Your Favorite P&P RPG's

[S.L.Acker]

I've never had it in me to actual do the R in RPGs. It's just too fucking nerdy and awkward.

However, I love character and level design and I remember making TMNT, Heroes and Rifts characters, vehicles and maps for hours.

That's cool, maybe you could get the R with the right group of people; assuming you actually wanted to. Getting a good DM and other people that can get into a game without being creepy LARPer types can make all the difference.

[Havok]

It's like that co-worker I talked to. When I mentioned being a gamer he went into a tirade about the nerdiness of it. So I asked him what he did as a hobby. The answer; "Folk-dancing".

The Irony - it buurrnnsszzzt.

The difference, you fucking dipshit, is that I actually TRIED IT. I'm not just nerd bashing because NERRRRDS!
It makes ME feel awkward and nerdy and I don't like it. It's probably the same reason I didn't like drama when I tried that class.

I have no problems with the creativity, mechanics or any other aspect of it.

[Havok]

I've never had it in me to actual do the R in RPGs. It's just too fucking nerdy and awkward.

However, I love character and level design and I remember making TMNT, Heroes and Rifts characters, vehicles and maps for hours.

That's cool, maybe you could get the R with the right group of people; assuming you actually wanted to. Getting a good DM and other people that can get into a game without being creepy LARPer types can make all the difference.

I've heard this, but it's been so long since I even thought about playing that it will probably never happen.

I also am down to zero friends that actually game, so there isn't even the option really.

[S.L.Acker]

I've heard this, but it's been so long since I even thought about playing that it will probably never happen.

I also am down to zero friends that actually game, so there isn't even the option really.

Yeah, that sucks. If it was already something you were heavily into I'd suggest online, but I doubt it would do much for you.

[Stofsk]

I'm sort of in the same boat as Hav, in that I love designing characters and scenarios and shit, but when it comes to crunch time it feels pretty awkward. Also, I'd love to game but I really need a good group to do so. RPGs, when they're good, they're fucking great, but when they're bad, you want to set fire to things.

[S.L.Acker]

Sounds like both of you would do well to try DMing a game instead of playing. If you start with something simple, like a dungeon crawl, you won't need to do much RPing beyond villain speeches and describing monsters and rooms. It'll let you have fun making maps and designing things, and if your players start RPing then you might just get drawn in. It might also be cool if you guys started working on campaign module type things, then even if you don't get to play you can hear stories from people that have used your stuff.

[AMT]

Exalted. Because I love it. It's just insane. I DM Exalted and have lots of fun with it, and I've played it once and had plenty of fun with that too. I'm also a pretty big fan of most of the oWoD stuff and the Storytelling system in general even though I know it can be horendously imbalanced. if you ever have less than five dexterity then you're already failing as a combat character, and it's kind of ridiculous to make combat so dependant on one specific stat.

But I still love the system and Exalted especially, despite all the flaws with the system and the uh... well frankly White Wolf sometimes writes some pretty fucked up fluff, but Exalted has enough awesome stuff in it that I can just ignore the terrible shit instead of getting turned off by it completely.

Except for the oWod like, I'm going to have second this one completely.
I love the malleability you have with Exalted, and the fact that you are considered to be a bad ass and to do badass things because of it.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I'm honestly curious regarding this "roleplaying feels awkward" tangent. What is it about it that feels awkward or weird?

I can understand it to some degree. I've noticed it a little myself between the two different groups I play with. In adapting my own play/GM style to mesh with the group's, I do see a difference in terms of the difficulty of acting in various degrees of in-character (there's a lot of a grey area between "completely IC" and "completely goofing off with a paper full of stats I roll on"). In one group I can, without too much difficulty, drop into the role, mannerisms, body language, and speech-patterns of a cross-gender character who by our standards would be considered a genocidal religious extremist. In the other group I have a lot more trouble dropping into a much tamer role (a very mild-mannered, soft-spoken paladin), and instead spend most of my time joking to our DM how my character is trying to score crack and set up prostitution rings.

To me that suggests that one's group has a significant impact on the ease of RP; some groups do feel a little awkward RPing with simply because of the tone of the game and the group as a social entity.

[Coalition]

Mechanically, L5R's 4th edition is the best I've seen, although I don't care for the setting.

Have you considered other settings to us with L5R? If so, what were they, and how did you change the skills/talents/(dis)advantages?

