Veeky Forums, can you tell me about your favorite system?
My group has totally burnt out during the last few games, and we want to find something new to play in, but everything I try is either poorly written or incredibly dull.
>What system is it?
>What do you like about it?
>What's unique about it?
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How about you say what you've tried first?
>What system?
Homebrew
>What do you like about it?
I made it.
>What's unique about it?
Simple and streamlined yet capable of a lot. Excellent for rulings, excellent for fluff.
Less trolly vague statements aside; Obviously if you make your own system you can keep only what you like about role playing games in it, you can build in rules that support your own setting and can rebalance different character classes or skills to your taste.
Legends of the Wulin.
It has the best combat system of any game I've ever played, constantly giving you interesting choices to make and creating fresh combat dynamics from the interaction between your styles and your opponents.
LotW is unique in that it's the only game I'm aware of to combine narrative sensibilities with a crunchy, meaningful set of mechanics. It does an excellent job of making combat the center of its storytelling, where a fight isn't just a means to an end, it's a primary method of plot progression, character development and interaction.
It also deals with PvP the best of any system I've ever played. Allies sparring can be fun for both players, and the system caters for the fights having positive outcomes, whether its fierce rivals gaining a greater respect and understanding of one another through a duel, or allies sparring in order to train before a battle- And all of those things are represented mechanically.
The downside (which I think you should add to your list of questions to answer, no system is perfect and you should be honest about how they're flawed) is that the editing of the core book is god awful, with some very important rules either buried in fluff text or never directly stated at all, as well as some core balance problems with certain styles and options being particularly powerful or weak. It's not that hard to fix, but it does require some tweaking to run smoothly.
>What system?
Unknown Armies 3rd edition
>What do you like about it
Rules are pretty straight forward while also maintaining their own identity, and the setting is likely unlike anything you've ever seen before. Your stats are determined by each of your 5 different sanity meters. Adept magic is based on your world view so if you happen to pick adept schools that in canon would have political differences you automatically get philosophical fun party tension.
Magic is a part of the human consciousness and unconsciousness. Every single thought we have influences the world around us, we just don't know it. There's nothing out there in the universe besides us humans, but that's because we invented the cosmos.
>What is unique about it?
See question 2.
Also, Unknown Armies has a gun magic that's not allowed to shoot people.
I'm just reading through the 3e book at the moment, and I'm honestly really impressed with the direct advice given to players. 'No, fuck you, make a character who cares about stuff and has a reason to be involved in the game' should be directly stated more often.
Their whole approach to the 'trigger warning' section was also nicely mature and nuanced. Encouraging understanding and empathy, but not compromising on the fundamental tenets that UA is a horror game and will, by its nature, deal with disturbing and unsettling material. I thought it was a nice compromise.
>Fate
>story-focused, easy to tweak
>fudge dice - you mostly roll 0, so modifiers are king, aspects - story details with unified mechanics
OP I'd suggest you try lots of oneshots or short, like three sesssion, campaigns with a different system each time until you find something you like.
Also reading through that many systems makes you a better GM and player, and gives you the understanding and experience to confidently homebrew.
>What's unique about it?
>Simple and streamlined yet capable of a lot. Excellent for rulings, excellent for fluff.
user, not to piss on your parade, but that's hardly unique. It's what every damn homebrew claims. That said, I'm curious, would you share how the system works?
>What system is it?
Mini Six
>What do you like about it?
It is absurdly easy to pick up and play, to the point where character creation takes a few minutes at most and everyone is ready to play. It tends to be the game I reach for the most when I want to run a game.
>What's unique about it?
It maintains compatibility with West End Games' D6 system, meaning you can bolt things on with fairly minimal fussing about. For a generic system it's ridiculously easy to grok and even comes with a smattering of small settings to run right out of the box.
>What system is it?
Homebrew: Fate Core, with a dash of Wushu
>What do you like about it?
The system really encourages team play and narrating interactions with the environment. It also has the exact same mechanics for social combat that it does for physical, so there's no mechanical incentive to beat someone up as opposed to giving them a brutal tongue lashing.
>What's unique about it?
Question 2, mostly, But fudge dice and melding Wushu's "History, Hobby, Job, 3 kung fus" statline has created some interesting approaches to conflict resolution, especially if we're running a fantasy campaign.
>What system is it?
Barbarians of Lemuria
>What do you like about it?
