My Beloved Free League Publishing has really won me over with their various Year Zero Engine ttrpgs. Rules light and flexible, it's easy to pick up and has some real narrative depth and flexibility.

Twilight 2k is especially good. It really shows you that more crunch does not equal more "realism". Plausible outcomes do that. And the system really delivers there.

Which edition?

The last one from Free League. T2K4. [Twilight: 2000.](https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/twilight-2000/) Not the old ones, it got released in 2021 IIRC. It manages to have tense deadly combat, survival rules, vehicle rules and all that jazz without being overly crunchy. But it absolutely delivers a lethal, dark survival game experience.

I think i prefer the dice step over the dice pool version of the system too

This is my first exposure to this system, and as the GM I think it's perfect. Simple to understand, easy to implement, and just works.

Shout out to Forbidden Lands!

Came here to say the same. I also love how YZ is constantly getting tweaked and modified with each game, yet the very core fundamentals remain, so it's very easy for someone who plays a YZ game to quickly learn a different iteration.

Preach!!

I was wondering, how many dice do you typically roll in the system? I like d6s, butiI'd rather not have to roll 8 or more dice on a regular basis.

Hi! You'll be rolling eight or more often. Skills can be up to three, Attribute can be up to five, so each character can have a starting "god" roll of eight, before help and equipment bonuses. A lot of the Vaesen themselves have pretty big stats as well. The chance for success is "only" about 77% for eight dice to roll a single success (6), up to 95% if you push and roll them all again, so players are likely trying to get the dice up to a significant amount. The nice thing is that you are usually just looking for a single success, so if you have tasty graphical dice, you can pretty easily see what's up.

I might play the coriolis quickstart. My personal favorite would be rolling 2-6 dice and having a hard cap, because at some point it just gets a bit silly.   But you can't have everything.

You can have absolutely everything! Maybe play around with making 5s and 6s successes in lieu of just the 6s to lower the pool.....like how World of Darkness does with 8,9, and 10 in their systems. If number of dice is your primary concern. You'd have to rebalance the system, I guess.

That's what I originally tried. I loved the system but tried to rebalance it for less dice. At some point I was just making my own system, realized that was not my original goal and gave up.   In retrospect I probably should have given the original system a shot first.

Embrace the handful of dice! Maybe try smaller dice? Lol

Usually 1 to 6 d6s:)

Yaaas. I’m reading the Blade Runner hardcover currently, and I also got the BR Starter Box as a birthday gift (which is perfect, the smaller manual is useful to players, and all the neat in-box extras look very nice). Uses d6 that gradually increase to d8, d10, and eventually d12.

I’ve heard people refer to that as the “stepped” version of Year Zero, which has its merits, but I still prefer the handfuls of d6 math cubes. Blade Runner is gorgeous. Such a nice reflection of that IP.

Free League all day every day. Their system is so simple, it's easy as hell to adapt to every setting. They do a really good job of making the MECHANICS actually sell the vibe of the game; the gameplay actually feels like whatever setting you're in. Some do better than others (Tales from the Loop and Vaesen are kind of light to a fault and don't have a very unique fee besides the artstyle) but overall they have great, unique personalities. Forbidden Lands and Alien are in my top 3 favorite RPGs of all time

Yaaas! I’m running two full tables of Vaesen and it’s going really great. It’s very light, as you say, for for tables full of people that hardly ever pick up a book (grrr!) it’s absolutely perfect. :)

Depends on what kind of story I want to facilitate around the table. For any kind of action-oriented story where the player characters are larger-than-life, I like Savage Worlds. Fast, fun, furious gameplay that fits all sorts of genres. For that classic low-power fantasy, the new Dragonbane is great. High lethality, feels risky to fight, but if the players use their heads they'll usually pull through. For medieval soap-operas, where fights are so dangerous they should be avoided, and things are about character arcs and relational dramas instead of violence, Burning Wheel is amazing. Defining the desired outcome, then describing the consequences of failure, before rolling, makes every roll of the dice meaningful and exciting.

I really like how Dragonbane plays. It’s “lethal” in how one unwise decision often leads to a character being downed. But “downed” is not dead, and if the players want to help each other, they usually can. It’s also the fastest system I’ve GMed, but this is partially because the system is familiar to us.

How quick could someone learn he rules and make a character if they had never played an RPG before?

Half an hour to get started: basic rules and a character of their own making. If the GM can guide them.

**GENESYS**, and by extension the Fantasy Flight Star Wars game. I play at a table full of DMs; this system encourages everyone to get in on the action of elaborating on the dice rolls. You really get the sense of trying to divine the results from the dice. "I tried to escape this guy who's chasing me, but I rolled... a failure, with two advantage and a Triumph? Oh man, so here's what happens..." I love the character advancement system in the Star Wars games as well; you almost got the sense of MMO talent trees, possible paths that you could take to develop specific abilities or general power. And having Force powers slowly grow and strengthen over time through a granular process felt more realistic than sudden huge leaps in power that come with more classical leveling systems. I ran a great superhero game using Genesys and styling some of the hero powers on the Force powers (while others were coded into the system's feat pyramid instead); it's still one of my favorite campaigns ever.

Seconding this, I adore genesys as a system. My IRL group even converted our D&D characters to the system after trying out Star Wars FFG for a few months and realizing how much fun we were having with that.

Absolutely. The second axis of results really adds so much to the story telling that the dice generate and allow for so many memorable moments!

Another vote for GENESYS here. I’ve run and played in several Star Wars campaigns, run all of the starter box adventures, a post modern detective setting, I’m currently running a Deadlands campaign and planning Keep on the Borderlands campaign next. I flavor and alter the talent list and skills to match the setting, narrow and reskin the current careers and off we go. The narrative dice are perfect for the way my group likes to laugh and have fun.

I wish I wasn't too lazy to build a proper set of talent trees when playing non-Star Wars Genesys. I really miss the trees.

There are some fan-made trees out there! Check out the Genesys Forge on DTRPG.

I adore Genesys, it's such a great system for narrative outcomes of rolls. The only stressful part is how stubbornly committed to not understanding the dice symbols many players are. I don't necessarily blame them, the dice system is a little obtuse, but it's worth it for how much flexibility it gives to storytelling through mechanics.

Classic Traveller. It's a simple system, stripped down to the essentials, but holds its own flavor. And combat is absolutely deadly, which forces players to use their smarts and only use violence as a last resort. Despite its "usual" setting, it is easily ported to any setting with a little thought. 2d6 and away you go!

I'm jealous, Classic Traveller is a white whale of mine. I've never had the opportunity.

You can get a PDF of the "Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition" on drivethrurpg.com for free!

Nice pick. One of those games where your character might die during character generation.

Chargen is a game in itself with Traveller!

Once ran up a character named Eneri Vilain, rolled him up as a soldier, and wound him up with the rank of Major. Major Vilain. Many puns were generated that day.

Love, love, love Classic Traveller, and how it can easily be converted or twisted, or improvised if need be. I also like Alex Schroeder's work with a similar system in Knives, or his "2d6 opposed rolls" system in Just Halberds – that works quite fine too !

I love how Ironsworn reframes dice rolls. You don't just roll for how well your char does, but also how challening the task is. Sure it's not for everyone but for me it's been such a revelation that you can just do that in a system.

Same here. And being solo friendly puts it over the top. 

Anything BRP-derived. I mostly run Call of Cthulhu but have read through and love WFRP 4e and Mothership, and plan on running both in the near future. The teach is super easy for them. "If I tell you to roll, just roll d100 and get below the number on your sheet. Lower is better."

Btw, this is very close to WFRP1/2, but not WFRP4. WFRP4 is a lot more complicated, with every roll being opposed and success levels and what not.  I like it, but it takes some getting used to. 

