Tabletop RPG Catch All

thejustinbot wrote:

West End Games d6 Star Wars was actually the 2nd RPG I ever owned and played, besides Mechwarrior 2nd Edition. It has a lot of fondness and nostalgia for me for sure. In fact, if I were to do a Star Wars game even today, I'd do a d6 one.

Amen. I loved West End's Star Wars, and I've never got any of the same vibes from any other Star Wars PnP.

Maq, that's a tempting offer, but given the geography and the fact that Mondays are selection for the club, I can't really say yes. Enjoy the campaign, though!

Haakon7 wrote:
thejustinbot wrote:

West End Games d6 Star Wars was actually the 2nd RPG I ever owned and played, besides Mechwarrior 2nd Edition. It has a lot of fondness and nostalgia for me for sure. In fact, if I were to do a Star Wars game even today, I'd do a d6 one.

Amen. I loved West End's Star Wars, and I've never got any of the same vibes from any other Star Wars PnP.

We had a lot of fun with the first d20 Star Wars book. Yeah, the rules were kind of a mess, but it delivered on Jedi hijinks. The D6 version felt dry in comparison, although I never actually ran it.

pignoli wrote:

Deathwatch is next on my list if DH goes down well. Would be really cool to hear your impressions on it. I'd always thought the best way to do a Space Marine RPG would be 'roll d% - you kill that many orks, be creative' :)

There's always 3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars, which is a quirky and cool little RPG based on the exploits of planet-terminating space grunts. They're obviously fashioned after 40K's Space Marines and Starship Troopers. Review here. The gun stats are basically just a roll of how many aliens die at which range. I intend to run it this summer.

--
Edit: actually, that isn't a very good review of 3:16, it didn't really say what I like about it. Here's my own take.
--

Currently we're playing Dark Heresy, which has been lots of old-school fun. Before that, plenty of more experimental games, the best of which are Burning Empires and the Mountain Witch.

My favorite games of all time are probably Vampire (Revised, I'm not touching the new one), Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles , Call Of Cthulhu (5th ed) and D&D (3.0). The revamped Cthulhu, Trails Of Cthulhu, feels like a great game, but we haven't had the chance to play it yet.

jlaakso wrote:

My favorite games of all time are probably Vampire (Revised, I'm not touching the new one), Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles , Call Of Cthulhu (5th ed) and D&D (3.0). The revamped Cthulhu, Trails Of Cthulhu, feels like a great game, but we haven't had the chance to play it yet.

Oh man, I love Jovian Chronicles. Good call on that one.

Mmm. Jovian Chronicles.

thejustinbot wrote:
jlaakso wrote:

My favorite games of all time are probably Vampire (Revised, I'm not touching the new one), Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles , Call Of Cthulhu (5th ed) and D&D (3.0). The revamped Cthulhu, Trails Of Cthulhu, feels like a great game, but we haven't had the chance to play it yet.

Oh man, I love Jovian Chronicles. Good call on that one.

Now that I've checked it out Jovian Chronicles looks pretty damn cool. The mini's look pretty neat too. Damnit now there's another game I want that I won't be able to play with anyone.

We've got plans to give 3:16 a try sometime soon.

jlaakso wrote:

There's always 3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars, which is a quirky and cool little RPG based on the exploits of planet-terminating space grunts.

Also played this last November. Also a fun game. A lot of it is up to the DM prep, though, to come up with a nice variety of aliens / missions. Since the mechanics for each mission are almost identical, the flavor needs to be changed up to feel unique. The flashback mechanic to avoid taking damage is pretty brilliant for giving each player a chance to reveal a little something about their character without boring everyone with backstory.

All this talk of D6 Star Wars made me go dig out my old book. Found all these goodies:

IMAGE(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-l7LgDatkiE/TC4VYG3-61I/AAAAAAAAAHY/FNZUUC3v_Qs/s1024/photo%20%281%29.JPG)

Ooh. Werewolf Wild West. I enjoyed that setting. That and Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade. I was a bit of a WOD junkie (Werewolf, Mage & Changeling).

