What System should I use Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > What System should I use Megathread

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Nessus posted:

My D&D group is considering a new campaign and we're in the market for a sci-fi system.

Desired goals: Moderate crunch (we've been playing 5E happily for over a year), a space-opera sort of tone, and ideally a relatively light metaplot - so Star Wars might work, but Fragged Empire might not.

Bulldogs is a solid Fate sci fi rpg, it has a campaign by the amazing Garth Hanrahan too.

Orrrr, you could use Mongoose Traveller and play the amazing Pirates of Drinax (Garth Hanrahan).

There's a theme here.

sebmojo fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Jul 23, 2018

# ¿ Jul 23, 2018 12:14

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:21

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

PMush Perfect posted:

I've never played it myself, but maybe you could do some reskinning on Gumshoe?

Nights dark agents (which is gumshoe) would do that really well. I'm not convinced it's that fun to play, we ran a few sessions of the Zalozhny Quartet and it was decent but not brilliant.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2018 19:37

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

crowtribe posted:

Our D&D game collapsed and I'm trying to float games to a mixed group of experienced players, and needed something to fill the cyberpunk genre.

Ruleset: Lite to normal, nothing with verbs or PbtA
Support: any
Chargen: would like something where we can make characters feel custom, such as class systems or profession paths or similar.
Preferably none of the issues found with hackers/magic users having to have mini sessions run separately for their abilities
Setting: Futute dystopian Earth so players have some existing knowledge or attachment to it.

Rolemaster's take on the genre, Cyberspace, is actually surprisingly decent - it uses a stripped down version of the rules but the skills and combat framework is fantastic, and character creation is manageable if your players aren't scared of numbers.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2018 23:03

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Nights dark agents without the vampires

# ¿ Sep 10, 2018 20:04

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Elizabeth Mills posted:

So gumshoe then?

Idk, NDA is very modern techno thriller themed and has a lot of clever modes for different kinds of spy game, are those straight gumshoe?

# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 02:05

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Elizabeth Mills posted:

Gumshoe is the system. It's like saying d20 instead of D&D.

Oh right, I thought Gumshoe was a source game like apocalypse world rather than a pure system. My only experience with it is NDA, which is specifically for running a high-tech spy game (plus vampires) so that's the flavour I'd suggest, but I guess it's possible those rules are in every iteration of the system.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 03:35

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

There are hangouts apps that do dice rolling, maybe that?

# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 06:38

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

I've had so many good times with Rolemaster I have to recommend it, though it probably only really sings when you blend it with another system. Anything with percentile numbers in it works really well.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2018 14:29

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

LongDarkNight posted:

Looking for suggestions for a one shot Superheroes game. My list right now is Masks and Dr Magnethands.

Dr magnethands, and do a recap. I'd love to run that.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2018 06:10

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Runequest? Doesnt feel like a natural fit for 5e.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2018 20:17

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

barkbell posted:

I was looking at this but I don�t know anything about 13th age. I hear it�s made by the guys who did 4e and while I had fun with 4e the combat was so involved it was basically all we did

13th age is good, combat is maybe a bit simpler than 5e? Never heard of glorantha version though, sounds interesting.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2018 20:36

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Nights dark agents is sort of built for that, though it felt a little bland?

# ¿ Nov 22, 2018 07:43

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

The zalozhny quartet, a campaign for NDA, is by rpg god Garth ryder-hanrahan (Dracula dossier, eyes if the stone thief) and is amazing.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2018 07:23

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Because tactical combat feels gritty.

I recommended rolemaster before, though it would need a fair bit of work to fit it into gumshoe. There is a stripped down modern version in the ICE cyberpunk knockoff, Cyberspace.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2018 21:20

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

You could call it Exception

# ¿ Jan 25, 2019 22:00

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Has anyone had a good time playing nights dark agents? I love so much about it but the gameplay seems clunky, is it just practice?

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 03:38

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

...Ok...

# ¿ Jan 29, 2019 06:31

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

The new edition of D&d is actually quite fun and good, and they ported a bunch of old modules. Hidden shrine of tamoachan is great. Strahd is good too, but needs a bit of attention.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2019 03:54

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Junkie Disease posted:

I wanna do a modern day game with investigations, cults infiltration and possible aliens and their tech, coming off of starfinder and DnD I think the group wants something less clunky, any suggestions?

Nights dark agents is good

# ¿ Jun 7, 2019 09:45

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

inklesspen posted:

You should look at Ironsworn�s combat system. Combat consists of managing �initiative� (which is basically �who�s in control of this fight�), and applying hits to a battle progress track. When you feel you�ve done enough damage (made enough progress on the track), you make an End the Fight move and roll the challenge dice versus the track�s progress. Depending on the roll results, you might win with light consequences, win with heavy consequences, or overreach and lose.

