If you could try a RPG that ISN'T D&D...

[mmadsen]

I'll second much of Piratecat's list:

• Savage Worlds I'm very impressed with the design goals listed in Shane's Making of Savage Worlds essay. And I'm intrigued by the idea of Plot Point Books; they sound legitimately useful.
• All Flesh Must Be Eaten Chewy, undead goodness -- with post-apocalyptic potential.
• Call of Cthulhu Although I've read quite a bit of Lovecraft, I'm actually not a tremendous fan of his writing -- but keeping players anxious and paranoid is good clean fun.
• Mutants & Masterminds Such a "clean" d20 implementation.
• Jack Vance's Dying Earth You can lift so many ideas from Dying Earth for a D&D campaign -- especially if you let Bluff do more than it "should".
• Redline Mad Max.
• Exalted The core book didn't grab me, but I keep hearing so much about it...
• Testament I thought this would make an excellent fantasy world if you never told the players what they were playing.
• Grim Tales Close to how I'd do D&D.
• Spycraft I'm not sure if I could play it straight though. (Yeah, baby!)
• Adventure! Bring on the albino apes!

Edit:

And a few additions:

• Buffy Even if you don't enjoy the show, this is an excellent game.
• Pendragon Perhaps the best fit of game mechanics to genre.
• Warhammer The new edition is coming out, right?

 

[Sejs]

Thanks much for the links, PC. Yeah, that's definitly a winner.


And man alive, I just love that Highway Hero level 5 ability. That's just awesome - wonderful imagery.

 

[jerichothebard]

Player:

Mutants and Masterminds - I'm about to start playing in a Champions Game and would much rather be d20 with it all... *sigh*

Cthulu D20 (X-files style, or maybe pulp-era) - I could never run it, but I would sure love to play in it!

Spycraft or a super-spy D20 Modern game - yeah, baby, indeed!

DM:

A pulp-action D20 modern game, in the style of the Mummy movies and the Shadow and Indy. Ancient evils meet Tommy Guns and good ol'-fashion knuckle dusting...



jtb

 

[Conaill]

• GURPS - because it's still my favorite, by far over D&D, and I want to try out the new 4.0
  
• Savage Worlds - heard a *lot* of good buzz about this one
  
• Feng Shui - because it's always a blast to play for one-shots
  
• Paranoia - only tried it once at Pkitty's place, would love to give it another go
  
• Spaceship Zero - loved the one-shot at Pkitty's, love the story hour
  
• D&D Miniatures games - love the minis for rpg, wouldn't mind giving the mini game a try
  
• Grim Tales - low magic, high fantasy!
  
• not a genre per se, but I'd love to play at least one session with all well-painted minis and fully fleshed-out, realistic scenery. Throw together some of WorldWorks beautiful 3D cardboard stuff, some Hirst Arts plaster casts, some painted and flocked foam terrain, etc. I love the looks of this sort of stuff, but I always have a nagging question in the back of my mind how much it really adds to the enjoyment of the game itself. Obviously, having a deatiled respresentation makes some types of strategic maneuvering easier. But can it really compete with my own imagination?

 

[DMScott]

Well, ignoring d20 games (because the thread specifies non-D&D, and d20 games play an awful lot like D&D), the games on my shelf that I haven't played but really want to are:

Chivalry and Sorcery (the Rebirth)
HeroQuest

Some games that I have played before but which would make good one-shots:

Feng Shui
Kult
GURPS (specifically, GURPS: Prime Directive would be a real hoot)
Hero (FREd) or Champions (the BBB)
Cyberpunk 2020

For d20-style games, I'd add M&M to the latter list. It's a better single-session game than Champions.

For games I don't have, Paranoia XP. If you've got that, I think it'd be treasonous to consider anything else. I wish I still had my old first edition Paranoia stuff.

 

[Ferret]

I think there is a Fallout setting out there. Might be very much like Redline though.

 

[Arnwyn]

- Paranoia XP - sounds interesting and hilarious (in the "funny part of Soylent Green" kind of way)
- Fuzion (okay, admittedly, I do play this for my futuristic genre games, but much less than our long-running D&D game)
- Call of Cthulhu - sounds interesting as well, based on what I've heard on messageboards (my only information on it I've ever had)

 

[Varianor Abroad]

My choices:

* Feng Shui

* Dying Earth

* new World of Darkness

* Deadlands

* Dragonstar

* Mutants and Masterminds

* Champions 5th Edition (Course, I played in editions I - IV, so it's probably not that different.)

Piratecat, I'm not too far from Boston. If you and Kid Cthulhu want, I'll come up the next Gameday and run something in Arcana Unearthed for folks who want to try it out. Provided I get to play in something else too.

 

[AIM-54]

Let's see...some of these I have played/do play when I can and some are to be tried.

Shadowrun--My favoritest of systems that I wish I could play down here, but thus far haven't been able to. Next weekend, I'm running a game for my old group up in Boston, though, so I'm looking forward to that.

Mechwarrior/Battletech--Another fave that I haven't played in years. The RPG has the most fun character creation system I've ever seen, though the actual mechanics tend to suck...hence the /Battletech, because they are the be all, end all of mech battle rules as far as I'm concerned.

Crimson Skies--I'm a FASA whore, what can I say? I love the setting, enjoyed the Xbox game immensely and would love to play the tabletop game. It can probably be RPG-ified, much like we used to do with the aforementioned Mechwarrior/Battletech.

Earthdawn--Never gotten to play it, but I'd love to try it sometime. I'm not such a fan of the ED-SR connection, but I suppose that could change.

Robotech--I have the majority of the old Palladium books, but to be frank, it's a mechanical nightmare. I've played it a bit and it never lasted. I want to try and do some conversion thing, maybe d20 template with Battletech combat (which would be pretty easy...there's a bunch of Mechs that were stolen from Robotech, without having to come up with my own numbers...which I might do anyway )

Call of Cthulhu--I haven't played this since the mid-90's, but I remember having a blast with the sheer weirdness of it. Too much fun, I'd love to play it again.

HARP--From what I've seen, I might come to like it better than D&D. Or at least as a good break from d20. I'm very intrigued by its magic system, at any rate. I'll be trying it in a couple weeks at the MD-DC-VA GameDay, which I'm looking forward to.

Cyberpunk 2020--I dunno if it'd ever replace SR for me, but I'd love to give it a shot.

Alternity--Friend of mine is a big fan, so it's intrigued me.

Exalted--See above.

That's the majority of them at any rate. Probably others I'd give a shot as I'm willing to try just about anything.

 

[Wombat]

Everytime I look at lists like this I find that what I call D&D isn't really D&D Currently I am running AU, with heavy doses of Skull & Bones, Swashbuckling Adventures, Nyambe, and a lot of reading about Mayan culture...

So, here are games that I have played in the past that I would love to play again:

* Ars Magica -- always love this one!
* Pendragon -- has to be the right crowd, but then it is fantastic.
* Over the Edge -- great, simple system, easily adaptable to a number of settings.
* TORG -- but it would have to be just the right GM...
* FASA Star Trek -- I always had fun with this game!
* Runequest -- Days of the Plains of Prax are still in my veins.
* Paranoia -- Anytime, any place, any group, I have my laser.

And here are games that I have never played, but have an interest in:

* Agone -- I love the look of the book.
* Blue Planet -- Probably lists as "The Game Wombat Would Most Love To GM!"
* Decipher/CODA Star Trek -- The system seems solid (once you get past all the horrible organization and writing), but have yet to run it.
* Fading Suns -- Okay, I would love to play or run this BUT with a lot of winnowing to the system and setting...

There are probably several others, but this will do for the moment.