I like the simple skill system with broader careers instead of specific skills. I like the low ceiling on math and dice, and the use of only one type of die, which keeps play simple and quick, with a small learning curve and minimal calculation during play. I like a combination of relatively high lethality with a moderate ability to avoid death, which lets the game feel fast and dangerous without a lot of actual PC deaths. I like the ability for players to dish out fast bursts of damage to quickly end fights, and the ability to avoid damage by destroying equipment, so that there is a sense of consequence without necessarily leaving characters dead or wounded. And I like the fact that magic is rare, difficult to use, and largely utility based.
>What's unique about it?
Experience is only awarded when you trade in your money. This fits really well with the genre, but it also instantly solves a lot of problems for greedy players, which I have several of. There is no reason not to give players insane amounts of wealth, the book actually recommends treasure being so vast it can even be quantified. But, the treasure is ultimately useless, because it can only be used to trade in for experience, and unless the player agrees to spend themselves back into the poorhouse, they gain none. It eliminates the need to balance money, where giving them too much breaks the game and not giving them enough means they lose interest in accepting quests, and it stops players from falling into non-adventuring shit, like becoming landlords or merchants.
How the fuck we are supposed to advise, if you won't tell what you've played?
Sorry, I should have thought about that, but it was like 2 AM when I made the thread and I was frustrated.
My group originally met playing Magical Burst, during which I really grew to hate corruption mechanics. Since then we've gone through Mekton Zeta (Only two players made it through character creation, since it took hours per character), L5R, which I ran (I detested running this system due to the bizarre social etiquette and all fights being basically "I roll to attack" for the non-shugenja), and Exalted 2/3e which each had their own share of weird mechanical problems.
Before this, I played DnD 3.5/Pathfinder/4e with an old group, along with a bit of Mutants and Masterminds.
Without tooting my own horn (I personally design my games to be optimized to be run by me, so my current game is my "favorite", naturally), I could probably suggest...
>FFG Star Wars
If Star Wars is your cup of tea, absolutely a fantastic game to run. Requires the investment of the unique dice, but all in all, a very intuitive game.
It gives the GM tools to rig the situations in multitude of ways, because of Advantage symbols. Gives off also some unique moments where a roll is very rarely just binary success-failure, without excessive subsystems going on.
And well, if you're already familiar with D&D, 5e is pretty slick, compared to other editions. I know many people kind of doubt 5e because well, it's just D&D, but it really streamlines character progression while making the choices you make there matter no matter where you go with it.
Then I'll give a quick rundown of my own system, for fonzies.
>Ironic tone, almost everything is taken through a lens of your character sucking
>2d6, roll over, no mathematics required, just adding a few dice to a given roll depending on the situation
>Combat (Or Conflict, to be exact) can take other forms than duking it out, and people don't need to wait for their turn to do stuff.
>Experience reliant on character progression and roleplaying (Taking new disadvantages to your character)
>Very player-driven
Currently I only have the base engine ready, but once I launch it it will come with several settings, such as Magical Girls, Psychic Delinquents and Street Racing ala Initial D.
OP what you want is Dungeon World
It's pretty much objectively one of the best currently out there. It has fast easy to use mechsnics and is perfect for beginners, it's a lot cheaper than most of these other rules bloated systems that cost fifty dollars. There is no reason for extra rules when it is he role playing that matters. Dungeon World is fast and innovative and still feels exactly like the spirit of ADND before DnD 3.5 destroyed the hobby and ruined a generation of role players.
You want fast, intuitive combat? Dungeon World does that.
You want real, deep roleplaying mechanics? Dungeon World does that.
You want great mechanics that reward diversity of play? Dungeon World does that as well.
My last session of Dungeon World my human fighter wrapped a vampire in a bear hug and wrestled him out a window. This is real roleplaying we are talking about here, not babby 3.5 shit. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Dungeon World today, it is an evolution and perfection of the half-formed ideas in Apocalypse World (the game it is derived from)
>It is absurdly easy
No, it's full of badly balanced dic mechanics and probability, it's complex as fuck, and has the same stupid-ass "take flaws for mechanical advantages" as GURPS and every other stupid game. Also players hit each other in melee way too much so defense is useless, and the damage conditions are fucking retarded.
MiniSix can suck a shit in the trash where it belongs. There's a reason it never took off like Dungeon World and Mouse Guard did.
