5 rpgs I would take to a deserted island.

[Achan hiArusa]

Oh, Just 5 books. That's a tough one:

1. Ars Magica 3rd Edition
2. Cyberpunk 2020
3. Battletech: Total Warfare
4. Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth
5. Vampire the Masquerade 1st Edition

Other serious candidates include Aria: Trail of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, Mekton Zeta, Player's Handbook 3.5e, Monster Manual 4e, Modern d20, Future d20, Runequest 3rd Edition, Torg, Alternity Player's Guide, Dark Matter (the Alternity version), and Amazing Engine: Bughunters.

Now if it were just five books total, it would be:

1. Bible
2. Feynman's six easy pieces and six not so easy pieces
3. Battletech: Total Warfare
4. Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth
5. Ars Magica 3rd Edition

That would be plenty of reading.

 

[Iron Sky]

In order:

Exalted, 1st Edition - Favorite game system ever, in spite of its flaws, and awesome world.
Alternity - Best generic Sci-fi system I've ever found.
Dark Heresy - Great game system, huge, epic, dark universe
Star Wars: SAGA - In case an overwhelming urge to play Star Wars came up.
GURPS - If we were stranded on an island, would probably have enough time to figure out why so many people like it. Saw potential in it when I ran it, but no-one had a good enough grasp on the rules in previous games.

DnD isn't on my list for a couple reasons:
1) 4E is too limited in what sort of games you can run, over the long stranded-on-an-island timeline.
2) DnD tries to pigeon-hole you into hack-and-slash. I love RPG combat, but it loses some when it's the primary/intended method of character advancement.
3) 3.5 is dead to me. It handles "generic" fantasy gaming far better than 4E, but I despise almost everything about high-level play(which for me starts about level 10 or so).
4) Level-based RPG systems hold inherently less appeal to me than others because of the arbitrariness/power jump of the Level.

Funnily enough, despite my anti-DnD diatribe here, my last game I ran was 3.5, and I'm playing in a 4e game and running one...

It's fun, but there's a reason(s) why we've never bought much more than the core books for any edition and why there's 20 different RPGs on the gaming bookshelf.

 

[Janx]

Dave's Completely Realistic Boat-building and Desert Island Survival Game

That's my #1 pick, too!

#2 Lord of the Flies LARP

#3 Surivor! "Keepin' it Real"

#4 Cannibal

#5 Boisonberry-Poisonberry, eat them up yum!

For dice, I'd use coconuts.

 

[jdsivyer]

In order:

GURPS - If we were stranded on an island, would probably have enough time to figure out why so many people like it. Saw potential in it when I ran it, but no-one had a good enough grasp on the rules in previous games.

.

I know what you mean about GURPS. For some reason I've always wanted to enjoy it. I mean, the sourcebooks are great, you can use them for most rpgs, the system looks fine, much potential, but when we ran a game using the system it somehow failed to ignite any excitement. Not sure why to this day

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Hmmm... on a deserted island. I'd have time to create Lost the RPG.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Great topic, I love Top X lists! (But I also hate them because of the available spaces are never long enough.)

In no particular order:

1. Legend of the Five Rings (1st or 3rd edition)
2. 4th Ed. D&D (since I haven't gotten to play it very much)
3. Star Wars Saga
4. Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium version)
5. 7th Sea (1st edition, R&K)

I would also want Midnight too but with only 5 choices allowed I'd bite the bullet and run it in 4th Ed.

 

[daddystabz]

1. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and all supplements
2. All Flesh Must Be Eaten along with Angel rpg for cinematic Unisystem as well
3. Star Wars Saga Edition
4. BESM d20 w/d20 Mecha and d20 Compendium and Jovian Chronicles goodies
5. Legend of the Five Rings (third edition)

 

[jdsivyer]

Great topic, I love Top X lists! (But I also hate them because of the available spaces are never long enough.)

Yeah, I agree with you. I love Top X lists, but at the same time they frustrate me when you only have X amount of spaces. But, at the same time, I guess that's the beauty and fun of them

Ahhhh, decisions!

 

[NerfedWizard]

1. Omnifray (which I wrote, so I'm biased)

Omnifray? Nice title. I must admit, I have not come across this game. Is there a web site somewhere to check it out? Ta

Nice question!

Omnifray RPG - Home

(it's not rocket science...)

Sorry for the delay getting back to you on this, I was at Indiecon promoting it - reviews are in the pipeline, I'm told!

 

[Betote]

The 5 games I'd take:

* D&D Rules Cyclopedia.
* Call of Cthulhu
* Mutants & Masterminds
* Dark Heresy
* Traveler

That's assuming I can only take the core book for each game. If I'm allowed to take also minis, battlemats and splatbooks/modules, I'd choose Pathfinder instead of Dark Heresy (I'd just play Traveler and use WH40K as a setting).