What are your favorite RPGs and why?

[Umberhulk]

No one ever seems to mention this one, but I really enjoyed Tunnels and Trolls.  It was the first rules-lightish game out there and created solo dungeon adventures (and consequently the Choose Your Own Adventure style books).  It was narrative, tongue-in-cheek, monte haul play at its best!  Take That You Fiend!

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Umberhulk, you will be pleased to discover quite a few in-depth, extended discussions about Tunnels & Trolls at the Forge. Run a little search and see.

Also, for purposes of the thread itself, my Top 5 RPGs might be interesting. It's one of several such articles by a number of publishers/creators, so it's a good companion to this thread.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Ian, the formatting looks a little weird at Fandomlife.net, in my article; you might wanna check it out.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Ron,

P.S. Ian, the formatting looks a little weird at Fandomlife.net, in my article; you might wanna check it out.

Use http://www.fandomlife.net/80256a3900651eec/a/IORE-5LUQSA">this link instead.

Paul

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Hmmm... I hesitate to use the word "favorite" but let's say these games I hold in esteem.

1) Dungeons & Dragons. As noted by some, it defines the hobby. I don't think that's accurate. I think its caricature of roleplaying. People outside of the hobby think of it as D&D. Whenever I think about roleplaying, or do some pure blue-sky dreaming about design, it is in one way or another based on or in terms of D&D. I really don't understand the depth to which D&D has colored my own thinking, but I do believe it is very deep indeed. Note how this one is on the list without any mention of enjoying playing the darn thing.

2) Villians and Vigilantes. This is the game I probably had the best time playing. Bar none. First, I dig on super heroes. Second, the system (as tweeked by the GM) while strangely complex, it somehow made sense. It seemed to fit the expected results in the super hero genre. I suppose I feel the same way about V&V that some other feel about the Freedom Force computer game.

[*]Rolling up characters was neat. I always took the best 5 of 7 option. Doing so created a please "ahh" when several powers came up that in turn inspired a character concept.
[*]Combat is the meat of this game, natually. The first piece is the power chart which cross-references the various attack powers against various defenses to arrive at a base to-hit number.
[*]Initiative was handled in a great phases> turns system which allowed characters to have several phases of actions per turns. The power Invulnerability hinges on this by giving X number of points that absorbed damage. These points refreshed at the end of the turn, so it was usually a race to do enough damage to the villian to get past their invulnerability to do some actual damage.
[*]Characters have two numbers, power points and hit points.  Power points are a nifty little mechanic that is multi-functional. [list=1][*] any action the character performs in comabt uses a PP. Performing multiple actions (punch, punch, kick, kick) cost additional PP. As they dwindle, you character gets close to tiring. Should a combat run over, you can spend hit point to continue to attack. [*] Power Points power your powers. So if you want to shoot that energy blast, it might cost you 3 PP vs the 1 PP it costs to sock him. [*] You can spend up to 1/10th (rounded up) of your PP to absorb further danmage. This is called "rolling with the punch' so you can't do this if you're attacked from behind or when you're knockedback into a wall or the like.[/list:u]
[*]The effectiveness is multi-layered. There is a stat called Basic Hits which is used to figure your Hit Points. If you take Hit Point damage that exceeds your basic hits, your figure is knocked back that many inches on the field. Should it knock you into anything, it causes more damage.
[/list:o]

And so on. I list all of this because this is probably the crunchiest system I've ever dealt with but I think it all fits together really well in spite of looking hodge-podge and I like it. I still like it. Which is completely against my current tastes.

3) Everway. Again, another game I have never played, but this is the first game to really show me different ways for doing thing and started me on my current journey, such as it is. This was something I had hoped FUDGE would do but in comparasin, FUDGE is very traditional in comparison.

[Ben Miller]

I was a real Chaosium fan (don't seem to get many mentions on the Forge...).  The first game I ran as GM was...

1. ElfQuest
At the time ('bout 1988) I felt I'd found a game that had a proper background and encouraged a lot of character depth.  A strong player group dynamic was formed in this game because the character was placed well in a group (the player's tribe).  You rode wolves and stuff... cool as!  Good, consistent rules - as a GM I never really felt that I was having to make rules up as I went along.  Come to think of it, that's one of my personal requirements of a good rule system...

