Role-playing Nerdmania

[Thee Constant]

So it's pretty obvious everyone in the game is at least fair to middlin' in knowledge of the old school World of Darkness system. I'm interested in knowing, what other RPGs of the pen-and-paper variety do you guys play?

My favorites by a wide margin are the Rifts RPG and Heroes Unlimited, both are Palladium games. I have played AD&D 2ed and 3ed, but I've never really been able to stick with them for very long before getting bored. That said, 3ed is a bit more fun than 2ed, but it's lacking the long-division-esque THAC0 process that made 2ed fun. Mage has always been my favorite among the WW games, but unfortunately I never really got to play it much (until now!)


So anyway, tell. What systems do you have experience in, and which are your favorites?

[Zoralee]

I've only played WW games and 2nd & 3rd D&D. I've enjoyed them while I played them. This game is the first I've had a chance to play Mage at all. I really like the flexibility of the magic system and the creativity it calls for on the part of the players.

I played a lot of Vampire in college and bought MANY books. I'm still on the lookout for used mage books to expland my horizons there.

[EthanStarr]

Like any good tabletop person, I've had may share of experience with the classic AD&D, both 2nd edition and 3rd edition. Actually, I started with 3rd edition, and then, at some point, a friend ran a game using the 2nd edition, which threw me off a lot. Job kits? THACO? Wtf?

Unlike Constant, I was in a position looking back, and just found myself more attached to the new d20 style, which I'm pleased has become a syndicated system because its easy to remember and I don't have to keep learning new systems when moving from 3rd AD&D, d20 Modern, and any other little settings I want to play in that employ the d20 system.

However, AD&D is hardly my favorite. My first experience with Vampire wasn't all that awesome, and I've never really had any good experiences in LARP, but when I actually sat down and read White Wolf's setting information on Vampire (buying tons of books like Zoralee), I grew infatuated with the Kindred world, and especially with Clan Tremere, who were a welcome departure from the "OMG ANGST!!!" that I saw in a lot of vampire games. Or the "I AM EVIL I KILL YOU!" common with the Sabbat games I saw going on. There's so many mysteries and secrets and so many things that can just plain be made up in White Wolf's settings (both Vampire and Mage, and maybe Werewolf, too, though I have no experience with that).

Aside from White Wolf's stuff, I'm also equally big on Shadowrun. Again, I adore the setting; its gritty, urban, but also chic and wicked in the higher echelons. A world on the verge of dystopia and, in some places, anarchy is appealing. You can play heroes if you want to. But, like WW settings, the lines between good and evil are so gray they're almost invisible. The system for Shadowrun is quite complex, and can hardly be played right without access to a bazillion charts, and keeping track of the many modifiers to a single target number can be vexing, but the dice rolling part is simple. All d6's, all stats based on a number of dice to roll. Its pretty streamlined with sound mechanics keeping it together, although some people argue the realism of the game mechanics are either unrealistic or too deadly.

Other than those, I've dabbled with other odd things. Star Wars, Crimson Empire (a European tabletop game),
Mutants and Masterminds, a little of the Palladium games but no Rifts that I can remember, plus an extensive history of online freeform gaming.

[Dakota Bishop]

I've had a bit of role playing xp, but not much of the actual table top stuff. I've owned a lot of WW books in my time, but never really had a chance to use them.

I've played mainly free form on the inter-web-net-place, and I've really had the most fun there. Playing with the likes of Constant, Muse, Indy, and a few others from this particular game, I think.

I just recenly grabbed Mutants and Masterminds, and I'm actually pretty impressed with it. I don't know how much good it'll do me, though, because no good games are at Rpol using the system. I have half a mind to maybe run my own game, since I love the super-hero setting so much, but I don't know what kind of players I could get from Rpol. The game we're all in has kinda spoiled me, as far as quality RP goes. ^^

[Thee Muse]

I've played AD&D (didn't care for it. Bad DM), VtM, Crimson Empires,and Shadowrun tabletop.

I've played VtM LARP.

I've done all kinds of stuff online, mostly fantasy and WoD.

By far, Mage (thanks Jones!), Vampire, and Shadowrun are my favorite games to date.

[Capa]

Godlike is one of my favorite games. World War II Superheroes. Very low powered and gritty game. The best thing about it is the One Roll Engine game system that Greg Stoltze developed for it. There is only one roll made for any interaction that requires a roll. Every person goes around the table stated their action and makes the roll. The dice are all d10s. The more of the same number rolled makes your action faster. The higher the number rolled, the better. Damage works of the same roll, each body part has numbers assigned to it.

So you roll 4d10 and get 1,1,1,1 then the action is very fast but not very powerful in effect (you shoot someone in the leg I think). If the roll comes up 10,10,1,2 then you have a slow action but with devastating result (The 10 is assigned to the head in the damage chart) So if those two rolls were made against each other The ones goes first and then the 10's but since you have to subtract one matching number from your pairs when you get hit in combat then the 10s (head-shot) is disrupted.