Looking for a new game

[Lord Xtheth]

I’m looking for a new game.
I’ve spent years and years playing and running Dungeons & Dragons, and can no longer support a company that treats it’s paying customers like Thieves.
I no longer want to buy any WoTC products, nor do I want to play D&D any longer. This includes Retro-clones and games like Pathfinder or OGL copy/paste rule sets.
I was once a big fan of WoD, and might get back into that system, but I’m not too sure.
I love fantasy, and want to keep playing in mystical worlds full of adventure, magic, and dragons. Does anyone know of a game system that can offer all this and still be both fun and easy?

 

[fuzzlewump]

I would give Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay a try. I bought (well, received for Christmas) the most recent edition box set, by Fantasy Flight Games, and found it an interesting alternative to D&D. The dice are without a doubt the best part of the game. In my opinion, I can fluff any game to be anything I want; the mechanical differences are the important thing to me. This breaks down at a point, but it works here.

When a player for example wants to make an attack, a single roll of a sometimes huge dice pool from that player decides the result. He adds attribute dice for the appropriate attribute, let's say strength. He adds fortune dice for situational things working in his favor, and misfortune dice for the other side of things. He adds challenge dice, which have a high chance of negating the successes of your other dice, depending on how challenging the activity is in a vacuum, which would be the enemies defense in this case. Then he adds skill dice to represent him being especially good at swinging a sword, better than the next guy with the same strength swinging the same weapon.

That's just off the top of my head. There may be a few more, like aggressive vs. conservative dice which can replace your attribute dice if you want them to.

After you grab that pile of all different shape and color dice (with no numbers on them mind you, just symbols representing success, failure, boons and banes, etc...) and roll it. When you interpret the result, you can actually see why you succeeded or why you failed. If the misfortune dice representing heavy rain added a failure which caused you to fall under at least 1 success, you say your character missed due to the rain. If it was the fortune dice that caused you to hit, then ..yadda yadda.

That was without the doubt the coolest part of the game. Other than that, it's all in the groups and DM's hands to make the game and roleplaying fun just like anything else.

I'm not sure there are dragons in the Warhammer universe though...

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Yeah, I have a copy of WFRPG, I just didn't think of it right away. What kind of turned me off of that game is the poor rules layout and it only comes with enough "power cards" for 4 players.

Good thought though, I'll give it another read and see if my players are into that.

 

[Wik]

I’m looking for a new game.

Fair enough.

I’ve spent years and years playing and running Dungeons & Dragons, and can no longer support a company that treats it’s paying customers like Thieves.

Ah. Allow me to just say... IBTL.

Seriously, that's a pretty loaded statement there. Why not just say "Hey, I personally disagree with wotc's policies?" Or something like that? I have no idea why wotc is treating me like a thief - they're not even afraid of my 50% hide in shadows or my x3 Backstab, even!

I no longer want to buy any WoTC products, nor do I want to play D&D any longer. This includes Retro-clones and games like Pathfinder or OGL copy/paste rule sets.

Any particular reason why not? What is it that bothers you about those non-wotc retro clones? Not that there's any reason why you can't enjoy them - but it helps people in finding the game for you.

I love fantasy, and want to keep playing in mystical worlds full of adventure, magic, and dragons. Does anyone know of a game system that can offer all this and still be both fun and easy?

Yeah, there are, like, a bazillion. My recommendation of choice is always the d6 fantasy system, because it's really great for a GM to tailor to his own desires. A lot of people will say Savage Worlds for the exact same reason.

While there are some pretty big mechanical differences, what I've found it comes down to is that d6 tends to have much more choice in character creation but less growth after play begins (mostly, you just spend points on improving skills), while Savage Worlds has vanilla starting PCs that grow as the game progresses. I'd also say d6 is probably a bit more GM centred, while Savage Worlds is a bit more player focused, but that's personal opinion - both are fun, rules-light systems that play fast.

 

[amerigoV]

Give Savage Worlds a whirl. Aside from fantasy, it easily runs a myriad of genres. Its where I went after getting off the D&D treadmill. Best of all, the core book (phb/mm/DMG) is $10. Thats right, not $1000, not $100, $10. Plus a free test drive rules. The monster side is so easy to prep that you can almost convert stuff on the fly (so your D&D books and modules are still a resource). All other SW books are setting books - ie, new ideas, not just more classes/monsters/feats/PrCs/etc.

