Let's talk about less popular games, /tg/. What kind of niche or non mainstream systems do you guys play? Stuff aside from the typical names you always see thrown around here (like D&D, WoD, 40k, GURPS, etc). What do you like about them? Playing or running any games right now? Something you've always wanted to try but never found the chance?
Even if it's some obscure homebrew (or something you've made yourself), let's hear about it.
I only get to do this with a particular group who kinda see the fun in it, but I like to run Tomb of Horrors not with the AD&D first edition rules it was first released to the mainstream with, but the Original D&D rules it first was played with in the Origins convention.
Explaining why Tomb of Horrors is great isn't need we all know why.
But playing Original D&D is a completely different experience from what we all play and know today. Some sort of a weird combination of D&D, wargaming, and stuff like GURPS/Savage Worlds/FATE.I prefer it to modern editions of D&D where the rules are unnecessarily complex and narrow
>>43571860
Kind of funny that the first reply to this was about D&D.
What do you like about OD&D exactly? The rules simplicity? I can't say I've ever looked at it.
>>43572095
OD&D is actually pretty amazing for dungeon crawling even today. The simplicity aspect of the rules I really like because then certain things are more free form akin to GURPS/Savage Worlds/FATE and player creativity is encouraged. But the real unique part is that everything is measured in inches like wargaming. In fact, when it first came out, players were expected to know how to play Chainmail (medieval wargame Gygax made) and those rules are used as a supplement to the OD&D stuff. So it's not all simple either; as I said the wargaming tactics allowed for interesting combat without the unnecessary complications in modern day D&D rules where turns take fucking forever, and the more free form way a lot of non-combat was handled allows for more versatility (more actual GM/player interplay rather than roll dice for everything.)
>>43571736
Heavy Gear, Qin: Warring States. Both a kind of rules lightish and classless. They just click with the level of rules I like.
Never get to run them as often as I like.
I've been playing Monsterhearts for a bit now. It's pretty good.
I switched from my 13th Age game when I realised that I love PLAYING fantasy combat, but I hate RUNNING it.
Why doesn't /tg/ talk much about Shadow of the Demon Lord? seems like they'd be all over that goodness.
>>43572172
You never needed Chainmail to play OD&D, that's why there's combat rules in Men & Monsters.
>>43571736
6mm scale Kings of War
>>43571736
I love L5R but I haven't been able to organize the only group of players I know of who can handle it, nor get the GM who knows it best to run it.
>>43571736
Playing Numenera casually.
Still can't tell if it's good or not, game sessions are great times but I think it's more because of the party than the actual game.
>>43573538
forgot to remove tripcode from a random quest couple nights ago, woops
>>43571736
I mostly run my own games, which tend to be rules-light, attribute based systems (where most everything is determined by an attribute check). I usually either base my systems on a d20 (roll under), or on dice-as-attributes like, say, Savage Worlds does. Mechanical power progression, which tends to be downplayed or almost nonexistent, is usually achieved merely by directly increasing attributes.
I'm toying around with a new system now, using specialized dice: a +/- die (like a fudge die, but without the blank sides), and a d6 marked from 0 to 5. This too is an attribute-based system, and you roll the two dice, getting a value from -5 to +5, and add this to your attribute. You then compare this directly to an opposing stat, and if you get higher, you win (ties are marginal successes).
So, for instance, let's say that I'm trying to hit you with my sword. That's my Reflexes (to attack) vs. your Reflexes (to dodge). Let's say that my Reflexes are 4 and yours are 3. So as the active party, I roll the dice and come up with -2, which I add to my Reflexes, yielding 2. I compare this 2 to your Reflexes of 3, and come up short. indicating that I just missed you.
In terms of setting, I've run everything from science fiction, and (future) post-apocalypse to fantasy, with brief forays into other stuff, like cyberpunk and horror (mixed with fantasy in one case and superheroes in another).