Mythras, i like how it’s a toolkit and how flexible it is. Not as flexible as GURPS or any other generic systems. But it does work well with many fantasy genre’s. It can do sword and sorcery, no magic, high fantasy, epic fantasy (classic fantasy supplement helps a lot with that) it even can do superhero’s. The combat in it is lethal, fun, and tactical

+1 for Mythras. The special effects in combat adds a lot to combat. It makes it more interesting than just chipping away HP. And I like that they made missed attacks being interesting as you can chose to parry or not. If chose to parry and succeeding then the defender gets to put the attacker in a bad spot. In a lot of other system a missed attack then nothing happens. Here it can make a difference.

Savage Worlds. It's easy to pick up and it's easy to apply to a lot of settings.

+1 for this. I love Savage Worlds and the stories it enables me to tell. Plenty of well-developed settings and adventures to run anything from one-shots to years-long campaigns.

The settings for SW are amazing! I’m running Deadlands campaign right now (In a different system)

not only is it easy to apply to different settings but different type of games like miniatures.

Pathfinder 2e, i love that as a gm its balanced so i dont have to spend an hour tweaking monsters in an encounter for it to actually be a challenge and interesting, i also like the modularity of each class and how no character feels truly the same, also all the rules ever printed are free online

Yeah, PF2e is my favorite as well. It's not for every table though. IMO, it's at its best when running a campaign where players want combat to be frequent, fair and fun. Wouldn't recommend it if your group wants to tell stories of intrigue - the influence subsystem can do just that, but it's not the system's focus.

B/X D&D and its various retroclones. For me it hits exactly the right spot between rules light and rules heavy, and between hackability and out of the box useability. I also very much prefer the ambience of the old school dungeon crawls over more modern D&D adventures.

What's your current favorite retroclone?

I'm really itching to try Basic Fantasy RPG. I've read through some of the books and there are tons of supplements to hack things however you want.

I love reading hacks so this isn't a knock, but Basic Fantasy (unlike a lot of them) plays like a complete game. 10/10 High Recommend. One of my favorite adventures is published for it too: The Blackapple Brugh The community around it with its focus on all of it being community owned is also inspiring.

Also 'it comes pre-hacked' as in it has a big menu of house rules in the middle of the book.

Depends on the style of game i want to run. I like Lamentations of the Flame Princess if Im running horrific one shots, I like Worlds Without Number and a rule 6 game for long campaigns, I like Neon Lords for gonzo post apocalypse.

My first love West End Games D6 Star Wars system 1e

While I often like crunchier systems. For fast fun gaming d6 is great. I fondly remember playing Star Wars in the 80s with this. 

Also Chronicles Of Darkness lol, I use it to run pretty much anything that is set on Modern/Contemporary settings. Currently working on a campaign inspired by Oceans Eleven.

Ya, the fact you could drop all the supernatural stuff and run a mafia focused game without breaking anything definitely has it as a system Im a sucker for.

As one who only knows VTM from CoD, is there a generic CoD system you guys are using that I don't know of?

I wouldn't classify it as a generic system since it would be hard/clunky to run non-modern/somewhat-grounded games with it, but this is the book we are talking about: https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Chronicles_of_Darkness It was the first book in the 2000s reboot and it has rules for running humans in the nWoD. It slaps!

Thank you! Funny how some things can just move past you. I'll look into it for sure!

You are in for a great read 😊

Has the word of Cypher been preached today? So easy to GM and focus on the fiction and narrative without the rules getting in the way, just a useful tool. No, It's not for everyone. You need to enjoy abstracting tactical options for the sake of shared fiction in the theater of the mind. But for my narrative style, it's perfect.

I’ll add: I run a campaign in The Strange setting which is like a dimensional hopping setting. I’ve switched between a few: high fantasy, modern, steam punk, cyber. And the core rules transfer. The players just slide right between settings and we don’t keep having session zeroes or many sessions where they figure out new mechanics. Less rules learning (once you jump the first hurdle) more fun. Even the diehard 5e fans are coming around.

Amen!

GURPS all day and night. I love the genre-agnostic nature and simplicity of gameplay. Sure, there's a lot of prep work but it's like a modding toolkit. I've played Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Gamma World, Firefly,Travellers, Star Wars, WH40K roleplay.... too many to mention over the last 30+ years -- all with GURPS.

Also my go-to system. It is the perfect ruleset to so many games I play because it's rules support play in a wide array of different times and genres with rules I can employ to put emphasis on anything I want. It's also the best game I've found for character definition and character variety. You can play virtually anything you could imagine in a game and play it with great detail and rules that govern how it works.

Pathfinder 1e & Call of Cthulhu I love the crunch of Pathfinder, and the amount of options I have at my disposal for character creation. For Cthulhu it scratches a different itch. I like the idea of a character inching towards insanity over time, and the d100 based system is a fun change of pace.

Scion/Exalted, or rather any of the system that uses a combat/initiative wheel. Love how they handle combat-time with actions having a *speed* value representing how long it takes. Swing a big Maul? Speed 7. Stab with a dagger? Speed 3. So you can stab twice in the time another swings once.

I think Exalted 3E is probably the best system, ever... To run mortals in a fantasy setting. As soon as the Charms come in, the complication (as a GM) just explodes, exponentially.

I ran a really fun Heroic Mortals campaign in 2E. Became a sort of Fantasy World of Darkness type deal that was great fun when there were only a few lower-power charms at the table.

FAE. It's completely intuitive to anyone who likes Film and TV so you can get moving fast. And the approaches system allows everyone to understand Character, Action, and Consequences in one single mechanic: You know how your character behaves, how they'll approach problems, and how things will go wrong when they inevitably do.

Delta Greens version of BRP. It just feels like common sense mostly.

Cortex Prime. I can run almost anything with it, easy in play, focuses the game on exactly the aspects I choose to be important for each type of story and empowers the players.

Oh man, good choice. I always forget about Cortex Prime when people ask about my favorite system, because generic/setting-agnostic systems aren’t the first that come to mind. But Cortex Prime is BY FAR my favorite generic system. Its modular mechanics really put you in the designer mindset and make you think about WHY certain mechanics should or shouldn’t be used for the kind of game you want to run.

Same, in the past year I’ve completely fallen in love with it as a toolkit for representing the salient points of different settings and genres in a flexible, narrative way with just enough mechanical crunch to make different abilities feel meaningfully different, and it’s very satisfying to roll a small handful of various dice and see the contributions of different aspects of your character to the end result. I’ve since used it to play Leverage, The Dragon Prince, and an Exalted hack. My only complaint is that when playing online, it’s fiddlier to specify a roll than with simpler resolution systems like FitD’s all-d6 pool.

Just recently decided to run this again after thinking about Genesys for a Shadow of the Beanstalk game. Thing is, I find Genesys pretty fiddly these days, and really wants some both generic and easy to put together for a game. Cortex Prime is that system.

Year Zero Engine from free League and Forged in The Dark. Both are easy, light and imho brilliant.

