I want to expand my physical library of rpgs.
At the moment I own DnD (the edition I am happy with, no edition wars itt), warhammer fantasy 2e, shadowrun 4e, CoC, savage worlds and some german games (Arcane Codex, The dark eye and Midgard).
Army of Darkness rpg is ordered already.
What are your favorite games that aren't on this list? Any setting goes.
I am already thinking about l5r and paranoia, what is your opinion on them?
L5R and Paranoia are good choices. I'd add Earthdawn, In Nomine, and Traveller to the mix as well.
I like Godbound for playing demigods, Feng Shui 2 for Hong Kong action, Apocalypse World for intense and interesting mechanics, and Achtung! Cthulhu for mixing World War II and Cthulhu.
Hollowpoint is a cool way to play modern assassins, Kult has a mind bending setting for horror, and Mutant Year Zero has some good ideas for post apocalypse.
Are you looking for games to play, or collect?
CthulhuTech looks nice and is nice to show off even if it doesnt play well. Numenera looks great, and I also recommend playing it.
Engine Heart is fun for a game where you play small robots in a post apocalypse like Wall-E, and 3:16 is a rules light game inspired by Starship Troopers.
>50313111
I second In Nomine, it's a good twist on Angels and Demons where they aren't pure good or evil.
If you want something different, Paranoia is a good idea.
I personally recommend Eclipse Phase for the great setting. Transhumanism is something you do not yet have. The rules are kinda SR4 style (same devs), so nothing new there.
Earthdawn is the best game when it comes to the inclusion of metagame things into the fluff.
You can actually say that you are a fifth level wizard in this world and the people understand what that means.
Also, the magic actually makes sense in this world and has an inherent logic.
Bonus points if you are an expert in Shadowrun fluff. You will get more out of Earthdawn in that case.
Also it has one of the best magic item systems ever. The idea that a magic item can grow with the PC is great, there is none of D&D's throwing away a +1 item for a +2.
So kind of like an awakened(sentient?) or wherever you call them magic item? Or just every magic item can grow in power with the PC?
The way it works is every magic item have what is called a True Pattern. People also have True Patterns, but because they also have souls their Pattern is able to empower things. Thus linking a person's Pattern to a Magic Item's pattern empowers the item and creates the effects. But there is a hitch, you need to understand an item's history to find the "hooks" that let you tie an item to yourself. The important bits of an item's history are called Key Knowledges. The more Key Knowledge you know of about an item the greater you can empower it. Sometimes Key Knowledge comes with a Deed that must be accomplished to increase the bond.
As an example, let's say you find an obviously magical crystal ax. Doing some research on the mystic runes that adorn the blade reveals the first Key Knowledge of the ax, its name, Firebiter. You are then able to tie a thread of power between you and the ax empowering it, giving it great balance (a bonus to hit). Later you find a book where Firebiter is mentioned and learn the second Key Knowledge, Firebiter was forged by the great Troll Weaponsmith Crav Stonetusk. This allows you strengthen the bond between you and the ax, allowing greater power to flow from you to Firebiter causing the blade to become supernaturally sharp (a damage bonus). Later still you learn that Firebiter was forged to slay a powerful Fire Elemental and if you repeat the feat you can further empower the bond and unlock even more potent power causing Firebiter to strike with freezing cold.
There is a downside to tying your soul to an item. A hostile magician can use the item to cast spells at you from any distance and bypassing many defenses if they have the item, as they can use the threads connecting your soul to the item as a conduit. Thus it is important to keep your threaded items safe.
Huh, interesting system.
FFGs Star Wars RPGs are pretty great if you're into that, they've got a really great success/fail/advantage/disadvantage mechanic going on.
The Wheel of Time D20 system is also a lot of fun, and is a bit different than your standard D20 stuff.
There is another system in place for minor magic items. These items do not grow and do not require key knowledge to function. Instead they burn a portion of a person's life force, commonly through blood sacrifice. Using a blood magic item requires you to sacrifice some of your life force (aka HP) to empower the item, typically for a year and a day. You cannot recover those HP while the item still functions, thus making it dangerous to use Blood Magic items.
Blood Magic can also be used to empower Oaths or even to help solidify True Patterns of nonliving things. The latter use doesn't carry as much of a long term loss of HP as once the True Pattern is fully established it no longer requires a sacrifice to maintain it. Blood Oaths actually increase the Power of those who make them if they keep to them after the initial year and a day Oath Period. A common use of creating True Patterns is organizations making them for their group and then the members of the group eventually are able to tie their souls to the group to reap enhanced abilities when acting to defend the group.
Earthdawn's magic is all really neatly tied together. Spellcasting works under the same general principals too. And it even explains how certain class abilities work. It is really cool.
Sounds like good fun, would give it a shot if I could find someone willing to play something other than DnD/the most popular d20 stuff.