Welcome to Pinnacle's Weird Website!
http://www.peginc.com/Downloads/SWEX/TD06.pdf

Dragon Age:RPG looks fun and interesting. Its not a full game yet. Levels 1-5 are out, 6-10 are available free via beta testing. Easy to learn and interesting concepts (roll 3d6, success is measured not just by the score over the target, but by a Dragon Die (one of the d6s) - combat/exploration/roleplay stunts, etc). I have not gotten to play, but it intrigues me.

 

[Hjorimir]

I recommend looking at Legends of Anglerre for your fantasy gaming needs. It's a FATE game (if you're familiar) and it's full of awesome gaming goodness.

 

[darjr]

You could take this as an opportunity to take a 'tour'. There are lots of games with free quick starts or something similar. Maybe not all fantasy in the quick starts but you could get a feel for the games from them. For instance BRP can do fantasy but it's quickstart is for CoC.

 

[nedjer]

I’m looking for a new game.
I’ve spent years and years playing and running Dungeons & Dragons, and can no longer support a company that treats it’s paying customers like Thieves.
I no longer want to buy any WoTC products, nor do I want to play D&D any longer. This includes Retro-clones and games like Pathfinder or OGL copy/paste rule sets.
I was once a big fan of WoD, and might get back into that system, but I’m not too sure.
I love fantasy, and want to keep playing in mystical worlds full of adventure, magic, and dragons. Does anyone know of a game system that can offer all this and still be both fun and easy?

Can't say I particularly dislike WotC, but when I reached the same stage of 'this is more of the same' I moved and then got involved with the experimental Treasure. (Sig) A crisp new v1.5 is just out in html and .doc, (for those who like to decorate and burn or print custom PDFs).

If you need a rule for everything under the sun it's unlikely to be your cup of tea at 250pp - otherwise it's an OK match for your last couple of sentences.

 

[Troll Slayer]

I feel your pain in a way and can understand your stance on WotC. I'd still happily play one of their games but as a GM I've sworn them off. As for new games, definitely take the time to try out some free introductory materials. Many games offer a decent look into what makes each one tick.

Some suggestions that I enjoy (in no particular order):

WFRP - This game is rather gritty. It definitely focuses on bleak imagery and the blackest humor. I quite like the combination but I'd say characters stay within the 0-8th or maybe 0-10th level in terms of DnD power scale. Things like Orcs and Zombies never really become easy fodder. For me this is a plus. YMMV.

The new edition has a steep buy in IMO, but it looks intriguing. Then again getting into an older edition at this point can be costly too. I'm still trying to complete my 2nd edition collection.

Savage Worlds - This game does exactly what it claims to do. It's Fast, Furious and Fun! The best part is, it's only $10 to get started with the Explorer's Edition. Plus it can also do other genres beyond fantasy so you've got a wealth of options. I was pretty meh on this game at first, but once I started playing it, I was hooked. When all the elements come together they just work! Plus Savage Worlds can easily handle the grit of Warhammer or the High Fantasy of your typical DnD game!

Pathfinder - I know you specifically said no to this game but unless you've tried it, I urge you to reconsider. It's arguably my favorite version of DnD since early 2nd edition and I think it's a phenomenal game. The fluff is top notch and the art work is fantastic to boot. I was in your shoes when it came to Pathfinder until the day I got to flip through a copy. After 30 minutes skimming the book, I was sold. This game is everything I wanted from 3.0/3.5 and never got. (The Bard class was screwed though, that's my only complaint and it's easily fixed.) This game stays in the High Fantasy region of magic and dragons naturally.

I've suggested these three because they very neatly cover the power scope found in most Fantasy games. If any particular game appeals to you, we can probably suggest other games that share a similar tone and power level.

 

[Technomancer]

Why don't you tell us what you want from a fantasy game? There are tons out there to choose from, and without knowing what you like and dislike it's hard to recommend something you might be interested in.

If we're just pimping systems we like, here's mine:

D6-As mentioned above, easy and great for any genre. Check out the new D6 clone Mini Six, which you can download for free. If you like it, all the older D6 books can also be downloaded for free. Basic system-You roll a number of D6s based on your attribute plus skill and try to beat a difficulty number.

Barbarians of Lemuria-A simple sword and sorcery game that uses "careers" (basically skill packages) instead of skills. There is also Legends of Steel: Barbarians of Lemuria Edition that uses the same rules but has a setting that is a little more traditional. Basic system-Roll 2d6+attribute+Career (if you have one that is relevant to the task) and try to roll higher than 9; in combat, you have a combat skill that you use instead of a career.

The new Dragon Age tabletop RPG from Green Ronin also seems like a good choice, though I have not yet actually played it.