2. Runequest
Following on from the above, this opened me up to being able to set my games in a much larger and more varied world.  Obviously it was also based on Chaosium's Basic RPG System and I enjoyed it for the reasons gven above. Players liked it too - they could climb ropes, pick locks, etc, even if they didn't have the word "Thief" written on their char sheet... :)

3a. MERP
I was a big Tolkien fan since my Mum first read me the Hobbit when I was about 7.  This game was a God-send then.  Those critical tables - beautiful descriptive.  I defy anyone who says that charging your percentile dice to roll on them wasn't damned exciting!

3b. Conan
The original TSR game (not the d20 ior GURPS versions).  This was a little beauty of a game and (I believe) well ahead of it's time.  No stats, just talents grouped into pools.  Having different colour levels of success was great for me as a GM - I enjoyed being able to narrate more than just a success or failure.  The game was very basic in terms of rules but had everything you needed - D&D would have been far, far better had it used this system (in my humble opinion).

4. Hawkmoon
Chaosium again I'm afraid!  What a setting though!  I used to love making up adventures where players could stumble across abandoned research labs from the 20th century in the Carpathian mountains, only to be set upon my mutant monkey men.  Wild.

5. Dungeoneer
Not the card/board game, but the extended rules based on the Fighting Fantasy books series.  Back when a simple system of skills from 2-12 , rolling under on 2d6 seemed to encompass everything I needed as a GM!  Written in a nice, light-hearted way too.

6. Skyrealms of Jorune
What a deliciously freaky place that was.  Shame the system was a bit ropey (althought the combat options were a real eye-opener and allowed some useful tactics).  Althought I mainly got my kicks from GMing, this was the one game that I begged by mates to run so I could play.

There were others, but these defined my early (mid to late teens) RPGing.  I wouldn't change them for the world...

;-)

Ben

[Anthony]

Even though I've never played it, Over the Edge has a special place in my heart as the game that blew my mind.  The funny thing is it may have been the game that made me hate roleplaying for years, cause I suddenly knew that There Was Better Stuff Out There, stuff I'm still chasing to this day.

In 1992, senior in high school, I was a rpg-aholic, not just in terms of playing, but reading and collecting as well.  I think I spent far more on games than on petty things like clothes.  Yeah I was a geek.  I heard about this really odd game called Over The Edge, some strange small press game that was influenced by William S Burroughs and I had to have it.  (I'd recently read The Naked Lunch and was an impressionable little youngster.  Best way to warp a high schooler's mind for the better is to make him read that book I tell you.)

When I managed to find a copy (Digression, can we all say a prayer for Games Of Berkeley past?  Although actually it has gotten amazingly better in the past year, still I miss the old store.) I was confused.  I did my normal skim of the book, getting an idea of how it was laid out and was disappointed.  The rules looked so puny, and the character sheet was confusing.  No stats?  What is this?  But upon really reading it I was blown away.  The idea that a game could be so simple, that you didn't need 100 different rules for different situations, that you didn't need a list of skills or classes, the players could just make one up!  I realized gaming could be something totally different than I'd ever played.

However, that inspiration killed other games for me.  My old favorite GURPS just felt wooden now.  AD&D was painful, and did I really want to play this mess of rules and confusion that was Champions?  Vampire I never really liked, I still don't know why.  I mean I wanted to like it, I'd been told so many cool things about it, but I'd tried it a few times and it just seemed like work.  And no one I played with wanted to try something so novel, so different as Over The Edge.  (Even when I divorced the rules from the setting, cause I knew for sure I wasn't going to be able to do justice to a setting so odd as that.)  

Add going to college soon after, and learning about this thing called life, and games pretty much went to the wayside.  In that past few years I've been getting back into them, but I'm still frustrated by the lack of a gaming group that I really feel has a chance at playing something like Over The Edge, or many of the games I see here on The Forge.  Honestly, how do you guys find your groups?  I can't find anyone willing to really try anything so experimental, so not the kind of games they have been playing since they were kids.  

