Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?
-
Since @FiyaFly accidentally got us started on the topic I figured I'd start an actual thread here. What systems have you played, and what ones do you prefer? What do you want to try out?
-
The two that I've played in the most are Pathfinder and Edge of the Empire (Star Wars). I prefer EotE by far. It is much more narrative driven, and most of the emphasis is on describing what is happening with the dice providing you with the framework. I know that you can do this with other systems, but it has been harder for me.
-
I really want to try out Genesys. It is the genericized version of EotE, so it can be used with any setting you want.
-
Oh... oh man... I'll start posting my preferences here in a bit when I have some free time.
-
@coliver said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
Oh... oh man... I'll start posting my preferences here in a bit when I have some free time.
There's always free time for rpgs
-
My favorite game right now is Delta Green it uses a modified version of the BRP system developed by Chaosium. So everything is percentile blackjack. It's really easy to introduce people to and the only complex rules are those that can be ignored until you're ready to deal with them.
It's also, and you'll see a running theme here, a modern day horror game where you play government agents (or subcontractors) that are involved in a secret government conspiracy to fight the unnatural. It's a very deadly game for PCs and there are a number of ways to make it super bleak, which turns out my player's love.
-
I've tried a lot of things over the years. But I keep coming back to D&D.
I prefer 3.5/Pathfinder.
I gave 5e a couple years in my online campaign and finally called it off and converted everything to 3.5 with a Pathfinder allowance.
Of course, I have a decent number of house rules. That is what I like most about pen and paper RPGs. I can do WTF ever I want.
-
I think that I just want to move to Pathfinder.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
I think that I just want to move to Pathfinder.
Pathfinder is basically D&D without traditions that tie you to bad ideas.
-
@kelly said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@scottalanmiller said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
I think that I just want to move to Pathfinder.
Pathfinder is basically D&D without traditions that tie you to bad ideas.
Exactly, that's why I want it. I'm a D&D 3.5 fan.
-
@kelly said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@scottalanmiller said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
I think that I just want to move to Pathfinder.
Pathfinder is basically D&D without traditions that tie you to bad ideas.
I mean it's 100% tradition though. It's a straight copy of the OGL 3.5 rules that they've been, slowly, adding to over the years. Even Starfinder, their Science Fiction version, is basically a reskinned 3.5. While that's not necessarily a bad thing there was a lot of room to improve on the 3.5 ruleset.
I enjoy Pathfinder, I've run it at a few cons, but it's just as clunky and crunchy as 3.5 was, even more so as they have tried to add mechanics on top of it with simplifying the base game.
5e, while not perfect, does improve on the game quite a bit. It's not as jarring as the 3.5->4 edition switch was, and kind of combines the best of both worlds between those two rule sets. My big complaint (and I'll mimic @JaredBusch here) was that they don't put out nearly enough supplements for it. They have moved away from the individual campaign books and moved to online distribution with DMGuild.
-
Actually my biggest complaint with 5e is how magic items have been scaled back. This is a continuation from the abomination that was 4e.
I run high magic campaigns because I want the wonderous to happen. I don't want the same boring adventure story every time.
-
@coliver said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@kelly said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@scottalanmiller said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
I think that I just want to move to Pathfinder.
Pathfinder is basically D&D without traditions that tie you to bad ideas.
I mean it's 100% tradition though. It's a straight copy of the OGL 3.5 rules that they've been, slowly, adding to over the years.
That's what I want. Exactly. I don't want big changes. It's a rule engine, I don't want that changing other than tweaks that are tested over a long period of time. I want changes to be in the story, not in the engine.
In real life, we don't change physics to tell different stories, we write good stories.
That's fundamentally why I detest super hero genre - they tell terrible stories and try to make it interesting by changing physics instead.
-
I wasn't playing D&D during 3.5 or 4e, but I have been playing my current 5e campaign for about a year and a half I think. I've heard that a lot of math is needed in pathfinder and 3.5 respectively. I like the roleplaying aspect of it but combat can be boring depending on what your party chooses to do. We have a Bard who made his character a crowd control machine and he trivializes combat sometimes. It ends up taking us an hour or two to resolve a big battle that we had no chance of losing.
I also played a Deathwatch campaign, which I absolutely hated. Spacemarines just don't have a lot of wiggle room for a lot of roleplaying (especially compared to something mostly open like D&D) because ultimately, you're a space marine.
-
I've never actually played any pen n paper games...
I guess I should probably give it a try but I feel that making an investment to purchase a book etc would be wasted.
-
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
We have a Bard who made his character a crowd control machine and he trivializes combat sometimes. It ends up taking us an hour or two to resolve a big battle that we had no chance of losing.
That means you have a bad DM.
-
@jaredbusch said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
We have a Bard who made his character a crowd control machine and he trivializes combat sometimes. It ends up taking us an hour or two to resolve a big battle that we had no chance of losing.
That means you have a bad DM.
It's kind of a hard thing to fix from what I'm seeing. Sometimes his CC fails and other times it's OP. What do you think he could do better?
-
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@jaredbusch said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
We have a Bard who made his character a crowd control machine and he trivializes combat sometimes. It ends up taking us an hour or two to resolve a big battle that we had no chance of losing.
That means you have a bad DM.
It's kind of a hard thing to fix from what I'm seeing. Sometimes his CC fails and other times it's OP. What do you think he could do better?
Kill off the bard or force a random class reroll
I honestly have no clue, am just being sarcastic.
-
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@jaredbusch said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
@wirestyle22 said in Pen and Paper RPGs - What's your favorite?:
We have a Bard who made his character a crowd control machine and he trivializes combat sometimes. It ends up taking us an hour or two to resolve a big battle that we had no chance of losing.
That means you have a bad DM.
It's kind of a hard thing to fix from what I'm seeing. Sometimes his CC fails and other times it's OP. What do you think he could do better?
That's easy, introduce a single monster at a higher CR that has advantage on Charisma or Wisdom saves.
-
This post is deleted!
