Other Game Systems
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DungeonMaester
First Post
I would Recomend 'Throwing stones' [Ever thing you would need for a game in 96 pages] but I think it is out of print.
---Rusty
---Rusty
GuardianLurker
Adventurer
Retreater said:
Rules-lite by genre:
Anime (ok, it's a meta-genre): Try the original BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) TriStat system, along with one of its setting books (unless you enjoy rolling your own setting from scratch). It's also available in a d20 variant, but I think the Tri-Stat version is better.
Super-heroes: I *think* it's still in print, but check out Blood of Heroes, the current incarnation of the old Mayfair DC Heroes system. Another good option is Truth&Justice from Atomic Sock Monkey games, but that's a PDF.
Horror: You won't do better than the current nWoD from White Wolf. I suggest avoiding the monster-PC expansions (Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf) if you want to play a more "traditional"/Buffy-style PCs vs. Monsters horror game.
Sci-Fi: Blue Planet for the win, but if you want to run whale PCs, Ancient Echoes is a must-get. Another (*very*) good system, if it's still in print, is the non-d20 Fading Suns.
Atypical Fantasy: Pendragon for the Arthurian knights, or Ars Magica if you want medieval magic. Be careful of the latter if you want a break from D&D; it's very easy to fall into D&D-ish patterns.
The Ultimate Rules-Lite Systems: Amber and Continuum. If your players aren't die-hard roleplayers, or routinely argue the rules, neither is for your group, but they can both be great fun. Amber is set in Roger Zelazny's books of the same name. Continuum is a time-travelling RPG. Both are *very* different than anything you've played before.
One that hasn't been mentioned yet is vs Monsters from Ronin Arts- cheap, short (only 2 books and 3 supplement pdfs), and very rules-light. It is card based and very quick to set up and play. I suggest looking at RA's website for more information as well as this review: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11439.phtml
It has been put under the OGL and has an SRD that might help a bit in customizing it for whatever setting you want.
It has been put under the OGL and has an SRD that might help a bit in customizing it for whatever setting you want.
EditorBFG
Explorer
I don't like the new setting books as much, but the new main book for World of Darkness is both inexpensive ($20 for one beautifully printed hardcover core rulebook) and a vast, vast improvement on the old system.Professor Phobos said:
Perfectly correct. Spirit of the Century is designed as a "pick-up game"-- different players can come from session to session, you can start a new campaign at the drop of a hat, and it is all good. And everything is in one book. Plus, they have an SRD up for free on the Internet-- nothing to do with d20 or OGL, but still open.
if you haven't played CoC yet, it is an experience you have to have. And Delta Green is the best way to experience it.
Dogs in the Vineyard is also absurdly good.
If your requirements are A)print B)rules-lite C)affordable D)not minis and E)not fantasy, the best choices are Dogs in the Vineyard or Spirit of the Century-- for both, you buy one book and that's it. Spirit of the Century is especially versatile, as it uses the Fate system, which applies to any genre, not just Pulp. To be fair, Dogs has some support for using it in different eras or genres, and given the simplicity of the rules it would be easy. But if you're burnt out, these games are just what the doctor ordered: Less work for more fun. Both are in print, and available at my FLGS.
To speak to some of the other systems that have come up:
Exalted-- This setting is great, but I played the heck out of this game and combat felt glacial-- a round of combat took forever. The new edition is better, but did not fix 1e Exalted's mechanical problems the way WoD 2.0 fixed its predecessors'.
Pendragon-- Uses a much changed version of the BRP system that powers Call of Cthulhu and Runequest. Tehcnically, it is fantasy, but really it is a totally different genre. You play an Arthurian knight in a world that feels like no "fantasy" written after the 18th century. Simple, smart and beautiful.
Esoterrorists-- Have not yet played, but I have read it and it looks wonderful. The Gumshoe system that powers it is extraordinarily clever, and there will soon be a Cthulhu variant written by Ken Hite.
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C.W.Richeson
Explorer
You'd probably be better served looking through an online RPG store and then posting questions about specific games.
You might want to consider looking at reviews of non-d20 games to get a better feel for whether the game is catering to what interests you. RPGs are very, very broad and cover ground from the extremely rules lite that you can learn in an evening to rules intensive tomes that can take months to really learn.
For my recommendation, give Savage Worlds a try. It's complete in one book, it's inexpensive, it retains miniature use and grid combat, and it's easy to adapt to any sort of action packed game that interests you.
You might want to consider looking at reviews of non-d20 games to get a better feel for whether the game is catering to what interests you. RPGs are very, very broad and cover ground from the extremely rules lite that you can learn in an evening to rules intensive tomes that can take months to really learn.
For my recommendation, give Savage Worlds a try. It's complete in one book, it's inexpensive, it retains miniature use and grid combat, and it's easy to adapt to any sort of action packed game that interests you.
Arkhandus
First Post
Hmm. Since I've already responded to a few queries like this recently, I'll just repost one of my responses, since it may fit just the same.