Since I've been reading this board for a while I've been able to better enunciate what I want out of a game group, and why I'm unhappy with the groups I've been in.  And I'm able to actually explain just what it is about these types of games that draws me.  Before it was more of a feeling than anything else.

So there you have it, Over The Edge.  The game that killed gaming for me, and my favorite game by far.

[talysman]

hi folks. I've been semi-away for a while, occasionally popping over to read stuff but too busy to post. noticing this thread, I thought I'd pop in to contribute, sticking strictly to the guidelinse Ron layed down and being very introspective about the Five Greatest RPGs in my Personal Mental World.

[list=1]
[*]D&D. it was what started it all -- and I don't mean "started the role-playing industry", I mean "started it for me". just before I was first exposed to D&D around '75/'76, I had discovered fantasy literature via the two strands of Tolkien and the swords&sorcery writers, so when a friend introduced me to D&D, I was naturally attracted to this weird game that allowed me to participate in a shared fantasy. that was the big part: shared fantasy. I was never much into playing games, but I took to D&D in a way I never  enjoyed Monopoly or chess.
[*]The Fantasy Trip. this was the first point-buy system I ever saw, and really appealed to me because of the increased detail it allowed me to give to my characters. it's what lead me to later get heavily into GURPs, until I realized there was something else about TFT I truly enjoyed: simplicity. there are a few basic principles in TFT which can be combined over and over again to create as wide a variety of effects as you could wish. as I grew older and became more frustrated with high-complexity games like Hero System, Rolemaster, and eventually even GURPs, I began to really appreciate what TFT showed me.
[*]Call of Cthulhu. I didn't get to play it much, but since I'm a Lovecraft fan, I had to get it and try it out. the change in focus from survival to staying sane was the first inkling for me the role-playing could be something more than a treasure quest. really, in CoC, your character is going to lose -- but you can choose how, and make losing entertaining. I found that I really liked the idea of "living in the fantasy" as much as I earlier enjoyed using the shared fantasy as a backdrop for a dungeon crawl. I was becoming more fascinated with color.
[*]TOON. I only got to play this once, although we had a great time playing it (although the hallucinogenic mushrooms may have had something to do with this, too.) TOON is important to me mainly because it got me thinking about games where the characters don't have to die. you can have fun without the risk -- or rather, by shifting the risk to the social level outside the shared fantasy. TOON hammered home for me that I really liked the surprises that emerged from other people's imaginations, which in turn re-emphasized my desire for shared fantasy; I realized that this is why I liked shared fantasy.
[*]D20. after not playing D&D for quite some time, some friends got me to play a couple 2nd edition games, then one asked me to GM the new 3rd edition, so I started buying books. I noticed how thorough the new system was, how the design was rock-solid, how a lot of the setting details are exciting, not just in the WotC material but in some high-end third party resources like the Shattered Lands. it was obvious to me that 3rd edition was a very well-designed system, probably the best version of D&D ever -- and I didn't want to play it. not because of the "D&D sucks" meme that so many other people like to bandy about (I just said I thought it was a great game, remember?) what D20 made me realize was that my tastes had changed; I still wanted the D&D-like settings and scenarios, but I didn't like complex rules systems anymore. I didn't want a wargame fused with an RPG. D20 was the final step that lead me back to realize that I wanted a game more like TFT or TOON, and it encouraged me to hunt up alternatives like Fudge, Risus, or the various games we all discuss here on the Forge.
[/list:o]

so that has been my psychic journey through the land of role-playing, so far (it's still not over.) it tells you a hell of a lot more about me than it does about role-playing in general.

[ADGBoss]

Always love these threads because it lets you see inside other's experiences, which is endlessly fascinating for me.  I am going to list mine in more or less chronological order.