As someone who actively runs paranoia, I would suggest against getting the new one. If you can, get Paranoia XP, or the 25th anniversary edition.
Additionally, the two spinoffs (IntSec and High Programmers) are both fantastic, and can't recommend them enough.
Unknown Armies and Traveller
Has anyone actually played In Nomine? I've heard people talk about it, hell I think I have a pdf copy of the book in my folders somewhere even, but I've never actually heard of anyone actually playing it.
Don't Rest Your Head and Dogs in the Vineyard are both pretty interesting systems.
why would I need a special RPG to mix cthulhu with wwII? I can just run Cthulhu there and use some tables of the Niemandsland expansion (don't know the english name, no mans land?) that's for WWI but some things are still relevant for WWII.
I think about the Cyphersystem Corebook instead of Numenera, might be a bit more universal and that would fit me in my hunger for more games, that I also want to play to answer your question.
tell me about Transhumanism, what's it about?
FFG star wars is on the to buy list, probably the scoundrel core book, whatever it's name.
thank
I don't know unknown armies, what's that about and how does it play?
Unknown Armies is a game about postmodern magic in a modern world. Your philosophy is basically your spell school, and each school ties itself off of an aspect of society, or life in general, to feed off of.
All of humanity is innately magical, it's just that few people are crazy enough to look through the cracks and exploit that power.
There's nothing out there in the universe besides humanity. Anything in the world comes from us, sometimes unknowingly, because magic is tied into the human condition.
New edition of delta green just came out, it is pretty excllent. I like arc dreams insanity rules faaaaar more than chaosium.
what do you know about that sci fi game faith?
last bump
One summer I ran an amazing pair of In Nomine games. I ran an all Angels and an all Demons group. I did not tell the groups about each other, but interwove the events of both groups together. Both parties grew to hate each other and wanted nothing more than to have a crack at the other. Then one of the Angels Fell and managed to escape his fellows. After the session where he fell I told him to come to stay after to chat about making a new character. I asked him if he wanted to keep playing his Fallen character and he said yes. I then explained that the group of demons they've been countering is in fact another group and if he keeps the Angel group a secret he can join that group. He was all over it. The demons gleefully took in the Fallen Angel and he helped them really screw over the Angels. Soon the Final Trumpet is blown and the Apocalypse is upon the world.
I call both groups together at the same time and it is damn near chaos as PvP erupts immediately. By the end of the next 4-5 sessions only the Fallen Angel (who ended up redeemed) one of the Demons (a Lillim), and a vial of beach sand were all the remained of the previous Universe. They had stopped the battle realizing they had lost everything, they discussed mutual suicide and decided to continue living as penance for their parts in the destruction of the universe. The campaign ended with both of them being told by God and Lucifer that the previous Universe was a failed experiment and they were to be the seeds of a new Universe and it was their task, like Yves and Khronos before them, to shepherd a universe that was greater than the last.
Shit was amazing, but I had two very good groups.
In Nomine just ranked up a lot
Deadlands, WoD, Ars Magica, RuneQuest, Aces & Eights
Shelving some Dragon or Dungeon magazine doesn't hurt either.
Falkmore is a pretty good system. Written by late president Artemis N.
WoD is on the list, not a fan of weird west and I have already enough fantasy games, tell me about aces & eights, I never heard of it
but what is it about?
Also best predator vs Judge Dredd rpg?
Wolsung is a fun, simple steam pulp system.
Good flow, uses a combination of mechanics (d10, chits, playing cards), setting is surprisingly well done.
The setting is a romanticized version of the victorian era with steampunk and magic elements. It has a really "80 days across the world" vibe.
The players play as the heroes from the get-go, characters are "league of extraordinary gentlemen" protagonists almost from the start.
Nice game, lots of ways for the player to influence the scenery (a mechanic to literally alter the surroundings to benefit the character), mechanically very focused on being a hero game.
It is available both in print and in PDF in English
here is a site wih all the information: www.steampulpfantasy.com
Attached a preview version of the system
thanks for the preview, that might be interesting since some friends of mine are into steampunk but I don't have a dedicated steam punk rpg.
Also league of extraordinary gentleman really sells it to me.
Which edition of earthdawn do you recommended?
Some of my tips
RPG Name [Genre]
>Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Black Crusade/Only War [Warhammer 40.000 Science Fantasy]
>Gamma World [Post-Apocalypse]
>Iron Kingdoms [Steam/Magitech Fantasy]
>Mutants & Masterminds [Superheros]
>Shadow of the Demon Lord [Dark Fantasy]
>Star Wars WEG D6 or FFG [Space Opera]
I personally only have real experience with 1e, but I have heard good things about the latest edition, 4e. Every time I find a game it seems to fall apart before the first session.