What are your all time favorite rpg games, and why?

[Tsyr]

3E/D20 in general, of course...

Exalted: High-Fantasy Anime/Wuxia Goodness!

BESM: "So, like, you mean I can, like, run any game I want, with, like, just that little trade paperback? Rock on!"

Shadowrun: Dragons running mega-corps, elven cyber-ninjas, dwarven hackers, corporate wage-mages... It's got everything cool jammed into one setting, with a great system to top it off. It's like Rifts, except it doesn't suck!*

Riddle of Steel: Many people have said "Use GURPS for Song of Ice and Fire!"... I say use this game. It's brilliant.

Jovian Chronicals: It's everything a Mech game should be. Great story behind it, great rules, great art...

Nobilis: Sure, it's diceless, but... It's just so darned cool.


*Rifts doesn't really suck, no... But it sure needs some work in places. And this is coming from one of the few people who bothers to stand up for Rifts.

 

[Bagpuss]

Hmm all time favourite probably Call of Cthuhlu both as a GM and a player.

I like games where you have to overcome impossible odds, problem with D&D for me is the odds are usually in the PC's favour.

 

[Tsyr]

Hmm all time favourite probably Call of Cthuhlu both as a GM and a player.

I like games where you have to overcome impossible odds, problem with D&D for me is the odds are usually in the PC's favour.

I should invite you to one of the games I play in then... the odds are not only impossible, it's impossible to overcome them (The DM actualy looks at it as his job to kill players. As in, killing the players (within the rules) is more important than story, character development, or fun, as far as he is concerned.)

*shudder*

CoC is good, though... Dunno why I didn't mention it. Probably too tainted from the BRP version of the game, which I disliked because of the system.

 

[BluWolf]

D&D in all its incarnations.

Rifts (TMNT) - great setting lousy mechanics.

Mechwarrior- incredible setting, terrible mechanics

V&V - still THE benchmark for super-hero gaming IMHO.

Bushido- was very different for its time.

Traveller- THE Sci-FI game as far as I'm concerned.

Vampire - wonderfully written material, hard to find quality players.

Car Wars - I know this isn't technically a RPG but we played it as one.

 

[bret]

GURPS: I like the flexibility and that the rules tend to give moderately realistic results. I also like that although combat isn't as deadly as in real life, it is still very deadly. You don't need a special rule in order to make a dagger deadly.

Feng Shui: When I want my action fix, I want it fast and loose. Mooks beware, you are no match for my gun-fu / kung-fu / sorcerous powers.

Champions: In my opinion, it is still the best for recreating the feel of four color comics. If I were running a 'street level' campaign, GURPS might be more appropriate. For a DC/Marvel type of four color action, I want something like Champions.


I see a lot of people giving more of a settings answer here than game. I think of the two as separate questions. Pick a set of rules that fits the type of mood you want for the game, then integrate the setting with it.

 

[Davelozzi]

D&D, in its various editions, is my all time favorite.

But mechanically I like Alternity best.

I also love Spycraft (although I haven't had a chance to play it yet) and Feng Shui.

I also enjoy a Gamma World fix every few years (convenient since that's how frequently it's in publication).

 

[Tetsubo]

D&D, all of the editions. It's the classic game and just fun.

Gamma World, played 3rd the most but I enjoyed 4th more. Darwin's World is the latest and best version. Looking forward to the D20 version. Heck I even bought D20 Modern just because of it. Why? It's wild and wooly, grim and gritty, chaotic and just beautiful in all it's mutated glory.

Cyberpunk. The best game at capturing the cyberpunk feel for me. Love all those cybernetic gadgets!

 

[Shallown]

Amber will always be my favorite game system world. I love it to no end. Unfortunatly it takes a certain kind of player and a certain kind of GM to pull off at the level I want to play at, so I don't play accept at Ambercon.

Gamma world - It just Rocks, weird and wooly or angst and hopeful it can be a lot of things or even most things with the right GM and story.

Adventurer's Guild - Yea I know you never heard of it. It's my home brew and I love to run it. I would love even more to play it if I could con someone into running it for me.

Cyberpunk 2020. Gritty mean and nasty. Better killing through technology what more is there to say.

DC Heroes- My favorite Supers game Love to run it love to play it.

Stalking the Night fantastic- They had it all long before these other newbie X-Files/Buffy/Special unit two/Men in Black knock-offs. Fighting the good fight against the creatures of the night and you started out as a plumber couldn't be more fun.

 

[hellbender]

1st edition AD&D- A lot of fun to play.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay- Better than 1E, a dark, grim fantasy world.

Bard Game's Atlantean System- Easy to learn and a fun world.

Palladium Fantasy and Rifts- Interesting ideas, easy to play, but the mechanics are a bit quirky.

Deadlands-The best horror rpg I have ever come across.



hellbender

 

[Deadguy]

Well, like many here I will have to say that I enjoy D&D3e. I started with Basic D&D but went off the game until the release of 3e awoke my interest.

Ars Magica is an excellent game if you can steer the course between too much realworld history and too much fantasy. It's also the only game I know that's built around the idea of letting groups of players ref longterm games for each other.

Shadowrun is an excellent concept, spoiled a little by its mechanics. I used to really like them, but I grew disillusioned with the approach as the concept of dice pools grew. Perhaps a reworking using the Earthdawn mecahnics?

Mentioning which Earthdawn I never got first time round, probably because I tried the game with someone who constantly liked to make the parallels with Shadowrun, and thus undermine the actual setting. But I started again about 2 years ago and I haven't looked back since! It's the game I enjoy the most right now.

Mage is a really interesting idea, but I think it came into its own in the Sorcerers Crusade incarnation. The amount of clever philisophy that you can build into a game and make manifest is amazing! It's a real thinkers game if you want it to be, probably uniquely amongst the games I play.

I will go out on a limb in this group and say that I used very much to enjoy Vampire: the Masquerade. At the time it was so different conceptually to other games I had played. I ran a campaign for seven years, so it must be doing something right, even if it has been hijacked by a crowd who can't seem to distinguish fact and fiction!

Guess that does me.