What are your favorite RPGs and why?

[Scourge108]

This is actually my first post here.  I thought I knew more about RPGs and their trends than anybody I knew until I stumbled across this site.  I'll try to keep up.

I've been trying to decide if I'm more of a Narrativist or a Simulationist.  I seem to be a bit of both.  But one thing I definitely like in a game is a system for internal conflict.  I find it helps set the mood for the game, and encourages more psychological drama.  I usually attribute this invention to Call of Cthulhu with its Sanity points.  Everyone I've talked to who has played this game agrees with me that the funnest part is watching your character slowly go insane.  Cyberpunk 2020 picked it up pretty well with their Humanity points (not to mention a trait called Cool.  How Cool is that?), which was of course picked up in Vampire: the Masquerade and ran with in the World of Darkness line.  My favorite WOD games were the ones that had a lot of this, most especially Mage, Wraith, Hunter, and especially Demon: the Fallen.  I also have to give props to In Nomine, which, when they made a GURPS version, was the first game to convince me that system DOES matter.  Taking out the whole concept of the 3 forces (corporeal, ethereal, and celestial) in character creation and resolution really changed the whole feel of the game and ruined it.  Wraith was also the first game that convinced me that RPGs could be a legitimate form of artistic expression, not just a bunch of people playing make-believe.  It seems that the better a game is, the harder it is to get a game started.  My favorite game setting of all time was Planescape.  I loved the concept and setting so much, it didn't even matter that I wasn't too fond of the AD&D2 system it was attached to.  The problem was that to have any ide awhat's going on, you had to read several novels worth of background material.  I had an impossible time finding people who really wanted to invest that much in it.

[Doctor Xero]

Here's my list, in no particular order:

Champions, 2nd edition (before it and GURPS cross-pollinated)
- - - - -
Personally, this was my first RPG, and to this day my GMs comment that most
of my PCs tend to be heroic (in some gaming groups I have been the only
person to roleplay successfully a paladin who is idealistic and heroic rather than
a bad parody of Dudley Do-right).

Why?  I love superheroes!
Why?  This system, with its identical mechanics for every attack, forced the player
to personalize his/her PC through its theme and style rather than through
accumulation of abilities and accessorizing with mechanics add-ons.  Its focus
on SPFX, roleplaying, and style as the only way to differentiate two characters
emphasized (almost enforced) the more narrativist approach I prefer.  It also
required a narrativist GM to ensure that SPFX have an impact on the gameworld,
lest lightning bolts and fire blasts and telekinetic jabs became interchangeable.
Champions is one of the few times I've seen a mechanistic approach encourage
non-mechanistic play.

Villains & Vigilantes, 2nd edition
- - - - -
Why?  I love superheroes, and I love designing my own powers, something
which Champions did not then allow.
Why?  This system made no pretense of equalizing all players; with randomly
rolled powers, there was just as much joy in doing well as the token two-power
PC in a group of four-power PCs.  And, to be honest, with the holes in the game
mechanics (which seemed to arise more from naivete in a new form than from
any slovenliness on the part of the system designers), this was one of the few
games which made it fun to play with the system.  AD-&-D seemed to encourage
rules lawyers, but V-&-V seemed to encourage interpretation lawyers -- probably
the closest a narrativist like me can come to systems seduction.

Mekton II
- - - - -
I love to use genre-specific systems for something outside their genre to merge
the feel of one with the plotlines of another, so I adapted this oh-so-anime' system
to a horror campaign I ran.  I ended up with a unique "Dark Shadows" anime'
campaign!

Why?  I love mecha/kaiju!
Why?  The clever descriptors for the trait levels amused me (lowest Luck rating =
"The gods ~hate~ you!"), the human-mecha damage translations worked well
for human-werewolf damage translations <laughter>, and this was my first
encounter with the idea of lifepaths.  To this day, I enjoy systems which
provide lifepaths for immersion in their campaign settings.

Ars Magica, 1st ed
- - - - -
As I mentioned before, I love to merge genre-specific systems with campaigns
of a different genre, so I merged the Ars Magica skills and merits/flaws system
with Villains & Vigilantes for a modern day superhero campaign with a very
Arthurian/medieval British feel.

