As I sit here and look at my extensive RPG collection, I realize that all I have played in the last few years has been EotE, with a minor and related foray into Genesys and I'm starting to get a Traveller itch, but am not sure where I'd get the time to scratch it and it just got me wondering - which other RPG's do you make time to play, and what is it about them that keeps you playing?

I don't have a lot of time or opportunity to play RPGs as much as I'd like (just PbP games here as of right now). However, my favorite games, aside from Star Wars, are Cyberpunk , Mekton Z , and TFOS ( Teenagers from Outer Space ), all from R.Talsorian Games.

2 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I don't have a lot of time or opportunity to play RPGs as much as I'd like (just PbP games here as of right now). However, my favorite games, aside from Star Wars, are Cyberpunk , Mekton Z , and TFOS ( Teenagers from Outer Space ), all from R.Talsorian Games.

thank you - what is it that you like about those systems?

11 minutes ago, Bojanglez said:

thank you - what is it that you like about those systems?

First off, the FUZION system , and it's predecessor, the Interlock system, (which is what Cyberpunk 2020 and Mekton Z use), is a purely skill-based system, no levels, and no real "classes" per say. The original Cyberpunk 2020 did have "Roles", but even they weren't that strictly defined except for their "special Ability" which each Role had one of. With Cyberpunk V3 they even did away with that, allowing you to create virtually any type of character you want. The upcoming Cyberpunk Red , may or may not restore the original "Roles" to the game. The system's basic skill resolution is very simple. You take your stat (each typically ranging from 1-10, though sometimes higher through cybernetics and such), add your skill rating (also 1-10) and then add the result of a D10 roll.

Mekton Z , their Anime Sci-fi/Mecha RPG, also has one of the most detailed and "crunchy" mecha construction systems I've ever seen, capable of creating nearly any mecha' vehicl, space-ship, etc, you have ever seen in Anime, or a sci-fi movie or series, and the machines you create are fully convertible to Cyberpunk .

TFOS , is slightly different, in that you use a D6 for skill (called knacks) resolution. You play a high school student. Your best friend (or yourself) is from Alpha Cetauri (or some other far off planet), your girlfriend is a kitty cat--literally, ears tail, and everything--, and your character cannot, under any circumstances, be killed . Given that it's a Japanese anime comedy RPG, it wouldn't be all that funny if the characters died as a result of the silliness and zany behavior that is heavily encouraged. Instead, they get bonked .

Silly super powers, hyperspace hammers, popcorn grenades, sex-change rays, the works. Every silly anime comedy trope in one hilarious game.

In all three cases, you advance skills individually, and the newer FUZION rules even incorporate talents, Perks, and even complications, (which can grant you more starting Character Points), and the system includes one of the most detailed life-path systems I have ever seen as well to really allow you to flesh out your character, from what his or her childhood, family situation, number of siblings, and education was like, what friends and enemies he or she may have made, even what lovers he or she might have had, as well as other "windfalls" and "setbacks" he or she may have had in the past.

I run four different settings / systems throughout the year; playing each for around 3 months, then hitting the pause button, then picking it up again 9 months later. At present, the annual rotation consists of...

Star Wars (Summer) : I'm a long-time fan of Star Wars; and of the three systems which have been built around it, FFG's is my favorite (I find the core dice mechanic a little annoying, but I love the character building system; particularly how they deal with The Force).

Malifaux - Through the Breach (Fall) : Played the wargame for awhile and became a big fan of the setting; and other than some broken things which are easily fixed via house rule, the system mechanics are terrific (has, for example, a very straightforward action economy). Also a nice change of pace to have a campaign which is mostly set in a single locale.

Dark Heresy 2nd Edition (Winter) : Three of my favorite genres are dystopian sci-fi, horror, and war; and the 40K setting is basically a big snarling ball of those three things. Also like the very straightforward and easy mechanics.

