Best PNP RPGs?

[mediocrepoet]

WEG D6 is probably the best version of Star Wars, it lends itself well to cinematic, fun game play. But, it's totally broken in some ways, especially when looking at damage soaks of high strength characters and anyone who actually gets powerful with the Force. If you keep control over Force characters (rarity of training, expense, difficulty of getting started, etc.) and more importantly, try to keep people at 3D+2 or less in strength and limit armour, it's fairly solid though. Even with some of the system flaws, I had some great gaming nights with it.

 

[udm]

I gave Savage Worlds a spin a few days ago, and i can't say it was entirely successful. I am finding it hard to determine whether or not the rules are good or bad, on the one hand i did manage to stab one of the players to death, so that would testify to its lethality, OTOH i can't already measure whether combat was fun or not, and most importantly, whether or not it was fun enough to run an entire campaign in this system. I like the accessability, it was easy to pick-up for gm and players, i'm just not sure i has value. I see what you are saying about shields and such, though i don't entirely agree on the evaluation on that mechanic, In fact i might like that better than the standard "130" hit points.

I'd been running two Savage Worlds campaigns for a while now, one of which is homebrewed. The main one still ongoing is Interface Zero 2.0 (which is awesome), while the homebrewed one is a zombie apocalypse game.

I can't say that I liked the bennies idea initially, but at least in SW, it isn't just an awesomebutton. I also don't like having players disconnected from the characters with metagame elements, but at least the interpretation of benny usage is completely left to the GM. What I would do is to let my players know that bennies are used as stamina points. They get more bennies when they pull off really good plans or moves, or show that they're constantly on the go rather than popping moles behind cover. Additional bennies represent the PCs getting their second wind.

The "shield regen" thing isn't that big a deal because of the swingy nature of dice rolls, and you'd have to roll a 4 on Spirit anyway. I once had a player roll up to 30-odd points of damage when he burst fired, instantly killing a heavily armoured enemy wild card. Actions like ganging up, taunting and using the environment to one's advantage can easily take out a couple of mooks in one round. In my zombie apocalypse game, I had a tough, fast-moving zombie boss wild card that was taken out by players in 2 rounds because they used positioning to their advantage.

The Wild die annoyed me at first so I houseruled "no bennies on snake eyes". Certain actions are also barred if characters are untrained in that skill. This makes players more cautious when choosing whether or not to roll.

I houseruled the default exploding dice rules with this. so results become less swingy and higher dice means higher success probabilities.

It's not my favourite system, but it is great if fast pacing is needed. Bennies took some getting used to (I played CRPGs before TTRPGs). The players in Interface Zero 2.0 had some fantastic moments, including shutting down the building's security system to stealth through a heavily guarded area, but not before hacking into a turret to take out a boss NPC later on.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

After playing through a lot of PnP rulesets, I like 4E DnD the best.
It works well with my group which most of the us like to roleplay on the fly and easy on the DM so I and others can concentrated our efforts more on the story.
Combat is also pretty fast with power cards.

 

[Ninjerk]

Uh oh

 

[WetWorks]

Someone likes 4e. Who knew?

 

[amoraxle]

Whoever keeps recommending GURPS on here deserves to be shot. So much trying to fit square pegs into round holes in that game. It sells itself as a 'do-anything-you-want' type of game but you can spend hours trying to replicate a certain ability or character and end up with an ability that only partially fits your vision. For instance, it's impossible to make an ability that gives you health on each hit without imbuements or a liberal reinterpretation of the rules on leech, which is an advantage that should have been included in the first edition of the fourth edition to begin with. On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture. The closest thing to a semi-popular European RPG I can find is Dark Heresy, and those faggots at Fantasy Flight Games released a (much crappier) second edition for it, meaning it's become much harder to find players for the first edition.

 

[tuluse]

It's impossible to find Dark Eye?

 

[Grunker]

Whoever keeps recommending GURPS on here deserves to be shot.

come at me bro

It's impossible to find Dark Eye?

Probably not but what would you want with a cheap, weak immitation of GURPS

 

[Night Goat]

On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture.

