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I played HERO for years until Mutants and Masterminds came out, and switched over after M&M 2e. (Note: I haven't played M&M 3e and can't judge how it stacks up.) The two do very similar things - extremely flexible systems originally based in supers but usable for most anything, especially for...

Like almost any question about tabletop RPGs, it depends on the system. For FATE games (Spirit of the Century, Dresden Files, Starblazer, Diaspora, etc.), I run the players through character creation as a group. This generates all the information we could ever need about background...

I don't have any difficulty staying in-character. I've played only slightly less freeform rp (online and in meatspace) than tabletop, and the style of freeform I've mostly done involves switching characters on the fly and being able to IMMEDIATELY make clear to the other players who you're...

----- 1 ----- About 23 years. ----- 2 ----- About 30 campaigns, using 19 different systems. ----- 3 ----- Because with every game I play, I feel more strongly that different game systems are useful (or even plausibly USABLE) for different things, and I have eclectic tastes. Because at...

The Dresden Files RPG would seem to be ideal for your purposes. Urban Fantasy out of the box, and if you go with the lowest starting power level very suitable for action horror. Change of pace from D&D mechanically, without being completely alien to trad RPG players.

Given your parameters, I would use some derivative of FATE. (Otherwise I probably would have gravitated toward Mutants and Masterminds.) Strands of Fate is a generic rulesset for FATE that would probably work for your purposes, albeit perhaps a bit too "build-y." The Dresden Files RPG is...

I would VERY strongly prefer not to have the "traditional D&D fantasy races," since the types of fantasy I enjoy (Sword and Sorcery and JRPG-style fantasy, and Urban Fantasy to a much lesser extent) either always or usually exclude them. I'm amenable to non-human PCs, provided they are in-genre...

I don't know of anyone using the base FUDGE rules these days, but FATE (which is derived from it) seems quite popular of late. The Dresden RPG in particular is one of the main sellers in my area. You might want to look into The Dresden Files RPG (urban fantasy), Diaspora (hard sci-fi)...

In the last year I've run or played: Spirit of the Century Based on FATE 2.0, which evolved from FUDGE. Probably my favorite system overall, the key to the system is Aspects, which are player-designed character traits that power the Fate Point economy. It's a pulp system (1920s high action...

Seconding the desire for a story hour of this awesomeness! :D It reminds me of the "Putting it all together" thread on rpg.net, where someone was trying to run a campaign that would evolve with *every* D&D rulesset from OD&D to 4e, including every TSR/WotC supplement, justifying each change as...

D&D 4e (playing in two campaigns) Mutants and Masterminds (GMing) Other (1981-1990): Call of Cthulhu (playing) Other (2001+): Spirit of the Century (GMing)

I can't speak for stamp collecting - OH WAIT, yes I can. The US postal service produces collectible stamps in quantities that D&D never began to approach at the height of its boom in the '80s. Considering that the USPS is one of only a handful of government programs in the world that TURNS A...

It's... really almost impossible to imagine, I think. D&D both fed on and fed back into the fantasy literature craze of the 70s, which started with Tolkien and Sword and Sorcery, but moved solidly into epic fantasy territory by the 80s and 90s. Would fantasy as a significant genre even exist...

I think this is at least somewhat unfair to Gygaxian D&D. The accounts I've read from those who were actually at Gary's table, as opposed to only playing the tournament adventures inspired by his style, always mention that there was a lot more role-playing going on than you might guess. See...

The existence of niches like Gamism, Immersionism, etc. came about because some people - mostly designers or would-be designers, but ordinary players and GMs as well - got tired of arguing about how "the game" was supposed to play, and instead chose to create games that played the way they...

To me, the most useful definition of an RPG is anything that: a) self-describes as an RPG in its text or promotional materials. b) grew out of the RPG tradition without explicitly declaring itself to be a break from same. c) or is described by representatives of its playerbase as an RPG within...

Because codifying areas of contention (and agreement!) helps us find other players with similar tastes and avoid those whose tastes are irreconcilably opposed? Barring that, to choose a game that emphasizes areas of consensus rather than one that emphasizes areas of contention. Certainly that...

The former, although usually using the "interfacing with story on a metatextual level through the rules/shared narrative control" definition of Narrativism rather than the "about Theme" definition that... pretty much only Ron Edwards uses. :) Hence my referring to Story Games as an "Indie-RPG...

Where "story games" is concerned, this is totally the opposite of my experience. I was under the impression the term originated as a slam on D&D, ELEVATING the "story games" - it began as another, somewhat nicer way of putting "roleplaying vs. rollplaying." (Possibly its origin is with either...

The six ability scores, AC, HP and levels. If I'd thought of it, I would have added "Other" and said Classes, especially Fighter/Fighting-Man, Cleric and Magic-User/Mage/Wizard.