Chess & Other Wargames.  Are you high? Chess as an RPG? Well since it is well argued that RPG's derive from wargaming I would say that its fair and perhaps relevant to mention these games.  For thise who may not have played Chess: You take on the role pf either a White or Black King, and through move and counter move attempt to gain advantage in a game that caricatures Court Politics.  Its diceless, very easy to setup, and can provide a few minutes to hours of fun. Diplomacy is another War Game/RPG mix that is also diceless.  Both are very Gamist, IMO but possibly other elements are involved as well. IF you have never taken on the role of a general or squad leader I would heartily recommend that yor give a War Game a try.  

D&D Basic & AD&D1e It all started with the D&D Basic set, when Humans had 4 classes, Dwarves could be.. .er dwarves, and imagination was ignited.  The game allowed me to explore elements of games that were completely alien at the time: Organized Make Believe.  AD&D thrilled me because there wre more then 3 kinds of armor :) So it catipulted my imagination forward and showed me that there could be different games in this RPG phenomena.  As a note I always wanted to try Tunnels and Trolls but never could find anyone to play it or my parents to buy it. (This was 1979 and I was 8).

Pommels & Paradoxes  Never heard of this one? Well you wouldn't.  It lasted two weeks, was never sold, and really was not measurably better then D&D at the time.  It was however, my very first attempt at RPG design.  I was 9 and even then I knew that as good as D&D was, it did not fulfill all of the itches that it had awakened a year earlier.  Totally by coincidence some of the things in Pommels & Paradoxes actually showed up in HackMaster.

Runequest I had not realised I had been doing not much more then Hack n Slash until I was introduced to Runequest.  Sure ther was combat but suddenly there was s toryline, a world with real mythology, and a system that took design from a different tact. The BRP has been very influential in my own design ideas.  Especially opened my eyes to a different way to look at magic.

Cyberpunk  What no Elves? Other then being another diferent system and one that is pretty straight forward IMO, it introduced me to a whole new paradigm.  Suddenly our own world was every bit as interesting as fantasy worlds and there were a great many stories to explore along the way.  Especially without the use of some supernatural bits which was a new concept for me at the time.

Sorcerer  When I first played Sorcerer I sat down with three distinclty different players.  This was a system none of us had ever really experienced and it lead to some of the best role playing sessions I personally have experienced.  The three players got the game and that was one of the biggest surprises.  They totally left their old habits behind and embraced a totally new way of thinking and it worked.  At that point I think I let many of the final elements of the "Old Habits" fall away.


Sean

[quozl]

Top 5 RPGs might be interesting. It's one of several such articles by a number of publishers/creators, so it's a good companion to this thread.

Best,
Ron

Those are interesting.  Any chance of seeing an update now that more than two years have passed?  

Again, thanks to everyone who has posted their top RPGs!

[Comte]

Alrighty here we go a couple of these games will be lumped together because I like them for similar reasons.  This way I can avoid going back over the same thing multiple times.

Obsidian/Shadowrun:  I the main reason why I like both of these games is the long drawn out charecter creation process.  Shadowrun allows for for a myriad of possiblities when it comes to a new charecter and the vast majority of the source books for the game simply enhances this process.  The vast amount of weaponry and equipment that is availble to the starting charecter is mind boggling and you get a sense of real power right from the get go.  I can't stand Shadowrun's game system, but I find myself buying new source books for the game and spending hours making up new charecters just to exparament with the new options that are available.  Also the game world accomadates a wide variety of diffrent charecters and playing modes which makes things fun and interesting.  Odsidian's charecter options aren't quite as vast as Shadowrun's but they still offer a relm of interesting possibilities.  Most importantly is that the game allows the player to work for a corporation and it lets the players desighn that corporation.  This way the player can carve out thier own part of the games world  right from the get go.  Not only are they a part of something but they belong to something important.  On that same note, allowing Kultists access to all the powers from the start also gives a facinating array of choises to choose from.  One of my favorite types of games is big on Char gen and light on system and these two games have by far my favorite Char gen systems.

Sla Industires/ Little Fears/ A-State: These games all capture my imagination is such a way that I would sit down and write random source material for them or even game fiction.  As a form of leisure activity I would sit down and write out vast sections of backgroun information that may never apply to the charecters but is still fun to just write for.  The background information to the game allows for my imagination to take off in a variety of interesting ways.  

