What System should I use Megathread

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Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Spectaculars?

e;page snipe.

Answer in regards to superhero games recs.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 07:17

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# ? May 5, 2024 18:29

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Ominous Jazz posted:

I want to run a superhero game for a long term campaign. I've done so before with Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition and I really didn't like it and only did it because I kind of inherited due to circumstances. I struggled with the crunch that game has but I was able to lean their of user support and forums but it was really hard and not fun for me to run. I would like a modern setting game game that can do superhero superhero stories including meaningful out of combat scenes. I was really hoping that the Sentinels RPG would work for what I want but it doesn't have a lot of progression progression or out of combat systems. Any advice?

I don't know that you're going to find what you're looking for. It sounds like you're looking for

Not too crunchy
Meaningful non-combat scenes
Progression mechanics

I think that's a pick 2 list.

Games with good non-combat and meaningful progression tend to be rather crunchy, like M&M and Champions.

Games with good non-combat and not too crunchy tend to lack real progression systems, like Marvel Heroic and ICONS and the aforementioned Spectaculars.

Sentinels is fantastic but lacks both meaningful non-combat and progression.

I've heard good things about the Savage Worlds' Supers Companion, but then you're playing Savage Worlds.

If anybody suggests Marvel Multiverse they should be threadbanned.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 16:05

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Ominous Jazz posted:

I want to run a superhero game for a long term campaign. I've done so before with Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition and I really didn't like it and only did it because I kind of inherited due to circumstances. I struggled with the crunch that game has but I was able to lean their of user support and forums but it was really hard and not fun for me to run. I would like a modern setting game game that can do superhero superhero stories including meaningful out of combat scenes. I was really hoping that the Sentinels RPG would work for what I want but it doesn't have a lot of progression progression or out of combat systems. Any advice?

Godlike/Wild Talents?

# ? Aug 9, 2022 16:20

Ominous Jazz: Jun 15, 2011; Big D is chillin' over here
Wasteland style

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

Spectaculars?

e;page snipe.

Answer in regards to superhero games recs.

This seems cool but with a 70 dollar price tag for the box set. I'll look into it.

CitizenKeen posted:

I don't know that you're going to find what you're looking for. It sounds like you're looking for
Not too crunchy
Meaningful non-combat scenes
Progression mechanics

I think that's a pick 2 list.

Games with good non-combat and meaningful progression tend to be rather crunchy, like M&M and Champions.

Games with good non-combat and not too crunchy tend to lack real progression systems, like Marvel Heroic and ICONS and the aforementioned Spectaculars.

Sentinels is fantastic but lacks both meaningful non-combat and progression.

Sentinels was really close to what I was looking for, except for what you mentioned. I really struggled to get system mastery with Mutants and Masterminds and a lot of the resources I used disappeared after Green Ronin shut down their forums.

CitizenKeen posted:

If anybody suggests Marvel Multiverse they should be threadbanned.

Why would that and Savage Worlds be a bad call?

# ? Aug 9, 2022 20:44

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Ominous Jazz posted:

This seems cool but with a 70 dollar price tag for the box set. I'll look into it.

Spectaculars is the best supers RPG I've ever encountered, hands down, full stop. But it's really light. Really, really light. I doubt it's what you're looking for. But I've yet to encounter a supers RPG as good.

quote:

Why would that and Savage Worlds be a bad call?

Savage Worlds is fine, I just find it uninspiring as a system.

The Marvel Multiverse RPG is a garbage fire. Wolverine can't hit Captain America with a single hit bad. It's so bad. You'd be better off playing pretty much any 5E inspired supers game than Marvel Multiverse.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 20:59

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Spectaculars invests the poo poo out of the players into the world building and it is just neat.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 22:49

Well Played Mauer: Jun 1, 2003; We'll always have Cabo

My wife hasn�t ever played an RPG before but I think I�ve worn her down with my reports from running games over the past few months.

Any recommendations for a good one-on-one game for an RPG newbie? Gumshoe one-to-one looks promising, or I was thinking I�d throw her into a solo vampire game.

