Not CRPGs, just good old-fashioned tabletop gaming.
First off, DnD, especially 3.5. It has a special place in my heart because it was the first RPG I learned to play. The rules were rather taxing, though. I mostly loved the Planescape and Eberron settings. The flavour of them, and especially the sense of humour rife through the former, really sold me on the system.
Then we have Paranoia. The only system I've ever run games in. A post-apocalyptic game that ran the gamut from slapstick to satire, depending on your chosen style of play; where everyone was a traitor, while thinking themselves the only ones. A cross between 1984, Catch-22, and the Marx Brothers, where knowing the rules was against the rules (of the 250+ pages in the book, players could only read 26), and accidents always happened to those people who were a threat to you. It was also a wonderfully simple system, requiring only a d20. And mentioning that it's perfectly feasible for the GM to roll for everything the PLAYERS do.
Finally, Unknown Armies. A darkly humourous urban fantasy system, where nothing is free, and the cost is sometimes more than you're willing to pay; where Adepts use powerful but structured magic that grants them power while driving them mad, and Avatars walk the paths of the collective unconsciousness in an attempt to become a god. Where all structured magic is paradoxical, and all magic has taboos; where you can trust no-one but yourself, and nothing is as it seems. A game of power and consequences, where your merest action or inaction may result in losing your memories, your mind, your body, your life, or even your very existence.
What about you? What are your favourite systems and why?
First off, DnD, especially 3.5. It has a special place in my heart because it was the first RPG I learned to play. The rules were rather taxing, though. I mostly loved the Planescape and Eberron settings. The flavour of them, and especially the sense of humour rife through the former, really sold me on the system.
Then we have Paranoia. The only system I've ever run games in. A post-apocalyptic game that ran the gamut from slapstick to satire, depending on your chosen style of play; where everyone was a traitor, while thinking themselves the only ones. A cross between 1984, Catch-22, and the Marx Brothers, where knowing the rules was against the rules (of the 250+ pages in the book, players could only read 26), and accidents always happened to those people who were a threat to you. It was also a wonderfully simple system, requiring only a d20. And mentioning that it's perfectly feasible for the GM to roll for everything the PLAYERS do.
Finally, Unknown Armies. A darkly humourous urban fantasy system, where nothing is free, and the cost is sometimes more than you're willing to pay; where Adepts use powerful but structured magic that grants them power while driving them mad, and Avatars walk the paths of the collective unconsciousness in an attempt to become a god. Where all structured magic is paradoxical, and all magic has taboos; where you can trust no-one but yourself, and nothing is as it seems. A game of power and consequences, where your merest action or inaction may result in losing your memories, your mind, your body, your life, or even your very existence.
What about you? What are your favourite systems and why?