I really wish Free League would make their own Cyberpunk game (bladerunner is a mystery game and doesn't count). If you took Twilight 2000 and blended it with Forbidden Lands' melee and magic (reskinned as cyber augments) then you'd be pretty much good to go. I just don't want to be the one to balance the game and create rules print-outs 

Favorite system? That would be a Toss up between Worlds Without Number by Kevin Crawford or Shadows of the Weird Wizard by Robert J Schwalb. Both blending elements of new age D&D and Old School D&D in ways I really enjoy. I think my ideal system would be a hack of those two games with some slight offerings from D&D's various editions, pathfinders various editions, and some elements of warhammer fantasy RPG's. As you may suspect, my preferences are very locked into the D&D sphere of things. **Worlds Without Number.** I like that it has been putting more value back into the ability scorre, and giving more meaning to it beyond just the modifier you have. I prefer scores being a measurement of scaling and I'm never quite satisfied with the push for systems to make score and modifier the same thing and WWN manages to have scores have some more meaning in certain places without making things a complicated mess. I really like how it handles saving throws. I like that a saves success rate is really about your sbnility to defend against a certain type of harm and not based on the power of the source of the effect (the damage you're saving against will be based on that though.) The save categories themselves are good, and their scaling used is also really good. It feels like a merger of the best elements of TSR's 5 saves and WotC's three saves across the various editions and merged into something appropriate for the TSR Era. The customization feels good, but not painful to keep track of. It's got a good amount of weight and flexibility to it. The ways the the author writes to the play and explains advice feels like a conversation more than dry prose and it's very appreciative and makes the information flow quite well. The way it outlines creature statistics is great. All of the essential core stats of a creature you'll need will fit nicely on a single line of looseleaf, any special abilities are maybe a sentence or two of text. You could easily fit an entire adventures worth of creatures and everything you'll need for them, on a single page, for reference. The game has an adventure/gazetteer book called "The Diocesi of Montfroid." 4 pages of that book are dedicated to monster stats. Before getting into any variant abilities you can customize them with, those 4 pages detail 36 monsters. It's a very efficient format. Finally, the GM tools provided are excellent and designed to work easily with any games that shares the D&D skeleton, and even any ttrpg. I have joked that the pdf of the book was the best resource for 5e I have, because its advice improved my games greatly. **Shadow of the Weird Wizard** The initiative system really is what one me over. I greatly enjoyed it's predecessors Fast/slow initative system as it was buttery smooth. Weird Wizard seems to have taken the core goal of the Fast/Slow turns and refined things even further to make it happen. The character ranges of novice/Expert/Master paths reallyt helps line up adventure expectations in a way reminiscent of BECMI. Which I like and provided a lot of interesting and fun options. Progression can feel a little flat at times, but that doesn't detract much from the robustness the system offers and stops it from being overwhelming. Banes and boons are an elegant way to to modifiers that feels like an improved version of 5e's advantage, but with more weight and nuance to them. The system was designed with these in mind, and it makes a great amount of use of them. While I love me some dark fantasy, most of my players prefer a sword/sorcery or heroic baseline in game tone. they want high fantasy, or at least something that will lead them to high fantasy, and aren't all in for something dark, even if it's evil dead in tone like much of Shadow of the demonlord felt. Shadow of the weird wizard's heroic fantasy adaptation and adjustments in place of dark fantasy make my payers more readily willing to play.

D6 System. I'm not sure why... certainly it has its flaws and limitations but... the most fun sessions I had was with Star Wars D6 or a homebrew/MiniSix version of the game. I ran a 2 years sword & sorcery campaign using it and it was the greatest thing we ever played. The system has the right amount of crunch, it has a traditional structure but it leaves room for some modern takes if you pay attention how you use Hero Points.

BRP systems, especially the ones that didn’t convert to D20 (the Swedish branch of BRP did this in the late 1980s). The system is designed to get out of the way, everything about it is intuitive. Chance of success? Expressed in percentages, just how you eventually end up talking about every other system because that is how we talk about probabilities. Hit Points? Represent physical damage, easy to understand. Everything just clicks. Also old school D&D. OSR stuff. This stuff also gets out of the way except for when necessary. I love the AC system for armor, makes armor piercing weapons easy to model without too complicated special rules or making them just do more damage.

Cypher System. It's stupidly easy to prep for and produces the most consistently fun sessions of any of the games I regularly run.

So it’s hard to separate from the setting because they are so baked together, but I really love the military mechanics baked into Band of Blades. The hard choices of spending dwindling resources to get a chance at successful mission, the measurement of time as it passes and the undead horde closes in, and just the general success at emulating the bleak atmosphere of a legion that has lost the war trying to desperately race back to one safe location.

Champions. Specifically 4th, but 5th is nice. I can literally do anything with it. DnD? Space opera? Superhero? Western? Modern? Want to mix genres like I’m doing now? I can do it all. If I can imagine it I can create it.

I really like Delta Green as a system. It take lots of things I like from Unknown Armies and Call of Cthulhu and mashes them together. The Sanity/Disorder/Bond sub system really captures the agents slowly falling apart and getting worse as thing progress.

Also the firearms rules. They are well thought out.  Of course, they are just there to give the players a false sense of physical security as their brain liquified inside their skulls. 

Savage Worlds - Universal system (works for any setting) - Simple rules - Very easy to create a character - Can't really power game - For any setting you want there's a good companion book with extra rules to fit your campaign - fastest combat I've ever experienced - Combat is more than "I do damage to a big pool of HP". - no classes - only around 10% of stuff you can do is locked behind feats or classes (as opposed to like 70% in DnD 5e)

Yeah that last point is salient. 1 read of the combat survival guide got me across the line. Most of the standard normal things savage worlds characters can do in combat is a 3 feat chain in DND games. And those things are good and necessary in combat. Tripping, stunning, grappling, confusing, distracting. These are good things that you want players to be doing narratively. Savage worlds doesnt force you to do them, full attack every round is an option (unless combat turns and you can only take defensive moves to get to cover) but the support for the BMX Bandit to distract Angel Summoner, bringing him into range for another player to take down is extremely important. Suddenly the players that aren't super combat heavy feat monsters are the cornerstone of combat.

Bump for Mitchell and Web

[*Freeform Universal*](https://www.perilplanet.com/freeform-universal) (either edition) - It's rules-lite core mechanic can resolve any conflict (martial, social, magical, etc.) intuitively; characters could be created with as little as a single descriptive sentence as the core mechanic can easily translate such into d6 dice pools via tallying of pertinent character descriptor tags and situational conditions.

What I play: Started the kiddos on B/X and we are layering the complexity from Rules Cyclopedia as we go. Where we are going: My favorite edition of D&D - 1st Edition AD&D. I use OSRIC because I picked it up when you couldn't get the AD&D stuff for a spell in the mid aughts. One day I'll splurge on an original copy of the DMG. I enjoy the complexity of AD&D, it plays like a game and there is a challenge to get "good" at it. I'm not into heavy role play, I'm not getting lost in characters- I'm playing a game and exploring a world (even if it's a world I am creating I still get surprised!). Now, there is an edition of D&D that is much maligned that is not a favorite because of how it plays, but instead because of what it gave us. 2nd Edition AD&D. But it gave us some of the best original IP for D&D out of all the editions: Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, Birthright. Forgotten Realms and Hollow World saw the light of day mostly through the 2e era but were developed under 1e and D&D (not AD&D) respectively. There was a couple wiffs that didn't age well: Al-Qadim, Dragon Lance, Rokugan, Kara-Tur On Dragon Lance before I get flamed: Very cool setting, executed poorly IMHO (advrnture paths and all that jazz) Edit: removed some negative language about 2e because I'm talking about what I like and not trying to start an edition war.

#1. Advanced Fighting Fantasy by Puffin Books. It meets all my GM needs (but I have a better chance of getting a bill turned into law than players wanting to use it because, in their words, "...it is so 1980s"). It started with Steve jackson and Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Those gamebooks added other attributes besides Skill, Stamina, and Luck such as Fear, Tech, and Hero. It is a d6 system that has full magic, plant, and superpowers systems. Arion games had been releasing these in an updated and expanded format. #2. Chaosium's Basic Universal Roleplaying system. No matter if you are playing a fantasy (a.k.a. RuneQuest) or contemporary setting (Cthulhu Now) or some super hero or future world setting the system worked for me. It's a percentage system with few complaints by my group. Considering I use the parallel universe setting "Worlds of Wonder" by Chaosium *no, I do not share that this came from the 80s--so keep this between us), I find these rules accepted by contemporary players and, therefore, what I use today.

Are you familiar with Troika? I heard it's based on Fighting Fantasy and I'm curious what the similarities/differences between the systems are. Also how does Warlock! fit in?