Paranoia:  Hardcore fun game world to play it.  The rules have been thrown out long ago by me and I actually have diffrent players follow diffrent sets of rules.  Some players will have a role over system, some a roll under system, and some will use a dice pool.  It tends to keep them on thier toes and it is a fun game world.

My Life With Master/ Le Mon Mori/ Puppet Land:  I like these games for sheer innovation.  When I first read these games I went "Wow games can be written and played like this".  Le Mon Mori especialy captured my imagination as it both had a fasinating world to play in as well as an interesting system to run things.  

With the exception of Shadowrun  and Paranoia these games are fun to play with thier intact system and game worlds.  Shadown's system drives me nuts and I just screw with Paranoia's system because it makes my players sad.  However, the aspect I pointed out in each game is good enough to cover up the games other faults.  I don't like Obsidian's background information but I do like the game enough so that I can put that aside.  I think that it is interesting that I am willing to play with a game I mostly hate because of one enjoyable aspect (shadowrun).  In fact in the last shadowrun campain we had a problem with players dying to often because we wanted to make someone new.  Oddly enough only the games in the last category I can play without modification to rules or world but I also do not feel inspired to write random source material for the games themselves.  Unless they are being played they remain mostly inert whereas SLA Industires I write for on a regualr basis.  This need to add to SLA's wealth of material might account for the game's longevity despite its multiple "out of print" stints as well as long periods of time with no official products.  

When I try to make a game it is a balance between the games I like to write for just for fun and something new and innovative.

[Dauntless]

Favorite in what way?  From the actual play experience or from the game system/background?

Well from play experience, here goes:
1)  Justice Inc.:  Yeah, it's going back a bit, but this game was probably the most fun that I ever GM'ed.  My players also said that it was probably the most fun they had.  The Hero System was flexible, and once the learning curve had been passed, was easy to play.  And the setting (pulp era 20-30's fiction) provided a large palette to play around with.  From fights with mafia Don's in Chicago, to fighting ancient Fu-Manchu wannabes in San Francisco, or searching for a lost Holy Text in Phonecia (Lebanon), it was hard to beat.

2) Phoenix Command:  We played 3 campaigns set in the Vietnam Conflict with 3 different units (IIRC, 3rd Bttn, 3rd Div USMC, 25th Infantry Div US Army, and part of "The Herd" 173rd Airborne Brigade).  What made this game so memorable and enjoyable was its utter realism.  The Phoenix Command system was years ahead of its time for realism, and could almost be described more as a board game than a roleplaying one.  But with a little tweaking of roleplaying rules (additional skills for example), the realism offered made for some very profound, poignant, and provocative gameplay.  The combat system, being as deadly as it was, required a lot of forethought, and true bravery on the part of the players to expose their characters to danger.  Living Steel was a  system which used these rules (for the most part) that was also an excellent game that really highlighted the importance of being heroic.

3) Ars Magica:  This game was a blast.  The rules were lite and fast, but with a great amount of detail if required.  Our own campaign was interesting because of a Christian Magi in our covenant.  This one thing created quite a stir and made for an interesting handle to roleplaying plots.

4) Twillight 2000:  Probably the longest running campaign I have ever been in and one of the most enjoyable.  The system was fairly lean, but with an attention to detail.  Forgetting about where your food, ammunition or fuel came from was perilous.  As was neglecting wounds, or not getting proper nutrition.  Indeed, every post-Apocalypse game I've played has been enjoyable (Freedom Fighters, The Morrow Project, AfterMath), but Twillight 2000 had that right combination of post-apocalypse survival with modern 21st century warfare.  I personally liked the older 1st edition Twillight 2000 rules than the later 2nd edition rules (with the exception of the modification of the autofire rules).  But the 2nd edition rules are also very good, and I played with these as well (the character creation system was a bit arbitrary in my opinion when it came to skill lists).

5) Paranoia:  Probably the most hilarious game I've ever played.  The very premise of the game makes for a riot, and next to Justice Inc, had some of the greatest belly-laughs of any game I've played.  The setting alone is worth it.

