Choosing a Pen & Paper RPG
- Thread starter Lord_Of_Plum
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Personally I'm into Inquisitor. Granted it is part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, so sci/fi rahter than fantasy, but I've tried so many other P&P RPG's and this is just, in my opinion, perfection.
Where as in D&D (I play 3.5) everything has a dice roll, of some various number of sindes, to decide the outcome, along with some aspect of your characters stats, leaves very little room for creativity and leeway. Though at the same time, having that much structure is helpful if you're not too creative yourself.
Don't get me wrong you can do a hell of alot in D&D, I'd say with all the different monster and quest books there's near enough infinite possibilities, but I just found having a dice roll for any action or reaction a bit... overbearing! (anyone know what I mean?!.)
But yeah! Like I was saying. I find Inquisitor works the best. You only have D10 and D6 to worry about. Granted yes the odd D3, but that is just halfing a D6's results. The universe is so vast and varied, with all the character classes and skills and equipment you can choose from, the character customisation is huge.
D&D may have rules to govern the appearance, but that's one of my complaints. I hate having so much left up to chance. I like a little more certainty with things. If I want to have a 6'2"//151lbs//bald//scarred//grizzled Inquisitor in a huge coat with a giant sword I can have it. Rather than ending up with an ancient fat short human with a pet pig and loin cloth. (I know I took that a little far, but it feels like that sometimes)
You can create anything you like in the Inquisitor universe, as you have an entire galaxy of planets and creature to choose from. You don't even have to just work from the WH mythos, you can add to it without having to use stats tables, just so long as the resultant super mutant or daemon isn't too over the top. Or hell make it that damn hard and evil, so every warband on the table has to run like hell to not be killed in bloody violent mess.
The dice system is really simple and it's all easy to get into. There's alot of player//GM discression in the way things can go, though the GM will always have the final word, of course. My only problem is the damage system is a little awkward sometimes, you can end up with everyone dying in a couple of seconds from over powered cleaves, or everyone becomes a space marine and just walks through hails of bullets without a second glance. It's fun, and that uncertainty makes you cautious, a lovely added psychological element.
So if the sci/fi element doesn't bother you, go for it, it really is something else at times.
Hope my opinion and zaelous referal has been of some help.
Where as in D&D (I play 3.5) everything has a dice roll, of some various number of sindes, to decide the outcome, along with some aspect of your characters stats, leaves very little room for creativity and leeway. Though at the same time, having that much structure is helpful if you're not too creative yourself.
Don't get me wrong you can do a hell of alot in D&D, I'd say with all the different monster and quest books there's near enough infinite possibilities, but I just found having a dice roll for any action or reaction a bit... overbearing! (anyone know what I mean?!.)
But yeah! Like I was saying. I find Inquisitor works the best. You only have D10 and D6 to worry about. Granted yes the odd D3, but that is just halfing a D6's results. The universe is so vast and varied, with all the character classes and skills and equipment you can choose from, the character customisation is huge.
D&D may have rules to govern the appearance, but that's one of my complaints. I hate having so much left up to chance. I like a little more certainty with things. If I want to have a 6'2"//151lbs//bald//scarred//grizzled Inquisitor in a huge coat with a giant sword I can have it. Rather than ending up with an ancient fat short human with a pet pig and loin cloth. (I know I took that a little far, but it feels like that sometimes)
You can create anything you like in the Inquisitor universe, as you have an entire galaxy of planets and creature to choose from. You don't even have to just work from the WH mythos, you can add to it without having to use stats tables, just so long as the resultant super mutant or daemon isn't too over the top. Or hell make it that damn hard and evil, so every warband on the table has to run like hell to not be killed in bloody violent mess.
The dice system is really simple and it's all easy to get into. There's alot of player//GM discression in the way things can go, though the GM will always have the final word, of course. My only problem is the damage system is a little awkward sometimes, you can end up with everyone dying in a couple of seconds from over powered cleaves, or everyone becomes a space marine and just walks through hails of bullets without a second glance. It's fun, and that uncertainty makes you cautious, a lovely added psychological element.
So if the sci/fi element doesn't bother you, go for it, it really is something else at times.
Hope my opinion and zaelous referal has been of some help.
Ugh don't do dnd 4th edition. If your new to it all go 3.5 and if you wanna get serious go 2nd edition / Advanced whatever you wanna call it. And if going some other route besides sowrds and dungeons i highly recomend deadlands or call of cthulu. But deadlands is better.
You mean Dark Heresy? Inquisitor is a minis skirmish game. Games like Necromunda and Inquisitor can have a roleplaying or narrative element but they're not conventionally classed as RPGs (by their own publisher, for example).the_hessian said:
What do you *do* with the d10s and d6s that makes it different from D&D? That's the important thing.the_hessian said:
Any version from this decade has a height-and-weight chart, but you can just pick.the_hessian said:
-- Alex
So, I've tried to be semi-neutral about games here, but screw it...Da_Schwartz said:
AD&D, particularly 2nd Edition, is crap. Even by the standards of 1990, 2nd Edition is crap. There were countless better games on the market then, and there are many, many, many more now. Play 2nd Edition if you want to "get serious" about throwing out the rules a lot because they're meaningless and contradictory.