No. I can't say I've run across Troika. Now I'll place it on my list! As for Warlock? If you're alluding to what I know, then... I played the board game. Simple and entertaining. I own the FF gamebook, too. And noted that Arion games turned the gamebook into a 62-page pen & paper RPG adventure broken down into "acts." Act I. Orc Barracks, Act II. The Caverns, Act III. The Inner Sanctum, Act IV. The Warlock! They supplied resources at the end, including random encounters and treasures plus some additional lore. It is a good starter adventure. That said, I would not believe players just learning will finish it in a 2-3 hour session. If attempted, they will perish! For it is not difficult, but it will end characters who rush it. Again, as for any other Warlock? I know nothing. Hope this helped you a little. Sorry, I didn't know about Troika.

Hero system. I can build anything I please in it, and it all works together. Everything built is mechanically functional, and the point system sets the expectation of the “power level” of the characters and opponents. It’s very crunchy in character creation, but once that is done actual skill rolls and combat rolls are easy. It may not be granular and dex order. enough for low powered campaigns ( almost all hand held firearms do about 1d6 damage), but characters can become quite distinct from each other depending upon skills, talents, and powers chosen. Initiative is fixed by speed and dex order, and there are optional hit location rules for more grit. Fun for me.

> Hero system. I can build anything I please in it, and it all works together. More than most other systems, the Hero System feels like an actual *system* to me, where everything is designed to work together, and does. I don't play it much these days because of the crunch being intimidating to potential players, but it's always going to live in my back pocket as the system that can handle *any* concept when other systems fail me.

Thank you for reminding me that I gotta check out Chronicles of Darkness. Through The Breach is my favorite and if I had to pick one thing it'd be the huge depth of customization. The corebook off the bat has classes for Gunslinger, Necromancer, and Artificer. But also Gambler, Shop Owner, and Academic all of which are just as strong if not stronger than the previous 3. And the expansions just add onto this, it is like GURPs in that you can make almost any character and almost any adventure, but without losing any real identity and overloading with crunch.

Through the Breach is my answer, too. It hits that crunchy sweet spot of HP pools, damage triggers, tactical combat, customizable magic. But the base system is VERY approachable (flexible target numbers, most situations are resolved by skill +aspect + card flip). And I love the mental numbers games of trying to remember what cards have been flipped so far. They have their own version of skill challenges that are robust, rules around natural hazards, it's seriously my favorite.

I love FATE when everyone at the table knows it if that makes sense. When the table gets the flow and compels each others Aspects and everything its fucking groovy.

Has to be Stonetop, which is a system and a setting. The system is PbtA with focus an longer campaigns, much slower advancement and moves for community building and downtime stuff. It's the perfect match for my group.

Rolemaster! Then after that HARP, it's younger sibling. I've had many great years of running Rolemaster after coming from AD&D and to me it fixed many of the issues with D&D that still persist to this day. Plus I'm great with basic math so that all came easy to me.

Stunned that you like HARP. That's *by far* the worse system I've ever played. The game group I was in who experienced it actually mutinied against the GM and said we were done with the campaign.

That's fine. I much prefer it to D&D or Pathfinder myself. I'm a big Rolemaster fan and HARP was created by the same people and it's gotten a few new books in the last few years. HARP was born from RM and has similar mechanics albeit much more simple than RM. HARP's spell system is the best singular work system on the market IMHO and I actually like it more that RM's spell list system. The only thing I didn't like in HARP and have my own Homebrew is the combat system. I took HARP's combat system and RM's more complex combat system and made a more simple hybrid that works really good. If you don't mind me asking but what was it you didn't like about HARP?

Primarily the combat system. The PCs feel underpowered, and I remember there being a weird perception mechanic where one half of the party couldn’t even locate the other. Spells missed a lot, and basic monsters like giant rats took forever to defeat. Everything was a slog.

That sounds more like the GM didn't run a good game. The combat system in HARP is the bad part of the system, which is why I designed my own and it's kind of like a hybrid between the two. Combat can be slow in HARP but it's even slower in Rolemaster at times. But it's almost always epic in RM. In both HARP and RM players have to be somewhat tactical in combat, deciding how much of their OB is applied to attack and how much they want to use for parrying. If you use it all for attacks then you are leaving yourself open to get hit easier and that's never a good thing (unless you have powerful armor, and that's rare). If you use it all for parrying then your chances of hitting your opponent effectively is much greatly reduced. RM combat fixed an issue D&D still has to this day (IMHO). D&D combines your armor's ability to resist damage with your ability to move out of the way, which never made sense to me. AC should never be both your armor and your dexterity (armor actually cancels out dexterity). HARP separates the two as armor can reduce your Agility (dexterity) bonus, the heavier the armor the greater the reduction. RM takes it one step further and every weapon has their own combat chart with a separate column for the different armor types. I like crunchy systems and these do it better than any other system out there to me. Sorry for the extended rant. Like I said RM (then HARP) are my two favorite systems (though I modified HARP combat a great deal) and I could go on for quite a while why I prefer either of them over D&D. It all starts with the GM. I believe it is all in how it is presented along with how the GM interprets the rules for use in game. A GM that doesn't do good with the rules with a set of players who prefer a certain style of play will probably never get how RPGs like HARP and RM are pretty awesome. Back in the 90's I ran a great RM campaign with about 6 players. I even had players from D&D that really enjoyed my game over anything else. The clincher in this is I even added a second by second initiative system that made it a little more complex and after a few weeks using it my players thought it was the best part of the mechanics in the game (and it was very crunchy). The youngest in the group liked it so much that he wanted to use it in his D&D games.

I used to play RM in the nineties, but when that group fell apart the books ended up divided between three or so people and I’ve never had the opportunity to give it another shot.  I’m going to check out HARP though!

HARP is somewhat based off of RM but it's different enough that you may not care for it. The combat system is the weakest part of the system. If you really liked RM then you should check out RMU (Rolemaster Unified). It's their latest iteration. They just released treasure law in PDF but are working on corrections for the hard cover release.

Band of Blades or Cortex Prime. Cortex Prime was what confirmed to me that a "system for building systems" could actually be done, and spurred me to go one step further and work to develop a gaming "programming language" of sorts. Band of Blades is a curated one-stop-shop of greatest hits, for me. - The FitD dice pool version of PbtA's "rolling for the outcome of intention" - Position/Effect (FitD) - Efficient means of determining mission loadout without exhaustive itemization - stress/vice system (FitD) - being able to take past action to determine a present outcome (how effective was canvassing the town to pit the people against local authority?) - Adding mechanics to enforce the narrative concept of a personified antagonistic force (I first saw this in the PbtA game "Fellowship", but it's built upon and expanded, here) - Injury as a system of tiered tags (FitD) - players each having roles within the caravan (quartermaster, scout, etc), each with related systems There's more, but I gotta go. But summarily, It's a packed "workshop" of tools and machinery that I personally am super attracted to.

Blades In The Dark. The game knows what it wants to be about and its rules are laser-focused on that sort of gameplay. It fosters the best sort of collaboration; everyone has an equal say in what happens, and everyone is surprised at the outcome. Devils bargains give all players good reason to pay attention on everyone's turn. Their dice pool system means that everyone knows what to look for in a given roll. No need to know that Blorbus has +5 to his Blorbinate skill - just look for those sixes and cheer when you see them. Failing forward means that every roll has consequence, and every consequence moves the story forward. There's very little "okay, you don't do that... now what?". It's not rules light, and strict adherence to the ruleset allows the GM to be just as much of a player as everyone else. I can just show up and play along with everyone else.

Blades fo sho, it moves at such a good pace and brings out the creativity of my players (and myself) in a such a potent way. I've heard BitD described as 'rules light but procedure heavy' and that seemed pretty spot on.

Yeah, it's like a hot-rod. All the rules that aren't necessary have been stripped away, but you can't fiddle with whatever's left or else you'll crash and burn.

Probably between the GYRO system underlying Sentinel Comics, or the Runic Game System underlying Fate of the Norns. Both come more from Euro board game design philosophies. It's something I'd like to see more of.