I had been thinking about Ooku as a potential setting, not sure how it would work. You don't have to deal with Corruption, but the problems of the Empire are greater, and you have to deal with foreign devil spies who might learn the weakness. So even though they need help, you have to kill anyone who washes up on shore, and might have seen a village.

[SilverWingedSeraph]

Except for the oWod like, I'm going to have second this one completely.
I love the malleability you have with Exalted, and the fact that you are considered to be a bad ass and to do badass things because of it.

Really, I'm fond of oWoD because of Demon: The Fallen, which fascinated me, because it was potentially on the same power scale as Exalted and it had some really enjoyable fluff and a good concept. Sadly it was much less popular than Werewolf, Vampire and Mage, all of which I considered to be just average at best.

[AMT]

Except for the oWod like, I'm going to have second this one completely.
I love the malleability you have with Exalted, and the fact that you are considered to be a bad ass and to do badass things because of it.

Really, I'm fond of oWoD because of Demon: The Fallen, which fascinated me, because it was potentially on the same power scale as Exalted and it had some really enjoyable fluff and a good concept. Sadly it was much less popular than Werewolf, Vampire and Mage, all of which I considered to be just average at best.

I'm not a fan of "modern" fantasy myself. Stuff like Dresden, etc. I prefer more sci fi stuff (Shadowrun counting even though it's cyberpunk fantasy)
Plus there's a reason I call WoD world of gothness. Not as praise either lol.

But to each their own.

[Broken]

I played mostly D&D (group of friends had a long standing group, started in AD&D and ran up past 4th Edition release, very long Forgotten Realms campaign), Star Wars WEG D6 (which I was Co-GM on, excellent, long campaign, we nuked the post-Endor EU and made our own), and some oWoD, mostly Mage and Vampire. Rifts also had a nice campaign going, but unlike most of our other games, we ended that one on a note both the players and GMs were happy with and walked away from the system. All of those game systems were extensively house-ruled, especially the D&D stuff and the WEG system while by accident the Rifts campaign ended up so high-powered and epic that rules were nearly useless. The Star Wars campaign was my favorite and the most interesting to both play and GM, although I was the mind-fuck GM for Rifts, which was quite entertaining.

The systems I have done a little with, but not as much as I would have liked include Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, the Warhammer 40k stuff, and especially the Lord of the Rings RPG by Decipher. The LOTR rpg mechanically looks interesting, but we only played a few sessions with it before we went back to one of our other campaigns in another system to try and get them to a good spot for a hiatus. We just never got back around to playing it and, so far as I know, the Two Towers sourcebooks was the last in the gameline, so the whole thing was only 4 or 5 beautiful and well written books. The mechanics and such would likely need tweaking, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to preserve the proper atmosphere of Tolkien's works in an RPG.

I also have a bad habit of picking up books for RPG's I never expect to play, but look interesting. I have a couple Alternity books for just that reason (some ideas ended up in our Star Wars campaign), a Tenchi Muyo rpg (can't find the book, likely in storage or buried in parents basement), and a Slayers D20 core book (had to pick it up just to look at the magic system, especially the Dragon Slave and Giga Slave spells ) . One of my player even once gave me a PDF scan of the Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium rpg. That game only saw a limited release, a preview/collector's copy that was sold at a Gencon around 2000, iirc. The book was never printed for wide-spread release so have never seen a physical copy or played the game. Still, always was a Dune fan, so another take on one of my favorite settings is always interesting.

[Imperial Overlord]

I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of Alternity, Earthdawn, Old World of Darkness, the various 40K games, and Dragon Age RPG by Green Ronin. I've played a fair amount of D&D, but I really can't tolerate it's flaws anymore. I enjoyed WEG Star Wars when playing it, but our campaign ran straight into the bits that didn't work well so my overall experience is mixed. I'm generally willing to try out most games if enough tasty bait is laid out.

[HMS Sophia]

My favourites have to be mongoose traveller and the cortex system published by Margaret Weiss. I have a long running online BSG game in that last, and I've played multiple games of the former (And have one running online currently).
I like Dark heresy mostly, and the Starship Troopers RPG also by mongoose was cool.

[The Nomad]

Exalted, hands down. The system has its numerous flaws, and there are writers who fucked some parts badly, but the sheer awesome more than makes up for it.

[The Cooler King]

My personal favorites were always Shadowrun (still my favorite), Mage: The Ascension (I'm a sucker for reality-bending hijinks), and Champions (punching the SHIT out of thinly-disguised analogs of the Hulk and Doctor Doom!)

