Apocalypse World 2nd Ed. has given me the most delight in the fewest sessions of any TTRPG. It takes a group willing to follow the rules though. If you try to play it the way you play D&D it won't work so keep that in mind.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2023
21 points (100.0% liked)
RPG
926 readers
13 users here now
Discussion of table top roleplaying games.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
With Apocalypse World, I haven't had a single bad session. They've all been interesting and hilarious. On the other hand, I've had all sorts of awful experiences with many other TTRPGs...
I can't wait for a new edition to come out!
I've only played and run D&D 5e. I did get the Pathfinder 2e humble bundle so might play that at some point. My party also owns two copies of the Call of Cthulu starter set which I would love to get around to one Halloween.
For small stuff we've played Honey Heist which was a huge amount of fun!
No interest in 5e. My group did the PF2e started set. Not bad. I enjoyed playing an alchemist bomber. Less fun with a rogue mastermind. I did set up a Honey Heist one-shot for our group on an evening that the regular GM was busy, but too many people had to pull out that we never did it. It does look like a lot of fun.
I personally really love the Fate system - it's much more hackable than other systems, so if a part doesn't work for you, you can usually tweak/remove it, and it sells "system toolkits" which essentially are homebrew guides.
Overall, I find most heavy systems tend to put a crazy amount of focus on combat, which skews stories into pigeon-holing combat whenever possible. Most players I run for tend to view combat as a last-resort, so it's hard to find heavy systems that match their playstyle.
Pathfinder 2e and even Pathfinder 1e are both great. Kind of prefer the d20 system overall, but dislike 5e (lack of options is my biggest beef with it, as well as small modifiers in general).
I've also enjoyed Mage the Awakening from what little I've played of it.
I'm discovering and start playing to coriolis (Free League) very nice setting
I've run a short adventure of three sessions for Call of Cthulhu, and so far is my favorite. Also, I want to expand on The One Ring 2e. I've run an introductory one shot and I was impressed about the flow and brutallity of the game, and I really liked it!
I have run and played so many different systems, but I've really settled on the Into the Odd/Cairn/Electric Bastionland core as my bread and butter. I've even got two separate hacks based on that ruleset in the works.
It's fantastic, for me, because it's streamlined down to bare minimum functionality, strips out a lot of what annoys me about other RPGs, but provides a stable base for me to build back on top any bits and pieces I miss or a given group of players will enjoy. Small enough that I can fit the entire system in my brain at once, while still sharing enough common language and concepts with more traditional d20 systems that running any random module I pick up is a piece of cake.
So for myself, my favorite system in many categories in WOiN RPG.
It's a d6 quantitative pool system with lifepaths for advancement, which are like classes but you're meant to take sprinkles of different ones all together, they represent what you've done with your life, and starting characters have 5 'levels'.
It has rulebooks for three default genres, medium low fantasy, 80s action movies, and somewhere between star trek and babylon 5 science fiction.
It's reasonably tactical combat, medium crunch, and pretty cool systems for a lot of play.
It also has a verb+noun default magic system and a spellpoint system as an optional rule for additional crunch.
It's coming out with a new starter set later this month on kickstarter with a condensed version of the rules, a bunch of pregen characters, and three prebuilt adventures.
I've also played a bunch of other games, mostly fantasy d20 in nature. ATM PF2e is my favorite fantasy d20 game.
I've started reading Ars Magica 5th edition recently, and it's also super interesting to me. It's pretty unique among the games I've looked at for making the players' home base be central to the story and mechanics outside of just being reasonably safe for the players to crash in.
I've been playing a lot of Traveller with my group and I really enjoy it so far. Seth Skorkowsky has some great videos on youtube about it if you are interested.
First of all, the two sets of rules I mentioned are available in German only
So my current favorite system is Aborea, it has a wonderful mix between simplicity and freedom.
When it comes to even more freedom, I'm writing ButterflyAspect for that right now
I am running a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle using V5 rules for a couple of years now. I tried a few other things but I keep returning to that because I like the setting, the easy rules and that it does not emphasise rolling dice. I tried Changeling: The Lost but while I really liked the rule book I had trouble writing a chronicle, I might revisit it in the future.
Pathfinder 2e, Ironsworn and started getting into Dungeon World.
My favorite TTRPG overall is Hero System 6e. It's crunchy and there's a learning curve, but once you "get it" you can build anything and have it work with everything else. It's like having a tabletop physics engine that just tells me what happens when a super-kid punches a train in a cinematically reasonable way. It's a fantastic game for superheroes, but I've yet to find a genre I wouldn't run in it.
I've been running and playing the Avalon Hill edition of RuneQuest III (with a few necessary modifications and with supplemental rules from Basic Roleplaying for other genres) for nearly 40 years now. I also play in a game which is theoretically D&D, but in reality is mostly theatre of the mind in which we occasionally roll a D20 to meet a number set by the DM.
Recently my friends only want to play Savage Worlds, We are currently playing an adaptation of the Pathfinder scenario to SW and it has been a blast.
Im glad you like Lancer! Ive been trying to statrt a game with my friends- weve only played dnd 5e together but they all enjoy combat, we sometimes run "fight clubs" or just out of context combat encounters, so I hope theyll enjoy Lancers combat. And, unfortunately im the only sci fi person in a friend group of fantasy people so Ive been dying for a sci fi game haha
Lancer keeps moving up on my to try list.
For combat and character customization I enjoy Pathfinder 2e.
Magic system I'd give to tiny dungeons. It's an RPG for kids and appropriately you just make up spells and the fancier they are the more difficult they are to cast. Also Shadow Runs spell resource system is awesome to me.
As for narrative Systems I absolutely love Blades in the Dark. Progress clocks and Flash backs are epic.
Right now my two favorite games are VtM 20th and Traveller. The stories that have evolved out of each have been top-notch for me. I also enjoy OSR games in general, but I don't have a specific favorite OSR system.
I love cool magic systems, what's so interesting about the one on Path of the Aram Thyr? I've never heard of BlackOath but liked the style of what I saw on their website so I might buy some stuff from them or sign in to their patreon since PotAT is not yet available outside of it as far as I could see.
There will be a kickstarter for PAT. I'm not sure when, but can't be too far off. I suspect Alex is waiting until the physical books for ATDW ship. There are three aspects to the magic - affinity, path and domain. Your PC has an affinity (forger, dominator, caster, shaper or none). You can use any affinity, but have an advantage with your specialty. Your path is a collection of signature "spells," one per affinity, bound by a common theme. Domaine is a things like fire, poison, plants, etc. You gain magic abilities by killing magical creatures and absorbing their the part of their spirit tied to a domain with a random affinity. It's pretty complicated to explain, but is quite simple in game play.