I�d throw some homebrew PbtA at her, but she�s a bit worried about her improv skills, so would want to lean toward something that puts less narrative strain on her out the gate.

# ? Sep 13, 2022 02:23

Mirage: Oct 27, 2000; All is for the best, in this, the best of all possible worlds

Ironsworn (and/or Delve, and/or Starforged) works great with one player and GM, though the world it presents is rather dour and barbaric. I mean it doesn't HAVE to be, but that's the default. If your wife is fine with that, that's a good choice.

There are also several solo or one-PC adventure modules out there, usually for D&D, but easily reformatted for the fantasy game of your choice. Most of those have a particular type of PC in mind, however.

But honestly, any RPG ruleset that is simple, clear, and quick would be a solid choice, and just about any adventure can be tuned for one player if you're willing to put in a bit of elbow grease. It's even easier if the game doesn't have lethal stakes. The first game I ever ran with my wife was TOON, and we had a lot of fun.

(I almost suggested Ariadne & Bob, which is specifically for two people with no GM at all, but there's a lot of improv going on in that one. Maybe for the future when she gets more confident.)

# ? Sep 13, 2022 05:50

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Golden Sky Stories might be neat. Mice and Mystics if she likes boardgames, as a teaser. Those two are what hooked my niece.

# ? Sep 13, 2022 18:52

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Well Played Mauer posted:

My wife hasn�t ever played an RPG before but I think I�ve worn her down with my reports from running games over the past few months.

Any recommendations for a good one-on-one game for an RPG newbie? Gumshoe one-to-one looks promising, or I was thinking I�d throw her into a solo vampire game.

I�d throw some homebrew PbtA at her, but she�s a bit worried about her improv skills, so would want to lean toward something that puts less narrative strain on her out the gate.

The Call of Cthulhu starter set comes with a one-on-one adventure in it.

# ? Sep 13, 2022 20:28

Well Played Mauer: Jun 1, 2003; We'll always have Cabo

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Definitely more sources to check out!

# ? Sep 13, 2022 23:53

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I want to run James Bond-style superspies with laser watches, guns and fast cars. It should have tactical miniatures combat. Is there a system out there that fits the bill?

I saw Spycraft but running that looks exhausting.

# ? Sep 24, 2022 23:18

Lumbermouth: Mar 6, 2008; GREG IS BIG NOW

Gort posted:

I want to run James Bond-style superspies with laser watches, guns and fast cars. It should have tactical miniatures combat. Is there a system out there that fits the bill?

I saw Spycraft but running that looks exhausting.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition would work excellent for this, specifically for the Dramatic Task system and the Chase rules.

# ? Sep 24, 2022 23:36

Well Played Mauer: Jun 1, 2003; We'll always have Cabo

Gort posted:

I want to run James Bond-style superspies with laser watches, guns and fast cars. It should have tactical miniatures combat. Is there a system out there that fits the bill?

I saw Spycraft but running that looks exhausting.

If you feel like doing some homebrewing, Cyberpunk RED could work. It's a skill-based system with pretty good tactical combat, and you could re-jigger cyberware to be spy gadgets.

# ? Sep 25, 2022 00:04

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Troubleshooters could do it super easy. Maybe not miniatures, but superspy stuff would be a piece of cake.

# ? Sep 25, 2022 00:46

canada jezus: Jul 18, 2011

Hey everyone, i didn�t see a �what game am i remembering� thread so i figured i�d ask here.

I�m thinking of this one game a d&d retroclone, possibly pbta. And the classes/playbooks had built in party-agency-powers. Like the fighter was able to bully into everyone into submission on decision because he was the leader. Except for the rogue because they�re too sneaky to get caught. There were a bunch of classes and they all had some similar abilities. Did i dream this up or does someone know what i�m talking about?

If you don�t know but have suggestions for games with similar mechanics i�d love to hear about it. I think my group would really get into this. Thanks in advance!

