What Fantasy rpg's, other than D&D, do people enjoy?

[Paka]

Paka,

I picked up Riddle of Steel a while back and wanted to tinker with it and place it in a different setting, but was a bit dumbfounded on how to do this. Midnight sounds like a great setting for TROS - do you happen to have any conversion notes you wouldn't mind sharing with me ?

Thanks.

Melkor,

I wish I had more conversion stuff to share with you. I didn't find TROS was in need of any tinkering in order to work in Midnight. If you want to know more, please check out the Story Hour. From the Story Hour is a link to the TROS forums at the Forge, where I wrote more about how the system is working for the group.

I really should adapt the priority chargen to Midnight. If and when I do that, please e-mail me and I'll send you what I have.

Thanks for asking.

 

[Melkor]

Melkor,

I wish I had more conversion stuff to share with you. I didn't find TROS was in need of any tinkering in order to work in Midnight. If you want to know more, please check out the Story Hour. From the Story Hour is a link to the TROS forums at the Forge, where I wrote more about how the system is working for the group.

I really should adapt the priority chargen to Midnight. If and when I do that, please e-mail me and I'll send you what I have.

Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the info Paka. I am reading through the Story Hour now.
Do you own "Of Beasts and of Men", or just the Core TROS book ?
What do you think of the combat system so far when compared to
D&D ?

I'll probably poke my head in over at the Forge TROS forums. I've own
the game since I read about it on RPG.net, but have never read through
the entire book or given it so much as a playtest session.....It's one of those games that seems like it would really be cool, but I can't wrap my ahead around
"the Fey" (Too damn used to Tolkein races) - or how I would use the system in another campaign setting.

 

[Paka]

Thanks for the info Paka. I am reading through the Story Hour now.
Do you own "Of Beasts and of Men", or just the Core TROS book ?
What do you think of the combat system so far when compared to
D&D ?

I'll probably poke my head in over at the Forge TROS forums. I've own
the game since I read about it on RPG.net, but have never read through
the entire book or given it so much as a playtest session.....It's one of those games that seems like it would really be cool, but I can't wrap my ahead around
"the Fey" (Too damn used to Tolkein races) - or how I would use the system in another campaign setting.

I get by mostly with the core book, but OBAM is a cool supplement and I'm always happy to suppor the indie RPG industry.

The combat system is quite exciting and once you get the hang of it is superb.

The Fey and the races are very much Tolkien-influenced, maybe moreso in some ways than D&D.

I can't shake the need to use TROS to run a game set in Waterdeep. No idea why but I do.

Any questions just e-mail or IM me from my name here or at rpg.net or the Forge, all the same name.

 

[Krieg]

--Must say I'm surprised by the numbers of Runequest fans out there--never knew anyone when I was in Columbus who played outside me and mine.

Runequest actually had a pretty strong following back in the early 80's. If it hadn't of succumbed to political/corporate wranglings it could very well have been a major competitor for AD&D.

I know more than a few groups that mixed & matched rules from the two systems as the two really weren't that dissimilar in many ways.

 

[isidorus]

Limiting myself to fantasy rpgs these are the ones I enjoyed the most and still play at various times.

1.)Lejendary Adventure
2.)Rolemaster
3.)Runequest-(need to play in Dorastar again)
4.)Shadowrun
5.)Vampire: the Masquerade
6.)Tunnels and Trolls

My current game I am playtesting for use is HARP. I read it and liked it alot, now have to talk my brother in playing at least one game. The way he rolls though he will kill anything that moves.

Favorite non fantasy rpgs

1.)Traveller(d20 version is my favorite)
2.)Battle Tech
3.)Twilight 2000

An non rpg board game I still have "The War of the Ring" from SPI released in 1977. One wild game.

If I included board games etc, I would include Squad Leader w/Cross of Iron(I still Play), Fire Power, Warhammer Fanatsy/40,000 Inqusitor MTG, Vtes and Chess.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've played in several different types of games. Due to the wealth of support for 3.0/3.5, I pretty much stick with it now but back in the day....

Fantasy Hero: I used the setting from the main book in addition to Shadow World.

Rolemaster: I GMed a Forgotten Realms campaign where the characters were in the south, Calisham all the way! Inspired in part by the various Tiger and Del stories or Sword Dancer series.

Warhammer FRPG: Ah, nothing quite says "I am naked and unkillable" as a dwarven giant slayer.

Talislanta: Want something truly different? THis is it. This, way before Dark Sun and Planescape, showed me how much art mattered to an RPG in setting tone and style. Great stuff.

Mage: They had a system out called the Sorcerer's Crusade. I even wrote an article on piracy for Pyramid on that era and game system. Good stuff overall.

Ars Magica: Never got into this one much. Loved the background, maps, and well, richness of tone.

L5R: I played the original a lot. For some reason, we all seemed to wind up Ronin at the end...

Palladium Fantasy: It was D&D with steroids. What else can I say? Of course quite a lot of that material, including even the campaign world at one point, was used for a D&D campaign. Some of their sourcebooks are really great. I especially enjoyed the Wolfen Empire and the Western Empire. Great stuff in both books. Bill Coffin was a great author for them.

Stormbringer/Hawkmoon: Interesting system but the ability to get killed in a single blow at times just made me shudder and usually pass on it. Not too bad if you've got the demon bound goods mind you but wtf, they're on like the 6th edition or something and people cry about 3.5.

GURPS Fantasy & Fantasy II: It's going to sound strange, but I never knew what Fantasy II was making fun of until I got older and then it hit me. The first book was okay, but if it had been like GURPS Space, just a massive genre book, instead of an okay setting/genre book, it would've rocked. Haven't played in a long time that one.

There are some systems I'm in the middle of like Deathstalkers, HARP, Victoriana but mostly, it's just D&D. I can do pretty much all I want with that one system now. Both Grim Tales and Conan look to add new layers to the system and I'm kinda excited about Unearthed Arcana and the various Player's Guides coming out next year.

 

[Hjorimir]

RuneQuest and HARP (which is a new game much like Rolemaster).

 

[Hjorimir]

RuneQuest and HARP (which is a new game much like Rolemaster).

 

[Arnwyn]

None. If I play a fantasy game, it will be D&D, since my group and I consider that it best emulates the type of fantasy we enjoy.

We have chosen one ruleset for fantasy (D&D/d20) and one ruleset for futuristic games (Fuzion) that do the job the best. No time to play anything else, sadly.

 

[barsoomcore]

Currently I don't play any non-d20 games, though one of my players keeps threatening to run a Hero System game.

I've run Fantasy Hero, Palladium, GURPS, Shadowrun and a bastard child of James Bond Roleplaying adapted for fantasy (Barsoom started out on that system). I've played all of those except Palladium.

Why is D&D the top dog? Well, of course nowadays market forces conspire to keep its share nice and high, but how did it get that way? A) by being first. B) by being something no other system ever quite was -- a deeply idiosyncratic version of "fantasy". D&D doesn't emulate any particular genre, field, historical period or even "game philosophy". It started out as a bunch of disconnected rules and source materials drawn from a true hodge-podge of early fantasy literature -- and in doing so it became unlike anything else.

D&D fantasy is its own thing. It's not like any book or mythology or style.

And that gives it a personality all its own, and I believe that has a great deal to do with its longevity and its fame. The phrase "D&D Fantasy" has its own meaning, a meaning that "Fantasy Hero Fantasy" never acquired.

One of the things that impressed me about 3.0 was how well it maintained that identity -- for all the rule changes, I still felt like I was playing Dungeons and Dragons.

For better or worse. Usually better.