I'm just curious what role playing rule sets people prefer for the following genres - and why?
- Western / late 1800s
- Space
- Post Apocalyptic / Futuristic
- Spy / Modern
- Super Hero
Western: closest I've gotten was
Space:1889 and
Firefly. I could use Firefly; de-spacing it isn't that hard. I like The original
Space 1889; I know many dislike it's 3 flavors of mechanic (Quick-Roll 1d6 ≤ Skill; Standard roll (skill)d6 ≥ TN by difficulty; combat count successes on d6 {I forget the details on that one}), and other than etherfliers, martians, and cloudships, it's a solid 1890's game with integrations of RPG, ship combat, and miniatures combat games.
Space-Western: MegaTraveller/
Classic Traveller/
T20 Traveller's Handbook Hybrid,
Alien, or
Firefly
Traveller has been, largely, my favorite sci-fi setting, and I like the MT to-hit, damage, and injury mechanics, the MT char gen, the MT task system, and T20 T&C and ship combat, but CT for most everything else.
Alien covers much the same space, pun intended, as Traveller, but in the Year Zero Engine. I like YZE, and it's easier to teach. Where it doesn't work as well is in realism, but the sacrifice is for playability.
Firefly is a much more narrativist flavor in the same kind of setting space.
Which is determined by who I'm aiming at and where I'm running.
Space Fantasy: FFG Star Wars or WEG d6 Space. Star Wars is the epitome of Space Fantasy... and I like both.
Star Trek, The Orville: Probably Star Trek Adventures. It's good enough; I am, however, always tempted to use either Prime Directive 1E (which I prefer) or Traveller... If players asked for FASA Trek, LUG-Trek, or Starships and Spacemen, I'd use those. When/if there's an official RPG for
The Orville, I'll give it a shot.
Babylon 5: I'll go with Cortex Prime or Dune... because the Chameleon Ecclectic
The Babylon Project is too lethal, and a bit cumbersome; the d20 version is d20 (whcih I don't care for) and not well done, and the Traveller version's not well done, either.
Dune: 2d20 version, thank you. I sold my LUG version to someone who used it. At about half the then going rate. I wouldn't mind running the LUG version if one were to come my way, but the 2d20 is a better fit to the needs. Both do, however, have a lot of conceptual similarities. I've not run the Burning Wheel Version... but the players I have don't know/love BW.
Stargate: The new Wyvern Gaming
Stargate SG1 is the only game dedicated to it I've run; I've read the unauthorized d6 version, which was really bad... and never bothered with the d20 edition.
I have often considered using T2K 2.0 to do it, but since 4E has come out using the Year Zero Engine, T2K4E with some borrows from
Alien and
Mutant Year Zero would work just as well. But still, T2K 2.2 + TTNE for ships would also work well.
Post-apocalypse:.
Twilight: 2000 4th edition. I like Alien. I like Vaesen. I like the T2K scenario as Alt-Hist. And I'm enjoying the group I'm running it with.
I could easily use D6 Adventure.
I have used
Burning Wheel Revised. (There was a BWR supplement for it.). It worked.
Post-apocalypse Mutants: While not my genre of choice, I've considered
Mutant: Year Zero,
Radz, and have run and enjoyed
Paranoia, I think down the road, I'm most likely to misuse AMSH (which see under Supers, below).
Spy - Realistic:
CORPS It's gritty. As in, remove the filings from your undies level gritty. Skill can allow for insta-kills. Reduced random. Point build and a very complete list of weapons available in the companion books,
3G³: Guns, Guns, Guns &
More Guns.
Spy - Cinematic: CortexPrime or WEG D6 Adventure, maybe MSPE
Cortex Prime: would require with-group prep to fit the mechanics to the desired tone by the group. but it's a solid choice for "game construction kit" to use. And I know pretty much how I'd set it up...
D6 Sdventure is ready to go, and while nearly the edge of intent for D6A... it's still inside the range.
Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes (MSPE): is closely related to Tunnels & Trolls, and is built around pre-1980 spy genre literature and movies. It's not a bad choice, but would be mostly for dealing with players who want that older style, or want it integrated with magic (because one can then very easily just use the T&T Magic)... d6A seems the better choice, tho', so it would need to be due to player request for T&T mechanics and/or dislike of d6 system.
As an outside chance, if I had a bunch of
Hero System fans, It's doable, and while not exactly one I'd suggest, it's one I could and would run with the right group. After all, I consider
Danger International to be a better use of the Hero System than
Champions is
Superhero: AMSH, MHRP or Sentinel Comics.
TSR's
Advanced Marvel Super Heroes: for those who want a more tactical game, it's a solid system, and it plays well.
Marvel Heroic Role-Playing: For doing Marvel, it's handling of mooks, it's power levels, and it's overall play is really quite good. Too bad it's out of print. (I really think Disney owes Cam a very public apology, a royalty check, and putting it back into print. It's that good. And it was killed jut as it was finding its audience.)
Sentinel Comics is a different scaling from MHRP, and has a different fundamental assumption set, but is influenced by MHRP, is also influenced by AWE... it's better at mooks than is MHRP, it's got an actual character gen in the core book. It's also easier to run.
Why not Champions? Because, for me, Champions is just too slow when running superhero level characters.
Fantasy - Dungeon Crawls:
Tunnels & Trolls is my go-to for spur of the moment. It's simpler than the easiest of D&D editions... Deluxe vs 5.5 is a toss-up, tho'.
D&D 5E is my go to for "I need a new group of players"... so I can recruit from AL play. I don't mind it, but I don't much
like it, either.
Pugmire/
Monarchies of Mau... Sure, it's a 5E SRD derivative... but I like it a lot better for the handling of features.
If I have players wanting dungeons on hard mode, The Fantasy Trip.
Tolkien's Middle Earth: The One Ring, 1E. 2E at present has nerfed way too much, and lost most of the flavor the mechanics imparted. Only the journey mechanics are really improved.
Fantasy Samurai:
Legend of the 5 Rings 5th Ed: as with FFG Star Wars, the dice mechanics are polarizing. I love how it works, I don't plan on running earlier editions again.
Blood & Honor: Very narrativist game engine, tweaked for samurai. Probably & IMO, John Wick's best design ever. If this isn't, then Houses of the Blooded, which it is based upon, is.
While I have
The Blossoms Are Falling for
The Burning Wheel Revised, it's the issue of not having a suitable and willing group of players.
Fantasy - Other:
Arrowflight 1E - d6 dicepools, roll low, excellent renaissance fantasy setting, very flexible magic system.
Mouse Guard: It's Burning Wheel lite... and it's easily run. The mechanics work well. It has an issue, tho' - it needs players willing to engage and drive story.
