8 Reasons You Should Be Playing Tabletop RPGs

[DrStrangelove]

8 Reasons You Should Be Playing Tabletop RPGs

You haven't really lived until you've gotten lost in an RPG. Today we're giving you eight great tabletop RPGs that will pull you in and won't let you go. These will haunt your dreams.

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[crimson5pheonix]

You recommended V:TR. Ewwww. Otherwise not all that informative of the game systems themselves but a (mostly) good list of RPGs.

 

[SilverHunter]

It's a good list, sure, but that's only by virtue of it being COMPLETELY generic. Even as someone who has just been introduced to pen and paper games a year or so ago, the only game I haven't heard of off the list is Fiasco. Where's Wraith? Surely you'd remember the kickstarter you very well advertised not even a few weeks back doing a 20th anniversary for it? It's a World Of Darkness title as well I believe. Where's Exalted, where you can hurl people to the moon with a good enough roll (3rd edition handled by same as wraiths 20th)? Where's Anima? Sure it could be rough, but the amount of insanity in it makes the game a classic in my book! And that includes the card game as well as the pen and paper.

This list reads like someone googled the list up. It reads like there's no real experience with anything in it. It reads like you asked someone who plays tabletop games and then put down the first thing they listed off. Wow, D&D, nobody ever would of possibly suggested that ever...

 

[Cowabungaa]

It's not as much a list of reasons why as much as simply a list of the big, classic RP systems and franchises.

And Fiasco isn't necessarily about a heist gone wrong, it can be about anything you want. That makes it so awesome. I still want to do the Antartica setting just so I can play a retarded version of The Thing.

 

[Ratty]

You recommended V:TR. Ewwww. Otherwise not all that informative of the game systems themselves but a (mostly) good list of RPGs.

Eh, what's so bad about V:TR besides not being VtM? Sure it's not as good lore-wise but it's not even trying to be the same type of game. New World of Darkness books were launched with a different design philosophy (modularity with a vague setting instead of a continually evolving overarching canon setting/storyline) to fight the edition/supplement bloat that had slowly killed the classic World of Darkness. And there's not much stopping you from having a campaign set in the VtM universe using improved nWoD rules.

Admittedly Requiem suffered from being the first out of the gate for the nWoD, haven't looked at the 2nd edition yet.

 

[JimB]

All in all, okay list, though I have become quite contemptuous of Pathfinder in the two years I ran it. The game seems so obsessed with attempting to regulate every possible interaction that it completely sacrifices fun in its quest to cover all the bases. It's like trying to play Uno with an obsessive-compulsive who has to stop the game after every played card to check the backs and make sure the text on all the cards is facing the same way.

Where's Wraith?

I have, on multiple occasions, heard people refer to Wraith: the Oblivion as "the best game you will never play." And they're right. The writing is fantastic and the setup impeccable, but trying to capture that richness and complexity makes for an extremely antagonistic mood at the table.

Where's Exalted, where you can hurl people to the moon with a good enough roll?

It is moldering in a trash heap where it belongs, buried beneath all the hopes and dreams of the players who wanted it to be able to support the amount of awesome it built up before collapsing under the weight of its own bloat and the complete absence of editorial oversight; and I say that as a fan of Exalted. May third edition rise from those ashes. But seriously, both of the published editions of Exalted can fuck right off.

...Okay, first edition gets a pass for having probably the best art in any RPG ever. I have never forgotten the image of a man in plate mail with a hand axe whose blade is the shape of a sunburst, hiding refugees in a dune while he faces off against giant mecha-scorpions. I know Exalted gets dissed for Tyrannosaurs in F-14s, but fun is fun, goddammit.

 

[Olrod]

Which part was the reasons?

All I could see was a list of 8 RPGs with a brief comment about what each is, but no real reasons why they should be played.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know anyone who plays Tabletop RPGs so I'm SOL.

 

[bdcjacko]

All great reason. But the best reason is to confound your dm.

 

[Mortuorum]

Best RPG that didn't make the list: Numenera.

So, why should you be playing tabletop RPGs? They certainly don't provide the kind of instant gratification you can get from a CRPG or MMO. They take a lot of work, in fact, particularly on the part of the GM. And there can be a lot of frustration when the expectations of the players are different.

However, there are some advantages to tabletop RPGs you can't find anywhere else, at least not together. First, it's a great reason to get together with your friends and a terrific opportunity to make new ones. Obviously, there are lots of ways to do that, from board games to multiplayer videogames to joining a darts league. However, tabletop RPGs also allow you to exercise your imagination and cooperatively create new stories and worlds in a way that no other social experience can equal (except maybe LARP, which is a whole other discussion). You can explore themes relating to politics, religion, wealth and poverty, crime and punishment, etc. from a perspective removed from our modern world and maybe see things in a new way.

Or, you can roll some dice, eat some munchies and bash monsters in the noggin for a couple of hours, which can be pretty darned satisfying.

 

[happyninja42]

I have, on multiple occasions, heard people refer to Wraith: the Oblivion as "the best game you will never play." And they're right. The writing is fantastic and the setup impeccable, but trying to capture that richness and complexity makes for an extremely antagonistic mood at the table.

Not to mention the problem of having another player, who might be more devious and cunning than you, be in control of your wraith. My old gaming group discussed this, that one of our players would be a distinct advantage, because he is just way too naive to be effective at making another player's wraith be an actual threat. Whereas pretty much any of the rest of us, would totally fuck him over if we were assigned his. Also, I just don't really like the setting much personally. I've never had the fascination with playing dead things, that seems to be so popular in WoD. You can say the setting is really great and rich, but I didn't find it interesting.

Where's Exalted, where you can hurl people to the moon with a good enough roll?

It is moldering in a trash heap where it belongs, buried beneath all the hopes and dreams of the players who wanted it to be able to support the amount of awesome it built up before collapsing under the weight of its own bloat and the complete absence of editorial oversight; and I say that as a fan of Exalted. May third edition rise from those ashes. But seriously, both of the published editions of Exalted can fuck right off.

...Okay, first edition gets a pass for having probably the best art in any RPG ever. I have never forgotten the image of a man in plate mail with a hand axe whose blade is the shape of a sunburst, hiding refugees in a dune while he faces off against giant mecha-scorpions. I know Exalted gets dissed for Tyrannosaurs in F-14s, but fun is fun, goddammit.

xD This makes me giggle so much. Yeah I hope 3rd ed cleans up Exalted's mechanics and makes it playable.