight? How about a Rogue oracle miracle worker? With 16 expert and 64 master classes in the core book alone there's so many choices and expansion books add more (e.g, the freeport companion has lots of piratey goodness)

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This sounds very interesting - what is the core resolution mechanic for this system, if you do not mind my asking? Might have to give it a read sometime!

Xaelvaen said:

This sounds very interesting - what is the core resolution mechanic for this system, if you do not mind my asking? Might have to give it a read sometime!

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No problem. It's a d20 system from a guy that did work on 4e and 5e as well as a bunch of other things.

It runs somewhat more simplified than d&d in my view which is one reason I like it.

The core system resolves on modifiers for four stats (str, dex, int and wis) and their version of advantage/disadvantage (called boons and banes).

Certain class features like a priests prayer or a warriors weapons mastery or some spells can give boons.

Fear and horror effects of monsters, darkness, trying a stunt or special maneuver, being poisoned and other conditions give banes.

The boons and banes cancel each other out one for one.

You roll a number of d6 equal to your net boons/banes. If boons, you add the highest to your roll, if banes you subtract the highest.

Clunky to explain but very easy in play. Managing these are crucial to upping your chances of succeeding in things and being able to do cooler things.

In the core there is nothing truly innovative and very familiar to d&d players. But i feel like it's stripped out a lot of unnecessary complexity and added modular choices in its stead.

Not seeing a lot of traditional D&D or even Pathfinder...…. I hope they are reading this thread