That's a neat idea.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2019 04:57

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Shrecknet posted:

would you say the game that lets you die in character generation is a good choice for someone's first-ever RPG?

Mongoose traveller is excellent, and has the amazing pirates of drinax campaign. There is also Bulldogs which is a Fate variant, and has a good stomp the space nazis campaign, Heart of the Fury.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2019 07:42

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Ignite Memories posted:

Lasers and Feelings is extremely cheap

we ran this with 9 players and it owned, we did the heist where you yoink the Carly Rae Jepsen back catalogue and spoiler those tunes were in our possession by the end and their erstwhile owner was none the wiser :smuggo:

# ¿ Dec 23, 2019 07:15

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

lasers and feelings

# ¿ Mar 1, 2020 20:06

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Aftermath lol

(Don't play aftermath)

# ¿ May 30, 2020 02:21

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Mongtrav 2e is great, and pirates of drinax is incredible.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2020 19:49

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Dungeon crawl classics?

# ¿ Nov 24, 2020 09:29

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

fozzy fosbourne posted:

What are some suggestions for systems where the GM can really go ham in tactical encounters?

To elaborate, I’d like a system where I can design an encounter and then pull no punches. And it should have some interesting tricks and variety from the NPC side of things.

I think this means that the system should be fairly accurate in terms of measuring how lethal an encounter is? And that the game shouldn’t totally collapse if the players lose an encounter? Which I suppose lends itself towards systems that have some robustness for either gracefully handling a TPK or player casualty, or escape, or similar. And ideally, makes losing encounters fun somehow and not a slog.

I stopped playing TTRPG around D&D 3.0. Took a look at D&D 5E and found it requires me to bring my own game design for a lot of fairly common situations, including the above. We have some more narrative TTRPG options we like but would also like a tactical game. Worst case is we fall back to board games for tactical stuff but I’d like to know what goons think is state of the art in TTRPG tactical skirmish stuff first.

Thanks

4e is good for hardcore tactics, you can really put the screws on. I strongly recommend the 4thcore approach, I ran revenge of the iron lich a couple of times and it was an absolute blast. Just everything turned up to 11, basically.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2021 23:53

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

13th age? It's basically 5e but in a alternate universe, and it has the best campaign ever written in eyes of the stone thief

# ¿ Jan 11, 2021 08:48

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Honestly, I wouldn't. I've tried to do a twist three times as a dm and its never worked.

The biggest was nights dark agents where I sprung that it's actually about vampires on them, and I got to the reveal a few sessions on and it felt so flat that I didn't continue the game.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2021 09:36

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Zarick posted:

RULESET: Crunchy
SUPPORT: Ideally Established or Deep, but I could do something else if there are good guidelines for generating content.
CHARGEN: Involved. Something with a lot of character options.
SETTING: Preferably something high fantasy (or neutral but it'd work for same).

We've done D&D 3/4/5, PF2e, LANCER, Strike, Valor, Exalted 2/3. I'd like to find something that's crunchy and has a lot of character options. My players love games with cool powers and other strong character identity and advancement. Any ideas would be helpful.

13th age, eyes of the stone thief, done

# ¿ Mar 16, 2021 05:58

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

13th age, eyes of the stone thief

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 23:05

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

I'd try dungeon world.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2021 23:55

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Rust hulks is a pbta for playing (essentially) firefly that has some interesting captain mechanics. I wouldn't call it slick but it is probably worth a look

# ¿ Nov 17, 2022 20:45

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Drone posted:

RULESET: Light to Medium
SUPPORT: Always a plus but not strictly required, especially if the setting is something I can build off of easily.
Chargen: Quick to medium and/or has a lot of pregens/templates readily available
Setting: Any
Requirement: looking specifically for something that can be easily run by a.) larger groups of players (talking maybe 6-8 players instead of my usual standard of 4-5), b.) doesn't require that all of those 6-8 players actually be there for every session, though I'd expect them to be, c.) doesn't involve those players all necessarily owning a rulebook and is therefore something that's easy to just pick up and join in, and d.) doesn't require overly tactical combat (a la Lancer or 4e). I'm sure there are a lot of convention games that fit into this idea, right?

My first thought was potentially B/X, since iirc the original guidance for Basic was to have a larger party like this, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily true? I'm interested in the OSR but have never played in or run a single OSR game, so I'm not sure if the expectation reflects the reality there.

Old school essentials, run them through a funnel.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 19:51

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

D&d 3.5

# ¿ Mar 24, 2023 01:42

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:21

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Yeah blades in the dark et al are your best bet for that.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2024 00:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > What System should I use Megathread