Well, I want to make up a rule or two so it isn't just an endless downpour of praise. It'll add a Gamist thread of fun to the posts. :)

How about this:

THE ONE RULE FOR THIS THREAD: You may praise as many games as you want, but you may ONLY praise ONE thing, aspect, etc of each game. You can contribute again to the thread to praise more games, but you cannot re-praise a game you already praised.

Cool? I'll start.

DREAD When this game was introduced to me by Rafael himself, I was like, "Angels and demons fighting. Yawn." Hearing more about it changed my mind, until I had the book in my hands:

And damn, if Rafael isn't one of the best "short piece fiction" writers I've ever met. The chapter intros carry the usual gaming fiction, but with Dread's case it Actually evokes the setting and just pulls you right in in ways that no other game can (well, AFMBE was good, too... but Dread beats it in the end for its continuous story/plot). Throughout the gaming fiction spaced throughout the book, we come to get involved with a kick-ass cadre of lowlife demon hunters. Rafael pulls it off so well- Not only did I go ahead and read each bit of fiction, I was actually hungry for more- Which has never happened for me with an RPG, not even in high school when my tastes were unrefined.

Dread: The gripping, immersive fiction alone was worth the price of the book for me.

Well, it's no secret that I'm a Riddle of Steel fan. Qudos to Jake and co for showing me that fantasy RPG's can still be fun, even though I'm not 12 anymore.

I can only praise one thing? OK, TROS is a great game all around, but the SA's have to take the cake.

What a simple concept, yet amazingly elegant. They promote roleplaying over rollplaying, they drive and focus a game far better than any railroading GM ever did, and they provide instant beneficial feedback to those players who are prepared to define what they want and then try to achieve it.

Brian.

Okay, my turn, my turn ...


Well, I'm Sorcerer enthralled...

Do I really got only one thing to praise ? Damn, tough one !

I'll go for the most amazing and yet quite subtle and overlooked mecanism in the game, the realationship that is established between the sorcerer and its demon even before play begin. I found that aspect of the game to be a real treasure in this game. The character automatically has to have at least one realtionship that the player has to deal with: the one linking him to his demon. This thing is quite a revolution in my gaming... as in : never shall it be that the PC are not envolved in a deep and engaging relationship in a high drama game (plus kudos to the rules behind it all !)

Fabrice.

Torchbearer. The exotic flavor and nomenclature mixed with alien culture-myth references slay me. It's awesome. So many people try to pull off "sense of wonder," but Shreyas nailed it down in silver.

Best,

Blake

Blake already took Torchbearer, so I have to say...

#$@% Hell! If Universalis isn't God's gift to roleplaying, I don't know what is! It seems that ALL my designs lately start of with something like "So, imagine Universalis, but with ______." I'm currently working on a major, detailed, extended review of it for RPGnet, and it's only making me more impressed. It's something that all of us have thought about, but nobody really sat down and wrote. Genius in a bag.

One thing about it?

Consensus-based GM-less roleplaying. Better than sliced bread. I've been wanting to kill the GM for years. After all, players have all the fun and I always get stuck GMing stuff. NO MORE! Ralph and Mike have liberated the tired, enslaved Gamemasters of the world and given us hope of a better tomorrow! Long live collaborative narrativism! Down with the autocratic oppression of the Illusionist Roaders!

Confessionals in Inspectres!

Sing Karaoke boy!

Thanks, Andy.

I must say, there's a truckload of great games out there. But one must be chosen...

I praise: Le Mon Mouri.

This game is just so god damn iconoclastic. Stats? Never heard anything like them before. Gameplay? Only one of its type that I know of. Setting? Pretty much the only game with a setting like that. And the feel of the book, its size and weight, the paper it's printed on --

Hell, you know what it feels like? It feels like I'm a Lovecraftian protagonist and I've found some heinous manuscript describing eldritch secrets inscribed upon crumbling stones amidst the cyclopean ruins of some ancient civilization. I feel like I clutch some mouldering pages, perhaps inscribed upon human skin, which will shatter --

Well, you get the idea. It's like no other game, in just about every way. And I love that about Sean Demory's Le Mon Mouri.

-- Rafael

kill puppies for satan

Simply, the best written game of all time. kpfs does a better job of communicating the atmosphere of the game through the rules than any other game I've encountered.

Donjon for giving us a reason to go back to the dungeon again.

Mike

The Riddle of Steel. The combat system pulled me out of 10 years of gaming retirement, so that's what i'm commending.

One thing?

The "Scale" rules from Trollbabe, and their interaction with "Stakes" and "Consequences." The best thing about Trollbabe, IMO. An excellent approach to allowing the PCs grow in importance during a series of adventures. And the examples of how to use them are just right, too.

Rich Forest

Sorcerer & Sword: because it captures the feel of swords & sorcery better than anything I've seen before.

Donjon: players create encounters with die-rolls. how cool is that?

Trollbabe: one stat number = 3 stats. most compact character creation system I've ever seen.

I want to give utmost praise to Kayfabe for the way its system is so keyed to the subject matter. Everything about it screams "pro wrestling". I mean, I could never imagine saying, "Hey, let's use the Kayfabe rules to play Star Wars". Kayfabe is exactly what it sets out to be, from beginning to end.

It's just an extremely focused game, which makes it a true work of art in my eyes.

I like rules-lite games so, although I haven't played them yet, I like the look of Metal Opera and Adventures In Space.

Children of Fire is great for the background (not happy about the rules though, so I dumped 'em).

Gideon

Powergame changed the way I game, shaking me loose of the Hero/GURPS/Fuzion way of seeing things and showing me the beauty of unlayered simplicity. Although the rules read like simplified ("rules-lite") Sim, I'd argue that by providing just descriptive power levels and leaving the actual definition of powers and skills to the players, Powergame does a lot to enable Narrativist play.

However, that's not the one thing I'd praise here: I'm praising Powergame for it's tone - humble, clear, sensible and tinged with just a slight touch of daftness which makes it endearing. If you can't see the humor potential in "rules-lite Sim", go read a game which rates everyone from Aunt may to Galactus on a scale of 0-8 and still has room to niggle about gun barrel lengths and the relative superiority of the Abrhams tank. Oh, and a character creation example where the author powergames his own system (giving his character points for something other games consider a costly advantage).

- Dotan