# ? Nov 17, 2022 15:49

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Rust hulks is a pbta for playing (essentially) firefly that has some interesting captain mechanics. I wouldn't call it slick but it is probably worth a look

# ? Nov 17, 2022 20:45

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

Gort posted:

I want to run James Bond-style superspies with laser watches, guns and fast cars. It should have tactical miniatures combat. Is there a system out there that fits the bill?

Go old school and play the actual James Bond RPG. PDFs are on archive.org,

https://archive.org/details/james-bond-rpg-core-rulebook

It's a terrific system and it's hand-crafted for James Bond stuff.

# ? Nov 17, 2022 21:11

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

mllaneza posted:

Go old school and play the actual James Bond RPG. PDFs are on archive.org,

https://archive.org/details/james-bond-rpg-core-rulebook

It's a terrific system and it's hand-crafted for James Bond stuff.

It really is a great system. I repurposed the rules to run a War of Worlds game even.

# ? Nov 17, 2022 22:48

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

canada jezus posted:

Hey everyone, i didn’t see a “what game am i remembering” thread so i figured i’d ask here.

I’m thinking of this one game a d&d retroclone, possibly pbta. And the classes/playbooks had built in party-agency-powers. Like the fighter was able to bully into everyone into submission on decision because he was the leader. Except for the rogue because they’re too sneaky to get caught. There were a bunch of classes and they all had some similar abilities. Did i dream this up or does someone know what i’m talking about?

If you don’t know but have suggestions for games with similar mechanics i’d love to hear about it. I think my group would really get into this. Thanks in advance!

I know what you're referring to. The Dwarf gets first pick of loot, the Halfling is last to be targeted for attacks. I think it was an OSR game.

# ? Nov 19, 2022 12:58

canada jezus: Jul 18, 2011

sebmojo posted:

Rust hulks is a pbta for playing (essentially) firefly that has some interesting captain mechanics. I wouldn't call it slick but it is probably worth a look

I'll take a look at this if/when its on sale, thanks!

LongDarkNight posted:

I know what you're referring to. The Dwarf gets first pick of loot, the Halfling is last to be targeted for attacks. I think it was an OSR game.

I'm so glad i didn't just imagine this. I guess i could start looking at lists of osr games and just go over them one by one.

# ? Nov 19, 2022 14:31

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

I know I read the rules at some point but I'm not finding it in my PDFs or printed stuff. It was definitely an add on for an existing game or system that changed how the classes and party worked.

# ? Nov 19, 2022 14:59

Siivola: Dec 23, 2012

You're thinking of Dragon Union.

# ? Nov 19, 2022 21:02

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

What�s a good system for super high powered cyberpunk? If I want to start at max level, and have the players attack and dethrone ~~God~~ the board. Punch a tank, fly, super speed, eight-armed AI kind of game.

# ? Nov 23, 2022 02:17

canada jezus: Jul 18, 2011

Siivola posted:

You're thinking of Dragon Union.

Yes i was! Thank you very much.

# ? Nov 23, 2022 15:53

Mirage: Oct 27, 2000; All is for the best, in this, the best of all possible worlds

CitizenKeen posted:

What�s a good system for super high powered cyberpunk? If I want to start at max level, and have the players attack and dethrone ~~God~~ the board. Punch a tank, fly, super speed, eight-armed AI kind of game.

Grab any supers ruleset (M&M is fine) and drop your players into the cyberpunk setting of your choice, while reading the original Marvel 2099 series for inspiration. All costumes are black leather; all power origins are technology based and involve nanites somehow.

# ? Nov 23, 2022 16:21

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

RULESET: Light to moderate
SUPPORT: Unnecessary
CHARGEN: Quick, preferable
SETTING: Inseparable, since Transformers is pretty specific

With the Essence20 release for Transformer not
exactly setting the world on fire, what are the best games for Transformers?

There is Cartoon Action Hour Season 3, as a possibility, if you wanted to do G1. Speaking of which, is there any equivalent for CAH for 90s cartoons?

There is a pretty okay Genesys hack I saw once. An argument can also be made for Cortex.

Other than that, I'm stumped.

My favorite Transformers series are the IDW 2005 series (mainly Phase 2 onwards), Beast Wars, Transformers Animated, Transformers Armada, and Transformers Prime.