Why?  I love folklore & fantasy
Why?  I found the motivations rolls to be an excellent tool for roleplaying during
those moments when one is trying to play a character considerably different
from one's own personality.  The motivation rolls work for me in the same way as
Unknown Armies' Rage/Nobility/Fear mechanics.  Occasionally, quantification
~can~ be a useful tool in the beginning (so long as one does not become overly
reliant upon it.)

DC Heroes RPG, 1st ed
- - - - -
Why?  I find I prefer the iconic, idealistic vision of superheroes in DC of the past
twenty years somewhat to the more melodramatic and angst-prone visions of
superhuman protagonists which have become Marvel's current style.
Why?  Most superhero games are generic to the point that neither DC nor Marvel
superheroes cleanly fit; this is a game system so perfectly tailored to replicate
the DC superheroes of its time that it is difficult to run any other company's heroes
in it!  (Vertigo and Watchmen also fit poorly.)  Also, the campaign books were
a comic book aficionado's dream!

Toon / Teenagers from Outer Space
- - - - -
Why?  Damn fun!
Why?  These games expanded the possiblities of gaming for me at the time they
came out.  And they're still damn fun!

Justice, Inc.
- - - - -
Someone else mentioned this book, and its sourcebook is one of the best I've
yet encountered for running pulp campaigns.  Moreoever, its sourcebook works
well for any system.

TWERPS
- - - - -
I LOVE THIS GAME!

I've run several highly successfully long-term campaigns using this system.  The only
change is that I declared that ST stood for Stature (a PC's importance in the storyline)
rather than for Strength (which has too strong an AD-&-D meaning for most players).

Why?  This game system is incredibly boring for combat, and it's incredibly boring
for simple mechanics-focused solutions, so it requires players to focus on solutions
outside the default gamer's box of mash-until-problem-solved and deus ex dice.
The simplicity of the skills (a PC may have a +2 in thief rather than an array of
theft skills, never defining what skills are or are not part of a particular thief's
repertoire) forces players to negotiate constantly with the GM over what their
PCs can or can not do, drawing their arguments not from some rulesbook but
from their PCs' histories and character conceptions.  TWERPS not only discourages
power gamers; it discourages killer GMs and GMs who prefer a hostile gaming
relationship with players.  While some people enjoy that kind of player-GM interaction,
I do not, and on a purely personal level I prefer a gaming system without it.

Doctor Xero

[RDU Neil]

Simulation... not a game... but the reason I game.  (Notice I don't say "role play".)

I want a game that gives me a solid, balanced and flexible system to create not only characters, but whole worlds that are consistent in their fantasticness (Ok... THAT isn't a word...)

I want a game that will allow me to do anything I can think of... but limits me to a balanced framework where each choice has a cost, and the metastructure of the game enforces a logical construction of characters.

When I fly, I want to understand the "physics" of the game world that enables me to fly... When I kick open a door, or at least try to do so, I want to understand why I succeeded or failed, why I had very little chance in the first place, or that such an act is almost without effort... and I want that statistically structured to be consistent every time a similar action is attempted.

I want a game that helps me simulate action and adventure and combat, so that I really feel like "I" (my character) is taking actions that may have random occurrences (dice) but are not arbitrary decisions (diceless.)  And if I understand and build to the system, I know how strong or weak, how fast or slow, how smart or dense... etc., my character is, in comparison to other characters and the world/environment.

That is what I want in a game... because when that becomes so structurally sound... then it fades into the background and the real role playing can begin.  I can dismiss the stats and points because, like a mathematician looking at a non-linear equation for liquid turbulence and envisioning a waterfall, I can look at a scribble of numbers and words and see Dave Aardven, PI who isn't as "all that" as he thinks he is... or Pulse, the first hero of the new age of heroes... etc. etc.

For this, I run/play Hero System/Champions.  I've played it since First Edition, with all it's typos and bad art... and still play it, despite Steve Long's turning it from a game into Black's Law Dictionary.

It is the most perfect system for what I want... Simulation.  I've really played nothing else in 20 plus years (tried stuff... like Vampire and M&M and Deadlands... but never stopped running Hero.)

Neil

(I will actually "play" Savage Worlds... as it is a fun/light system and works well for a certain style of fantasy game... but I'd never run it.  Too light and arbitrary for my tastes as a GM.)