>It's pretty much objectively one of the best currently out there.
Don't be fucking obnoxious. If you like a system pitch it and argue it, but don't say bullshit like that.
>"take flaws for mechanical advantages" as GURPS
I'm not sure you grasp how character making in GURPS works.
>Literally posting two years old pasta
>Even including standard pic attatched to the pasta
user... try fucking harder
This is a VirtPost.
This is a victim of a VirtPost.
>What system?
Dark Heresy 2nd Edition
>What do you like about it.
40k. Outside of that, the extreme flexibility and customizability inherent to the system without being overly complex.
>What's unique about it?
See >What do you like about it.
>What system is it?
GURPS Lite
>What do you like about it?
All the most basic and important elements of GURPS. If I feel like it, I still can use the crap from any other lines, but if I don't, it's still perfectly playable vanilla.
>What's unique about it?
It's GURPS and it's light. Get it?
>If you like a system pitch it and argue it, but don't say bullshit like that.
Prove it wrong then. Prove ONE flaw about Dungeon World.
Its attribute system doesn't match the dicegame.
Also
>I don't have to prove that I'm right, you have to prove that I'm wrong!
Meaningless stats, moves lacking in consequence, XP rewards for failure.
Shit probability in dicerolls.
It's not working like this and you know it. It's your fucking job to prove the system is fail-safe, not our to point flaws.
Especially if it's fucking Dungeon World
>This pasta again
Jesus, it's 2017 already, fucking STOP!
>What system is it?
4e DnD
>What do you like about it?
Fun and very tactical combat, flexible and engaging social and exploration mechanics that involved the whole group rather than just the designated skill monkey.
A lot of choices that is fun and very capable in actual play.
>What's unique about it?
The best tactical and most fun experience in tabletop your group will ever engage in due to the rules being very clear.
My friend who DM it often said it is the best and most enjoyable system to create plots under.
You gonna tell us what you like about roleplaying or anything? As I am sure you know there are a metric fuckton of good games out there, so any sort of filter it terms of setting and gameplay focus would be useful.
...
my penis is confused by this image
BRP
Everything's done by percentages, which adds a higher element of risk imo
You can mold it to be whatever you need it to be
I like having a combat system that doesn't 100% boil down to "roll your combat pool and whoever gets a higher result wins."
Likewise, I'd prefer to have a social system that isn't just "roll your social pool and whoever rolls higher wins", but that's less common.
Being fairly setting-agnostic is a plus.
Not being super lethal is a plus.
I enjoy being able to GM grandiose characters and villains, so less on the gritty, realistic side would be nice too.
There are a lot of decent suggestions in the thread, so I'll have to give them a look as well.
Are there any tweaks in particular that you'd recommend? I vaguely remember someone a while ago on Veeky Forums talking about changing up the chi recovery mechanics.
>OP I'd suggest you try lots of oneshots or short, like three sesssion, campaigns with a different system each time until you find something you like.
That actually sounds like a really good idea, I'll have to run it by my group.
How does GURPS lite compare to standard GURPS in terms of character creation difficulties? Most of my group stuggled with DnD character creation when we started it, and I don't want a return of the Mekton Zeta problem.
>my penis is confused by this image
That was kind of intentional. It's the image I used for my character portrait for a dragonblooded in a 2e Exalted game.
With GURPS Lite it depends on what you are doing. If you are just using templates then character creation is legitimately easier than everything that isn't Risus. There are templates for every D&D class that come with Dungeon Fantasy, and quite a few others for other genres, and even lower fantasy templates.
For Legends of the Wulin, a lot of stuff is fixed by the Half Burnt Manual, available on the Wulin Legends wiki, or the wiki itself. They've got fixes, tweaks and rewrites of core styles to stop them sucking/tone them down, and while I disagree with them on some points it's a solid bit of fan content.
Beyond that, here are my main things-
The system has two defensive stats, Block and Footwork. RAW, Footwork is better than Block in every way since it's just as good a defence, but also adds mobility as it's the stat you use for covering ground. In the groups I play with, we allow both stats to be used for covering round, with the basic idea that Footwork is for going over or around obstacles, while Block is for going through them.
RAW Armour in the system sucks, it hits you with fuckloads of penalties for a benefit that's too easy to ignore. We drop all penalties it applies other than Covering Ground so armour makes you less mobile rather than making you suck.