I want a series that handles the themes and gimmicks of Transformers. The episodic stories that bleed well into a background, serialized plot. Mechanics to handle the utility of the Transformations. The "buy new toys" element modeled as a way of handling new characters coming and going. Less emphasis on tactical combat and more on narrative combat.

On the scale of "Robots In Disguise" to "high adventure and space robot politics," I'd be looking for a middle between the two. A game that is mainly about fighting a war but also about synthetics getting used to organic life and considerations of what comes after the war.

In essence, I don't just want a game that is just like "here is some simulationist rules, have fun." I want something that tries to ape the tone and feel of the franchise.

Any suggestions?

# ? Dec 6, 2022 04:53

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

Surge Protectors is a Transformers inspired game using the Paragon system. I haven't played it but it uses the same system as Agon which I have run several times; it's light, using a dice pool system, chargen is quick. It does have it's own setting but I'm sure you can ignore it. Does require a copy of Agon to play.
https://itch.io/queue/c/2805601/paragon-system-games?game_id=854399

# ? Dec 6, 2022 14:04

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

RULESET: Light to Medium
SUPPORT: Always a plus but not strictly required, especially if the setting is something I can build off of easily.
Chargen: Quick to medium and/or has a lot of pregens/templates readily available
Setting: Any
Requirement: looking specifically for something that can be easily run by a.) larger groups of players (talking maybe 6-8 players instead of my usual standard of 4-5), b.) doesn't require that all of those 6-8 players actually be there for every session, though I'd expect them to be, c.) doesn't involve those players all necessarily owning a rulebook and is therefore something that's easy to just pick up and join in, and d.) doesn't require overly tactical combat (a la Lancer or 4e). I'm sure there are a lot of convention games that fit into this idea, right?

My first thought was potentially B/X, since iirc the original guidance for Basic was to have a larger party like this, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily true? I'm interested in the OSR but have never played in or run a single OSR game, so I'm not sure if the expectation reflects the reality there.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 08:54

BigHandsVince: Mar 30, 2007; Mamma Mia, my hands are huge!

Maybe not the correct thread, but worth a shot.

My godsons (8 & 10) got mountains of plastic army soldiers for Christmas, and we were trying to come up with some sort of wargame with them.

Is there a dead simple set of rules available to get them started putting together a wargame with them?

I tried to explain how things like Warhammer work but it's been decades even since I looked at it and everything seems very complex.

Don't mind paying for something, printing templates etc.

TIA

# ? Jan 4, 2023 15:26

Lumbermouth: Mar 6, 2008; GREG IS BIG NOW

The main one I know of is Combat Storm.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:37

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Drone posted:

RULESET: Light to Medium
SUPPORT: Always a plus but not strictly required, especially if the setting is something I can build off of easily.
Chargen: Quick to medium and/or has a lot of pregens/templates readily available
Setting: Any
Requirement: looking specifically for something that can be easily run by a.) larger groups of players (talking maybe 6-8 players instead of my usual standard of 4-5), b.) doesn't require that all of those 6-8 players actually be there for every session, though I'd expect them to be, c.) doesn't involve those players all necessarily owning a rulebook and is therefore something that's easy to just pick up and join in, and d.) doesn't require overly tactical combat (a la Lancer or 4e). I'm sure there are a lot of convention games that fit into this idea, right?

My first thought was potentially B/X, since iirc the original guidance for Basic was to have a larger party like this, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily true? I'm interested in the OSR but have never played in or run a single OSR game, so I'm not sure if the expectation reflects the reality there.

Old school essentials, run them through a funnel.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 19:51

Vox Valentine: May 31, 2013; Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

BigHandsVince posted:

Maybe not the correct thread, but worth a shot.

My godsons (8 & 10) got mountains of plastic army soldiers for Christmas, and we were trying to come up with some sort of wargame with them.

Is there a dead simple set of rules available to get them started putting together a wargame with them?

I tried to explain how things like Warhammer work but it's been decades even since I looked at it and everything seems very complex.