Anyone play 7th Sea? And what about MERP (one of my personal favorites)? Ooh and here's an esoteric one - did anyone ever run a game of Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth? We tried... so many times... to get one started and couldn't get past character creation.

God, its like I'm some sort of junkie. Just talking about this stuff makes me want to get all of my books out and find one to play. I know its crazy, as its mostly nostalgia. I haven't played any tabletop in over five years.

Oh, and for those who don't like GM prep, the aforementioned Fiasco and Shab Al-Hiri Roach are both, essentially, GM-less games. It still helps to have someone who has read through the rules a few times, but that person gets to play a character just like everyone else.

Free Roach preview PDF - http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/down...

And the trailer!

I've played "Don't Rest Your Head" a few times with Certis and Brennil and absolutely LOVE it. It's light on the dice rolling and heavy on the collaborative story telling.

Haakon7 wrote:

Ooh. Werewolf Wild West. I enjoyed that setting. That and Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade. I was a bit of a WOD junkie (Werewolf, Mage & Changeling).

Anyone play 7th Sea? And what about MERP (one of my personal favorites)? Ooh and here's an esoteric one - did anyone ever run a game of Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth? We tried... so many times... to get one started and couldn't get past character creation.

God, its like I'm some sort of junkie. Just talking about this stuff makes me want to get all of my books out and find one to play. I know its crazy, as its mostly nostalgia. I haven't played any tabletop in over five years.

I never actually played Werewolf Wild West. I picked it up cheap on ebay because I had a Deadlands/WWW crossover adventure and I wanted to see what it was about. I just started reading it this morning and so far I'm digging it.

Too difficult for me to get a group of decent folk together now, but my favorite tabletop rpg is Over the Edge.

Rules light, set in present day + Illuminatus! trilogy style weirdness. Definitely saves GMs a ton of work if the players (edited typo) don't read the book as 95% or so of the the core book is just setting details/secrets/scenario ideas/plots/subplots.

Usually in tabletop games, I'm too lazy to GM and prefer to just play, but this is the only game where I've had fun GM-ing because you can just wing it and improvise everything if you read the book (and your players don't) and have the setting down more or less cold. This isn't just due to them giving you a detailed setting to work with. The light rules set (it's easy to fudge how easy or difficult a task or challenge should be) and the combination of weirdness and familiarity of the setting (weird enough that whatever random idea you blurt out off the cuff can be meaningfully rationalized/integrated. familiar, being based in the present day, so that common sense and your knowledge of the real world can guide you for many situations) helps a lot.

Radical Ans wrote:

I never actually played Werewolf Wild West. I picked it up cheap on ebay because I had a Deadlands/WWW crossover adventure and I wanted to see what it was about. I just started reading it this morning and so far I'm digging it.

Deadlands Reloaded is on my list but Dresden Files got my attention when I wandered into the store yesterday.

wizard_in_motley wrote:
Radical Ans wrote:

I never actually played Werewolf Wild West. I picked it up cheap on ebay because I had a Deadlands/WWW crossover adventure and I wanted to see what it was about. I just started reading it this morning and so far I'm digging it.

Deadlands Reloaded is on my list but Dresden Files got my attention when I wandered into the store yesterday.

I just grabbed a limited edition of DL Reloaded off ebay. Hopefully if the Runepunk game goes well I can run a game of that as well.

Hypatian wrote:

Mmm. Jovian Chronicles.

I am really surprised at anyone, let alone several people, being even aware of Jovian Chronicles! Seriously cool game, too bad Dream Pod 9 is now concentrating on the miniatures only. Their JC/Heavy Gear books are some of the best in business. DP9's Tribe 8 and Gear Krieg were cool as well, I just wasn't as much into them. I never picked up the galactic cops thing. If I had to pick a favorite game world, Heavy Gear's Terra Nova is it.

I picked up Remember Tomorrow today. It's by Gregory Hutton, who also did 3:16. Seems really cool, the sort of thing I've been thinking about. GM-less (and thus preparation-less) cyberpunk gaming with modern sensibilities. Costs all of 5 USD at DriveThruRPG. As a bonus, it sounds like the idea came to him on the Helsinki airport in Finland, presumably visiting Ropecon, which bums me out, cause I didn't go last year! and it would've been super cool to get to meet him.