Iron Kingdoms (Spring) : after getting burned out on low-tech fantasy after years and years of D&D, this setting and system actually reinvigorated my interest. They really went the extra mile in making sure that you could play lots of different iconic things from the wargame without major balance issues. The mechanics are a little tightly-wound, but overall I find it a solid system.

My gaming group runs games in 6 weeks cycles swapping out GMs. I run Star Wars, primarily Force and Destiny.

Other games we play regularly:

Pathfinder - was our most common game for a long time but getting a bit tired of it

Traveler - system we've been playing for years. We have a long term campaign that we still play (over 15 years)

D&D 5th - just started a campaign. I like it but need to play it more before making final decision

Mutants & Masterminds - The go to supers game although I really want to run supers in Genesys

Justifiers - awesome, little known game from early 90s

Currently I run a Genesys Shadow of the Beanstalk game with friends from out of state.

My Star Wars game is on hiatus at the moment but that had been going over a year.

I am in 2 starfinder games when the schedules align, also with friends from out of state. We all like rpg and we used to play more often when I was local. It's fun but the NDS is my bread and butter, d20 systems are not my cup of tea, but it's an excuse to talk with friends.

I'm about to guest star in a Star Wars game from out of state, a former player of mine took up the mantle of GM recently.

I backed the Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG and I'm excited to try that out because superheroes are cool and it's neat to try out new systems even if I inevitably just go back to Star Wars/Genesys.

Aside from FFG STAR WARS, my group regularly plays:

MUTANT: YEAR ZERO - Brilliant for its push-your-luck mechanics and its incentive to use real-world maps for the post-apocalyptic setting. Also: ridiculously easy to GM.

WFRP 3e - The genius innovator that presaged EotE, but a darker tone whose mechanics actually support that darkness, while still supporting story.

and

GAMMA WORLD (7e, based on DnD 4e) - Because it's so lolrandom that it's not funny but then it's so not funny that it's funny again.

I was playing on/off in a 5th edition Shadowrun game but had to drop. The 2 editions under Catalyst are just awful. I've been thinking of running a second edition game in the near future.

I have a fairly regular 5e D&D crew. Were running through Curse of Strad ATM.

All in all, FFG SW RPG is my favorite

2 hours ago, Tashiro31 said:

I was playing on/off in a 5th edition Shadowrun game but had to drop. The 2 editions under Catalyst are just awful. I've been thinking of running a second edition game in the near future.

They've promised the soon-to-be-released 6th Edition will be streamlined and lighter than all the rest while being well-balanced and delivered quickly. Yeah... I'll believe it when I see it.

Aside from Star wars I am playing D&D 5th on a weekly basis.

My group has the occasional foray in a wrestling RPG and we will be trying the Star Trek one soon.

Being of a foreign persuasion, I play a lot of swedish games. Haven't gotten around to play Tales from the Loop, but other stuff from Free League, such as Coriolis and the Mutant series. Not sure if they've released those two on english yet, but Mutant: Year Zero was released as video game last year. A good primer if you want to get an idea of the setting. As for fantasy, my preferred game,bar none, is Eon by Helmgast. Only system that gives Star Wars/Genesys a run for it's money. No, there are currently no plans for a translation though.

Another Swedish game due for a release in english is Western, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; a Wild West rpg on the gritty and realistic side. Sure, you can vary the level somewhat, but even the most cinematic and heroic campaigns are more likely to be The Unforgiven rather than the Lone Ranger. The default state is akin to Deadwood or H*ll on Wheels.

A friend of mine is pretty enthusiastic about the new Vampire edition so I'll probably give that a shot too.

If we're running a one shot, I do love Dread, as well as Fiasco.

Star Wars, Genesys, Lancer, Traveller, Warhammer Fantasy RP 2e, and 5e mostly. Though we did give the new L5R beginner box a try and liked it. My players want to player more of it to see if they want to start up a campaign.

DnD 5th and 3rd ed, plus we gave Pathfinder a go. Picked up a GURPS book at a swapmeet a few months ago but haven't yet played it.
So far I like 5th ed the most, might be because I'm a bit younger than most rpg-players and I really like the simplicity of the system (might be why I like FFG Star Wars too).

