What's Your Favourite Tabletop RPG System?

[KBKarma]

And 2020 is good. *SNIP* But combat is SCARY. My character has had his leg sawn off by SMG fire three times.

Actually that's another reason I liked 2020...

"Oooh, 7.62 round to the arm, what are you wearing? Leather Jacket?...Bet you're regretting 'style over substance' now..."
"Fuck you"
"You know you're gonna lose that arm...again"
"Bastards! I haven't finished paying for this one yet..."
"You didn't pay for it, you got it off that cop we shot in the face"
"Yeah but I paid to have it sewn on to my stump..."

Oh yeah. My character couldn't use heavy armour because, well, he's a Solo with a sniper rifle. Every bit of AG helps.

Due to the regularity of our injuries (until our last two sessions, where we worked like an incredibly well-oiled machine AT LAST), our Medic set up a ripper shop, which doubled as our hide-out/HQ. After we blew up Arasaka. And an Army base. And a few dozen Nomad raiders. And stole a cryotank. And some full-'borg armour.

We moved cities twice. And are still in hiding.

 

[Madrak the Red]

I'm a fan of Dark Heresy, it must be said. I like the completely over the top combat, which is completly synonamous with the 40K universe (an assault rifle that shoots rockets. THAT EXPLODE). I like the grim and dark setting and the gunfighting, which can produce some really cool action movie style shootouts. That, plus the chance of a simultaneous 'NO-ONE EXPECTS THE IMPERIAL INQUISITION!', which is always a lot of fun. Though one does have to work to hold back the players from storming into places and shouting 'Imperial Inquisition, hand over all your planetary defense forces, there's a possibly dangerous lone convict we need to track down.'

I like 4th Ed (D&D), as I like the more dynamic, flowing system, and the fact that you don't have to add up 50 differnet bonuses. Though I'm only second level in 4th, and my 3.5 ranger has bonuses from about 6 or seven places- base attack, magical strength, magical sword, two handed attack, dual wielding attack etc and while fun, I like the flow of the power's in 4th ed.

A freind of mine recently bought paranoia, and we are yet to try it. Should be fun though. I've also tried the Serenity RPG. The rules are somewhat... unfathomable, as the rulebook is laid out in quite an illogical pattern, but nevertheless it is still fun, but that might be because... It's Firefly man, the best TV EVER (and I will hear no argument)

 

[fenrizz]

The new World of Darkness system.
It's the only one I really learned to play.
Oh, them long nights with Vampire the Requiem, makes me nostalgic

 

[KBKarma]

Something that's occured to me: have any of you heard of the Anima system?

It's a very customisable d100 system, which takes customisation to the next frighteningly comprehensive level. Of the twenty classes, you can specialise in any way you like. If you're a combat monster, you can add in stealth abilities, psionic powers, or magic.

A friend described it favourably as "I can't believe it's not Final Fantasy: the roleplaying game." Anyone else heard of it?

 

[McClaud]

If anything, I think that's a great idea. We need more "unwashed masses" who like World of Warcraft to play more roleplaying games. Especially if they are cute girls. That's how I met my wife.

That won't happen until there's a Twilight RPG or those girls find out about old World of Darkness VtM.

The greatest problem for me as a GM was making combat neat and interesting and D&D 4E does that for me in spades. But if that is all you focus on, and you don't know how to tell a good yarn apart from killing things on a tactical map, then this is not the system for you because the detailed encounter creations can become a crutch rather than trying to learn true storytelling techniques.

Exactly. But Pathfinder actually makes combat fun again.

I totally understand the entire hate for Roles in 4e, and the fact that the RPG elements are pasted in.

As I mentioned, 4e is okay as a gateway drug to RPGs. Once you figure out that characters can be more than their stats, you move into games that are more story-oriented than combat-oriented. That's when the real role-playing starts.

And a new DM should never, ever, ever be running a 4e DnD game with the hopes of creating epic stories. They should start with something like ... I dunno, how about World of Darkness? Old DM's can turn 4e into something greater than the sum of it's disjointed parts.

Something that's occured to me: have any of you heard of the Anima system?

It's a very customisable d100 system, which takes customisation to the next frighteningly comprehensive level. Of the twenty classes, you can specialise in any way you like. If you're a combat monster, you can add in stealth abilities, psionic powers, or magic.

A friend described it favourably as "I can't believe it's not Final Fantasy: the roleplaying game." Anyone else heard of it?

You mean this? -> http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=64&enmi=Anima:%20Beyond%20Fantasy%20RPG

Yeah, but it's not for amateurs. I tried it at PAX 08 at the FFG booth. It was pretty involved, especially in character creation/evolution.

 

[KBKarma]

Something that's occured to me: have any of you heard of the Anima system?

It's a very customisable d100 system, which takes customisation to the next frighteningly comprehensive level. Of the twenty classes, you can specialise in any way you like. If you're a combat monster, you can add in stealth abilities, psionic powers, or magic.

A friend described it favourably as "I can't believe it's not Final Fantasy: the roleplaying game." Anyone else heard of it?

You mean this? -> http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=64&enmi=Anima:%20Beyond%20Fantasy%20RPG

Yeah, but it's not for amateurs. I tried it at PAX 08 at the FFG booth. It was pretty involved, especially in character creation/evolution.

That's the one. Yeah, it's pretty technical. The friend I mentioned above spent about two days trying to break it. And was surprised when he couldn't find anything. My group, however, have yet to actually do anything, since our game has stalled (PbP forum game). He's running the same campaign offline. Oddly enough, most of the players in the tabletop game are playing magic-wielders or psionics, while most of the online ones are fighters or sneaks.

 

[AzgrymnThePale]

Chaos 6010 A.D. is by far my favorite system. Little known but the game is bad ass. Set in a dark future where demons have come from the sixth dimension to turn our world into a realm of chaos. Guns, cybernetics, magic, space, aliens. You can basically make any type of character you want and the actual mechanics are easy and fun. http://chaos6010.com/

 

[Ryan Quirt]

If your willing want to try something very different. The FATE system.


You can do anything with it and it will make your story better as side effect of how well done of a system it is.


http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0_44284

 

[Fumbleumble]

D&D 2nd ed, Merp, Rolemaster, Traveller, Call of Cthulu.

NONE of these being d20 version...

In my opinion, d20 systems are for people who can't count.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Swords & Wizardry. Less rules and meta, more focus on actual role-playing.

 

[Jake the Snake]

Rolemaster. Never heard of it? Go look for it, it is an amazing system. You have to order all the books online, but the game is worth it. It's a percentage based game (d100 and d10 almost exclusively) and amazingly realistic while still being amazingly fun. Great leveling system, wonderful combat system, just a great, great role playing experience and just stupidly better than DnD 4e