Favorite Role-Playing Game?

[abbysdad]

Here's a random question to support some data I'm collecting:

Q: What's your favorite role playing game?

If you have a minute, post a reply on what game is your favorite role playing game and the one thing you like most about it.

If you don't like role playing games, please list the number one reason you don't like them.

Pen and paper or computer RPG's are fair game for the question.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,

Chris

[Scorpio]

I will always, always have a soft spot for Shadowrun. A fun concept executed perfectly, with a remarkably detailed world to explore however you want.

Runners-up: Fading Suns (baroque, complex space opera,) and Paranoia (one of my first games, and exactly as deep as is needs to be.)

[cybogoblin]

I have two RPG's at the top of my list: Spycraft and Hollow Earth Expedition.

Spycraft is based on DnD's 3rd Edition rules, but with balance and more flexibility. As the name suggests, it's aimed at modern espionage games, but the system is has been adapted for use with fantasy games, with other genres coming soon.

Hollow Earth Expedition is set in 1936, and has been described as 'feeding Nazis to dinosaurs'. There's vril, evil Nazi cultists, magic powers, oh, and a hollow earth full of dinosaurs and other weirdness. This one is much more rules lite, without being too freeform.

[evernevermore(john)]

Im a big fan of Old School Gaming - so Original D&D like the Red Basic Box and my beloved Rules Cyclopedia. So this family takes #1 with me.

The next runner up is a split between Hackmaster Basic (like Original D&D but with rules that have been written with some newer mechanical conventions) and 3:16; Carnage Amongst the Stars, which is an absolutely fantastic story game with very tightly written rules that are probably the best ive ever seen for telling a war story, ala Apocalypse Now or Starship Troopers.

I only have the prerelease beta but the Mechwarrior: A Time of War looks good if crunchy

[CmdrKiley]

I think the most fun we ever had, and longest running campaign, was playing GDW's Twilight:2000. It's a post-apocalyptic modern military RPG that came out in the 80s. We played this during our senior year in high school and throughout the summer before we all went our separate ways. We went from a rag-tag band of American and European stragglers and deserters to forming a small army that controlled a region between Poland and Czechloslovakia.

[silentbob27]

Fav is WHFRP v2. After that is Ad&d 2nd ed and Cyberpunk 2020. I like WHFRP because I love the setting and the mechanics.

[abbysdad]

Feb 16, 2010 22:48:13 GMT -5 silentbob27 said:

Fav is WHFRP v2. After that is Ad&d 2nd ed and Cyberpunk 2020. I like WHFRP because I love the setting and the mechanics.

That's interesting. What is it about the mechanics in Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing that you like so much?

[silentbob27]

Feb 16, 2010 22:52:03 GMT -5 abbysdad said:

Feb 16, 2010 22:48:13 GMT -5 silentbob27 said:

Fav is WHFRP v2. After that is Ad&d 2nd ed and Cyberpunk 2020. I like WHFRP because I love the setting and the mechanics.

That's interesting. What is it about the mechanics in Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing that you like so much?

I love d10 percentile stuff. You can do pretty much anything and give a percentage chance of doing it. I like the combat actions that can be taken. I LOVE that pretty much anyone can kill anything with a good enough roll. I also like that XP isnt given for killing monsters, but for anything the GM wants. The careers are fun and the lethality of the game can be a blast.

[xGIxJOKERx]

I like the old school Deadlands (Weird West and Hell on Earth) for a lot of the same reasons. There was always a sense of danger. A brand new character and one that had been around for a while could take the same amount of damage. A good or lucky shot could kill just about anything because if you rolled max on a die, you got to roll again and add the result. If you rolled the max again, it kept going. Head shots added additional dice and if you maxed these, they also continued to roll and then you added everything together. The result was that combat was deadly (as it should be.)

There were ways to prevent damage like spending fate chips, but you also had to turn those in for skill points. Like in WHFRP, you didn't get them for specifically killing monsters. You got three at the start of each session at random, and the GM could also pass them out at his discretion. The chips had different values based off of color and the number of chips in the pot varied on how much they were worth. On the flip side, the GM got chips to use to prevent damage to bad guys as well.

To top it all off, it was an alternate history (Civil War still raging into 1778) and it had supernatural elements (sound familiar?) Good stuff. To top it all off, they used to update the story fairly regularly. There is a new version as well as a D20 version that came out a while ago but I haven't played them.

[CmdrKiley]

Yeah, the Deadlands has a great alternate history that I liked.

I got the Deadlands: Reloaded book and it's a really nice book.

I'm really looking forward to a Savage Worlds version of Deadlands Hell on Earth.

[bmtptsd]

Game system that has recently captured my interest?
FATE- I own Starblazer Adventures and Spirit of the Century and I'm waiting on Diaspora to arrive in the mail soon and already have an outstanding pre-order with my FLGS for The Dresden Files rPG when it's available for pre-order.
The game I have played the most- HARP by ICE. My group is all old school gamers weened on original Rolemaster.
The game I enjoy the most- Burning Wheel by Luke Crane. The shared storytelling experience and innovative rules system are amazing without sacrificing anything in the combat department.
The system I own the most books for- Palladium's "Megaversal" system. I own almost everything they've produced in the last decade. I frequently mine the books for ideas. I don't enjoy the system but they're a great resource for game masters!

[abbysdad]

This is some excellent feedback!

It's confirming some things I had thought about our players too.

Now to get back in the mad science game development lab and use this information on some ideas we've been kicking around ;D

[Cilionelle]

I've really enjoyed playing 4th ed. D&D. I've played Shadowrun a couple of times (used to do it regularly in high school) and I've got a couple of other rulesets, like Burning Wheel, and a fun little Faeries RP game for my daughter - it's actually a pretty good, easy to use system! Never tried Deadlands, but hear good things about it, as with the system used for the Firefly and Battlestar Galactica games.

As to what I like about 4th: I think that a fair amount of flexibility was built into the system to begin with, and the simplicity of the rules (apart from some occasional "huh?" moments) is helpful. I don't like the d20 mechanic, and would much rather forego criticals to roll 3d6 instead. I just like the curve better.

[Rich]

I know this thread is many months old and that its research purpose is likely long completed, but I'm new around here and wanted to throw my own words out.

I've been playing RPGs since 1980 when I was introduced to D&D/AD&D. From there, I've got 30 years of experience learning and playing many, many systems. These have been my favorites...

Deadlands, classic rules. (Including Hell On Earth, but not so much Lost Colony.)
7th Sea.
Champions. (Hero System is neat, but I only like it for the supers.)
Savage Worlds. (Best used for "pulp action" type games.)
Shadowrun. (For the setting more than the rules system.)
Twilight:2000. (Ah, nostalgia, how it colors our perception.)
Chill, 2nd edition.
Rolemaster. (The '85 Cadillac Fleetwood of gaming.)


Richard

[TrueRonin]

The one system I found to overshadow any other is the World of Darkness system. The system itself is pretty basic but the background material is vast and deep, If I delve into the books, hours pass by while I flip back and forth in the many books and compendiums. The many supernatural beings and their beliefs spin off in each and every direction but in the end they come together as one coherent unit. Other than that I love stories set in the Star Wars and Dragonlance universe.

Edit:
Oh... I almost forgot HP Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu!!!