I really love to GM as I find it more challenging and interesting. Developing a story, working with players, seeing how the story unfolds, how they face challenges, how things don't go as planned. I find it fascinating.

Star Wars is my usual go-to. It's a good system and setting that I know well and is easy to get people into.

D&D because everyone loves a classic and it's easy to use to break the ice with newbies. And it's been around so long it's pretty robust.

I've done some Shadowrun, as I kinda like the setting and some of the overall concepts of how things work, even if I'm not 100% in love with them in practice. I'd like to give Cyberpunk a try one day, maybe the new version coming out to correspond with the video game will give me my chance.

Mutants and Masterminds is literally the campaign I intended to run after my current Clone Wars Campaign. I feel like as a GM, telling a superhero story well is going to be a bit different from the stuff I've been doing lately. Put simply, Superheroes sound fun, and are just enough outside my comfort zone for me to grow as a GM while also not feeling overly intimidated going in.

After M&M I'll be running a post-apocalyptic Genesys game (because as a GM I'm cursed with always thinking of the next campaign and the one after that). This one will be more about taking the lessoned learned about story-campaign development from the previous two campaigns and trying to tie it all together into a format that's a little more loose and freeform while still generating tight story arcs that can be completed in a few sessions. The challenge here I expect is to drop adventure hooks the players will pick up and follow with the same level of dedication they follow more structured campaigns, and then complete that hook in 3-6 encounters worth of content.

That said, I also read more books than I play. Different systems provide different ideas and methods for resolving problems, which also interests me. And looking at how a specific system can also set a specific tone is important.

13 hours ago, Tashiro31 said:

I was playing on/off in a 5th edition Shadowrun game but had to drop. The 2 editions under Catalyst are just awful. I've been thinking of running a second edition game in the near future.

I'd suggest checking out Shadowrun: Anarchy. The rules are a whole lot lighter than either of Catalyst's prior editions, and you can very easily drop the "structured narrative" approach to adventures in favor of traditional adventure design/structure. I haven't had the chance to get it on the table as of yet, but it does offer a lot more promise than Shadowrun 5e in terms of being something that's actually fun to play and/or GM.

1 hour ago, Ghostofman said:

I really love to GM as I find it more challenging and interesting. Developing a story, working with players, seeing how the story unfolds, how they face challenges, how things don't go as planned. I find it fascinating.

Star Wars is my usual go-to. It's a good system and setting that I know well and is easy to get people into.

D&D because everyone loves a classic and it's easy to use to break the ice with newbies. And it's been around so long it's pretty robust.

I've done some Shadowrun, as I kinda like the setting and some of the overall concepts of how things work, even if I'm not 100% in love with them in practice. I'd like to give Cyberpunk a try one day, maybe the new version coming out to correspond with the video game will give me my chance.

Mutants and Masterminds is literally the campaign I intended to run after my current Clone Wars Campaign. I feel like as a GM, telling a superhero story well is going to be a bit different from the stuff I've been doing lately. Put simply, Superheroes sound fun, and are just enough outside my comfort zone for me to grow as a GM while also not feeling overly intimidated going in.

After M&M I'll be running a post-apocalyptic Genesys game (because as a GM I'm cursed with always thinking of the next campaign and the one after that). This one will be more about taking the lessoned learned about story-campaign development from the previous two campaigns and trying to tie it all together into a format that's a little more loose and freeform while still generating tight story arcs that can be completed in a few sessions. The challenge here I expect is to drop adventure hooks the players will pick up and follow with the same level of dedication they follow more structured campaigns, and then complete that hook in 3-6 encounters worth of content.

That said, I also read more books than I play. Different systems provide different ideas and methods for resolving problems, which also interests me. And looking at how a specific system can also set a specific tone is important.

great answer - I suffer with the same "next campaign" syndrome (but our campaigns rarely end) - how long do your campaigns run?

