Other Game Systems

[kigmatzomat]

Shadowrun 4e. The main book has everything a new player & GM would need. Returning players will probably find it has about 85% of what they want which is still pretty good for a game with tons of supplements. The 4e system revised the mechanics so the game is much simpler on the whole. I've been playing SR since the original blue book and find this version to be arguably the best. (IMO the best versions are SR4, SR2, SR3, SR1)

Palladium: Meh, I'm not that fond of it but whatever floats yer boat. It is pretty close to d20 with spell points. Once upon a time I'd have said D&D with spell points.

Deadlands: I love it but between the odd mechanics and the setting it seems to get a pretty lukewarm response.

White wolf: everything spooky. the system is kinda sparse but the settings are detailed.

Witchcraft/Armegeddon: Witchcraft is kinda like WW's World of Darkness, Armegeddon is more like the apocolypse is ongoing. The mechanics were straightforward and seemed decently written, though I disagree with a few of the design decisions in Unisystem. You can actually get the Witchcraft book as a free download off of either Eden's site or DTRPG or whatever it's called now.

Serenity: the Firefly RPG. No experience with it at all.

Heroes 5e (6th?): It's the hero system, grab a calculator and brush off your algebra skills.

Cyberpunk 4th ed: Pass. It was so bad a buddy offered to give me his copy if I'd buy them a beer. I declined.

Champions New Millenium: Heroes using the Fuzion system. May not be in print. Wasn't that popular with the Heroes crowd, the system was too simple. I found it quite reasonable.

Earthdawn: 2e is out by Living Room Games and Redbrick apparently has Earthdawn Classic, or some such. Very rich world, mechanics are an elegant design but a little cumbersome in play at mid-high levels. Most of the 2e/classic books are compatible with most 1e supplements, though 2e supercedes some rules.

 

[francisca]

I gave RQ4 a shot, didn't care for it. Picked up RQ 2e off of ebay for a pittance, and I really like it.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I agree that the new World of Darkness (nWoD) is "better" than the old. Well, IMO. I quite like the World of Darkness now, as is. IOW, with mortal PCs. Very un-oWoD, but very fun too.

Earthdawn and Shadowrun each have a charm all their own.

WFRP - a nice bundle of bad. In a good way. Someone will come along with the "you start out thinking. . ." quote soon enough.

Artesia gets some good press, from those who like that setting (based on the comics of the same name). It uses a modified Fuzion game system.

Kult is not for all tastes, but a pretty interesting style of RPG. Some of the mechanics grate a bit, but YMMV.

I'm with those saying BtVS is hella fun too.

 

[Imperialus]

Since it's been mentioned briefly a few times I'll plug 4th ed Shadowrun. It's a cyberpunk game set in 2070 with the added fun being that magic has returned to the world along with elves, dwarves, orks and trolls all of whom are playable PC races. It has a rich and detailed history covering 1999 to 2070. It's skill rather than class based and characters advance with Karma points rather than by level. Although some of the rules can still be a bit cryptic (hacking) it's a major improvement over 3rd edition in terms of how easy it is to pick up and play. As an added bonus there are only a few books out for it so far (runner havens and Streetmagic), but it's still a complete system with just the basic rules so it should be pretty easy to get your hands on everything that you would need.

 

[Retreater]

Thanks for the contributions, everyone. It's easy for some of these games to kind of fall through the cracks when my FLGS carries nothing but WotC.

I'm pretty open on trying new games.

Basically what's I'm looking for is (in no particular order):
1. Something that's in print; I don't want a PDF rule book
2. More or less rules-lite (in comparison to D&D 3.5)
3. Something that would be affordable to get started with (don't want to have to buy a lot of books, just in case it doesn't catch on with my group)
4. Not minis centric
5. A system that can accomodate different genres (the pure fantasy of D&D is getting old)

As far as the Buffy/Firefly games go, how well would they work if I've never seen an episode of the TV shows? In fact, I don't know for certain if any of the 7 people who regularly game with me have seen either program.

Retreater

 

[maddman75]

Thanks for the contributions, everyone. It's easy for some of these games to kind of fall through the cracks when my FLGS carries nothing but WotC.

I'm pretty open on trying new games.