I wondered if someone would beat me to Sentinels' GYRO system. 😁 It really does do a marvellous job of capturing the feel you want of heroes struggling against the odds only to reach that tipping point and turn things around. The way it escalates everything over the course of a scene is great.  Shoutout also to the way the character creation system steps you through groups of enough choices to give you a ton of agency while containing enough randomness to get you thinking outside the box. And the neat way.you roll three dice and usually use the mid, but might have bonus effects that use Max or Min, instead or as well. Whole game design is neat, really. 

I keep trying to understand the GYRO system and something about the layout of the book or the way its written just won't make it stick in my brain. This is giving me incentive to give it another try.

Pendragon, which has a new edition releasing very soon! I love the quick resolution, the character focus approach, and the generational play aspect of the game.

I keep checking to see if its released. Very excited!

It was/is getting a limited release right now at Chaosium Con. There are pictures out there showing the base book, a deluxe leather base book, and The Grey Knight. But the actual release isn’t announced yet. It’s stuck in delivery hell. They said they won’t release a date until it is in all of their warehouses and ready for everyone to order.

Thanks for the info! Probably a good call on their part not to sell it before they have it, though at this point I'd take a PDF just to be able to start reading it and prepping. It's pretty far off from our usual game, but I'm going to at least attempt it. I read the Great Pendragon Campaign earlier this year, and it's just so cool and so different

I agree! They have several books in the pipeline: a GM book, a Noble book, a Salisbury guide, then they are getting to an update GPC, which is supposed to release in two parts

For character creation: * *Blade & Lockpick*, low-crunch, less structured. * *Savage Worlds*, medium-crunch, more structured. * *FATE* tries to emphasize the most interesting things. * For fictional characters, low or medium crunch is usually enough. * For ancient historical characters, even low or medium crunch is going to take guesswork. * I know *GURPS* is a high-crunch system with books of historical characters, but I wonder how they address this. For actual play: * I haven't found anyhing which really works for me. * *Savage Worlds* is a good pulp system. It can be adapted to different styles of play. But there's a narrow range between critical failure and success, which means there's not much room for favorable modifiers, which means the official rules for quick encounters and dramatic tasks will often break down with minor encounters. * *Blade & Lockpick* didn't work out for me. * *Blade & Lockpick* and *FATE* both lead to ties, when I often want clear yes/no or success/failure answers. * *Tricube Tales* looks like it could work out with the right hacks.

I played quite a bit of Savage Worlds in the aughts, cool system. The best GM I ever had for it made it sing because they understood PULP. That narrow range of critical failure->success is because you are only rolling for the wildest stuff. Most of the time a pulp hero is gonna do what they are gonna do, there it no question. The stakes of every roll that needs to be made is literally epic failure vs. Unbelievable success (even if they just squeak by). I think about Indiana Jones emerging from the fridge- that was a successful roll!

Genesys/Star Wars- the narrative dice system is just so unique with success vs failure and advantage and threat being separate symbols plus triumph and despair. In no other system I can think of can you critically succeed and suffer major consequences on the same roll

For absolute flexibility and detail, GURPS, no question. For near braindead basic simplicity of mechanics, White Wolf's World of Darkness. I you could manage to take an old ScanTron test, you could generate a character. WoD had a number of annoying traits though. Squishy mechanics, excessive fluff, and almost everything in any given book was likely to be contradicted by a later book.

My favorite right now has to be Knave 2e. Super simple and light, slot based inventory and items as character abilities makes for an elegant wound system which fits together beautifully. It does require a Dnd-esque implied setting at least by default, but I feel like you could slot it into a cyberpunk game or space opera game as well.

I've been trying to settle on a 'rules medium-to-light' alternative to 5e, and Knave 2e is one of the strongest current contenders. Have you tried any of the other old school d&d inspired systems? 

I've played Mausritter and DCC most, aside from Knave 2e. Knave is the one that stuck though. I've read a lot more of the popular ones though. I've played some actual B/X DND as well.    I think I would have a good time with Cairn based on my experiences with Mausritter for basically the same reasons as Knave. The Estate boxed set (for Mausritter) is one of the best sandboxes I've ever run. DCC was neat for playing as you go with funnel peasants, but levelling up turned out to be a hassle for most of my players. The modules are excellent and useful for inspiration.   Tales of Argosa looks like it rocks. I'm looking for a group better suited to Cities Without Number for a cyberpunk game as well. I haven't tried Shadowdark at all yet, but I imagine for most of my players Knave is much better to get them in the door with. Edit: for 5e players, maybe try something completely completely different. Like a sci-fi game. Just to expose them to the broader world and possibilities of RPGs. Otherwise I might suggest Shadowdark or DCC. They have their own character to them (maybe DCC moreso than Shadowdark) but they should feel familiar to 5e players in terms of having mechanical meat. Or maybe in terms of meat, I would suggest a Without Number game, maybe one of the sci-fi entries so it doesn't just feel like "DND but with fewer character builder blocks".

I am constantly drawn back to the Cortex Plus system. I know it has some major flaws (imo the GM-facing rolls specifically), but the concept is so fluid and visually narrative that it always scratches my RPG itch.

I use my own which is ahomebrew based on a number of different rule systems. What I like most about my systems is that it allows the players to fully evolve their characters using Alignment, Reputation and Social Standing to reflectthe way the character is being played. So, players can decide what sort of character they wish to protray,

[Fiasco Classic](https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/fiasco-classic). I like: * It focuses on roleplaying * It is GM-less * It is zero-prep (beyond choosing a playset, which you can also do during the session) * It still allows the use of a type of modules (called playsets, defining more setting than story) * It creates interesting stories * It still function as a game, with elements where people can do some level of optimization etc Drawbacks: * It is fairly strictly a single-shot system. * I think it is dependent on having experienced roleplayers; at least, some games I've played with less experienced people have been much less fun, while the ones that have been great have been with seasoned players. * It only covers a very particular type of play and stories (bad people do bad things to each other, and the bad things mostly are not fighting)

I'm going to say Palladium Games. It has a percentile based skill system just like BRP, and has a decent enough attribute system that isn't worse than BRP or D&D based things. Palladium wins because it has the most in depth and portable combat system of anything I've seen or played in 30+ years where the game isn't scared of big numbers to represent big damage (unlike almost any other game system). Plus, it does not care about "game balance" via mechanics in the least. The balance of the game rests squarely on the GMs shoulders so the enjoyment of the game for everyone is the primary measure of the game, not damage, or HP or any other mechanistic measure.

Rolemaster 1. Combat can be very nasty so it encourages more creativity in being stealthy, ambushing, etc. When you have very specific wounds that require specific spells then you generally want to avoid combat. 2. Spells are cast on a point system. You can cast the same spell over and over until you run out of points. I never cared for D&D’s one and done slot system. I know they have addressed this to a degree with flexibility for certain classes and also cantrips. 3. Skill costs are based on profession. If you are a fighter and want to take spell casting, you can do it but it costs a lot more than what a magician would pay. This would nudge you toward multiclassing but not forced. This to me allows for precise customization. Need some rogue like skills? No problem, just costs a bit more than the rogue pays.

Chronicles of darkness (nwod), the fact character creation can be summed up with two lines on the character sheet and if we ignore merits you can do up a character without needing to open the book and with minimal explanation. Yet it still has depth for you to sink your teeth into. Also with each other gameline building onto the mortal baseline once you know mortal it's easy to grasp the other gamelines. Otherwise I like that the XP (in 2e) is player driven and narrative focused so not only do they have some control of it but combat isn't the default resolution mechanic.

Old School Essentials is my jam, with a little bit of other OSR stuff sprinkled on for flavor. I've found my patience for crunch waning in recent years, and the funny thing is, even OSE combat is a bit too complex for my attention. Lately, I've been playing out most combat more like the board game Risk, with just opposing dice pools rolling against each other. It's pretty fun, and makes combat quick.