 

[odrzut]

The order of importance of things that make a good p&p rpg session:

- game master
- players
- comfortable chairs
- (optional) alcohol
- music
- food
- setting
- mechanics

That being said I like Neuroshima, but its mechanics it absurdly slow and everybody use house rules.

 

[agris]

Whoever keeps recommending GURPS on here deserves to be shot. So much trying to fit square pegs into round holes in that game. It sells itself as a 'do-anything-you-want' type of game but you can spend hours trying to replicate a certain ability or character and end up with an ability that only partially fits your vision. For instance, it's impossible to make an ability that gives you health on each hit without imbuements or a liberal reinterpretation of the rules on leech, which is an advantage that should have been included in the first edition of the fourth edition to begin with. On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture. The closest thing to a semi-popular European RPG I can find is Dark Heresy, and those faggots at Fantasy Flight Games released a (much crappier) second edition for it, meaning it's become much harder to find players for the first edition.

This sounds like a lack of GM initiative. None of the great PnP games (that I'm familiar with) spelled everything out for you entirely. If you lack the vision to implement something in a way you feel is consistent with the game and world, don't cry that it isn't handed to you on a silver platter. You need to think. Implement healing on hit in a way you find consistent and thematically appropriate, rather than waiting for a rule to be handed down from on high.

 

[Grunker]

Fourth Edition give players flexibility in a way no other system-heavy RPG can. To complain then that it feels too constricted is much like arguing that it's problematic that your moon-rocket does not travel to venus.

 

[Ninjerk]

On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture.

:kwafuckyeah:

 

[tuluse]

I don't see how healing on hit is difficult to do with GURPS. It has hit resolution, damage resolution, and player health.

What else do you need?

 

[amoraxle]

It's impossible to find Dark Eye?

Unfortunately I don't speak German and I doubt I'd be able to find any players of this game in my native Britain anyway.

On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture.

You have a problem with my post?

Whoever keeps recommending GURPS on here deserves to be shot. So much trying to fit square pegs into round holes in that game. It sells itself as a 'do-anything-you-want' type of game but you can spend hours trying to replicate a certain ability or character and end up with an ability that only partially fits your vision. For instance, it's impossible to make an ability that gives you health on each hit without imbuements or a liberal reinterpretation of the rules on leech, which is an advantage that should have been included in the first edition of the fourth edition to begin with. On an unrelated note, it's also almost impossible to find a semi-popular European role-playing-game which means I have to 'acquire' the books online to avoid supporting American culture. The closest thing to a semi-popular European RPG I can find is Dark Heresy, and those faggots at Fantasy Flight Games released a (much crappier) second edition for it, meaning it's become much harder to find players for the first edition.

This sounds like a lack of GM initiative. None of the great PnP games (that I'm familiar with) spelled everything out for you entirely. If you lack the vision to implement something in a way you feel is consistent with the game and world, don't cry that it isn't handed to you on a silver platter. You need to think. Implement healing on hit in a way you find consistent and thematically appropriate, rather than waiting for a rule to be handed down from on high.

The problem is, following this logic, why bother with a role-playing system at all? Why not just play make-believe with your friends if you're just going to ignore the mechanics which are supposed to provide the structure for the game experience?

Fourth Edition give players flexibility in a way no other system-heavy RPG can. To complain then that it feels too constricted is much like arguing that it's problematic that your moon-rocket does not travel to venus.

I disagree. GURPS is full of blinkered assumptions and critical oversights which really drag the whole thing down. Take advantages like shadow form, vampiric bite and rapier wit for example. These are all way too specific to be used generically, to the point where they had to introduce a whole new advantage (leech) in powers, and are a perfect example of what's wrong with GURPS in general. Then there's the social advantages like rank and legal enforcement powers and other advantages which are all too useless to be worth spending points on most of the time. Why would you spend points on advantages like these when you could spend them on things like improved strength or better dexterity? Finally, another complaint about GURPS I hear a lot and one I agree with is there's very little sense of progression compared to most other RPGs. There's very little to spend points on besides boosting your stats, and this makes characters feel very generic and lifeless.

I don't see how healing on hit is difficult to do with GURPS. It has hit resolution, damage resolution, and player health.

What else do you need?

Well, if it's so easy, how about you propose a way of representing this in the game?

