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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4769683" data-attributes="member: 80487">I'll second FGU's Bunnies & Burrows, one of the great distinctive games!Marvel Super Heroes seemed too "simplistic" relative to Villains and Vigilantes (still a favorite) and Champions -- until I actually tried it! It turned out to capture perfectly key genre aspects, and to be wonderfully well suited to seat-of-the-pants improvisation.Empire of the Petal Throne was TSR's second RPG, and mechanically is basically a variant on D&D. Gary Gygax called it "the most beautifully done fantasy game ever created. It is difficult for me to envision the possibility of any rival being created in the future." That's remarkable praise from the Godfather of Fantasy Role Playing!What sets EPT apart is the uniqueness and richness of its exotic setting, the planet Tékumel. Its creator, Professor M.A.R. Barker, was like Tolkien a linguist who spent a lifetime detailing a world in which his invented languages could live. Unlike Tolkien, his influences were far from the Northern European milieu.It's a game of swords and sorcery and expeditions into a weird and perilous Underworld, but also of intrigue and social climbing. There are echoes of Medieval India and Pre-Columbian America, of the Mars of Leigh Brackett, of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Planet of Adventure, and much more besides. There are no elves, dwarves, orcs or hobbits, and there are no stars in the night sky. There are more thoroughly nonhuman species living with or fighting against humanity, and relics of an advanced civilization that fell millennia ago. There are temples to Lords of Chaos and Lords of Stability standing side by side, appeasing the gods with sacrifice and other rituals. There are slaves bearing palanquins on roads like the Great Wall of China, alongside dinosaur-like beasts of burden. There are clan houses that look after their own. There are clanless barbarian adventurers who know that blue light, chime-like voices and the scent of cinnamon mean terrible danger is near.Traveller and RuneQuest actually eclipsed D&D for me.The former remains to SF gaming what D&D is to fantasy gaming. Character generation is a game in itself (one of several in the system). Dice rolls determine promotions and skills gained in a service, and one can keep trying to re-enlist for four-year terms. Age can take a toll on characteristics such as Strength and Endurance, one may be forced to muster out, and (unless one chooses to "nerf" the rule) death can end a career.There are tables for rolling up stellar subsectors, and for generating creatures to inhabit planets. There's a system for designing space ships, and one for fighting space battles on the table top (treating thrust and gravity vectors, and the role of computers, simply but effectively). Personal combat is quick, and dangerous enough not to be the first approach to every problem, although single-shot kills are unlikely. There are "psionic" powers, if that's to your taste. Everything gets elaborated upon in supplements, but the first three books can be quite sufficient.The focus of play is a bit different from D&D. Although characters can improve skills and learn new ones, that's not quick and easy and they tend to be quite competent from the start. Commonly, a group will start with a merchant ship -- and the mortgage that comes with it. Speculative trade and taking on passengers helps pay the bills. It also takes the adventurers from world to world, where patrons may offer more lucrative and "interesting" propositions.RuneQuest is associated with the world of Glorantha, although there's not a lot of geography or history in the rule book. Little touches from money to magic and monsters manage to convey a distinctive "feel", though, even when treating such old standards as Elves and Trolls. Cults of Prax goes into more detail about a part of the world, as well as providing write-ups of cults that could be adapted to other settings.Those religions play a big part in providing skills, magic and relationships as well as personality-shaping world views. Every adventurer can fight, cast spells, and sneak; there are no classes or levels as in D&D, nor is there a "character point" system as in other games. One can invest money and time in training, or learn from experience on adventures. Combat is gritty and magic low powered relative to most fantasy RPGs.(There are super-heroes and other beings of demi-god status afoot in the Hero Wars, and high-level D&D can be a fine rules set for treating their exploits. RQ stats for such entities as the Crimson Bat seem to me to serve little purpose but to call for Sanity Checks on the reader's part!)The "Basic Role Playing System" introduced in RQ formed the basis for a whole series of other games, Call of Cthulhu being the most famous. It is in my experience very easy to learn, fast-playing and flexible.King Arthur Pendragon somewhat simplified that basis, for instance substituting d20 for d%. It's my favorite example of a blend of role-playing and story-telling, set within the epic cycle of legend. A Pendragon campaign thus has a beginning and ending, between which one generation gives rise to another. There are so many different versions of the Matter of Britain, so many component tales and possible interpretations, that each campaign can be quite different from the last.The core rules focus on player-character knights. Everything from courtly romance to battle gets a good treatment. Personality traits and passions have ratings that can come tellingly into play. Magic is more amorphous than in a game with set lists of spells, potentially of awesome power but also time-consuming and taxing for magicians; it comes closer than any other game's treatment to magic as I have seen it in classic fantasy literature.Supplements deal with such variations as legendary Ireland and the Scandinavia of Beowulf. The rules are in my experience well suited to scenarios set in Tolkien's Middle Earth or Howard's Hyborian Age.Gangbusters lets one play a criminal (independent, gangster, or in an organized crime syndicate), law enforcement officer (honest or on the take), private detective, or reporter on the mean streets of a Prohibition era big city. It's unusual in breaking explicitly with the assumption that player-characters are all on the same team. The rules are very well designed and clearly presented, along with plenty of period background. Action is fast, striking a good balance between the realistic and the cinematic. The well-written modules cover a range of scenarios from a gang war to a murder mystery.</blockquote>

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