[RDU Neil]

And I'm new here, and had never heard of this "GNS" theory until just today.  All my talk of simulation is simply my own use of the word as I understand and apply it.  It has no relation to GNS, which I will now go read about in that dedicated forum.

Neil

[Nuadha]

Hello all,

I've been browsing these boards for a couple days and this seemed like the perfect topic for me to post in first.

In no particular order...

Amber Diceless
The lighter the rules, the easier time I have focusing on the roleplaying.     Every time I have to stop to roll dice, the rules and mechanics of the game distract me from the characters and the story.   For this reason, I have been hooked on Amber for years.   I loved the game long before I ever read the Zelazny novels it was based on and was greatly disappointed with the novels when compared to the Amber I envisioned from the game.

The system has flaws.   It has several of them.   However, the fact that it has no dice, cards, stones or "miracle points" makes it my favorite to play in.    I have trusted the GMsin the Amber games I've played in and therefore have been able to completely ignore the rules and just enjoy myself.

Cinematic Unisystem
This has been a recent discovery for me.   It is the system used in Eden Studio's Buffy and Angel RPGs and will be used in their upcoming Army of Darkness game.

Like I said, I like rules-lite games where the system is non-obtrusive.    However....as a GM, I like to ask for the occassional dice roll from players.    I know that I tend to favor the players in games and I want to make sure I give them the threat of actually failing.     I've struggled for years to find a system that works in my "mostly diceless" philosophy of GMing.  I've applied this GM philosophy to WW's Storyteller, GURPS, Champions and the Palladium system at times with varying levels of success.......but mostly failures.

The Cinematic Unisystem (a.k.a. Unisystem Lite) is the first system I've run that really works for me.   I feel comfortable making diceless calls when a roll is not needed and when I do call for a roll, it only takes one roll of the dice from the players to determine the results.

Best of all, uni-lite (as it would be called in newspeak) is set up that the GM does not roll dice at all, which speeds the game up significantly, leaving more time for the story and roleplaying.


Champions/Hero System
I know.   I just said how much I love games that are light on dice rolling and have simple to use rules and mechanics.   Why would I ever list the "Math-lover's Dream" that is HERO?

I love superheroes.   I've been reading comic books since I was in Junior High School and started roleplaying with Palladium's Heroes Unlimited.   Besides a superhero-genre variation of Amber, Champions has been the only game I've played in that works for the genre.     It has enough rules for the creation of any power you may think of and with rules for things like knock-back, it goes a long way towards simulating the action found in comics.

Besides, sometimes it's fun to build a character in a "crunchy" system where every detail is designed out and you can "min-max" for maximum effect.   Sometimes it's fun to roll buckets of dice.

I'm nowhere near the point where RDU Neil is.....where the system is in the background.   The system in constantly in my face.   However, it's a good system so it's not as annoying as other "crunchy" systems.

[hermes]

I had to jump in and contemplate this topic.  Here goes. . .

Villains & Vigilantes: Probably the second RPG that I ever played (after D&D/AD&D) and still the one for which I hold the fondest memories.  Despite a system with loopholes and lots of math (in three different copies of the rulebook I have seen three different equations for calculating carrying capacity) it worked.  Simple as that.  The art by Jeff Dee was inspirational (it really is unfortunate that he has gotten away from drawing in recent years) and made me want to draw endless heaps of character sketches.  Probably the single best thing that this game had going for it was a horde of playable adventure modules.  Unlike the gaming situation today where companies churn out sourcebook after sourcebook, V&V was accessible to newer gamers because GMs didn't always have to design their own adventures.  The occasional sourcebook is good, but I prefer adventure modules (AD&D used to follow this model too, but eventually they started to flood the market with sourcebooks just like WOD).

Call of Cthulhu: The best "roleplaying" rpg that I have ever played.  I grew up reading Lovecraft so I had no problems getting into the spirit of this game.  I loved the fact that, unlike most games, character death was a very real possibility EACH AND EVERY TIME YOU PLAYED.  The fact that most of the "bad guys" couldn't be killed with a gun forced players to think on their feet and find alternate solutions.  In fact, when it came to combat your character sheet was almost useless (making this pretty close to narrativist in that respect).  You had to roleplay to acquire most of the clues that you would eventually need to solve the mystery.  As a result, characters tended to develop a lot of depth and personality.  Unfortunately, you had to be careful in getting too attached to those characters. . .

