which rpg's are you just now discovering?

[Selkirk]

after reading thru the origins awards list http://www.gama.org/OriginsAwards/tabid/2720/Default.aspx i found myself discovering quite a few rpg's that i had never read/heard of and more interestingly some of them looked good . so here's a quick survey, which rpg's (let's limit this to two per post) are you just now finding out about? could be something new but could also be something old...preferably something that you may have overlooked at it's time of release. we are looking for completed projects so let's avoid kickstarters .... links to drivethru/publisher's website/or even wikis (for older games) will be helpful.

notes-don't feel limited to the origins lists...it's just what sparked my curiosity-any systems/sourcebooks that you are just now finding out about are fair game as well

anyways, two i just picked up (i'm always on the lookout for new mechanics and systems) are :
1) witchhunter 2nd edition .. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/123055/Witch-Hunter-2nd-Edition ..i really love the setting and style of this one. i'm a sucker for victorian era/steampunky fantasy. great illustrations and general coolness of the product have me interested. not sure if i like the rulesets but just as a creative read it's proving to be killer (bureaucrat as a class...im loving it ).

2) runequest 6th edition http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103566/RuneQuest-6th-Edition ...so far i'm less sold on this one. the mythos/period isn't necessarily to my liking and the illustrations are somewhat spartan (you will forgive me ). but i just got started on the read thru so let me not cast stones...just yet!

 

[GMMichael]

I stopped discovering RPGs when I established the core rules of my own RPG. Prior to that, several games provided inspiration like Fate, Savage Worlds, Warhammer 40K, and even Microlite.

However, the most interesting games that I discovered are the ones I have yet to try:

- Final Fantasy Zero. This game covers all the bases of Final Fantasy, and then some. And it's in an easy to navigate Wiki site.

- Final Fantasy d6. For you World of Darkness fans out there, this Final Fantasy game uses only d6. Plus it has loads of awesome artwork.

Since I expanded my 3.5 game to include a good 10 sourcebooks or so, I hit rules-overload and currently refuse to learn anything remotely complex, which includes the above games. But they include a lot of great ideas, and make for an excellent break from anything d20 related!

 

[Stormonu]

For me, Mutants & Masterminds 2E has been sitting on my shelf for years - we just made characters for it last weekend and ran our first game. I'd always used Villians & Vigilantes or the old Marvel FASERIP system, so it was a pleasant surprise at how smooth this game ran considering it's basis on the d20 system.

 

[rOLUNDE]

which rpg's (let's limit this to two per post) are you just now finding out about? could be something new but could also be something old...preferably something that you may have overlooked at it's time of release. we are looking for completed projects so let's avoid kickstarters .... links to drivethru/publisher's website/or even wikis (for older games) will be helpful.

notes-don't feel limited to the origins lists...it's just what sparked my curiosity-any systems/sourcebooks that you are just now finding out about are fair game as well

I sure as heck don't "need" any more or new rules, but that said I also sure do love me some too!

Chiming in because right now this is actually a very simple question for me to answer, because I've very recently picked up two new to me games. (Sadly no links because apparently I don't post often enough, hah!)

One of them is Legends of Anglerre, which I had probably heard mentioned a few times before but if so wasn't even interested in getting it until it was announced that they were discontinuing it, hah!

For those not in the know, it is basically a FATE based fantasy game.

I haven't been too concerned with running any FATE based games myself as two of my group own Fate Core and Dresden so I've been content to play but not GM the game.
But it pinged my game radar when it was announced as being dropped and as the GM in my group most interested in running Fantasy games I suddenly had to get it before it was gone.
(So I now have that and the Spirit of the Century both on hand for if and when I may ever want to GM a Fate game myself.)


The other one is Desolation.

One of my mates mentioned the Hollow Earth Expedition rpg (aka HEX)which I have heard good things about and decided to take another look at.

Looking into the mechanics of the game lead me to Desolation and seeing as I don't really need another "pulp" type game (Savage Worlds is one of my default systems, plus also see Spirit of the Century above) but am generally interested in other ways to handle fantasy and in that this version of those rules includes magic and I don't think that HEX does.

I don't really have any problems using default-fantasy rules to do other stuff, simply by re-skinning a few things. So this seemed like the more useful version of the rules for me.

I would also like to give an Honorable Mention to Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. This because I don't own it, but one of my players and best friends is playing in a game of it (which I am really hoping to be able to get in on!) and he's really had a lot of great things to say about it.
Enough so that I am highly tempted to pick it up.

The kicker being I really probably wouldn't actually use it to play "Star Wars" so much as whatever the heck I want to do with it, heh.
*("Star Wars" comes with a lot of baggage vs a home-brew campaign setting.)

Cheers! ~R~

 

[Azgulor]

Savage Worlds.

I'd heard good buzz about it for years but always seemed to have other things on the "to buy" list. I picked it up as I was looking for a good system to run pulp & sci-fi games. Initial trials have been phenomenal and the system continues to impress, even amaze me. It has the flexibility of my old standby GURPS but is mechanically much cleaner and tighter and really lives up to its "Fast, Fun, & Furious" philosophy.

For the first time in... well, forever, creating a sci-fi setting is not an intimidating task. The mechanics are very flexible without requiring constant tweaking. My timing was good given the recent release of the Sci-Fi Companion and Super-Powers Companion 2E.

Beyond that, however, I'm finding it rather simple to look at just about any intellectual property/setting and envision ways to convert it to Savage Worlds. I now understand why so many "which system" threads are peppered with Savage Worlds recommendations.

I'm a diehard Pathfinder fan and my primary campaigns are Pathfinder ones. I don't see that changing - but it will depend on my players. However, Pathfinder, like D&D, is effectively its own genre of fantasy. And while I love the game and its support from both Paizo and 3PPs, I've never been a fan of the newbie-to-demigod progression. Savage Worlds seems to allow for epic action fantasy but keeps the characters grounded in the realm of human heroes - just like your favorite movie or novel.

With Pathfinder or D&D, even genre-close material such as Dragon Age or Lord of the Rings has you taking a cleaver to the system rather than a scalpel if you try to do an adaptation and often aren't worth the effort. The fact that I could pull any fantasy novel off my bookshelf or come up with a RPG representations of characters from games like Dragon Age, the Witcher, or Skyrim with very little game-mechanic heavy lifting is sorely tempting.

 

[WayneLigon]

Just played my first game of Burning Wheel a couple weeks ago, where we did world building bare bones, and character creation. I'd love to see a version of the basic book where the author didn't have such a Tolkien boner, though.

 

[Emirikol]

Maelstrom, is my favorite recent discovery. It was (evidently) the inspiration for the WFRP game back in the day.

jh

 

[ForeverSlayer]

I'm looking to try Shadows of Esteren. Still trying to actually find the game in order to play it.

 

[2die10games]

Dungeonworld...

 

[JEB]

Just got around to trying Fate within the last month or so. Accelerated for now, but we may move on to Core for future games. It's interesting and easy to play, and less of a radical change from our usual game style than I expected (we usually play stuff like Mutants and Masterminds, or D&D variants). I still think we'll need more practice before we can fully exploit metagame-y elements like creating advantages and compels, though.

Also been trying Dungeon Crawl Classics at my FLGS, in level-0 "funnel" form, which is fun if you don't mind highly expendable characters. I'm curious if it'll be as fun in campaign form, though.

I've also just recently gotten around to playing Pathfinder, rather than merely reading the books. It's fun, but I don't think I'd be willing to DM it anymore, been spoiled by the greater simplicity of other related systems.