For my own gaming that's not Star Wars...

Current games involve Mutants and Masterminds 3e, using the Emerald City setting (though we've long since made it our own), which is a lot of fun as the GM and most of the players are on board with a four color approach to heroics. The one odd player wants the game to focus more on her character's personal non-hero dynamics, but she's gradually coming to acknowledge that most of us (GM included) didn't sign up to play a soap opera or that she can't have the spotlight on her character all the time.

Also been playing the old Street Fighter RPG that White Wolf published back in the 90's during the heyday of Street Fighter II. The overall system is a bit janky (WW's Storyteller system was not designed to handle combat well), but also can be a lot of fun so long as you don't take it seriously, both the mechanics and the nature of the setting. Sadly, this one I've only gotten to play sporadically as the GM has been having trouble getting a minimum of three players together (myself and one other can make the proposed sessions no problem, but it's the other three that are troublesome).

On a less frequent basis, my usual group has taken WFRP4e for a spin, using characters I created for them. It's a nice throwback to 2e, with a bit more crunch to the mechanics and far less whiff factor in combat, and we had a lot of fun with that. At some point, I've threatened to run their party of adventurers through the Starter Kit adventure, but that's on hold as the MnM GM really wants to wrap up the current campaign and we've got quite a ways to go yet. It's a nice change from D&D's "high heroics and abundant magic" default approach, with the PCs and the setting being grittier and grimier, and combat potentially a lot more dangerous (unless your the one guy in our group whose astounding ability to roll extremely low on any sort of dice roll actually works out in his favor).

We've also played the Star Trek Adventures RPG a few times, and had fun each time. Again, it's a nice change of pace from our usual sci-fi fare (Star Wars) with the PCs being the command staff of a Miranda-class ship. GM's running the adventures in an alternate-universe where Kick and Spock weren't able to intervene in the events of ST6, leading to a renewed war with the Klingon Empire, with the adventures taking place several years after the Praxis incident.

Another game we've only gotten to play on sporadic occasions (more as a back-up in case the scheduled GM can't run) is 7th Sea 2e, which has been a whole mess of fun. The game play is very quick to pick once you wrap your head around the "roll then act" approach vs. the more traditional "act then roll" stance that most RPGs use. Most of the sessions have centered around pirates, though I did run a one-shot set in Eisen (monster-ridden Not!Germany) that the whole group enjoyed, and that I've also run at GamerNationCon a couple times to much enjoyment. I'd love to play in a campaign of this instead of being the GM, but either way it's been a lot of fun each time.

We've also wheeled out FATE a number of times, with one member of the usual group threatening to run a Dresden Files Accelerated campaign. I think the two major hold-ups have been two players unable to get their characters properly "finished" (one due to laziness, the other due to having a pretty odd concept that the DFAcc mantle rules doesn't really handle all that well), but I'd love a chance to play this version of Dresden Files as I generally like the FATE Accelerated system and find this version of Dresden Files a marked improvement over some of the issues the original DFRPG had, especially where magic users were concerned.

1 minute ago, Bojanglez said:

how long do your campaigns run?

Until we get bored/suffer burnout traditionally.

That's actually a major objective for me in my CW campaign: Complete the whole blasted thing in a timely fashion. I'm trying to do this by tightening up the story, using cinematic structure and pacing, and removing unneeded encounters and poking Player meandering.

So far I feel like it's working, but not as well as intended yet. We're on Session 2 and we're only just about to finish the first Act of the first Movie. That said we only play about 3 hours per week, so that may be a contributing factor. I suspect if we were more a 6-hour crew like I used to run in the day we'd be through Act 1 by now.

Just to clarify: I'm structuring the campaign as a movie trilogy of films that each follow a 3-act structure just like actual films. Ideally the whole campaign would have wrapped up in about 9-10 sessions, but it's looking more like it's going to be closer to 15-18. Which to be fair, is still not bad, as I think we'll be finishing up right about when things start to risk seriously dragging. And I'm not especially upset, I wanted to start the campaign in the early war and move to late war in either the Second or Third film. I was concerned CotR was going to be on the boat by then, but now it's looking like we'll have it in a week or so, so I'll have that content on hand well before the end of the first Movie.

