Waylander the Slayer
Explorer
What is "Over the Edge"?
What alternate non- D&D, D20 Game do you recommend?
- Thread starter Waylander the Slayer
- Start date
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
I'm not sure whether you're looking for d20 games or not.
If you are, then I can't recommend Conan by Mongoose highly enough. It is brilliant, and captures the feel of the novels superbly. True Sword and Sorcery!
Regards,
If you are, then I can't recommend Conan by Mongoose highly enough. It is brilliant, and captures the feel of the novels superbly. True Sword and Sorcery!
Regards,
Psion
Adventurer
Waylander the Slayer said:
Paranoia - An (allegedly) humorous madcap dystopian sci-fi game with a high body count. You are in an arcology of sorts run by a computer. Mutants and secret societies are outlawed. Oh, and all the pcs are mutants and members of a secret societies.
Traveller - possibly the most long enduring SF setting/RPG. It's mostly built around 60s-80s sci-fi tropes, like Niven, Piper, Aasimov, Clarke, and others. The Imperium is a human dominated empire, but is largely feudal in flavor, with independant worlds having a lot of variety. Players are often interstellar travellers of one sort or another, often being starship crew on a tramp trader or scout of some sort, but occassionaly travel in other capacities.
Key features of the setting other than the empire is that there is no subspace radio or anything like it; messages were carried by couriers from system to system. Humans as a race were seeded across space, along with other species native to terra, including an uplifted race of wolves as a PC race.
The system has seen many iterations and liscences. The original is usually referred to as "Classic Traveller", and didn't even have a setting until after several books had already been published; this is a nostalgic favorite of many and had some great adventures. The Classic books are being reprinted and you can usually find them.
MegaTraveller is my favorite version because it more cleanly codifies many aspects of the classic system. Metaplot wise, it introduces a civil war that some were not fond of (but you could just use the system as is in the classic setting.) Unfortunately, out of print and hard to find.
Traveller the New era changes the setting drastically by reducing the emprie to ruins at the hands of a bizarre computer virus that somehow spreads by radio waves. It is widely rued by those who found the "virus" subplot or the scope of the changes unpalatable (me included.) Also a step down system wise, IMO.
Traveller 4 or Marc Miller's traveller was an attempted ressurection of pre-TNE traveller, but is widely regarded as a failure in that vein. It had cleaned up chargen and some wonderful Chris Foss art, but OTOH had a bizarre dice pool system and skill system was clunky, and supplements broke from canon in major ways.
Both GURPS and d20 have versions.
GURPS version assumes the rebellion never happened. If you like GURPS, there is no reason you shouldn't like GT, but as a classic traveller fan, I don't think the chargen feels right. (A longtime staple of traveller is you randomly generated your character's career. In the earliest versions, your character could even die in chargen; this was gone as of MT and all later varaints.)
Traveller d20, or T20, has been published by QuickLink. It is made to use classic or megatraveller stats for ships and planets. It's really a nice iteration, and combat (like most traveller variants) is much more deadly than D&D.
Spycraft - I like it, wish I had more chances to play it. A nice variant of d20, definitely a bit in the heroic vein. May need toned down if you are looking for something a bit gritty, but I really like the action dice mechanic (better than d20 modern's action points) and the chase rules are nice -- so nice, other d20 publishers are grabbing them for their own projects!
d20 Modern - A nice flexible system with some interesting third party support; I am using it right now in conjunction with D&D for my crossworlds RPG using the Second World Sourcebook. The only thing I would change is the nonlethal damage and automatic weapons rules (a lot of d20 modern players feel that way.)
Nightchilde-2
First Post
Exalted. Hands down. Best. Game. EVAR.
Other than that, I would highly recommend Shadowrun (sci-fi-fantasy), Adventure! (pulp), Earthdawn (fantasy) or Mutants & Masterminds (superheroes).
Other than that, I would highly recommend Shadowrun (sci-fi-fantasy), Adventure! (pulp), Earthdawn (fantasy) or Mutants & Masterminds (superheroes).
The_Gneech
Explorer
Well, I am particularly fond of Star Wars, and the WotC game is a quite good incarnation, even if most of the freebie scenarios on the WotC site seem to suck. 
Alternatively, I myself have always enjoyed Teenagers From Outer Space.
-TG
Alternatively, I myself have always enjoyed Teenagers From Outer Space.
-TG
Psion
Adventurer
Waylander the Slayer said:
It's a very rules light system (IIRC your character consists of three broadly defined trats and a flaw) set on a fictional island in the Mediterrainean, full of occult wierdness.
I thought the setting was interesting, but the system was a flop with my group at the time.
Voadam
Legend
Are you looking for non-D&D but still d20 or Non-D&D and Non-D20?
My suggestions earlier were still OGL/d20 system but a little different from D&D.
