Vapourware Favorite TTRPG Ruleset?

[Just Locus]

Pathfinder? Call of Cthulhu? Shadowrun?

 

[0sacred]

D&D 3.5E

 

[Cryomancer]

• AD&D 2e + Retroclones.
• GURPS 4e
• Dark Heresy Tabletop(wh40k)

 

[His Dudeness]

AD&D 2nd edition all the way baby.

 

[Dorateen]

Original AD&D as authored by E. Gary Gygax.

 

[Serus]

Some of the Old School Revival rulesets look ok to me, never played one. However, contrary to many Codexers, I like 3.5. I think it is a better ruleset to be adapted to computer that earlier iterations of D&D. Ruleset !=settings. That's D&D.

As to non-D&D systems. I only played a couple of systems, I've read a couple more but I don't have a favourite. I like Pendragon (5th edition) but not because it is so good but because it has rules to manage your possessions and family. What is a knight who doesn't own land, have no son or no wife that can be put into a chastity device when he goes to war with king Arthur. All this is accounted in the rules. Perhaps except the chastity part but come on...

 

[Catacombs]

I've greatly enjoyed reading through and playing some of the OSR revival rulesets: Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy RPG, and OSRIC.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Tough call. If I had to go with one though, the original Deadlands is probably the best. It has great mechanics that lead to excitement and is highly stylized in the best way. It has enough crunch while still moving quickly. It also has mechanical reasons to bail players out without being too generous.

There are virtues to many, but it's difficult to find one system "to rule them all". GURPS is probably closest, but I find it...meh. The 13th Age is pretty neat. It's a OGL D20 system like Pathfinder, but has its own style, like escalation dice. Feats are handled better, too. Fate is flexible, quick, intuitive, and great for party collaboration. 5 Rings has cool dueling and corruption mechanics. Ars Magica has really great spellcasting and a good setting that's compelling. Numenera has some nice improvements over D&D 3.5--especially with item use. Like 5E, it can err a bit too much on simplification. The Burning Wheel is excellent for handling duels and non-combat interactions, but is slow and initially opaque. I'd like to play Blades in the Dark, but haven't had the chance yet.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Anything with fun critical tables

 

[luj1]

Metamorphosis Alpha

Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne)

Gamma World

 

[Hagashager]

AD&D 2e
Dark Heresy 1e


Lately I've become very fond of the Star Wars Genesys system. It feels like just the right blend between fluffy-RP and crunch. I'm pretty sure some folks will think I'm a heretic though.

I have mixed feelings on the 2D20 Conan PnP game I occasionally play. I enjoy the skills and character building, but the meta-currency of Momentum/Doom gets a little cumbersome sometimes.

I'm also very familiar with most of the White Wolf Vampire system, including this utterly busted homebrew version some folks and I do every now and then, but I'm not a fan.

3e/Pathfinder was very fun the five or so times I got to play it, but it's impossible to find players.

5e is...5e. I don't hate it, I don't like it.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I personally like Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is OSR system that heavily rely on rulings instead of rules, intertwined with a ton of fun tables (deity disapproval, fumbles, critical hits, individual tables for each spell, etc.). Also, adventures are pure incline.

Speaking of modern systems I like how Pathfinder2e works in general, much smoother than D&D5 abomination. It has issues, but works adequately for my needs as GM.

 

[His Dudeness]

I personally like Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is OSR system that heavily rely on rulings instead of rules, intertwined with a ton of fun tables (deity disapproval, fumbles, critical hits, individual tables for each spell, etc.). Also, adventures are pure incline.

Speaking of modern systems I like how Pathfinder2e works in general, much smoother than D&D5 abomination. It has issues, but works adequately for my needs as GM.

Loved it, when I played I couldn't convince my group to give it a change. I still got the weird dice though, they are pretty nice.

 

[Cryomancer]

I really wish that OwlCat will NEVER do a PF2e game. PF2e picks everything that sucks from 4e and 5e and combine in one edition. I hope that they adapt a retroclone next. But TBH I honestly think that even a pf2e game would have a better ruleset than their new rogue trader game. IMO in therms of game mechanics, Rogue Trader CRPG is as awful as D&D 4e and DOS2. I was not expecting this level of Sawyerism in a OwlCat game, they who said in a livestream that the balance should be used to make a game more fun and not a end on its means, otherwise you end up sacrifing fun for balance.

This obsession with balance is killing RPG's. Wizardry, Dark Sun Shattered/Wake, FL1/2, Ravenloft : Strahd possession/Stone prophet, Might & Magic, Bard's tale, BG1/2, Daggerfall/Morrowind, Arcanum(...) none of this games/series where considered "balanced". The game mechanics should be in line with lore. The rest is rest.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I took a look at PF2E a while ago. I don't remember much about it. Lots of emphasis of heritage feats, maybe. I remember it being similar to D&D4E. One thing I recall being a positive was the 3 point action economy. Overall forgettable. "Balance" did appear to be a concern for the system.

 

[Cryomancer]

"Balance" did appear to be a concern for the system.

As it shows with final fantasy style summons that are glorified attacks.

-------------------

If I could chose one TT game to be in CRPG format would be :

GURPS Technomancer

An alternate world in which magic and technology both work . . .​

all too well.​

On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated at Trinity Site in New Mexico. The explosion ripped a hole in the fabric of space. Doctor Oppenheimer's words "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" unwittingly closed a necromantic ritual. The fireball vanished, but the mushroom cloud remained. This was the Hellstorm, a tornado of seething magical energy.

A pattern of enchanted fallout drifted across the southern United States and Mexico. The effects would not be felt immediately, but over the next generation, they would transform the world . . .

Magic had come to the modern 20th century. But like the power of the atom on our own Earth, it would prove a Pandora's Box.

Source : https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/technomancer/

 

[NecroLord]

D&D 3.5E

Interesting.
I too like 3.5, but AD&D 1 and 2E are my favorite. Dark Sun is awesome.
Wraith: The Oblivion is one of the darkest and most miserable settings out there. I like it for the sheer dreadful aspect of a tormented afterlife where there is no salvation, but only a challenge in trying to avoid a fate worse than death.
Pendragon is also pretty cool.
And, of course, Star Wars D6!

 

[Alex]

GURPS (especially the pre-4e era) is probably my favourite. But I like a lot of different games as well. I am a big fan of pre-4e era Shadowrun as well, although the conflict resolution method of the game is really wonky (dice-pools have a tendency for that).

 

[Cryomancer]

GURPS (especially the pre-4e era) is probably my favourite. But I like a lot of different games as well. I am a big fan of pre-4e era Shadowrun as well, although the conflict resolution method of the game is really wonky (dice-pools have a tendency for that).

Interesting. What GURPS 4e did that you din't liked?

 

[Old Hans]

probably Rolemaster

 

[0sacred]

D&D 3.5E

Interesting.
I too like 3.5, but AD&D 1 and 2E are my favorite. Dark Sun is awesome.

I took this to mean "favorite TTRPG ruleset you wanna see in a CRPG". I would agree that AD&D is superior for PnP

 

[Morality Games]

Homebrewed D&D, no specific edition.

Of the commercial products, I'm partial to Shadowrun 4E. I enjoy the 'classless' points-for-traits character development system. One of the homebrewed D&D campaigns I played used something like the Shadowrun character development system and that was probably my favorite TRPG campaign.

 

[udm]

Savage Worlds as it's the system I've been running the longest, but I'm also fond of Cepheus, GURPS 4e, 13th Age, and AD&D 2e.