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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 9, 2009 6:12:05 GMT -6
Ever have a game where you love the setting but just don't like the system?
I have many of these on my shelf, but at the moment I am thinking about TORG.
I love the concept -- raiders from other dimensions are invading the earth and trying to impose their reality on our would while stealing our possabilities.
I just can't get into the "Masterbook" game system. I liked it when it was Star Wars back in the 1980's, but since then I haven't liked reading their rulebooks. (I have the Indiana Jones and Bloodshadows books, and again love the settings but can't get "into" the rules.)
I'd be interested in hearing other stories of this.
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Post by Haldo Bramwise on Aug 9, 2009 7:49:09 GMT -6
"Blood & Space:Prometheus Rising."
I think the setting is a great mix of hard scifi and just a little bit of space opera.
The system is 3.0, but I would love to see it as a Siege Engine game.
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Post by bluskreem on Aug 9, 2009 9:18:50 GMT -6
I'd have to go with Mechwarrior. Pre-Dark Age Battle tech is by and far my favorite fantasy universe, but I can't stand any of the RPGs set in it. I own every edition of the RPG and most of the supplements, but when it comes to actual gaming I don't think I will ever use Mechwarrior (or Classic battletech RPG) again. I've used everything from BESM, to Fudge, to AD&D 2nd as systems for the universe all with much better results.
that said I still consider the critical hit table from 1st Ed ito be the best Random Table in history.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2009 11:48:13 GMT -6
My short list ; Earthdawn Tribe 8 Star Frontiers Battlelords of the 23rd Century F T L: 2448 Of the list above the only one I would run with the original rules is Battlelords. I don't like % systems very much but its not a bad system. my gaming blog ; diceofdoom.blogspot.com/ |
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Post by Morandir on Aug 9, 2009 17:14:41 GMT -6
Exalted, believe it or not. Well, the version of Exalted presented in the 1e corebook, before the explosion of anime-related stuff.
Mor
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Post by stonetoflesh on Aug 9, 2009 17:29:57 GMT -6
Fading Suns is one of my absolute favorite published game settings, but I didn't care for either the Victory Point System or the d20 conversion.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 10, 2009 5:54:49 GMT -6
Fading Suns is one of my absolute favorite published game settings, but I didn't care for either the Victory Point System or the d20 conversion. I like Fading Suns as well but have never played it. With a d20 game I figure you just rip away the skills and feats and what's left is usually pretty OD&D compatible. |
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delve
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 170
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Post by delve on Aug 10, 2009 7:53:57 GMT -6
From the Ashes - greyhawk setting was my fav. I loved the illustrations by Ken Frank, gave a very dark edgy feel to the setting. Worst Systems I didn't like, anyone remember that god awful card game they did with dragonlance... *ick*.
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Post by thegreyelf on Aug 10, 2009 8:32:43 GMT -6
Classic Deadlands. The setting is amazing. The system is the single most "f**k you, Players!" system I've ever come across. The Savage Worlds version is far superior; sadly, I can't get my GM to touch it with a ten-meter cattleprod.
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Post by doc on Aug 10, 2009 11:30:12 GMT -6
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Shadowrun. Great setting with lots and lots to do, but with rules that are much more complex than they need to be.
Also, MERP. How awesome would it have been to have a Lord of the Rings game where you didn't have to roll just to see if you could walk across the street without tripping on a random stone and having to roll on 3 percentile charts to see what happens to you?
Living Steel was another game with some great ideas marred by a way-too-complex system.
Doc
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Post by greyharp on Aug 10, 2009 14:26:30 GMT -6
Yes, I'd put my hand up for MERP as well.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 10, 2009 14:41:02 GMT -6
MERP was kind of scary, but ICE's Lord of the Rings Adventure Game (not the Decipher version) was pretty sweet.
LotRAG was a trimmed down version of MERP in the same way that MERP was a trimmed down version of RoleMaster. (Some of my friends have these horror stories of RoleMaster, but I never played it. MERP was rules-deep enough for me.)