I tend to shy away from pure science fiction these days, because it's very demanding to do right (technology interlinks society, making detailed information and communication available, and reducing the plausibility of a small group of people acting with repercussion -- also, the logic and science of technology). I like future apocalypse, because you get the cool tech of science fiction, but with the isolation and smaller scope of fantasy. Old school missions work great in post-apocalyptic. Also, it's nice and gritty which is my preference.
Pic unrelated.
Fantasy Craft! It's like D&D/PF, but without the flaws! It embraces character diversity without shunting people into builds! Players have Action Dice that they can spend and/or roll to influence any situation, even ones their characters aren't anywhere near. Feats are fun and interesting, never the boring schlock of +1 to this specific weapon. Mages are great at utility, but the martial Soldier simply rocks combat.
I'm playing in two games currently, one from here and one from infini/tg/. I the first game, I'm playing a Keeper. He's not been very useful in combat so far, but he is super useful out of combat. In my second, I'm playing an Emissary/Soldier/Swashbuckler. He's very good at finding info on people, doing general face things and is extremely spry in battle.
Battle lords of the 23rd Century a gritty futuristic game of space merch with sweet weapons and Blood Dawn a gonzo post apocalyptic game with magic and mutants vs the pure humans of the American Combine both are D100 based systems.
>>43573860
>Battle lords of the 23rd Century
Phentari scum!
>>43573538
I like it but I feel like it can't decide whether it wants to be rule light or mini-d&d.
>>43571736
Stuff I GM/have GMed:
1. Mutants & masterminds 3e
It's like a d20 game that functions. The hardest part by far is building characters, everything at the table itself is really easy to resolve, and if you improvise (and you will, because superheroes are hard to lock down, and you will get used to it) you can generally trust the rules to still not only function, but actively further superhero/comicbook tropes. Also it makes combining "powered" and "nonpowered" characters in a party easy as fuck, even blurring the lines between what it means to be one or the other.
2. DnD4e
It's like a DnD game that functions. A little bit crunchier than MnM, but again everyone feels useful and I can trust the rules to give me an accurate picture when I need to step outside the box. Which is kind of a big deal for DnD.
Things I play in:
1. SIFRP
GM's pseudo-hard-fantasy custom setting, so the rules seemed more appropriate than go-to-DnD stuff. I'm enjoying the hell out of a swordmaster merc retainer, and I like how the social combat mirrors the physical combat in terms of rules (it's fairly consistent and a nice duality), but I can plainly see where bits and pieces are broken or not explained. Wouldn't mind running it sometime but some of my players fucking hate it, with good reason.
2. World Wide Wrestling RPG
It's an RPG about wrestling, set to a backdrop of all the narrative elements of the entertainment. It's not just about rolling high to pin a bitch, it's about rolling to sell the move, not fuck up and hurt your buddy, or cause the right amount of drama on- or off-screen. Only one of us players actually follows wrestling and we all enjoy this, that should say enough.
>>43573155
No idea, SotDL is actually pretty good.
>>43573831
Fantasy Craft is like Pathfinder should have been.
>>43574715
>Fantasy Craft is what 3e should have been.
FTFY
>>43573538
Another anon here. Our group also plays Numenera. Love the game. But as you said. It is mostly because of the group. I'd say Numenera has been written in the way to make the game about the group. At least I presonally enjoy Numenera (and Cypher System) a lot due to it makes it so easy to ignore system and just focus on the actual game.
Just recently our GM changed our other campaign: Iron Gods adventure path (Pathfinder) to be played with Cypher System. So far things have been much more interesting now. Feels like the GM had a problem with being dragged down by the Pathfinder system. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Pathfinder is a bad system. Things just tend to be much smoother now.
>>43573179
This was added later when they realized not everyone who was PnPing had wargaming experience which was new at the time because PnP was at the time only another approach to wargaming type stuff (and why both are discussed in the same place like /tg/)
Retrospectively I don't mind the Chainmail influence at all as it leads for some interesting tactics.
>>43573505
Seems pretty cool. Where can I order some good 6mm online? Where I come from there are no 6mm miniatures at all