6) Sengoku:  If you're into Japanese feudal era, you must get this game.  It uses the Fuzion system, which is a lite weight Hero System with much of the complexity taken out.  It plays very fast, and the character creation system is very authentic to whatever sub-genre you want to play (historical, chanbarra, or anime).  The Shinobi supplement is also excellent and a must-have if you wish to play authentic shinobi.  I used a modified Martial Hero rules to implement greater martial moves, as I found the basic manuevers to be too limiting.  But if you don't mind a little tweaking, Sengoku is a great game...worth the price of the book just for the historical info and the immersion it can provide for the game setting.

[quozl]

Favorite in what way?  From the actual play experience or from the game system/background?

Good questions!

My answer is "You tell me."  What makes a game your favorite game?  The actual play experience, the game system, the background, or something else?  Maybe it's different for every game.

Again, thanks to everyone who has posted!  If you're reading these and haven't yet posted, please do so. (I need to post my favorites too!)

[Lisa Provost]

Hmmm... Intersting question.  I actually had to think about this because of all the games I have played.  :)

1)  Mage the Ascension (2nd edition).  Most folks always, ALWAYS say Vampire the Masquerade (nothing against them, Vampire is great too!) but very few people ever play Mage.  Why?  Because it's "too hard" or "you have way to much to think about" or soemthing along those lines.  (At least that is what I have heard on more than one occasion.)  That is why it is my hands down favorite RPG.  There are so many things you can do and so many ways in which to do them!  For example, you are walking down the street when as you approach the corner, you see across the street, the Bad Guy.  You can not run, there is no place to go and he would catch you.  You are standing directly under a street lamp.  He'll see you any second!  What do you do?  Well, you can use Forces to turn the street light off and run into the shadows.  (It happens all the time, light go out at odd occassions.)  You can use Forces to send a power surge to the light and make it explode!  (Kind of obvious but it might draw the attention of everyone else around and you could get away in the confusion.  Besides, he's less likely to attack you with an audience.)  You can use Forces to bend the light away from you thus no light touches you and you can't be seen.  You can use Forces to absorb all the light touching you so you look like a blotch.  (Kind of freaky but hey, it's an idea.)  You can use Entropy to stir up the dust in the air or the particles in the light and make a small cloud in front of you to obscure you.  You can use Mind to erase the thought of you from his mind.  You could use Mind to make him think you are elsewhere.  You could use Life (or Mind) and make him fall asleep so I can walk past him.  You could use Life (or Entropy) to stop his heart and kill him.  Etc, etc.  There IS a lot you can do and no set way you HAVE to do it!   That is why I love it!

2)  Call of Cthulhu.  (1920's)  Why?  Because you are mortal!  Bullets hurt so don't stand in front of them.  Because you might never defeat the bad guy, stop the ritual in time, etc, etc.  Because there are so many skills that even if you have never been trained in it, you can still attempt to use it.  (Oh you can always try!)  :)  I love the sanity stat as well.  Knowing that my character can never be more than say 65% sane really makes me reflect on how to play her and how to let her to develop.   I also love it because most of the time, it is not a matter of if you die, it's more a matter of how you are going to die that makes it fun.  Also, the fact that while you may have defeated the big bad evil critter, you still may not have saved everyone from the effect of the ritual.  There is not always a happy ending in CoC.  

3)  Legend of the Five Rings.  Another game where so few people play the RPG because they feel it is "too involved in the political aspects.  I want to get to fighting!".  (At least that is what I have heard anyway).  I love it because of the intrigue and the politics.  Knowing how to place my katana down in front of the Lord of the House, or Daiyamo and knowing exactly how he will react to how I place it.  Knowing that sometimes, a sharp tongue can do more damage to your opponent than a sharp sword can.  I also like it because of the 'keep' system of dice.  You can roll a number of dice and keep another set number of dice.  No one says you have to keep the best rolled.  On many occasions I have pulled a punch to my favor.  For example, I was in a duel with a cousin.  I was pretty much ambushed and forced to fight.  I knew I was the better swordsman as did he and all of his cronies.  He was after me for that very reason.  If he killed me, he would gain the glory of beating that year's Topaz Champion and get a foe out of his way.  If I killed him, I'd have the rest of his family seeking vengence on me and I would be in duel after duel after duel in "revenge for his death".  Instead, I ended up pulling the blow and only wounding his leg badly enough that he had to be carried back to his house and Daiymo.  This showed glory upon me for not killing a noble cousin.  This showed glory on me for being the better swordsman and this showed dishonor on him since they knew I obviously "pulled the punch".  It is this sort of subtlety, intrigue and politics that makes this game so much fun for me.