EDIT: Also, does anyone know how to change signatures?

 

[Grunker]

Then there's the social advantages like rank and legal enforcement powers and other advantages which are all too useless to be worth spending points on most of the time.

My troll sense was off. I apologize to all involved.

 

[agris]

This sounds like a lack of GM initiative. None of the great PnP games (that I'm familiar with) spelled everything out for you entirely. If you lack the vision to implement something in a way you feel is consistent with the game and world, don't cry that it isn't handed to you on a silver platter. You need to think. Implement healing on hit in a way you find consistent and thematically appropriate, rather than waiting for a rule to be handed down from on high.

The problem is, following this logic, why bother with a role-playing system at all? Why not just play make-believe with your friends if you're just going to ignore the mechanics which are supposed to provide the structure for the game experience?

That's a ridiculous argument. Again, your problem appears to be an unwillingness to think. If implementing an ability that isn't 100% spelled out for you in a guidebook leads you to statements such as that, perhaps you should re-think this whole PnP thing.

Grunker it seems I've followed the same path as you, and it leads to a dank den under a bridge.

 

[Grokalibre]

I'd recommend the Hero system 6th edition. It's fun & intuitive and can be used in any setting.

 

[Elim]

When you want crunch why chose Hero when there is GURPS with a fuckton of sourcebooks around?
They have a really active forum, too.
Most problems with the system can be easily fixed.

 

[baturinsky]

Is Fuzion any good?

 

[Hobo Elf]

The order of importance of things that make a good p&p rpg session:
- (optional) alcohol

Alcohol is the only thing that's not optional, fool!

 

[Ludo Lense]

No love for Deadlands? It is the most fun I've had in a pen and paper RPG. I am always trying to get a group to learn it.

It also has my favorite magic class. The Huckster.

Basically you also need a classic deck of cards to play this class since when you a cast a spell (Hexes) you draw cards from the deck and try to form a good poker hand which determines if you are successful and how powerful your spell is (you are essentially gambling with the spirits for help, bad stuff happens if you lose). Its one of those games were magic still retains a sense of wonder.

 

[Neanderthal]

Got to say i'm liking Burning Wheel a lot lately, gives a lot of nice mechanical reinforcement to roleplaying your character and the advancement is based purely around getting good at what you do, rather than choosing arbitrarily. Might nick some ideas from there.

For the longest time me and lads were addicted to Harnmaster, but gradually grew dissatisfied with the setting and rule system, tried AD&D before and after but that never sat right. So i've been running my own ruleset for the past twenty or so years, with bits and bobs from all over shant, freely stolen from systems that I like and seem to work with my group. In my opinion this is only way to make a "perfect" system, otherwise you're always gonna find flaws in every published one.

 

[L'ennui]

Dungeon World is the shit!

I'm going to gm a game of Advanced World of Dungeons (a kind of lighter version of Dungeon World) tomorrow if all goes well. Will report on my findings.

Also GURPS is alright, you don't have to use all the million rules in it, it's pretty flexible. That dude DERPing about the lack of some specific life steal mechanic should just go ahead and create one logically.

 

[crawlkill]

I can't remember if I'd read Unknown Armies when I last posted in this thread, but everyone should read Unknown Armies. Greg Stolze is a joy, and it's one of the few RPG books I've read that's actually, like, entertaining to read--it really sucks going back to World of Darkness' bland/ominous style. the setting is one of gonzo grubby street mysticism in a world where the magix are generated through paradox, so every sorceron is definitionally insane. meanwhile aspiring godlings live their lives outwardly in representations of certain ascended human archetypes, gaining more power as they fit better and better into the metaphysical hole that eidolon's drilled in reality (and they, ironically, are saner, because they don't have to -feel what they're doing, it's all performative).

as an example of the specific way the writing is brilliant: at one point, there's this spell described that, when cast, will cause the face and name of the person who last cast a spell on its target to appear in the air in front of the caster. if the particular target has never had a spell cast on them before, then in every case the face that appears is of a regal-looking Egyptian woman and a name in untranslatable heiroglyphics, the implication being that a very long time ago, she must've cast a spell on...everyone.

in a World of Darkness or D&D book, it'd just say 'if they've never had spells cast on them, it fails.'