What are some good tabletop RPGs that don't get a lot of love or attention?

What are some good tabletop RPGs that don't get a lot of love or attention?

Talislanta.

Literally everything in existence that isn't D&D or Warhammer 40k.

Depending on your criteria this (assuming Pathfinder is lumped in with D&D).

the one i made in 1991 that was like that old school celly jam,

Ars Magica

this

You mean everything that isn't D&D, Warhammer 40k, The Dark Eye, World of Darkness, GURPS, Fate and Exalted.

Quads has it.

I don't think GURPS gets played enough for how good it is, but that's true of a lot of good games. It hardly counts, except maybe for GURPS Cyberpunk, which should be on every RPG player's bookshelf for historical value if nothing else (and it was an excellent RPG supplement). Many other supplements from the 3e days have crap mechanics but are masterful; like, say, Special Ops or Covert Ops.

Ars Magica managed to be an excellent game with a lot of very good ideas that strongly influenced the RPG field. Its ideas (both mechanics and setting decisions) made such an impact that it's hard for the young'uns to realize now how much came from there. And unlike Call of Cthulhu, Ars Magica rarely gets slathered in credit.

In the 90's you saw a lot of niche games with cool ideas. Paranoia's another good game. Teenagers from Outer Space was VERY 80s/90s in its tone; it's not really in fitting with the zeitgeist of the past few years but I'm feeling like spirits are lifting lately so in a time of giddy optimism it might suddenly fit the times again.

There was a fan-made supplement for oWoD back in the early 90s based on the Highlander movies. That was actually one of the better games I've ever seen; you could play it on its own like the tv series, or integrate it with the rest of the gothic punk setting and it fit seamlessly.

Savage worlds

Hackmaster 5th Edition

Burning Wheel. It's quite exciting from a mechanical point of view, can't quite see anything in its weight class

to add to that, Mouse Guard and Torchbearer as well.

I’d love to run Mouse Guard but it’s so hard getting people into the world without telling them to just read the god damn comics.

d&d 3.5

I'll toss Legends of the Wulin into the pot, although as much as I love the game it is very flawed. It's a really unique system, combining crunchy, enjoyable combat with a focus on themes and narrative over realism or granularity, making conflict the center of its storytelling in a really satisfying way.

However, the core book is awfully edited and the more I play it the more I run into small niggling issues. Nothing super gamebreaking, nothing unfixable, but it's clear that they published it way, way too early. So many good ideas, but so many flaws in the execution.

It doesn't help that the company who published it imploded after stealing Kickstarter funds from Jenna Moran.

Can you tell me how Burning Wheel or Torchbearer feel in play? I can't tell if it's old school or storyshit or some weird middle ground

Tbh I have yet to gather a party that would be interested enough to learn Burning Wheel for me to justify spending my limited time on it (see: family, studies, etc)
Torchbearer sounds like an amazng game desu. That I would be willing to get just to run a couple sessions bc the mechanics are simplified for the best from BW

I've heard Torchbearer takes quite a few sessions before it even clicks with a new group.

Uhh. Maybe you're right, wouldn't be surprised by that. Should read the rulebook to the end finally. It is not your run-of-the-mill RPG after all

>FATAL

I have played in a group for maybe six months on Burning Wheel. It's a fun group, but unfortunately I don't have experience with other systems (haven't been in a group before this one). I will say that the mages in our party make the magic look very complicated. It's like watching an accountant at work. whenever they want to cast a new spell.

Ragnarok fate of the norns does not get anywhere near enough love for how awesome it is.

Outside of Star Wars circles, the D6 system by West End Games and its more streamlined cousin Mini Six.

Games by Dream Pod 9

The heavy gear universe is pretty well known. Jovian Chronicles, Gear Krieg and Tribe 8 need more fans though.

Billy Mays and the Oxiclean Detergent Ball

From my read of the rules, I guess it’s a weird middle ground. It’s more of a narrative storyshit game but dropped into the world of old school shit. So you have your B/X style dungeons and challenges but the players have more capability/survivability. You’re basically telling a story about the people who would go into dungeons.

>these digits

Downloading pdfs now, thanks user

There's a Second Hand Bookstore near my house, so I watch the gaming section like a hawk. I've run into some really cool shit this way.

>Space 1889
It details a setting that would be pretty hard scifi if it was printed a hundred years earlier. Now nearly thirty years later, it's even more silly to look at.
The rules are... archaic and odd... but the setting is top notch.

>Heroes Unlimited
Just bought this a couple days ago, got the revised edition. It's an old Palladium, so character generation is fairly random, and super awesome.
I honestly kind of prefer it to M&M, if only because it has a distinct Silver Age feel to it (despite coming out in the Bronze Age).

Once you understand it its very smooth and feels really nice in play. When I read through the book it sounded super complicated at first, then super intuitive. The mechanics are simple and straigh forward, the major complication with learning the game in my opinion is getting your players to understand how to write and incorporate good beliefs as they essentially should run the story. A lot of the ideas in the book just make me want to include them in other games.

It just resonates with me.

Don't Rest Your Head isn't getting any attention right now, sadly.

Wait, no, I got my eras mixed up again.
It's a Bronze era entirely.

But M&M is very modern, and it tends to be pretty cool. It also has pretty solid rules, in spite of the early editions being just the d20 open content reworked poorly, third edition is fucking awesome.

Call of Cthulhu.

Do anybody even care about Exalted and TDE?
Never heard of them outside of one or two threads and their rules are garbage in play during one shot, compared to their competitors.

He said good games.

Corporation

mah nigga

Mutant - Year Zero.

>Heroes Unlimited

Anyone have a pdf of that? Sounds right up some of my players alley.

a couple of low-profile d20 derivatives--fantasy craft, true20...even the ill-fated legend

Exalted's base is fairly sizable.

Anything by Sanguine Games. They've put out an RPG about every ~2 years, and they're actually pretty good on the whole. Everything after 2009, including totally-not-Lackadaisy-the-RPG, has been based on Ironclaw 2.0, which the general consensus I've seen is that it's pretty damn good system if you can get past the furry aspect.

>clearly either hasn't tried or had shitty group

MYFAROG

arduin needs some love.

shadowrun

Earthdawn. You can be a heavy metal troll pirate, or an mongolian orcish scorcher. The horrors which populate the world are genuinily terrifying, and caster supremecy simply doesn't exist.