What's the best RPG?

[Morrus]

What it says up there.

Interpret "best" in whatever that says to you. There's no wrong answer.

Include a sentence to say why.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Mine, because it does everything I want it to do

 

[CleverNickName]

Dungeons & Dragons is the best TTRPG. It's the game I enjoy most, the game I have the most personal history with, and the game that has the most nostalgia attached. If I had never discovered this game as a pre-teenager, I would have grown up to be a completely different person.

Final Fantasy III (or VI, here in the States) is the best JRPG. The story, the setting, the playability, everything about it set the standard for turn-based video adventure games in the 80s and early 90s, and nothing else has come close. Except ChronoTrigger.

Skyrim is the best CRPG in the Elder Scrolls saga so far, if for no other reason than its thriving modder community.

I'm told that Elder Scrolls Online is the best MMORPG, but I wouldn't know because I despise MMORPGs. Get out of my game, you teeming horde of randos!

 

[Philip Benz]

The best RPG is the one you play with your friends, month after month, with lots of roleplay and ups and downs and narrow escapes and heroic deeds. And that you enjoy so much that you look forward to your next game session.

Some folks will tout their favorite game system (DD5, OSR, PF2, whatever) but at the end of the day the most important thing is the synergy between the players and the DM and the enjoyment you get out of a session.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Final Fantasy III (or VI, here in the States) is the best JRPG. The story, the setting, the playability, everything about it set the standard for turn-based video adventure games in the 80s and early 90s, and nothing else has come close.

Having recently gone back to re-play that game, since I now have access to a version of the game which isn't crippled by bugs, I have to say that the playability is not all it's cracked up to be. The fact that permanent stat boosts are assigned based on which specific magicite you have equipped at the time of level-up means that there's a lot of XP-countdown-watching and magicite shuffling between fights, which could have been easily avoided if the magicite simply gave a stat bonus while it remained equipped.

Now, Final Fantasy IV, on the other hand...

 

[GreyLord]

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

It covers all the bases which I want it to and it's modularity makes it one of the easiest games to run or play as one wishes for an old school guy like me.

It can be really simple in how one runs it (just using the PHB and MM, with the combat and save tables of the DMG or OD&D), backwards compatible with OD&D if one wants to using just the MM, or the MM and PHB, or even all three, forwards compatible (2e actually had a grandfather clause) with 2e, or even BECMI or B/X if one wants to use them.

In simplicity you can focus on the base races and basic four classes to keep it simple, or expand upon that.

On the otherhand it can be extremely complex with someone trying to implement as many options in the DMG including the creation of other classes and/or the changing of existing classes and mechanics however one want to run them. In theory if running with OD&D backwards compatibility and as many of the AD&D DMG extra options, you could have almost every creature in the MM as a race option and have literally thousands of classes of your own design, all legal and ready to play for that fashion of the rules.

It can be used to run a sci-fi game, an apocalyptic future game, or even a Western.

Plus, I really like it and that's really what counts in making it the best RPG for me right now.

(PS: I reserve the right to change what I consider the best rpg at any time as this is based on my opinion at the current moment, so it may change even from moment to moment...it's not a set thing right now with this being opinion based).

 

[B1okHead]

Hackmaster 5e

It has a focused design and is the best high-crunch old-school fantasy rpg on the market ime

 

[Shiroiken]

I'd say overall 5E D&D is probably best, but one system that really calls to me is the original Deadlands. Using cards and dice with an open character building system to play a spaghetti western is just so much damn fun!

 

[Sacrosanct]

In all seriousness, I think B/X (Moldvay) is the best. It has the best of both worlds: the free form atmosphere of "anything not prohibited can be attempted" (usually the DM just asks for an ability check), while not having the complexity and confusing rules that AD&D has, therefore being very easy to learn and play.

 

[3catcircus]

Twilight:2013. Period.