I would recommend Shadowrun, either 3rd Edition or the very new 4th Edition (I prefer 3E myself, but I haven't even tried 4E yet to see what it's like in play). Shadowrun 4th Edition, from what I've heard, has streamlined the system in places and fixed a few things, along with updating the timeline and making a few drastic changes to make it more in line with more-recent concepts of what technology and stuff will be around in the latter parts of this century.
SR is a mix of postmodern cyberpunk with a bit of paranormal and mystical stuff; magic has returned to the world after causing a surge of natural disasters in the early years of the Awakening, and now shadowrunners and other folk on the street have to contend occasionally with trolls, orks, elves, dwarfs, ghouls, bound demons, rogue elementals, the occasional scheming or psychotic dragon (one nearly became president before he was mysteriously assassinated, another is in charge of a megacorporation, and some others are still living 'wild' and terrorizing their home turf), mages, shamans, adepts (or physads/physical adepts, as they were called in 2E; they're sorta SR's equivalent to the D&D Monk but with less mysticism involved and more natural magical talent, of a sort only suited to personal development rather than external sorcery or conjuring), etc.
For more of a strictly-fantasy-ish sort of game, I suppose I'd recommend Earthdawn (SR's predecessor of sorts, taking place in the distant past where people are beginning to come out of hiding after the rash of demon invaders has mostly subsided, and the surface has become inhabitable again). Magic is prevalent in Earthdawn, and basically every player character has some kind of pattern magic or the like to supplement their physical skills. But the more magic strengthens, the easier it becomes for demons to enter the physical world from the Astral Plane or wherever it was they came from (I forget), so the more dangerous it becomes. Ergo humanity hides in underground caves every time the Awakening surges strongly enough for the demonic invasion to resume.
Or for other stuff......hrm. I guess I'd recommend trying out some independant games and such. Maybe try out The Burning Wheel, which IIRC has one or two alternate settings/rules supplements out now for stuff other than fantasy (the core books for the Burning Wheel system are fantasy-based). I believe the starfaring setting book is called Burning Empires, but I don't know if I'm remembering that correctly. It's a bit harder now to find basic info on the game at the website, since it's gone through an overhaul, but I think it'd be worth checking out. They probably still have a free download or a few on the website somewhere, for previewing the material. I haven't looked at it lately since I have no money to buy new RPG products. Check out the Burning Wheel website here. BW has been around for a few years or so, and is still actively supported and growing slowly to my knowledge.
You might try downloading the JAGS rules and checking them out. They're in PDF format and free, last I checked (I keep meaning to try out a JAGS campaign, but I don't want to put my current 3.0 D&D campaigns on hold to do so!). JAGS has rules for several genres/settings so far, and at least one or two supported campaign settings, like Thirteen Colonies. There are rules for horror, fantasy, magic, psionics, chi, cybertech, superpowers, etc. I liked what I've read of the basic rules so far, and some of the Chi Martial Arts rules and a bit of the JAGS Supers rules, but I haven't gone over any of the non-basic stuff in-depth yet (I need to get the hang of the basic rules first by running or playing through an adventure before I'll be ready to learn the more high-powered or exotic stuff). Go here for the JAGS website to check it out. JAGS has been around for about as long as Burning Wheel or a little bit longer/shorter, and I think it's even more actively supported (or at least it seems like it to me
).
You could try Palladium Fantasy or other Palladium games; I never got to try any out in play though, cuz my high school buddies who owned some Palladium games flaked out half the time they started planning a campaign or adventure (even just for D&D), and I haven't gamed with any other players of that game in recent years. Since I haven't tried it, I can't criticize it, so I dunno if the system is decent enough or not. Some people love Rifts or Palladium Fantasy, or their other properties like Robotech and Macross (or the old TMNT And Other Strangeness), while some other people despise it. So I dunno.
Of the stuff I'm suggesting you look into, the ones most likely to have a decent playerbase already find-able would be Shadowrun or Palladium (though Rifts, one of the Palladium settings, which is a mix of damn near everything IIRC, is the only one I know to be widely popular). Earthdawn probably still has some active players around, but as far as I know it hasn't gotten support in years, and is more or less out of print (I'm not sure; I never got the chance to try it out, though I've heard and read nothing but good things about it; FASA focused on BattleTech and Shadowrun more than Earthdawn, and now some other company holds the rights to Earthdawn; I can't remember if they've started reprinting the game or not, let alone doing anything more with it).
I would recommend Shadowrun, either 3rd Edition or the very new 4th Edition (I prefer 3E myself, but I haven't even tried 4E yet to see what it's like in play). Shadowrun 4th Edition, from what I've heard, has streamlined the system in places and fixed a few things, along with updating the timeline and making a few drastic changes to make it more in line with more-recent concepts of what technology and stuff will be around in the latter parts of this century.