Don't mind paying for something, printing templates etc.

TIA

Oh god this is hugely specific but uhhhhhh there's an old tabletop war game called Monster Island that had two spin-off books, Escape From and Invasion Of, that's literally just about kaiju fights and building your own monsters and having drag-down knock-out fights. The main reason I bring this up as a suggestion is because Escape From Monster Island had specific rules for building armies with anti-monster weaponry. It's been a minute since I looked at the rules for the game but with the premise alone you'd probably have a ton of immediate player buy-in from them.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 23:48

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

A moment I'm picturing in a game I want to run: players are boarding Small World. The group (or someone in the group maybe) makes a roll. Oh poo poo it's a fail but too late, the ride is started. The result of the fail is the ride breaks down in the most racist and annoying part of Small World. Players need to find a way to escape the ride without being kicked out or they take psychic damage and lose significant time remaining in their theme park riding day.

I'm finding a lot of cool one page games about abandoned theme parks or theme parks after close but I want this poo poo open. A general comedy system could be fine too. I kind of was toying with Heart: The City Beneath but that game is a bit intimidating to me and also I don't know if players running around with giant gaping sores all over them is the vibe for the game.

# ? Feb 18, 2023 00:27

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Everyone is John

# ? Feb 18, 2023 01:22

Absurd Alhazred: Mar 27, 2010; by Athanatos

Well, I'm not!

# ? Feb 18, 2023 01:25

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Splicer posted:

Everyone is John

Oh I've heard some actual plays of this, it's sounds a lot of fun and is definitely the tone I'm going for.. Everyone already has characters which could be a problem, but this could be a potentially a funny twist that they all ended up voices in some guy's head.

# ? Feb 18, 2023 01:50

Echophonic: Sep 16, 2005; ha;lp; Gun Saliva

Rick posted:

Oh I've heard some actual plays of this, it's sounds a lot of fun and is definitely the tone I'm going for.. Everyone already has characters which could be a problem, but this could be a potentially a funny twist that they all ended up voices in some guy's head.

Turns out it's a REALLY small world.

# ? Feb 18, 2023 06:00

SlimGoodbody: Oct 20, 2003

Ominous Jazz posted:

I want to run a superhero game for a long term campaign. I've done so before with Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition and I really didn't like it and only did it because I kind of inherited due to circumstances. I struggled with the crunch that game has but I was able to lean their of user support and forums but it was really hard and not fun for me to run. I would like a modern setting game game that can do superhero superhero stories including meaningful out of combat scenes. I was really hoping that the Sentinels RPG would work for what I want but it doesn't have a lot of progression progression or out of combat systems. Any advice?

I know this is an old post and you've probably already figured a solution for this, but here's my pitch. I run a solo supers game for my wife that we began mid-pandemic. It started with the long defunct Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game, which sat dusty on my shelf for years, but the system inheritor of it is now Cortex Prime. The system you are looking for is Cortex Prime. It's a fantastic modular, generic system with tons of options to hack it any direction, and comes with the rules to run the old MHRPG with the Marvel license filed off. It is the ONLY supers system I have ever liked, and I've played many. Play this game.

CitizenKeen posted:

What’s a good system for super high powered cyberpunk? If I want to start at max level, and have the players attack and dethrone ~~God~~ the board. Punch a tank, fly, super speed, eight-armed AI kind of game.

See above.

BigHandsVince posted:

Maybe not the correct thread, but worth a shot.

My godsons (8 & 10) got mountains of plastic army soldiers for Christmas, and we were trying to come up with some sort of wargame with them.

Is there a dead simple set of rules available to get them started putting together a wargame with them?

I tried to explain how things like Warhammer work but it's been decades even since I looked at it and everything seems very complex.

Don't mind paying for something, printing templates etc.

TIA

Check out Ganesha Games Song of Blades and Heroes series, specifically the Flying Lead supplement.

# ? Feb 18, 2023 07:32

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# ? May 5, 2024 18:29

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Well, I'm not!

Sure, John

# ? Feb 18, 2023 12:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > What System should I use Megathread

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