The only good things to come out of 2nd Edition were the campaign settings, some of which were quite wonderful and inspired, and the art in those campaign settings, which is the best art that D&D has ever had, drawn by a crowd as diverse and talented as Brom, di Terlizzi, Parkinson, and Elmore (Lockwood did a great job with 3rd Edition, but he was only one man).
The best way to play AD&D is to buy a 2nd Edition campaign setting book and then convert it to another system.
Yeah, there are still people around who like AD&D 2nd Edition and curse Wizards of the Coast and their work. That's fine. Their fun is badwrongfun but they can keep doing it. AD&D is an absolutely terrible game to recommend to anyone trying to get into RPGs, however -- clunky, outdated, poorly designed from start to finish.
...
Call of Cthulhu isn't bad, but I do think it's highly overrated. Both the game and the source material. Unknown Armies game-mechanically handles madness far better despite not being a game about Lovecraftian horror (okay, more like because it's not a game about Lovecraftian horror, in my opinion). Much as I'm rather tight-lipped when it comes to praise for World of Darkness, I think Hunter does investigative horror and I'm-going-crazy-from-contact-with-the-supernatural horror better than Call of Cthulhu, too.
-- Alex
I've been playing Earthdawn and as a system it is great fun. It's not as simple as some of the games out there but the setting and the system allow for a great deal of freedom and improvisation. Higher level characters end up with a LOT of dice to roll at once, especially spellcasters, but unlike the poster above, we always thought that was one of the fun parts (although 36 is a bit much!)
Sounds like a far less horrific version of Puppetland.willard3 said:You can always play a few sessions of We're All Going To Die.
Your character sheet is two things you're good at ("running" is a popular one) and three things you're bad at. Before the session starts, the DM rolls a die, which randomly decides which character will "win" (namely, not die). Then a setting is chosen and everyone plays their character. Throughout the session, the DM finds increasingly creative and violent ways to kill off individual players, leaving the "winner". A good DM finds ways to keep the players guessing who is going to win.
It's also diceless.
-- Alex
Don't recommend Call of Cthulu! You will scare him away from tabletop forever! With Call of Cthulu, each person needs at least 10 sheets. (sarcasm aside) With call of cthulu, if you aren't killing off a player (or making them lose all their sanity) every 5 minutes you are doing it wrong. If a character actually makes it past 2nd level, you are really doing it wrong!Da_Schwartz said:
White Wolf's original World of Darkness is a very immersive story intensive system. It is flexible too, as we have used it for a WW2 game, and for a makeshift battletech campaign.
If you like anime, BESM (Big Eye, Small Mouth) is a very flexible system adaptable to any time period loosely based off GURPS. It uses a tri-stat system and you only need 2d6. It works for fantasy, modern, gothic, space, anything. My group used it to run a slightly less makeshift battletech campaign.
Which brings me to another one. If you liked the mechwarrior games, there is a battletech tabletop, though I haven't been able to find any of its books other than a technical readout.
Thank you all for this incredible amount of info.
After reading and drinking it all in, taking notes, and sleeping on it, I've decided to begin with D&D v4. Hopefully, this will show me what I'm looking for in a P&P.
Thanks again to all of you! (Especially Alex for his in-depth comments on these P&P.)
After reading and drinking it all in, taking notes, and sleeping on it, I've decided to begin with D&D v4. Hopefully, this will show me what I'm looking for in a P&P.
Thanks again to all of you! (Especially Alex for his in-depth comments on these P&P.)
Check out the Spellchrome beta. It's a bit of fantasy, a bit of sci-fi, all Pen and Paper.
http://www.spellchrome.com/
The first draft is up and being proofed. Any feed back is welcome.
http://www.spellchrome.com/
The first draft is up and being proofed. Any feed back is welcome.
The fact it is free makes it worthy enoughAlex_P said:
pnp can get expensive with all the books you might have to (want to) buy >.<Lord Plum, another idea migh be to find a local gaming store (if you can) that might run a RPG night. see if you can join in and see what games they have running and you might like!
Here's an update:Alex_P said:
I had a metric fuckton of fun playing 3:16 today. We did character creation, a rules introduction, and two missions in about 2.5-3 hours. The players all focused on negative character stereotypes -- the coward, the playboy, and the creepy loner -- so we quickly spun it into a humorous game, mocking their foibles and the alien cultures they were exterminating (a planet of hyper-patriotic apes going through the cold-war period of their historical development, a nano-machine sentient planet that started out cold and frightening but became comical as it tried to mimic the PCs). One of the characters lost both his arms (they'll put them back later) and narrowly avoided demotion for "sexual treason".
Y'all should try it. It makes a great game to just relax and unwind with, but it's also meaty enough to support serious campaign play. For $20, that's a pretty good deal (the book is short, but the game was good).
-- Alex
If you just prefer battling, might I suggest Classic Battletech?
You individually manage a mech's weapon/heat/movement/awesome systems to beat the crap out of the other ones. You may want to buy all of the pewter figurines, and then they did their purpose and sucked you into buying hundreds of dollars of gameplay-enhancing awesomeness. Although, this happens to any game that has miniatures involved.
You individually manage a mech's weapon/heat/movement/awesome systems to beat the crap out of the other ones. You may want to buy all of the pewter figurines, and then they did their purpose and sucked you into buying hundreds of dollars of gameplay-enhancing awesomeness. Although, this happens to any game that has miniatures involved.