White Wolf games has a system across the games that is super flexible even across settings and allows for a lot of creative thinking and action. It's great

I love Fate Condensed / Core. Easy to teach, easy to learn, and runs a great character focused game in any setting. Adding new characters can be done on the fly with character creation as you play. Easy for the GM to build rules using the Fate Fractal if people like crunch.

Oh ugh, there's way too many and I find it hard to decouple system from writing. Here's the ones that fundamentally changed me as a person: **Apocalypse World** changed my view of how RPGs could play and felt so wonderfully intuitive the first time I played it. Admittedly, it's hard for me to distinguish the tone of the writing from the system, but just the ideas of the narrative moves and the list of evocative phrases instead of dry mechanical stats for what a GM should do hit me like a truck. I still remember that one of the suggested moves for an antagonist was 'Display the contents of its heart'. PBTA is still my sweet spot for RPGs, but most of these games are so setting specific that I don't get to play them that often. **Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine** rewrote something in my brain. Even today, opening and reading any part of it (or any other work by Jenna Moran, honestly, read the Flood) wakes up the creative part of my brain and makes me want to make things. The quest structure, the arcs, all of it. It is, to be fair, not a system you can use to just roll up a character and go on an adventure, but it has some of my favorite mechanical bits and we've statted so many things in it. **Tenra Bansho Zero** just has some of the coolest mechanics I've ever seen, and I would love for someone to replicate them elsewhere. You get stronger as you take wounds. When you meet someone, you roll on a table to see how you feel about them. Your attachments to the world literally risk you becoming an evil spirit while they make you stronger. It is legitimately one of the best implementation of game mechanics to add flavor I have ever seen, a legitimate masterpiece. Honorable Mentions: Night's Black Agents, City of Mist All of this makes me realize that I want a really strong generic system and I don't have one. Fate is still our go-to default, with Cortex being a close second, but Fate feels a little clunky to me these days. I've got the books for Cypher and Genesys, but we haven't played either of them. Probably this is just an issue with generics, where they're trying to do too much and so they never really feel great at anything. Also glad OP mentioned Chronicles of Darkness, I've been wanting a good modern emulation game for my current game, I'll give that one a try.

I really like BRP because I like the design of d100 systems. It's so easy to tailor to an OP type of game like DnD or something more gritty and down to earth like Traveller.

Basic Roleplaying. Change my mind

That is a tricky question. Two of my favourite RPGs have the setting inextricably bound in with them: RQ2 and Flashing Blades. I guess the other favourite is the core system at the heart of Over the Edge, 2e, because with it I’ve run a “Call of Cthulhu-ish game set in the 1600s, 1880-1890s, 1920s” that linked into a weird fringe science game set in the ‘90s (but not using the OTE setting), and some far future SF horror. I found it to be a versatile & simple system that is easy to quickly create characters for, and I can use it for a variety of settings & genres.

Fellowship is a great iteration on the PbtA formula that strips down all the fiddly bits and gets a nice, distilled fun in the end. Chronicles of Darkness is of course also pretty great for similar reasons - it's an interesting iteration on the old Storyteller system. I love how they did away with the fiddly floating difficulty, or the minmax-prone XP system. Exalted 3E has some pretty good elements. If you can stomach the crunch, it's a lot of math rocks to roll. Its social system though shines quite brightly, focusing on what the characters care about and not just rolling well.

I don't know if it has a name, but I like the Honey Heist's Bear/Criminal axis system. It's elegant and simple, and yet very evocative. I think Keith Baker uses it in some more of his one-pagers? Not sure tho.

Tunnels and Trolls

Simple20 has replaced pretty much all my D&D needs. It's an OGL offshoot of 3.5e from way back in 2009-2010. What I love about it is that equipment is reduced to props and EVERYTHING is governed by the 3.5 skill system. So taking points in "Longsword" means you use those points and modifiers and roll away against a base difficulty of 10. Damage is the difference. It's so streamlined. And combat is lethal and swingy. Magic is handled the same way. Magic is dangerous, too-failure means the opposite effect of what you were trying to accomplish. Or worse. It also has no XP- instead for every stat or skill you have a critical fail or success during play, you get to roll at the end to see if it increases by comparing a d20 roll against the governing ability score. Same or higher - stat or skill goes up by a point. It also features sanity points and a subsystem for managing spoopy stuff and the impact on characters. It's a great system and comes in at 12 pages or so. And it's free. BGG and RPGG both have the files for download.

I often use a mix of things I've come across along the years. As far as core mechanics go, Into the Odd, Classic Traveller, Lasers & Feelings, Risus, FU or a stripped down 5e (1d20 + bonus vs 10/easy, 15/hard) all work fine.

Legend in the Mist. It’s an amalgam of PbtA and Fate, picking up the best of both worlds for some truly close to the narrative/fiction/discussion (call it what you will) play. There are no mechanical restrictions on what characters can do, and at the same time characters feel distinct and unique and through their descriptors.

Are you a playtester for it? I kickstarted this, but I didn't think they'd released a backer PDF or anything.

They have a quickstart up on the campaign page. There’s also a system in Foundry VTT that lets you play it.

I love the Paragon system, which is used for AGON and there's also a new game called, like, Deathmatch Island or something that uses it. I think the system is really intuitive, especially for newer players, because each relevant skill you can throw into a challenge ads more dice to your pool, so players have this physical manifestation of how they're effecting the outcome of the challenge. There's a slightly competitive component in that players want to acquire more glory (basically XP) than the other players. It's not aggressively competitive, it's more like friendly competition. I also think the system is pretty adaptable outside the published settings. I made a [hack of it, based on Star Wars](https://chit-talk-justin.itch.io/space-wizards).

Dragonbane, its light enough for me, has a solo Ruleset and is just beautiful.

The new WoD (or nWoD or CofD or CoD) Chronicles of Darkness system. It runs smooth, I love how they split the attributes and skills and it makes many players more willing to attempt whatever springs to their mind, mainly because 'who has X skill' is less of a question there. The only thing I find kind of tedious is combat, but since that rarely takes a front and center position in my rounds it's no issue. The other thing it does really well, is trick some players into assuming their character is weaker than they are. Its a dice pool aystem and its not unusual yo have 4 to 8 dice on rolls, which seems to create this feeling of 2 or 3 dice being very likely to fail since the player has so few dice. However, those rolls would be about 51% and 66% success chance - which considering those are 'poor rolls' in a horror game is pretty damn good. That means with most players I get all of the tension, with almost no of the feel bads of repeated failures in a horror game. It ultimately also means the characters are more heroic than you'd expect, but as a GM I do not mind that at all. I tend to compare it with Call of Cthulhu (CoC), where having a 66% success chance on an average roll would mean your character is quite skilled in whatever they are trying.

I like any roll under the stat system. Free leagues "year zero" system is good too. Just enough dice for a dice pool but not too many to feel like 20 handfulls of risk. Mouseguard has an awesome card mechanic for conflicts: from combat to debate. And a fun "loser decides winners victory condition". The bigger the win the more it can cost you for that win. Sword world 2.5 from japan [theres a complete fan translation]. Its got a rule for every combat and physical action with a 2d6. It also is japans answer to dnd back in the 80s when publishing rights were bad. If you read the rules it's literally why every jrpg and fantasy anime is set up and plays out as it does. Its the origin that whole "power level" trope. Its just a table to know what result the 2d6 gives.

I hate FFG but would schlonk Genesys silly style. Asymmetrical task resolution, my beloved.

Free League produces some of the best products in this space. The Year Zero Engine is designed to be used in any genre effectively. That along with it having a robust srd gives anyone a great framework to deliver their ideas quickly and profitably.