Basically what's I'm looking for is (in no particular order):
1. Something that's in print; I don't want a PDF rule book
2. More or less rules-lite (in comparison to D&D 3.5)
3. Something that would be affordable to get started with (don't want to have to buy a lot of books, just in case it doesn't catch on with my group)
4. Not minis centric
5. A system that can accomodate different genres (the pure fantasy of D&D is getting old)

As far as the Buffy/Firefly games go, how well would they work if I've never seen an episode of the TV shows? In fact, I don't know for certain if any of the 7 people who regularly game with me have seen either program.

Retreater

If you don't care about emulating the show, go for the Angel core book (Angel was a Buffy spinoff) and The Magic Box suppliment for Buffy. Like I said these are technically out of print, but still widely available.

I'll recommend All Flesh. No minis. The game is fully playable off a single copy of the core book. Much less rules-heavy than D&D. And the suppliments let you do different genres.

 

[Thanee]

Here are some of my recommendations...

I would go with something completely different, not one of the countless d20 clones (like T20, C&C, etc). Not that those are bad games, surely not, but they are not that different. Just a bit more simple, a bit more streamlined, a bit more focused, etc.

SAVAGE WORLDS is definitely fitting your 5th item. It's very rules-lite, but not in a simplistic way. It's a generic system and there are a number of backgrounds available. The most interesting of those surely is the already mentioned Deadlands, which is a brilliant background (a mix of Wild West with Fantasy Elements and Horror kinda like Wild Wild West meets Lovecraft (ok, maybe not that weird)). Currently in its 2nd edition. To get started with Deadlands you need exactly two books (and some poker cards and chips). For Savage Worlds you only need the basic rulebook (and make your own background).

GURPS and HERO GAMES are the two big names in generic roleplaying. Both are highly recommended, but they are both complex games with very detailed rules. Both have been recently updated to 4th and 5th edition respectively. To get started you need the basic rulebook only, but then you have no background whatsoever. Cool, if you wanna make up your own. But there are plenty background sourcebooks available, too (especially for GURPS).

SHADOWRUN 4th Edition isn't exactly rules-lite either, but the system is fast playing and easy to grasp, once you got the basics. It's very different to D&D and the background is simply amazing (cyberpunk meets fantasy). To get started you need nothing but the basic rulebook, which is pretty complete except for advanced rules, which come along in a number of seperate rulebooks, of which only one is available so far (Street Magic).

TALISLANTA is basically made to be different. It's fantasy, but very different to the typical tolkienish fantasy worlds. The system is very easy and fast playing. To get started you need nothing but the basic rulebook, which is pretty complete (at least the 4th Edition one, which is a few years old already... apparantly there is a 5th Edition out by now).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Hmm. With the additional info on what you're looking for, I'd suggest you give Savage Worlds a close look.

 

[Desdichado]

Eh. I guess I'm the opposite. I've pretty much decided that d20 or a variant of it is workable for any game I'd likely want to play or run anymore, so I'm not shopping for new systems; I am however, always on the lookout for a good variant rule or two to d20 that will mold it closer to what I'd like in a game. A workable system that eliminated levels would be my final Holy Grail for d20.

That said, I've had plenty of fun playing BRP--particularly their Call of Cthulhu rendition of the rules.

Decipher's Lord of the Rings roleplaying game is pretty snazzy, and I'd love it for a homebrew LotR-like setting.

I've tweaked The Window a bit and used it for extremely rules lite games with my kids and had tons of fun with it.

I'm excited to try out some Dread sometime; the reports I've heard of it are amazing.

In the past, I've had a lot of fun (and kept the books for) Werewolf: The Apocalypse, MegaTraveller, Top Secret S.I., Alternity, and a few other game systems as well; I wouldn't mind a trip down nostalgia lane with any of those systems.

I haven't played yet, but would really like to, get a game of WFRP v2 going. I'd also love to try, but never have, a game of Space: 1889.

 

[apoptosis]

I would actually try some more narrative-based systems to get a different approach to gaming.

Sorcerer is very rules lite

The Shadow of Yesterday is really cool (just started a campaign) it is more complex than Sorcerer but is still pretty rules lite

Burning Wheel is very crunchy and has a lot of meta-gamist aspects.

I think having played these type games it has actually allowed me to go back and approach games like C&C and Rolemaster very differently. It really allowed me to get more out of nonnarrativist-based games by approaching the entire process of gaming a bit differently.

Sorcerer and The Shadow of Yesterday (TSOY) can be bought online in PDF form. I would recommend TSOY. It is rulles-lite but has enough fiddly bits while it can be played in basically any genre (though the setting that is talke about is a fantasy genre).