[Raw Shark]

I have tried many, but I don't bother with anything besides GURPS 4e anymore. Among other things, I run a thrown-together fan conversion of Shadowrun with it that won over the fanboys of the SR system in the group after exactly one (1) session. Somebody else in the group uses it to run Dungeon Fantasy, and I enjoy it more than I ever liked any edition of actual D&D.

[Civil War Man]

I've mostly played World of Darkness stuff recently, since that's what most people I know end up running. Mechanically, the new version is a lot more streamlined and easier to do crossovers with. Fluff-wise, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The new version lacks Demon, but it also thankfully lacks Mummy. Plus, it adds Promethean, and actually turns the Changeling line into something interesting and without a pedo vibe.

For quick and/or silly games, Risus is pretty good, seeing as how the rulebook is a) free, and b) 6 pages long, including optional rules.

[The Cooler King]

I have tried many, but I don't bother with anything besides GURPS 4e anymore. Among other things, I run a thrown-together fan conversion of Shadowrun with it that won over the fanboys of the SR system in the group after exactly one (1) session. Somebody else in the group uses it to run Dungeon Fantasy, and I enjoy it more than I ever liked any edition of actual D&D.

I still run 3rd edition GURPS at conventions, specifically GURPS Traveller, becuase my company supports it, and because I was the only person familiar with both GURPS and Traveller. How much better is 4th edition than 3rd? The Shadowrun conversion you mentioned sounds interesting, and I'm one of those SR fanboys (3rd and 4th editions, although I've been playing since the dawn of first edition). I'd like to try GURPS 4th, at least once, but I just haven't had the money to pick up the books. I have a pretty large collection of 3rd edition stuff, so it's not like I'm hurting or anything; I'm just interested in seeing what 4th has to offer.

I've mostly played World of Darkness stuff recently, since that's what most people I know end up running. Mechanically, the new version is a lot more streamlined and easier to do crossovers with. Fluff-wise, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The new version lacks Demon, but it also thankfully lacks Mummy. Plus, it adds Promethean, and actually turns the Changeling line into something interesting and without a pedo vibe.

For quick and/or silly games, Risus is pretty good, seeing as how the rulebook is a) free, and b) 6 pages long, including optional rules.

I'm a solid oWoD fanboy; I picked up the 'new' WoD when it came out, but it seemed like it was much more limited in scope, at least to me. I especially loved old 2nd edition Mage, with the whole 'war for reality itself' theme going on, and Mage: The Awakening just didn't have that 'spark' for me.

And DEFINITELY agreed on Mummy. That, and the Gypsies book, were two of the worst pieces of crap oWoD ever put out (alongside Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, of course!)

[Gunhead]

GURPS 4th Edition is just a refinement of 3rd Ed. Something like 90% of 3rd edition material is compatible with 4th straight out of the box and rest is easily tweaked or has a rule covering it. I'm familiar with both 3rd and 4th edition GURPS and the system I use nowadays has a GURPS light feel to it. It's called Praedor, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a slick and gritty adventure system for fantasy but it's in Finnish so there's a bit of a language barrier. Other than that I mostly build my own or tweak existing systems to suit a specific purpose.

-Gunhead

[Sinewmire]

I'm currently playing in a two Pathfinder campaigns and a Dark Heresy campaign. I'm planning on running Rogue Trader once a slot opens. I liked D20 Star Wars (not legacy edition) having run a game of that too.

I'm enjoying the Dark Heresy campaign the most, it's really immersive and the DM is fantastic at provoking roleplay.

What are opinions on the various Star Wars campaigns?

The only time I've felt awkward in Roleplay was when my friend's girlfriend's character fancied my character for a one night stand. It made sense - we were both happy-go-lucky bard types - but it was aaaawwwwwkward. I neatly dodged the issue by being attacked by undead monstrosities and it never came up again.

[The Cooler King]

GURPS 4th Edition is just a refinement of 3rd Ed. Something like 90% of 3rd edition material is compatible with 4th straight out of the box and rest is easily tweaked or has a rule covering it. I'm familiar with both 3rd and 4th edition GURPS and the system I use nowadays has a GURPS light feel to it. It's called Praedor, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a slick and gritty adventure system for fantasy but it's in Finnish so there's a bit of a language barrier. Other than that I mostly build my own or tweak existing systems to suit a specific purpose.