Oh, and usually you're limited to only learning one technique per level from your Internal Kung-fu styles without a loresheet technique for mastering the style. Fuck that noise with a rusty rake, it's no fun and is nigh on impossible to make work outside of the core setting anyway.
Then again, I'm in a group who uses LotW for magical girl games, so we've had to do more tweaking than most.
>Then again, I'm in a group who uses LotW for magical girl games, so we've had to do more tweaking than most.
>Tfw my group wants to go back to magical girls
I'll definitely have to try this.
Our group has a few storytime threads on the sup/tg/ archive about the game, set in the Nanoha universe.
We really like the system for magical girl stuff because it allows befriending to be a mechanically potent option as part of the core combat system. Anyone can choose to create a Chi Condition enhancing the creation of a friendship as the consequence of ending a fight, and Courtiers can literally go full Nanoha and friendship laser people into submission. It's pretty awesome.
>friendship people into submission
I-I don't think you know what 'friendship' is, user...
>I like having a combat system that doesn't 100% boil down to "roll your combat pool and whoever gets a higher result wins."
what did he mean by this?
>I enjoy being able to GM grandiose characters and villains, so less on the gritty, realistic side would be nice too.
FATE. Star Wars FFG might work if you want to play Star Wars.
pic related is mfw
Pictured- Friendship.
>I like having a combat system that doesn't 100% boil down to "roll your combat pool and whoever gets a higher result wins."
>what did he mean by this?
Presumably systems where there's enough depth an interesting choices in combat to make it more than just 'roll and hope you get high numbers'
Why is Nanoha so dreamy?
Because the alternative is her being fucking terrifying
>What system is it?
CoC 7th edition (basic role-playing system)
>What do you like about it?
Not rules and dice rolling heavy, it puts a real emphazis on roleplay, and is easily adaptable on the fly.
>What's unique about it ?
The fact that you're not trying to build optimized pc, but real characters, with some really useless skills (like "wiskey tasting"" ). The chase rules from the 7th edition are also pretty neat. Also I don't see a lot of systems that use bonus/malus die.
If I want a rule-heavy system, I would choose shadowrun : awesome combat system, perks...
OK, from what you posted both Apocalypse World and Burning Wheel(or Torchbearer if you want to stick strictly to dungeon crawling) seem up your alley.
>I like having a combat system that doesn't 100% boil down to "roll your combat pool and whoever gets a higher result wins."
Likewise, I'd prefer to have a social system that isn't just "roll your social pool and whoever rolls higher wins"
Both AW and BW have variations for both that offer more options then a binary win/lose.
>Being fairly setting-agnostic is a plus.
Both have flexability in setting but AW is pointed toward a wasteland apocalypse vibe and BW is pretty euro-medieval but don't have any real fluff to work around.
>Not being super lethal is a plus.
Character death is not easy in either and really leaves it up to the player, instead of the gm, to keep pushing until they die.
>I enjoy being able to GM grandiose characters and villains, so less on the gritty, realistic side would be nice too.
Well this is 100% AW, no other way to play it really. BW is intended for pretty grounded characters but I don't think that it would be difficult to intentionally keep things lighter.
>What do you like about them?
Both AW and BW have mechanics that keep characters fictionally dynamic between sessions. This keeps characters changing as the game progresses so that a righteous paladin or arrogant elf are both interesting to play and play with, because the game won't let them stay static and one dimensional.
>What's unique about them?
AW has the GM never roll and still has a system to keep things from being constant fiat. BW has characters builds created through their life situation leading up to the start of the game which gives some really interesting backstory choices to players.
>What system is it?
Blend of Dark Dungeons and Darker Dungeons (basically the same game by the same author, but he modifies things between them and I port some of those changes from Darker over to Dark such as the Mountebank class).
>What do you like about it?
It's classic BECMI/RC D&D with a few updated mechanics
>What's unique about it?
Not much, really. Like I said, it's basically just the RC with some updated and expanded stuff.
M&M 3e is my personal favorite. Simple system, wiiide array of powers.
Sure, it breaks easy if you push the system, but on the other hand, the book actively warns you, and tells the DM to slap your shit if you're being an asshole.
And with the vast toolbox of options being effects based, it really frees open character choices.
You buy an effect, and then fluff it as you will. That Damage power? It can be you just hitting that motherfucker *really* hard, or can be a mystic endowment, or so on. Avoids caster supermancy, because you all get the same effects anyone else gets. Hell, I favor using it for fantasy stuff over 3.PF.