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Post by snorri on Aug 10, 2009 14:44:44 GMT -6
French games had a speciality to turn great themes into bad games.
*"Ice Company", the major french sci-fi novel (with more than 80 voulmes published now, the world covered by ice after the sghatter of the moon, lead by train companies)) was a very bad one. I played in that world a two-years campaign, using basic RPG.
*"Hollow Earth", another french novel (resistance in an Europe turned back to middle-age, 1000 years after the victory of the reich) was an incredibly bad one.
*Mega, the best-seller of french games (it was published as a magazine, very chep and widely diffused), had 3 diferent editions, not compatible between themselves, and crappy each one. But the idea was nice : spcio-temporal agents in a multiverse, working to resolve problems in the structure of universe and organise peace in the multiverse federation, using psionics talents.
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Post by coffee on Aug 10, 2009 15:24:55 GMT -6
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Shadowrun. Great setting with lots and lots to do, but with rules that are much more complex than they need to be. I always thought Shadowrun tried to include the kitchen sink: "Hey, let's do a cyperpunk game! And let's throw in magic! And hey, what's a game with magic without orcs and trolls! And huge guns!" And yet, somehow it worked... |
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Post by geordieracer on Aug 10, 2009 15:54:37 GMT -6
Far away, under a sky filled with unfamiliar stars, stands an ancient city built in a time before the empires of the north fell. Nestled in a mountain range at the center of a vast desert wasteland, the city is carved into the remains of a dormant volcano. In the highest reaches of that city, in rooms carved from the mountains, the Gryphons watch and wait… Cyradon is waiting. The long forgotten things stir in their sleep.
Cyradon - the best fantasy setting of the noughties. I dislike the HARP system though.
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Post by machfront on Aug 11, 2009 11:32:25 GMT -6
Good call on MERP, doc. And good call by Fin that the LotRAG by ICE is a kickin' alternative.
Ok...I'll admit it... I don't like the WFRP system. Love the setting! Well...the setting in 1st ed. anyway. The ramped up nature of the setting in the 2nd ed. books reminds me of a teenager who thinks dark and evil means fast and loud guitars and shouted lyrics about "the dark one" or something equally asinine.
I guess I'm just not keen on tactical combat and, while the skill system is nice and simple, the binary nature of it has always seemed...I dunno...dry?
And magic is just, well, there's just too many rules for me there.
One day I will run a Tunnels & Trolls Warhammer game, though.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 11, 2009 12:10:30 GMT -6
One day I will run a Tunnels & Trolls Warhammer game, though. Make a conversion and my son will be happy. He likes the Warhammer universe but I'd rather run OD&D or T&T! |
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Post by Falconer on Aug 11, 2009 15:08:46 GMT -6
Yeah, there are so many great maps and other material out there for MERP, that if you're into Tolkien, it's worth it to use the MERP books, even if you're going to change the feel back to be more Tolkienish. And, yeah, the game system is really not my cup of tea. (OD&D still seems the closest to Tolkien I have ever encountered.)
For me, in general, choosing the system is the first and by far the most important decision, and the setting follows. It's strange, on one hand, because literature is my biggest passion. But when it comes right down to it, I just don't enjoy RPGs other than D&D anywhere near as much as I enjoy D&D, and I've played a few.
So Call of Cthulhu is a good setting and an okay system, but I'd much rather encounter Lovecraftian monsters and ancient writings and so on within the context of a good old-fashioned D&D dungeon crawl (G3, DDG, and WG4 showed us how it's done).
If we're going to play a space opera game based on Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, or Firefly, I'd rather use D&D for exploring planets, and some sort of board war game to handle what happens up in space. Regards.
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Post by machfront on Aug 12, 2009 3:10:53 GMT -6
One day I will run a Tunnels & Trolls Warhammer game, though. Make a conversion and my son will be happy. He likes the Warhammer universe but I'd rather run OD&D or T&T! Me and some of the guys jaw-flapped about it for quite a while in a thread on the 'Bridge. Also, someone put up a tiny and to-the-point version in my "TnT Handfuls" thread over there, too. |
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