I have two campaigns that I'm participating with now.

I GM an FFG Star Wars AoR/FnD that's been going on and off for about 18 months now. It's working well so far. This is a new group that I

I also participate in a D&D5E campaign that meets weekly. This group is a long operating group of gamers and we've tried a number of different systems with mixed results (because we're a mixed group with mixed player goals and objectives). D&D5E has the virtue of being fairly simple while maintaining that old D&D flavour. I'm not sure why this particular campaign seems to be enduring, but the GM wanted to retrodyne back to D&D and the rules are clear and easy enough for the group to follow easily enough. Most of us are having fun too and that helps.

As an interesting aside, I recently discovered that all but one of the players in the Star Wars campaigns is ALSO participating in a D&D5E game weekly.

Aside from FFG Star Wars, I'm currently playing in a D&D 5e game. I've played a lot of D&D over the years, and I like the straightforward chassis that 5e is built on. Plus, there's a lot of rich setting material out there, so like with Star Wars there are a lot of places to look for inspiration. Sometimes it feels in Star Wars games like it's difficult to get away from the grand, galaxy spanning conflicts, so I'm enjoying the change of pace in the D&D game of smaller scale interactions.

Systems that I'm not currently playing but would like to, given the opportunity and the time, are Mouse Guard and Ryuutama. There are a lot of things I like about Mouse Guard, but chief among them are the way it centers PC beliefs and motivations, the way PCs improve directly from doing things rather than from collecting Build Points, and the fact that it has a complex conflict resolution system that's flexible enough to use for a variety of conflict types as opposed to just combat. Ryuutama I like because it's rules-light, focused on travel and exploration, and just generally has a pleasant tone (depending on the GM, of course).

I ran an EotE campaign that ended 2 years ago. I recently started a Legend of the Five Rings campaign (FFG).

Starting a 2nd Star Wars game, more EoE than the Force and Destiny one I am currently running. We're supposed to be sharing GM duties on that one, so hoping to play. Also play in an intermittent 5th ed D&D game. My group would probably kill for a 4th ed L5R game, but since I am the one usually running it, I've kind of burned out after running it through every edition since 1st ed. (Save the newest.)

There's the obvious one, DnD, but I must say that my favorite system to play in (or GM) has got to be Call of Cthulhu .

I took the city we live in and did a ton of research into our history and made a few investigations where they had to go around our city as it was in the 1920's and try to find out about an asylum that was turned into a dorm for the local college (which actually did happen!) and so they had this weird "close to home" feeling where everything was familiar but still dangerous.

Also fun to play in is the Witcher roleplaying system (RTalisorian) because of how detailed the world is and how amazing the combat can feel. Also, the Life Path system makes character creation a ton of fun and makes every character really varied and interesting. Plus I just really love the world of the Witcher.

My friends and I also like to play one-page RPG's like Honey Heist and Everyone is John.

7 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I'd suggest checking out Shadowrun: Anarchy. The rules are a whole lot lighter than either of Catalyst's prior editions, and you can very easily drop the "structured narrative" approach to adventures in favor of traditional adventure design/structure. I haven't had the chance to get it on the table as of yet, but it does offer a lot more promise than Shadowrun 5e in terms of being something that's actually fun to play and/or GM.

I'm okay with rules complexity, i enjoy the crunch. My 2 biggest beefs with Catalyst Shadowrun are the fluff and how goddam OP magic users became.

18 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

They've promised the soon-to-be-released 6th Edition will be streamlined and lighter than all the rest while being well-balanced and delivered quickly. Yeah... I'll believe it when I see it.

6th Edition is looking to be even crapier than 5th. The new edge system is just terrible.

I still have most of my Shadowrun 2e stuff and i backed it up digitally. If evet need my fix I can just bust out those bad boys