I played PnP AD&D when I was a kid but I can't get any of my friends to play these days. I tried introducing my roommate to the 40k PnP game cause he is into the books but he thinks it is too hard and would rather just play call of duty...
4E No unbalanced classes / races, no godly-power loopholes, no tomes and tomes of useless rules. If you're a Dungeon Master, that's your best choice.
Oh, and no silly alignment or race limitations on classes and multiclassing, which is a good perk for the players.
Also... a better use of the environment and space / distances.
Of course, if you're a player who likes to mix-max to extreme degrees and leave all the other players in the dust with your perfect, soulless build, you might not enjoy it.
AD&D 2nd edition was the best I've ever played. Our group heavily used Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, plus our own stuff. We played entire sessions without any combat at all and loved it... and this is coming from a group of wargamers. Later editions were too formulaic (3 encounters and then a boss fight) and too numbers driven. There was less room for storytelling and too much dice rolling, which peaked with the abysmal 4th edition. Games like Everquest were amazing in that they tried to capture the DnD experience in an online computer game. Then, in one of the worst mutant bastardization money grabs in gaming history, DnD tried to be like MMORPGs. And miniatures became required? Where the fuck did that come from? What happened to imagination and a piece of grid paper?
Fantasy Warhammer was great when I briefly had a group to play it with! I really enjoyed the darker feel of the campaign. I would love to play Cthulu or Vampire, but never ran into any groups and was always leery about meeting people over the internet.
I played V:TM a few times with some friends from school, but once our GM moved away, we broke up. I wish I knew people to play it with. I would even be interested in D&D, or any PnP that wasn't Tech-themed. (Sorry! Not my thing. =P)
As a kid it was the domain of my little brother & (male) cousins, as a younger adult it was the all-nighter domain of a former boyfriend and his mates so I effectively became a D&D widow. I never asked if I could join in as it always seemed like such a blokey thing. EDIT: Also, back then I was still trying to convince myself & everyone else I wasn't a complete geek. Meh, who was I tryna kid?
My OH dabbled with Call of Cthulhu when he was younger, which he told me he really enjoyed as the games could get quite creepy. Anyone fancy telling me where to start, and making some resource recommendations? I really like the Forgotten Realms setting but I'm not all that interested in anything beyond 3.5E (No Helm for starters...)
Unless you count what Erik Scott De Bie has been trying to do with his Shadowbane series
@Riolathel 4th ed. is mathematically balanced... this balance does not make it a good game, though...
I wasn't trying to say the classes weren't "balanced".. Unfortunately the balance took all the fun out of playing spellcasters.
Also once you get in the higher levels (cant remember exactly what level this happens) the monster hp doubles in one level. Unfortunately the damage does not increase in the same manner so your 2 hour encounter just became a 4 hour one.
Alternity is my favorite system. Made by TSR just before bankruptcy and WotC takeover. Sadly, there's not much available, but I have all there is. The Star*Drive campaign setting of Alternity is probably the best space-opera RPG setting available...
Ahhh, DemiGoth, was just about to post something about Alternity and especially Star*Drive as well, that system was just sweet and S*D is still one of my favourite grand space opera universes. Tragically came out at the worst possible time.
Dungeons and Dragons.. 3.5 and Pathfinder.. but Call of Cthulhu & Vampire: The Masquerade are really exciting, too, but I don't have the time to play them anymore regularly !!!
I'm obsessed with GURPS. I have never truly sat down with people to play a pen and paper game. However I buy GURPS sourcebooks like a fiend to use as writing resources. Very helpful.
Comments
No unbalanced classes / races, no godly-power loopholes, no tomes and tomes of useless rules.
If you're a Dungeon Master, that's your best choice.
Oh, and no silly alignment or race limitations on classes and multiclassing, which is a good perk for the players.
Also... a better use of the environment and space / distances.
Of course, if you're a player who likes to mix-max to extreme degrees and leave all the other players in the dust with your perfect, soulless build, you might not enjoy it.
Fantasy Warhammer was great when I briefly had a group to play it with! I really enjoyed the darker feel of the campaign. I would love to play Cthulu or Vampire, but never ran into any groups and was always leery about meeting people over the internet.
As a kid it was the domain of my little brother & (male) cousins, as a younger adult it was the all-nighter domain of a former boyfriend and his mates so I effectively became a D&D widow. I never asked if I could join in as it always seemed like such a blokey thing. EDIT: Also, back then I was still trying to convince myself & everyone else I wasn't a complete geek. Meh, who was I tryna kid?
My OH dabbled with Call of Cthulhu when he was younger, which he told me he really enjoyed as the games could get quite creepy. Anyone fancy telling me where to start, and making some resource recommendations? I really like the Forgotten Realms setting but I'm not all that interested in anything beyond 3.5E (No Helm for starters...)
I LOL'd at the guy who said 4th edition was balanced
4th ed. is mathematically balanced...
this balance does not make it a good game, though...
Also once you get in the higher levels (cant remember exactly what level this happens) the monster hp doubles in one level. Unfortunately the damage does not increase in the same manner so your 2 hour encounter just became a 4 hour one.
Most favorite (A)D&D setting is Spelljammer.
The computer is your friend
D&D (pre-3.0)
Star Wars D6
Earthdawn
Legend of the 5 Rings
Although I've needed to do some intense weight-training to be able to pick up all of those D10's during a session