Cyberpunk 2020: Wow, did we play a lot of this game.  Why?  Partially because our GM was a William Gibson nut, and partially because we loved the whole "punks with guns" attitude that it presented (must have been the era that we grew up in).  Lifepath was something new and interesting to us at the time. . . it forced players to compose a background for their characters and to develop a personality of some kind.  The game also gave us a reasonably realistic combat system that had lots of numbers and dice to play with (realistic compared to what we had seen before).  It was almost like playing two different games: The first involved roleplaying with attitude and the second was all about dice-chucking and guns.  One of the best parts of this game was the set of "rules of the street" that it provided.  1) Style over substance. 2) Attitude is everything. 3) Always take it to the edge.  That says it all.

MSHAG (Marvel Saga): This is the system that I use for the superhero game that I currently run.  Why?  My players LOVE it and, to be honest, I rather enjoy it too.  It allows combat to be played fast and furious (and combat is the focus of most comic books) and puts a remarkable amount of control in the hands of the players since they are not simply depending on the randomly rolled result of a single die to accomplish anything.  The Doom pool that the GM accumulates and can then use to thwart the players is a brilliant addition to the game since it allows me to incorporate essential plot elements (like the bad guy escapes at the last minute) within the system, thereby preventing players from complaining that it was out of their control.  It also allows me to gauge the combat as it goes. . . if the players are in tough then I let them go, but if they are sweeping the floor with the villains then I can usually pull out some Doom cards to even things up a little.  The powers are also really well done with all of the stunts and limitations that are essential to a Marvel game (and they don't require anywhere near the minutia of design that games like M&M or Champions require).  Although my players use their own characters and I incorporate lots of my own villains, another attraction of this game is that the world is one that is familiar to all of them.  The players are suitable impressed when Spider-Man makes an appearance and know to be scared when someone like Dr. Doom or Magneto might be involved in the current plot.  This also allows me a lot of extra latitude in running unusual sessions like flashback episodes where I give them other characters to play for the night (it's hard to get players to take control of joe npc that you designed just for that purpose but it takes very little convincing to get them to play Captain America and the Sub-Mariner).

Glenn

[ascendance]

Hmm, here's my list:

D&D 3E.  What?  You say?  The terrible monster of the industry?  D&D bugs the hell out of me, but there's one thing I can say for it: support, support, support.  That, and there's strong, gamist, player empowerment mechanics.  People can have fun minmaxing the heck out of their character.

Ars Magica.  It was the first game for me that captured the feel of magic as magic.  Magic was a process... you combined things and made other things.  And the troupe style play was pretty revolutionary back then.  So revolutionary that few other games today still do it.

Mage: The Ascension (2nd Edition).  This built on Ars Magica.  I love how you could take it in so many directions: cinematic action, urban fantasy, science fiction, and so on.  Also, the Book of Worlds really captured my imagination.  I thought Mage Revised did a disservice to the game, and I still join into the occasional Mage flame war.

Hero Wars.  The conflict resolution in this game serves to simulate the flow of an event.  Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.  I love this game to death.  

Unknown Armies.  Multiple axes of sanity, in a comprehensible form.  The game was worth the price of admission for that alone.  I recall using the madness meter to track my character's sanity in other games.

Amber Diceless.  One of our big favourites back in high school.  Our games were nothing like the novels, but they were vast, sprawling epics, and characters did all sorts of fun and amazing stuff, unconstrained by rules or min-maxing.

Power Kill.  This "game" made me rethink my relationship to RPG violence.  I'm now a passionate advocate of orc rights.

[quozl]

Well, now that the thread has wound down, I'd thought I'd post my thoughts on all this.  I started this thread because I'm at a point where I'm becoming really dissatisfied with RPGs and am wondering what I actually like about them.

This is what I've come up with:

I like storytelling.  Coming up with stories and sharing your creativity with others is fun.

I like competition.  One-upping everyone else is fun.

Almost everything else about RPGs bores me.

So I guess my favorite RPG (that I've actually played) is The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.  It's pure storytelling competition.  Another RPG that fits this category is Soap but I haven't managed to play it yet.  Also, Universalis may fit in here but, again, I haven't played it yet.

I also want to thank everyone who has participated in this thread.  It's always enjoyable to see what other people enjoy and why they do.