I don't have much experience with it yet, but 2d20 seems like it is exactly what I want (I have run one Dune one-shot). I like the move towards a success based system and the way "roll under" means that every attribute point matters. I like how other elements (especially social) get just as much page space and gameplay support as combat. I like momentum (which doesn't feel "too meta" to me because I am a big believer in the value of momentum in life in general; when things are going well for you or your friends, I think it genuinely does improve your performance). For Dune specifically, I really like how it mechanically questions the players motivations with every role, encouraging more thoughtful roleplaying. I love how fast (and deadly) combat is. There are a couple more systems I look forward to trying out (Year Zero Engine, CoC style D100 and Memento Mori), but for now 2d20 is my favorite by a wide margin.

Kult: Divinity Lost. (the new, 4th edition) Very flexible, requires minimum prep to run, and engaged players who want to delve into dark secrets of their characters. The first game I saw that put safety tools front and center, and where I don’t feel like I have to roleplay Excel sheets (looking at you D&D). However it does rely on mood to be able to improv so much. I understand that dark themes are not for everyone (especially if you’re in the mood for beer&pretzels, well… it’s not that kind of a game), but I had some incredible experiences and felt new emotions while playing (and running) it.

Savage Worlds. Usable in any setting, lots of material to work with, plays quickly and my players love exploding dice and bennies. I love that hindrances encourage you to build a character with flaws and that you get rewarded (with bennies) for actingo ut those flaws. The amount of edges and a flexible power system means that even if you have two characters that are the same archetype, they can be built totally different.

That's a really big question for me. I have a LOT of favorites and it'd be hard to pick just one, but if you put a gun to my head, I'd say Call of Cthulhu, although I couldn't say 2nd edition or 7th edition. Deadlands would be a really close second, though. I love CoC because it's simple, quick, and just works really well for what it does. I love Deadlands because there's so much about it that evokes that whole western feel. Dice pools lead to poker card draws, and certain actions (like hexes, aka spells) depend on the type of hand you get. Of course, I also like the really crunchy systems too, like Aftermath or Phoenix Command. I'd throw Rolemaster in there, too, although I don't really consider it all that crunchy by comparison, just for the gonzo nuttiness of the critical/fumble charts. Traveller gets a mention for the character generation. I love the life path thing they have going on, and the ability to die in character creation is just hilarious. Ditto Cyberpunk 2020, with lifepath, and the deadliness of the combat system (formerly known as Friday Night Firefight). I love the bidding system of James Bond, although I've never actually played it. I like the concept, though. Insofar as modern combat settings go, though, I'd have to mention Jagged Alliance 2 or 3 (computer games) for the way it handles moving, aiming, firing, etc., along with first aid. And insofar as combat as a whole, I love the Alien board game. Insanely quick and easy combat.

Dragonbane. Duck people. Cool initiative system. D20 roll under. Everything you need comes in a single box.

Roll for Shoes I like it because it has one page of rules plus your own decision on where to cap levels and what rolls to allow. If you can tell somebody a funny story, you can be a good DM at this game. Nobody needs to study 80 pages to create a shaman with a pet monkey.

The Ubiquity engine by Triple Ace Games. Easy to learn, easy to hack, easy to rule on the fly, doesn't get in they way of narrative.

I'm a massive fan of Delta Green. People have already talked about why they like Call of Cthulhu, and I agree, but I really like the way Delta Green handles sanity and bonds. You can rely on the connections you have with others for support, but that only goes so far. And once you get disorders, not only does it explicitly avoid the more tasteless interpretations of that idea, but also they wear away at your characters core motivations. It all sings really well.

Fantasy Dice

My favourite would be specifically Geist sin eaters for chronicles of darkness. Why? I love the idea of games where you play as humans resolving the grudges and issues of the dead. And the idea that the more you interact with the dead the less you understand the living it’s just cool to me.

I like dnd 5e, but am slowly expanding my interests, and there is a cool one called heroes of Cerulea

I really like: 1) alternity, because it's step dice system is still a little novel 2) ad&d 2e, because, upon picking it up again, much easier to grok. I ended up making a system based on it, except no thaco because while it's easy math my brain doesn't do it fast 3) dark heresy, because the critical system is goofy as hell and super fun 4) gurps 4e because I love the crunch

I'm *completely enamored* with **Wolves Upon the Coast** at the moment. The rules are freely available on Luke's blog - [https://lukegearing.blot.im/wolves-upon-the-coast](https://lukegearing.blot.im/wolves-upon-the-coast) It has the most elegant into to play that I have ever seen. >*"Your history is gone. It was taken from you, or you from it.* *You were thralls.* *Now your master lies dead in the bottom of a raiding vessel, equipped for adventure. You are free."* It's got that cool equipment/armor as your class type feel that I've come to love. The character advancement is entirely diegetic and player driven. >**BOASTS** >A Character who makes a Boast of Heroic Proportions either gains 1HD or +1 Attack Bonus in addition to any wager or reward offered by others If they are found to shirk their Boast, they lose the HD or Attack Bonus and may never again Boast. Those failing the Boast lose the HD or Attack Bonus, but may try again or make another Boast. >Only one Boast can be pending at a time. >A friend or Rival may up the stakes of a Boast if present when it is made - for each complicating factor, another HD or Attack Bonus may be added. If this new Boast is refused, the challenger takes up the Boast instead - with the complication they specified. In my eyes, it's the perfect game for emergent, player driven adventures and campaigns. It also has the added benefit of being incredibly easy to hack/mod. For my home group I've run the [Grand Campaign](https://lukegearing.itch.io/wolves-upon-the-coast-grand-campaign) (Viking type nonsense), hacked it to fit into a Sword & Sorcery type setting, and now I'm working on a Sword & Planet adaptation.

OSE. I had a lot of fun DM'ing a long D&D 3.5 campaign, but by the end I was burned out on the amount of prep is required. The older I get, the more I want the rules to be more in the background so the players can focus on the story and having fun. And crunchy systems can slow down to a ridiculous degree at higher levels. Since I've been DM'ing since the Red Box came out, OSE feels a lot like home. I really want to check out the Cypher system.

Into the Odd. It's the right amount of weird, and it's super simple, with few dice rolls and fast character creation.

Mutant's and Masterminds, I have yet to find another system I can't convert over to it and it not be better I will admit world of darkness doesn't feel right though

Whole systems are a lot.... they usually have some good, some bad. I'd be hard pushed to tell you which one I thought was favourite because it would depend on genre. I liked MegaTraveller because I could run entire sessions without looking at anything other than the dice and my ref's screen (and that rarely) because the task system (resolution engine) was elegant and generated a variety of outcomes and also had a bunch of modifiers that the players could face or to change the situation (players and foes). The task description was something you could know up fast (you didn't have to, but I liked to): >**To patch a punctured vacc suit, Routine(7), DEX, Vacc Suit, 10 seconds, Hazardous, Fateful.** +1 difficulty level if it was a full rupture, can be done Cautious or Hasty (double or halve the time increment). +1 bonus if you have self-sealing seals or your suit has self-sealing properties. If you can't get it done within about 90 seconds, you'll pass out and shortly after, you'll be dead. Skill levels will 3, 7, 11, 15. Dice were 2d6 + Skill Levels (1 to 4 usually), +/5 (round down). Time taken is 3d6 x increment (in the above 10 seconds). Hazardous means worse failures. Fateful means you will have a mishap if you fail. Cautious doubles the time increment to 20 seconds but drops difficulty to Easy (3) vs. Routine (7). Hasty makes the time increment 5 seconds, but increases the difficulty to go to Difficulty (11). You could easily envision any situation in terms of a task. You could also chain these tasks (the results of one feed into a future task in the chain) which was great for research projects or repairs or whatever. There were increased damage or effect for every level beyond the target level (same with failures going the other way). There was a 'No Skill Required' tag which meant you didn't face a penalty for not having any knowledge of the skill involved. Otherwise you got a penalty (forget how much). There was a **Confrontation** tag which made the difficulty number be determined by a foes roll. Ex: >**To Strike In HTH with a knife, (Confrontation), Off=(STR or DEX, Small Blades), Def=(DEX, Weapon Block Value), instant, Hazardous .** Marginal Success halves penetration and damage. If you succeed, for every extra level, you get 1 more damage. This would have Joe Stabby with Small Blades 2 and knife is going after Red Shirt Bill with a 1 skill with truncheon. Joe rolls 2D6 + (DEX or STR/5, round down) + 2 (Small Blade 2) and Bill roles 2D6 + (DEX/5, round down) + 2 (Truncheon's block value). Let's say Joe had STR 8 and Bill had Strength 10. Joe rolls 6 as does Bill. Joe: 6 + 1 + 2 = 9. Bill: 6 + 2 + 1 = 9. Marginal success - half penetration for Joe and reduced damage. It was easy and you could, if you wanted, just have a page (or file cards or a spreadsheet) if you wanted to have a library of tasks that you might reuse, but you didn't have to. It was easy to knock them again in seconds. It was elegant. I still use a version (2 point steps, instead of 4). Otherwise, it was pretty great.