>giantitp.com
Don't build a pile of powers. Build a CHARACTER. The single most important question you can ask yourself: Would you read or watch a book/comicbook/movie/cartoon about this guy?
If not, you dun fucked up.
>tvtropes: the game
Liteally none of these are true, and only prove that you missed the point of Dungeon World. Go read the rules, then report back when you don't hate the game anymore. You only hate it because of 1 or 2 trolls. The game itself is actually fantastic.
I find the lack of mechanics unsatisfying and prefer systems with more weight and substance to them. That doesn't mean I hate it, just that I have no interest in basically any of the PbtA branches.
I like this post! You informed me and actually have me considering a game I had previously dismissed. Thanks! Moar like this pls! (Oh, and I ain't the op, just lurkin')
>I find the lack of mechanics unsatisfying and prefer systems with more weight and substance to them.
That's because you can't get out of the 3.5 mindset. If you did, you would enjoy Dungeon World and it's derivatives. The only reason you won't is because you are a powergamer.
>3.5 mindset
Swing and a miss. Try again.
The thing about this kind of bait is that it's outdated. At the time Virt originally posted it we actually had a Dungeon World General, and was trying to throw down some shit to cause a major upset between this and the 3.5 fan base. Now it's just more retarded when you're posting it.
That's why I play 5e.
Well, who's the more cancerous, though: some user mindlessly spamming pasta, or some dead-inside sperglord deliberately fucking with us?
The sperglord had a name, an identity we could collectively hate. In some ways it brought the community together more. There were some benefits to having him around. This? This is just another faceless user copying someone else's stupid trolls.
That's my real issue with shitposters these days. They're unoriginal, uninspired, and lack the novelty that came with fresh bait. The guy who posts his fears of hid Furry Paladin getting killed? That's almost fun to post in. This is just sad.
I'd still say shitposters are morally superior to trolls - trolls are meanspirited and evil and waste their time trying to fuck people over for lulz. Shitposters are just lazy and stupid and looking for a quick rush. Contrast virt or carnac with the baneposters.
Now, having said that, I am not sure which i'd prefer to deal with.........I guess they're part of the same spectrum, shitposters being babby trolls?
No, swing and a hit. Just because you are in denial about it, doesn't mean it's there. The fact that you hate Dungeon World's mechanics just goes to show you can't get your mind out of the cancer that killed RPGs for 10 years straight and shat on their corpse.
3.5 destroyed roleplaying games. And Dungeon World saved them.
You really think you have a right to hate DW?
I prefer D&D 4e
5e == 3.5 mindset. You are still the worst kind of roleplayer and honestly if it were up to me you would literally have your D&D books taken away from you. You are poisoning the RPG community with Roll-play COMBAT COMBAT COMBAT anti-roleplay anti-character anti-non-combat bullshit. For fuck's sake, this game still has alignment, and 5e literally ripped off Dungeon World's bonds mechanic. It is an outdated game, while DW is the wave fo the future.
Still D&D, which is shit. Again, please read the Dungeon World SRD before you continue to participate in this argument. You literally have no idea what you are talking about.
>This is just another faceless user copying someone else's stupid trolls.
>implying
Man, this troll is weirdly obsessive.
Ah, the classic reverse argument. Where in you accuse 5e of all Dungeon World's faults.
Having gone through the SRD myself, Dungeon World is really only good for one thing, Dungeon Crawls. Character creation is "Choose a Class, now Choose Option A or Option B in the way of character customization." Even race is just an extra circumstantial ability for each class, and you usually only get two options.
It's all mechanics, no fluff, so role-playing is pretty well separated from the game itself.
All in all, not a bad game, and great if you want to run an easy one-shot Murderhobo game, but not nearly comparable to other PbTA games, and certainly not comparable to 5e, which is so role-playing focused that it included a single paragraph stating that it's ok to defy gender norms for the sake of Player Choice, and got everyone all uppity about the game being SHE.
Now watch as he starts arguing with me about something entirely different.
SJW, not SHE.
FFG Star Wars stays, but you can count my game out. It basically is just an ascending dice roll difficulty simulator, where most damage for their characters is caused by the players themselves, rather than the opponents.
So not exactly just "roll higher to see who wins", but too close to really count.