-Gunhead

Thanks. I've been considering picking up 4th, and I've been told before that it's basically a streamlined and better-presented version of 3rd.

I'm currently playing in a two Pathfinder campaigns and a Dark Heresy campaign. I'm planning on running Rogue Trader once a slot opens. I liked D20 Star Wars (not legacy edition) having run a game of that too.

I'm enjoying the Dark Heresy campaign the most, it's really immersive and the DM is fantastic at provoking roleplay.

What are opinions on the various Star Wars campaigns?

The only time I've felt awkward in Roleplay was when my friend's girlfriend's character fancied my character for a one night stand. It made sense - we were both happy-go-lucky bard types - but it was aaaawwwwwkward. I neatly dodged the issue by being attacked by undead monstrosities and it never came up again.

DO you mean the official campaign settings? I currently use the Saga Edition; it has a good feel to it, like how D&D 4th edition should have been, but much better. It moves very quickly, and creating effective and challenging encounters that don't make your players feel frustrated is a breeze. I've always liked playing in the 'main' timeline, usually starting just before the destruction of Alderaan. I don't generally work in too much of the EU, except in broad strokes (the Maw Installation, for instance), and in my game, the PCs were the ones responsible for the single TIE fighter that found the Millennium Falcon in ANH (they shot down the others in that patrol!)

As for feeling awkward, anyone who's roleplayed for any length of time has those uncomfortable situations. It's always helped me to do what the game suggests---play the character, and just imagine the situation, and how you would react.

[Raw Shark]

I still run 3rd edition GURPS at conventions, specifically GURPS Traveller, becuase my company supports it, and because I was the only person familiar with both GURPS and Traveller. How much better is 4th edition than 3rd?

Gunhead is correct: It's mostly a refinement of 3e, where everything meshes better and you can run magic, psi, superpowers, etc with the exact same rules instead of different shit from different books. I was initially very resistant, because I have a huge 3e collection and years of experience with it myself, but after trying 4e out and learning that all the old material is about 90% usable I became fully sold.

The Shadowrun conversion you mentioned sounds interesting, and I'm one of those SR fanboys (3rd and 4th editions, although I've been playing since the dawn of first edition).

It's perpetually in-progress, but I'll PM you a link. :]

I'd like to try GURPS 4th, at least once, but I just haven't had the money to pick up the books. I have a pretty large collection of 3rd edition stuff, so it's not like I'm hurting or anything; I'm just interested in seeing what 4th has to offer.

I got by fine with my 3e books and the 4e core set (Characters + Campaigns) until I had the time and money to invest in it more. That's really all you need, even for relatively crunchy material until you get up around the level of 3e Vehicles. The glossy full-cover hardcovers are more pricey than 3e; most of my group buys them on pdf and bring their computers to the game if they want a large 4e collection, nowadays.

I'm a solid oWoD fanboy; I picked up the 'new' WoD when it came out, but it seemed like it was much more limited in scope, at least to me. I especially loved old 2nd edition Mage, with the whole 'war for reality itself' theme going on, and Mage: The Awakening just didn't have that 'spark' for me.

And DEFINITELY agreed on Mummy. That, and the Gypsies book, were two of the worst pieces of crap oWoD ever put out (alongside Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, of course!)

...and that right there is word-for-word everything I have to say about WoD... It's too bad that their deal with SJG to do a published conversion fell apart, but the ones they were doing were, frankly, not all that close, and it's not terribly hard to DIY.

[Civil War Man]

Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand

That book does not exist, Friend Citizen.

Anyway, the fluff for World of Darkness varies in quality for me between editions. For Mage, I found Ascension to have a more interesting setting than Awakening. But for Changeling, the Lost is worlds better than Dreaming.

But the point of my post is still the same, in that the mechanics in the latest settings are much cleaner than the old settings. Having difficulty represented by adding or subtracting from the dice pool instead of fiddling with which number counts as a success makes it easier to tune bonuses and penalties. Combat especially is much more streamlined, having attack, damage, and defense combined into a single roll instead of having to roll to hit, then roll for damage, then have the defender roll soak. It's also easier to run a game with mixed parties in the newer system, since everyone has some form of power stat, mana, and morality meter that function similarly. While in the old system, Vampires are the only ones with a morality meter, Werewolves have a power stat that is also like a mana stat, but also have a second mana stat that has its own functions, and Mages have to deal with an anti-mana stat that works against their mana stat.

[Zinegata]

No love for Mouse Guard? *is sad*