05-23-2017, 10:38 AM
This... is probably a by-product of being bored out of my skull while dusting down the RPG shelf today. Leaving me alone with my thoughts usually results in random outcomes.
With a Pokemon RPG whirring along in the roleplaying section of the forums, it's nice to see new players get exposed to the hobby. While D&D is sort of the de-facto reigning king of the genre, I find that there are a lot of pen & paper systems out there that deserve love from the gaming populace.
Some of them are even nice enough to do up slick demo adventures with cut down versions of the rules to showcase the system to prospective players. While I'm not currently actively playing in a forum game currently, I do occasionally shill certain titles, because frankly, I love the hobby and in my mind at least, more exposure is usually a good thing.
These are some of my favorite systems with quickstarts:
Dragon Age by Green Ronin
Based on the Bioware video game of the same name, Dragon Age may yet displace Pathfinder as my go-to fantasy RPG system. Built around Green Ronin's proprietary Adventure Game Engine (or AGE) system, AGE uses a 3D6 system with a unique narrative 'stunt' system that triggers whenever a player rolls doubles and is relatively less mechanically crunchy overall than Pathfinder and D&D. Character generation is detailed without being complex, the levelling advancement system opens options and tricks to players without causing power escalation and the stunt die system where players get to pick and choose their way through fancy maneuvers is just clever.
A glance through leaves me a slight suspicion there might be some problems towards high-ish level play (can't quite put my finger on it yet), but to be honest, most games I ran with the system never actually reach high level play... so I guess I'm just speculating. Overall, the fact that it's just fun and easy to run sold me on the system. It also doesn't hurt than Wil Wheaton did an excellent run through of the game on Tabletop.
The Arl's Ransom - Dragon Age Quickstart Adventure
Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment Group
If I want to run something in the modern, military or pulp genres with my local group, Savage Worlds comes out. Savage Worlds is a system neutral game engine which ties skill ranks to the size of dice rolled against a target number (d4 for rookie, d6 for seasoned, for example) rather than being modifier based. It's fast and relatively streamlined as a conflict resolution mechanic with less book keeping than most RPGs as well, so that's always a plus.
If there's a negative for Savage Worlds, it's ironically in it's system neutrality. Savage Worlds is a toolbox system and is highly dependent on the GM's spit and polish to kludge together the adventure via limiting options or coming up with a setting. It's honestly sometimes quite a bit of work, especially if you're working towards genres outside of 'modern', though I've always found the end results rewarding - I know GMs who run Fantasy and Sci-Fi using the base engine as well, so the caveat that it might just be me applies.
The Wild Hunt - A Savage Worlds Test Drive
Chris Perrin's MECHA by Heroic Journey Publishing
The science fiction giant robot rpg genre is something I WANT to like, especially given my love affair with mecha anime. The usual problem is that the system inevitably turns into Spreadsheet: The Game, which to me misses the entire point of the frenetic fights that define the genre. Needless to say, when I stumbled into MECHA, which is a rules light D6 based Dice Pool system, I fell in love. Being an indie system, MECHA gets away with it's overdrive mechanic, where overdrive points are awarded by the GM for successful roleplay which in turn fuels crazy combat stunt abilities and I have a personal soft spot for any system with mechanics built in to reward player interactions.
It's rules light, narrative driven and generally abstract. Needless to say, I went squee. Unfortunately, while I managed to snag a first printing copy, being an indie title means it's notoriously difficult to acquire copies of the book, save through print on demand sources.
MECHA - Quickstart
With a Pokemon RPG whirring along in the roleplaying section of the forums, it's nice to see new players get exposed to the hobby. While D&D is sort of the de-facto reigning king of the genre, I find that there are a lot of pen & paper systems out there that deserve love from the gaming populace.
Some of them are even nice enough to do up slick demo adventures with cut down versions of the rules to showcase the system to prospective players. While I'm not currently actively playing in a forum game currently, I do occasionally shill certain titles, because frankly, I love the hobby and in my mind at least, more exposure is usually a good thing.
These are some of my favorite systems with quickstarts:
Dragon Age by Green Ronin
Based on the Bioware video game of the same name, Dragon Age may yet displace Pathfinder as my go-to fantasy RPG system. Built around Green Ronin's proprietary Adventure Game Engine (or AGE) system, AGE uses a 3D6 system with a unique narrative 'stunt' system that triggers whenever a player rolls doubles and is relatively less mechanically crunchy overall than Pathfinder and D&D. Character generation is detailed without being complex, the levelling advancement system opens options and tricks to players without causing power escalation and the stunt die system where players get to pick and choose their way through fancy maneuvers is just clever.
A glance through leaves me a slight suspicion there might be some problems towards high-ish level play (can't quite put my finger on it yet), but to be honest, most games I ran with the system never actually reach high level play... so I guess I'm just speculating. Overall, the fact that it's just fun and easy to run sold me on the system. It also doesn't hurt than Wil Wheaton did an excellent run through of the game on Tabletop.
The Arl's Ransom - Dragon Age Quickstart Adventure
Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment Group
If I want to run something in the modern, military or pulp genres with my local group, Savage Worlds comes out. Savage Worlds is a system neutral game engine which ties skill ranks to the size of dice rolled against a target number (d4 for rookie, d6 for seasoned, for example) rather than being modifier based. It's fast and relatively streamlined as a conflict resolution mechanic with less book keeping than most RPGs as well, so that's always a plus.
If there's a negative for Savage Worlds, it's ironically in it's system neutrality. Savage Worlds is a toolbox system and is highly dependent on the GM's spit and polish to kludge together the adventure via limiting options or coming up with a setting. It's honestly sometimes quite a bit of work, especially if you're working towards genres outside of 'modern', though I've always found the end results rewarding - I know GMs who run Fantasy and Sci-Fi using the base engine as well, so the caveat that it might just be me applies.
The Wild Hunt - A Savage Worlds Test Drive
Chris Perrin's MECHA by Heroic Journey Publishing
The science fiction giant robot rpg genre is something I WANT to like, especially given my love affair with mecha anime. The usual problem is that the system inevitably turns into Spreadsheet: The Game, which to me misses the entire point of the frenetic fights that define the genre. Needless to say, when I stumbled into MECHA, which is a rules light D6 based Dice Pool system, I fell in love. Being an indie system, MECHA gets away with it's overdrive mechanic, where overdrive points are awarded by the GM for successful roleplay which in turn fuels crazy combat stunt abilities and I have a personal soft spot for any system with mechanics built in to reward player interactions.
It's rules light, narrative driven and generally abstract. Needless to say, I went squee. Unfortunately, while I managed to snag a first printing copy, being an indie title means it's notoriously difficult to acquire copies of the book, save through print on demand sources.
MECHA - Quickstart