SR is a mix of postmodern cyberpunk with a bit of paranormal and mystical stuff; magic has returned to the world after causing a surge of natural disasters in the early years of the Awakening, and now shadowrunners and other folk on the street have to contend occasionally with trolls, orks, elves, dwarfs, ghouls, bound demons, rogue elementals, the occasional scheming or psychotic dragon (one nearly became president before he was mysteriously assassinated, another is in charge of a megacorporation, and some others are still living 'wild' and terrorizing their home turf), mages, shamans, adepts (or physads/physical adepts, as they were called in 2E; they're sorta SR's equivalent to the D&D Monk but with less mysticism involved and more natural magical talent, of a sort only suited to personal development rather than external sorcery or conjuring), etc.
For more of a strictly-fantasy-ish sort of game, I suppose I'd recommend Earthdawn (SR's predecessor of sorts, taking place in the distant past where people are beginning to come out of hiding after the rash of demon invaders has mostly subsided, and the surface has become inhabitable again). Magic is prevalent in Earthdawn, and basically every player character has some kind of pattern magic or the like to supplement their physical skills. But the more magic strengthens, the easier it becomes for demons to enter the physical world from the Astral Plane or wherever it was they came from (I forget), so the more dangerous it becomes. Ergo humanity hides in underground caves every time the Awakening surges strongly enough for the demonic invasion to resume.
Or for other stuff......hrm. I guess I'd recommend trying out some independant games and such. Maybe try out The Burning Wheel, which IIRC has one or two alternate settings/rules supplements out now for stuff other than fantasy (the core books for the Burning Wheel system are fantasy-based). I believe the starfaring setting book is called Burning Empires, but I don't know if I'm remembering that correctly. It's a bit harder now to find basic info on the game at the website, since it's gone through an overhaul, but I think it'd be worth checking out. They probably still have a free download or a few on the website somewhere, for previewing the material. I haven't looked at it lately since I have no money to buy new RPG products. Check out the Burning Wheel website here. BW has been around for a few years or so, and is still actively supported and growing slowly to my knowledge.
You might try downloading the JAGS rules and checking them out. They're in PDF format and free, last I checked (I keep meaning to try out a JAGS campaign, but I don't want to put my current 3.0 D&D campaigns on hold to do so!). JAGS has rules for several genres/settings so far, and at least one or two supported campaign settings, like Thirteen Colonies. There are rules for horror, fantasy, magic, psionics, chi, cybertech, superpowers, etc. I liked what I've read of the basic rules so far, and some of the Chi Martial Arts rules and a bit of the JAGS Supers rules, but I haven't gone over any of the non-basic stuff in-depth yet (I need to get the hang of the basic rules first by running or playing through an adventure before I'll be ready to learn the more high-powered or exotic stuff). Go here for the JAGS website to check it out. JAGS has been around for about as long as Burning Wheel or a little bit longer/shorter, and I think it's even more actively supported (or at least it seems like it to me
).You could try Palladium Fantasy or other Palladium games; I never got to try any out in play though, cuz my high school buddies who owned some Palladium games flaked out half the time they started planning a campaign or adventure (even just for D&D), and I haven't gamed with any other players of that game in recent years. Since I haven't tried it, I can't criticize it, so I dunno if the system is decent enough or not. Some people love Rifts or Palladium Fantasy, or their other properties like Robotech and Macross (or the old TMNT And Other Strangeness), while some other people despise it. So I dunno.
Of the stuff I'm suggesting you look into, the ones most likely to have a decent playerbase already find-able would be Shadowrun or Palladium (though Rifts, one of the Palladium settings, which is a mix of damn near everything IIRC, is the only one I know to be widely popular). Earthdawn probably still has some active players around, but as far as I know it hasn't gotten support in years, and is more or less out of print (I'm not sure; I never got the chance to try it out, though I've heard and read nothing but good things about it; FASA focused on BattleTech and Shadowrun more than Earthdawn, and now some other company holds the rights to Earthdawn; I can't remember if they've started reprinting the game or not, let alone doing anything more with it).
Giltonio_Santos
Hero
I’d take a look at SLA Industries. Currently, you can get the core rulebook for free here (kind of funny for me, since SLA Industries was the chase rare around here in my teenage days, and at some point people were copying the copies of the copies of the rulebook). Even if you don’t like it after reading, it’s less than 30 MB and will cost you nothing but your time.
Some people play SLA as a futuristic hack and slash. I prefer to play it as urban horror, and I believe this is where it really grows to the true potential. Some things about it are cool, others are just weird, but everything is built in a very interesting way. If you happen to like it, the sourcebooks and the 1.1 version of the core are also available at rpgnow.
Cheers,
Some people play SLA as a futuristic hack and slash. I prefer to play it as urban horror, and I believe this is where it really grows to the true potential. Some things about it are cool, others are just weird, but everything is built in a very interesting way. If you happen to like it, the sourcebooks and the 1.1 version of the core are also available at rpgnow.
Cheers,
jonathan swift
First Post
EditorBFG said:
I haven't had a chance yet to play Esoterrists either but I'm really looking forward to it. Great rule set and the Rolemonkeys Podcast where they played a one-shot of it really got me interested.
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