[clehrich]

Hmm, favorites.  Of course, there're favorites to play, and then there're favorites to  read, and then favorites to steal from, and so on.  Overall?  Do supplements count?

Call of Cthulhu, because for some reason this plays so wonderfully.  I've also read all of Lovecraft (not including all his dreadful poetry), so that's a natural.  I guess I also like the occult feel of the whole thing, and my preference is for CoC games in which it's not rugose cones and fishy (literally) townsfolk but more ordinarily creepy goings-on.  I also love the Gaslight material, sadly out of print.

Ars Magica, a must-have for history nuts.  As time went on they threw out more and more history and I got more and more upset, but AM2 didn't actually tell you that you couldn't play a scrupulous historical setting without rewriting all the backstory.  I also played in an AM game that was fantastic and went on for a very long time, so there you go.

kill puppies for satan was quite literally the game that got me onto the Forge.  I stumbled on the link, giggled, went to lumpley's website, laughed until I cried, and then had to buy the game.  From there, I just had to start contributing to the Forge in a big way.  I've never played it, sadly, but it's already changed me drastically as a gamer.

Unknown Armies and Nephilim I find to be wonderful mines of stuff to steal, although I don't love them as games.  The Nephilim supplement Liber Ka is a masterpiece in its way, although I have my doubts as to whether it could actually work in play.  But for my sort of nut, it's wonderful to pick up an RPG about the occult and find that somebody's done a lot of (rather disturbing) homework.

Original AD&D, the only version I have ever owned.  I still love it.  Hack, slash, slay, kill, get loot, lather, rinse, repeat.  I still have chunks memorized.  People carp about dungeon crawls, but I love 'em, so long as everyone knows that the point is to put that encyclopedic knowledge of encumbrance and movement rules to work in a kill-fest.  One of the best things I ever did (in grad school) was play in a two-shot beer-n-pretzels affair where we designed Oriental Adventures characters, about level 8, with all the samurai trimmings, and then waltz through a level 5-6 Western-style dungeon playing violent tourists.  Anyway, gotta love AD&D!

Chris Lehrich

[MikesLeftHand]

'Ello people!

Games I love/games that had an influence on me:

D&D 1st ed. simplified rules in Norwegian: The first game I ever played. Honestly, it sucked beyond compare, but playing through the sample story, killing the Carrion Crawler... beautiful. And it was so limited it forced you to think stuff like "why the heck can't I play an elf wizard"? And then you argued with your friends, thweaked the rules, and the proverbial ball of independent thought was rolling.

MERP: After the aforementioned D&D this was a revelation. Detailed setting, chrunchy, realistic rules, the works. Even though I played it for sheer hack value, it changed stuff, and the old ways suddenly seemed bland.

Earthdawn: The worlds greatest game, period. The combination of horror value, fantasy elements and a world alien enough to provoke an intense sense of wonder. OK rules, wonderful character potential, great setting. Though Living Room Games have mede it their mission in life to screw it up (the new 3rd ed books are... er... not so good), the old stuff is brilliant. "Prelude to war"; i long for the day I get to play that through. Heck, the best LARP I ever made borrowed from Earthdawn.

WOD: In my opinion, all WOD games are good alone, but they start to taste funny when combined. Stille, it presents the best rules I've seen so far, and a setting quite different from what I 'd seen by then.

You might see a distinct lack of Indie games here; lately, my passion is turned towards LARP, and I'm sorta new to the world of Indie roleplaying games. But I'm learning!

Aksel Westlund