Back in college, we actually made a deal with DP9 to make a Jovian Chronicles MUSH. Ended up not never coming around, but we had some fun with Jovian Chronicles.

Damn, I love me some Shab Al-Hiri Roach. Simply a great game. I keep meaning to get the expansion book that gives you more settings to play in.

Does Heavy Gear have a RPG component? Did anyone ever play it?

Haakon7 wrote:

Anyone play 7th Sea?

7th Sea is an incredible game - the game world is easily the most compelling I've ever played in, and the system works wonderfully to support the character of the game. I've been playing it for years on a weekly basis, and I never get tired of it.

Everway is another game that needs mentioning.

Falchion wrote:
Captain_Arrrg wrote:

Otherwise, if anyone would like me to share my Shadowrun or P&PRPG knowledge let me know. I will also be throwing some questions at you.

Would love to hear your Shadowrun stories Cap. Shadowrun is still my highest ranked game setting. I remember lugging the Shadowrun 2nd Edition core rulebook with me to grade school/high school. Darn thing was as thick as some of my textbooks. Would whip it out to thumb through in between classes.

Will do. Maybe Monday though, my weekend has been/is pretty hectic.

Tanglebones wrote:

some Palladium in high school (never played, but I loved reading the settings)

Big, big fan of the Palladium multiverse. Played a long, extended campaign of Palladium Fantasy in high school -- which a friend's brother GM'd because we were going to make up our own RPG as we went along, and he insisted we "do it right." So glad he did.

Also poured through my friend Duncan's Rifts books, but sadly I never had the chance to play. Always wanted to, even going so far as to pick up a lot off of eBay, even though I know I won't have much of a chance to use them at all.

About the only other tabletop experience I have is the one night I played a mammoth one-shot, all-nighter session of Cyberpunk 2020, which was sold to me as the sort of RPG where if you don't reroll for a new character due to a spectacular, untimely death, then you're doing it wrong. That was a fun night -- particularly when we wound up with a PVP Mexican-stand-off that...didn't end well.

Nevin73 wrote:

Does Heavy Gear have a RPG component? Did anyone ever play it?

Indeed it did. Up to a 3rd edition if I'm not wrong. But it's now out of print and Dream Pod 9 is once again focusing on their minis in the Heavy Gear Blitz line. Pity, I would love to read it.

Last I heard, Steve Jackson Games had picked up the license for the RPG but there has been no news since.

Falchion wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Does Heavy Gear have a RPG component? Did anyone ever play it?

Indeed it did. Up to a 3rd edition if I'm not wrong. But it's now out of print and Dream Pod 9 is once again focusing on their minis in the Heavy Gear Blitz line. Pity, I would love to read it.

Last I heard, Steve Jackson Games had picked up the license for the RPG but there has been no news since.

It is precisely the RPG side of things which grabbed me about Heavy Gear. The world is really, really well put together, with great characters and planetwide drama. It is one of the very few scifi settings where just one planet feels as varied and rich as planet Earth - so it's not a "jungle planet" or a "city planet".

I've got some 20+ books on the HG RPG and would buy more. Shame that the Steve Jackson Games deal does not seem to be going forward.

Dropped by my FLGS, and ended up putting down an order for the Dresden Files books as well as the Savage Worlds book.

All this scifi talk has my Blue Planet serious scifi in a water world itch flaring up. That's a great game, albeit a bit heavy to get into.

I almost said there that BP "was a cool game", because it's no longer released (I think?). It's cool how pen and paper RPGs do not cease to be. Their rule systems may prove antiquated at some point, but books and ideas do not age.

mudbunny wrote:

Dropped by my FLGS, and ended up putting down an order for the Dresden Files books as well as the Savage Worlds book.

Nice! I wish I had a FLGS around my house. The nearest one that isn't a comic shop with a few D&D books is like 47 minutes away.

I am surprised there are so many PnP games.

ZaneRockfist wrote:

I am surprised there are so many PnP games.

Man, you have no idea. If you count small press and pdf only games there are literally hundreds and hundreds of table top RPGs, if not thousands.