What game system have you tried that made you go WOW!

[Ry]

In A Wicked Age totally blew my mind. I had such good experiences playing it that I started bringing it out to play at local meetups, and by playing it I have made many new friends. I love that game to death.

The zero-prep thing was the first part that grabbed me, but the amazing stories you make in about two hours (and the EVEN BETTER stories you get if you play a regular campaign) make it both my favorite ongoing game and my favorite one-shot.

 

[kitsune9]

Wow, 5 pages of the thread! Hopefully, everyone one of us has found an interesting comment or game that was mentioned that makes one to go out and try it. Even if you're the kind of gamer who will only play X the RPG and nothing but X the RPG, having a supplement, rulebook, or other game system may give you some new ideas or breathe fresh life into your campaign.

For me, I have quite a few rpgs, but it's unlikely I'll get the play them all, but what is likely is that they each contain something that is really cool about them and that I adapt to the games that I do play.

Well, have fun and Happy Gaming!

 

[coyote6]

I stopped keeping up with innovation in rpgs around 2000. Like I feel I ought to check out Burning Wheel and Spirit of the Century but I can't be arsed. Partly because dice pools are a big turn off for me and 75% of rpgs seem to use them now. However I do get the (almost certainly mistaken) impression that the days of innovative systems are gone, all we have now are innovative mechanics.

FWIW, SotC isn't a dice pool system.

 

[Hjorimir]

ShadowRun wowed me in a big way. The mechanics are so-so, but the setting is so amazingly awesome and the way the supplements present much of said fluff through the postings of ShadowRunners is just icing on the cake. I think ShadowRun had the only supplements that I've read cover-to-cover.

 

[Piratecat]

However I do get the (almost certainly mistaken) impression that the days of innovative systems are gone, all we have now are innovative mechanics.

Yeah, I'd argue that this is no longer true. The surge in innovative systems as the d20 supplements ceased has been really impressive to me.

 

[tyrlaan]

ShadowRun wowed me in a big way. The mechanics are so-so, but the setting is so amazingly awesome and the way the supplements present much of said fluff through the postings of ShadowRunners is just icing on the cake. I think ShadowRun had the only supplements that I've read cover-to-cover.

FASA was good like that. You'd likely be similarly wow'ed by Earthdawn.

They released a "monster manual" for Earthdawn where each entry was written as if it was a reference book written by a dwarf that interviewed a dragon to get all his info. For one of the entries, the dragon starts to explain how to deal with whatever monster they're discussing and says something like, "just fly over them and breathe fire...oh. hmmm..." Brilliant!

 

[SSquirrel]

I have the original Kult and that game was pretty out there. In college back in 96 I remember getting to try SLA Industries for the first time. My friend that ran it did a great job. It's been awhile since I had a real moment of "WOAH" tho. I think the last would be Arcana Unearthed/Evolved/Ptolus (if a setting book is allowed to count heh) as I thought it did a great job of getting the spirit of the genre but all the normal tropes were turnd on their head. Ptolus then took everything from 3E D&D and turned it to 11, following what would be the natural progression of a society w/that kind of magic access.

PS, I get triple points b/c I know Monte's books are still in pdf and I believe SLA and Kult are both in production as well as pdf these days heh.

 

[JediSoth]

Paranoia made me go WOW when I first got my hands on it back in the 80s. I upgraded to 2nd edition and still play it. My book is in tatters (in fact, it has no spine and resides in a 3-ring binder), but it's one of my favorite all-time games.

I was also WOWed by Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition and Mutants & Masterminds (2nd Ed.), though I've yet to have the opportunity to play them.

Dark Heresy most recently WOWed me. Maybe I'm sick, but once I started reading it, I was really impressed and enthused.

F.A.T.A.L. WOWed me, but it was more in the "Wow, this is really F***ED UP!" kind of way.

 

[Pbartender]

It's a generic game system, but at the time (1997 or so) it was the only game system I had seen with character creation governed only by the cooperation of the Storyteller (GM) and the other players.

Players were actively encouraged to define their character using only words, then work with the Storyteller to assign traits to those words. This meant I didn't have to level up several times to play a seasoned veteran of war or a world renown professor of archaeology. And I didn't have to worry about bookkeeping like I did in point-buy games.

The Window was also my first brush with a "step-die" system of any kind. System-wise it has a lot in common with Tales From the Floating Vagabond (it even uses a d30). It plays very fast and loose, much moreso than other step-die systems that I've had experience with (including Savage Worlds).

Back in the late 1990s, this (fast play) was a huge thing for me as I was drowning in AD&D, Shadowrun, and Rifts, respectively (all of which were chock full of rules, rules, and more rules). I guess, The Window was the first truly complete "rules light" game system I stumbled across.

Attached is a copy of the most recent revision. Just ignore the godawful intro. I pushed really hard to have that removed this time around (and the original author has since said that he dislikes it nearly as much as I do), but fandom won out. Damn fandom.

You just made me go, "Wow!"

I've been looking for a good rules light game I could play with my grade school kids. the Window would be perfect for it.

Thanks.

Could somebody please give jdrakeh some XP for me? I need to spread some around, before I can give him more.

 

[Primal]

The systems that wow-ed me on sight were:

RuneQuest - I loved how everything had the same stats and worked the same way. In many respects it resembles d20 D&D, but was published in the late 70s.
DC Heroes - The AP system is an incredibly elegant way to handle the tremendous power range of the DC universe.
Amber - To me it was a really innovative and interesting system. Very well written rulebook also, I particularly enjoyed the detailed play examples.

I stopped keeping up with innovation in rpgs around 2000. Like I feel I ought to check out Burning Wheel and Spirit of the Century but I can't be arsed. Partly because dice pools are a big turn off for me and 75% of rpgs seem to use them now. However I do get the (almost certainly mistaken) impression that the days of innovative systems are gone, all we have now are innovative mechanics.

Those two are great systems, although BW is probably a bit too much work for me, personally (with all that "burning" of new LifePaths, spells and monsters). SotC, on the other hand, has a lot of innovative mechanics and plays like a dream (or so I've been told).

If you hate dice pools, I recommend Dying Earth and Polaris. Especiallythe latter is so damn elegant and nails the atmosphere so well with its negotation mechanic that is based on key phrases. Both use 1D6, and in Polaris you roll *only* if the negotiation grinds down to a halt (i.e. you cannot agree with your Mistake on how the story should progress).