Paranoia for example is a lot of fun but not d20.
Shadowrun is a cool cyberpunk/magical setting but I never liked the d6 game system it uses.
Warhammer Fantasy roleplaying Game is a fun quick game that is non-d20 and fantasy oriented with a bit more of dark renaissance mood and feel than straight D&D.
My suggestions earlier were still OGL/d20 system but a little different from D&D.
Paranoia for example is a lot of fun but not d20.
Shadowrun is a cool cyberpunk/magical setting but I never liked the d6 game system it uses.
Warhammer Fantasy roleplaying Game is a fun quick game that is non-d20 and fantasy oriented with a bit more of dark renaissance mood and feel than straight D&D.
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Desdichado
Hero
I'm not sure if you're asking for d20 games or not -- it's unclear in your post.
Anyway, I prefer d20 games these days, so I'll recommend some of them.
Call of Cthulhu makes for a great change of pace from D&D, although with a similar system so you don't have to spend time trying to learn it. I've had lots of fun playing this game.
Star Wars is also loads of fun, plays similar to D&D, but is in a setting that's obviously quite different. The setting is also quite rich, naturally, from the movies and books that the game is based on.
Conan is also somewhat similar to D&D both in terms of setting and rules, but it has significant departures that are fun. Watch out for the typos though -- supposedly a reprint is in the works.
Midnight is technically a D&D setting, but with such substantially revamped rules and assumptions that it might as well be a different game.
Skull and Bones is substantially different as well and capitalizes on the pirates fad.
Anyway, I prefer d20 games these days, so I'll recommend some of them.
Call of Cthulhu makes for a great change of pace from D&D, although with a similar system so you don't have to spend time trying to learn it. I've had lots of fun playing this game.
Star Wars is also loads of fun, plays similar to D&D, but is in a setting that's obviously quite different. The setting is also quite rich, naturally, from the movies and books that the game is based on.
Conan is also somewhat similar to D&D both in terms of setting and rules, but it has significant departures that are fun. Watch out for the typos though -- supposedly a reprint is in the works.
Midnight is technically a D&D setting, but with such substantially revamped rules and assumptions that it might as well be a different game.
Skull and Bones is substantially different as well and capitalizes on the pirates fad.
teitan
Legend
D20 Modern is a nicwe tool kit game in a vein similar to GURPS in that it is generic, no defining world (default is Urban Arcana). The rules are pretty straightforward and lend themselves quite well to one shots and campaigning as well (there are many games that do not lend themselves well to one or the other). I personally think the NonLethal combat rules are great from a realism/emulation standpoint but go against the stated design goals of D20 Modern, which is emulating action movies and adventure shows... I like nonlethal if I were running Modern American Bar Fight D20... but for Lethal Weapon or some such silliness... Subdual damage...
My players do not like the wealth system, but it looks pretty good to me. It de-emphasizes equipment and body looting in a wonderful way.
With D20 Modern you have very good system to play any game you want to play with very little work and it is perfect for pulp style games. I very highly suggest Urban Arcana as a supplemental sourcebook for Urban fantasy and it just has a lot of coolness going on between those covers. D20 Modern you can do ANYTHING right out of the box though.
SPycraft is another AWESOME game and many people use it as a generic game system-wise. All told though, it takes a lot of time to set up a game that isn't spy based in my experience. The supplements are very pricey as well, and I know I shouldn't complain about my gaming dollar but man, there is a limit to how much I am going to be gouged for and I dropped Spycraft because of the prices, same with Dragonlance actually.
I also recommend Call of Cthulhu, the ultimate one shot adventure game. Get either version as both are excellent, though D20 is much nicer to look at and is more informative from the toolkit approach that I prefer... The BRP version is great for the amount of information and scholarship put into HPL's work, but D20 has so much utility beyond just Lovecraftian horror.
My players do not like the wealth system, but it looks pretty good to me. It de-emphasizes equipment and body looting in a wonderful way.
With D20 Modern you have very good system to play any game you want to play with very little work and it is perfect for pulp style games. I very highly suggest Urban Arcana as a supplemental sourcebook for Urban fantasy and it just has a lot of coolness going on between those covers. D20 Modern you can do ANYTHING right out of the box though.
SPycraft is another AWESOME game and many people use it as a generic game system-wise. All told though, it takes a lot of time to set up a game that isn't spy based in my experience. The supplements are very pricey as well, and I know I shouldn't complain about my gaming dollar but man, there is a limit to how much I am going to be gouged for and I dropped Spycraft because of the prices, same with Dragonlance actually.
I also recommend Call of Cthulhu, the ultimate one shot adventure game. Get either version as both are excellent, though D20 is much nicer to look at and is more informative from the toolkit approach that I prefer... The BRP version is great for the amount of information and scholarship put into HPL's work, but D20 has so much utility beyond just Lovecraftian horror.
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