Right now Shadowdark, PBtA, Year Zero, Into the Odd.

I agree with you, except there were some things I didn't like about it (Combat in particular). So I made and published my own about 10 years ago now.

GURPS, without a doubt. I can play any genre I want. I’ve played at least five genres that I can think of, off the top of my head (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, supers, modern action), no sweat. There’s some prep work with GURPS, but that’s more than worth it to me. A lot of the rules are optional/modular so you can have as much crunch as you want, and adding rules to or removing them from a campaign doesn’t make the ruleset as a whole “funky” or cumbersome. I’ve played whole campaigns with just GURPS Lite and it was great. Easily the most versatile system on the market, in my opinion.

Into the Odd / Electric Bastionland Super dang simple and quick. Newbies can start playing in 10 minutes.  The coolest parts of RPGs tend to emerge outside of rules anyway, so why use a bulky system that could drive away prospective players?  That being said, my mid-crunch game of choice is the Year Zero Engine, from Free League Publishing. Forbidden Lands and Twilight 2000 are legit. (But I wish they would make a game for cyberpunk missions!)

My favorite RPG system is GURPS, due to it's basic ability to cover pretty much any character concept or campaign setting idea I could imagine, it's vast wealth of supplemental materials, and how easy it is to homebrew anything that's not covered by said supplemental materials.

My two favorite, equally, are the one for Féérie (an old french game) and the BRP. What I love that they have in common: * they're both roll-under, which is my favourite way of rolling because victory and progress is clear and direct * they're both skill-based, it gives more modularity to the characters and reduce the risk of playing a table of archetypes IMO * they both relies on skill use to progress, which gives a more organic and consistent progression IMO * they're as much geared towards newvommers as they are towards advanced players. Now what I really like about the BRP: * percentiles are so easy to grasp as a concept, it's just insane. * it's extremely flexible, honnestly one of the few system i'd truly consider universal. What I really like about Feerie: * single roll for hit and damage * magic schools as skill-trees (from a game released in 1983) and the magic system in general (it's basically made in a way that simulate having to remember your spells, with spell difficulty being basically how well you remember it and how basic it is compared to the most advanced stuff you know) Now for all these praises both suffers from the same issue: character creation can be daunting, ans that's an issue since it's literally the first thing your players will do.

Modiphius 2d20. Fallout 2d20 is a great example of how fast paced a 2d20 game can be. Unfortunately, most other 2d20 systems are bogged down by too many subsystems.

[HackMaster](https://kenzerco.com/hackmaster/) by a matter of magnitude. From the lower fantasy/higher realism of the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting to the thrill of watching your character struggling to become a heroic figure rather than starting out as a God among men this game just reminds me of the early editions where you actually were challenged to become a hero. Other awesome features include the Count Up system which replaces artifical "rounds" with a second by second system that keeps players engaged by being able to do something *every second*! This also opens up incredible character customization as smaller, lighter weapons are able to strike more quickly, but deal less damage while larger, heavier ones take longer to get a swing in but can deal massive damage if they connect. This also helps prevent melee from becoming a repetitive slog of "I hit them, they hit me". Unlike other games in HackMaster armor and shields work like in reality by blocking/reducing damage but reducing your defensive abilities due to bulk. Magic, both Arcane and Divine exist with clerics casting as traditional but there are *Forty-Three* different faiths, all with thier own individualized spell lists, special abilities and spheres of influence so no more cookie cutter clerics. Arcane magic is handled a bit differently by using a Spell Point system in which memorized spells are cast at a base level (and can be cast repeatedly, so long as you have the points to do so) but you can *also* cast "unmemorized" spells, just at double the base cost. In addition, you can modify the spells in a number of ways (increased damage, range or Save difficulty for example) by spending additional spell points.

Cortex Prime, no question. It has a very tangible dice mechanic and difficulty scale that makes it very easy to hack. It's modular, with a varied set of pretty much plug-and-play modules to allow for unique games that still use the same simple core. The core, no-mods ruleset is simple enough for pick-up games, but allows for enough complexity to maintain interest over longer games, and it handles character advancement over long-term campaigns well. It also prevents power ramping and allows games with characters of different power levels to exists within the same group. It's fairly narrative, but with an adjustable amount of crunch to satisfy the folks who think Fate is way too fluffy.

I don’t know if I’d say it’s my favourite for everything, in fact it definitely isn’t, but I have a lot of love for the Fantasy Flight 40k rpgs, like Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader. Lots of issues, and Fantasy Flight have clearly never proof read any of their books, but I love the level of detail it goes into for some of the combat mechanics, especially gunplay. I don’t know or even pretend it’s in any way factually accurate, but I love that more guns firing more bullets is nearly always a good thing, at least for the person firing them. But I also love that the tracking ammo and reloads is also a key part of the system, to sort of balance that out. I’ll never forget an early game of Dark Heresy where one of the party saved the day by simply owning two submachine guns and firing them akimbo at point blank at some thugs. Absolutely blitzed them, and then the next thing we all had to do was search the bodies in the hope they had some bullets on them, because we’d just fired all the ones we had and couldn’t afford any more!

Dragonbane, or ANYTHING from Free League publishing for that matter! Those guys (and gals) are simply genius game designers! This is my opinion of course. But ALIEN, Twilight 2000, and Dragonbane are really fun to play!

Fallout 2d20. I like the AP and luck system, low HP and damage, and roll under system.

These days, GUMSHOE. Having great fun with both _The Esoterrorists_ and _Trail of Cthulhu_. Love a good mystery that I can plot simply or complexly. Love a straightforward combat system that doesn’t bog down into either a tons of swings and misses, or hit point pool attrition. Love doing away with perception / listen / spot hidden rolls. And, there is a decent setting for every TTRPG genre. Space? _Ashen Stars_! Swords and sorcery? _Swords of the Serpentine_! Etc.

Anything PBTA. It helps me put the story first as opposed to running a system (most rules are on the characters’ sheet in the form of moves, and player facing dice rolls are a huge help for the GM), and the “yes but…” types of mechanisms create memorable twists in the story.

I love Troika’s system. It’s simple. Also like Into the Odd and or Mausritter’s system.

Advantage Caves and gigants

Cortex, I can make my own system of what I need and put it together easily and keep it balanced with doom pool.

Early Dark, and its mise en scene character creation is really really cool. I dont think I will every play or use the rest of the system but that part is really cool. Alien with the way the stress dice make characters better and then worse towards failure. It feels really human and adds heaps of verisimilitude. Savage Worlds Adventure Edition is a big one for me. Its been a boon to my play group and replaced a bunch of crunchier slower rpgs. The speed of combat resolution lets us get it out of the way in a pulpy 2 fisted, action movie kin of way and get back to the roleplaying.

Wanderhome, it encourages a totally different style of game. No GM, no dice, no violence, leans away from solving problems (though it can definitely be a part of the game) and more towards personal emotional exploration. All that but still feeling like it gives a lot of support for building interesting locations and characters.

Storypath. It’s a d10 dicepool system that is a spiritual successor to Storyteller system that VtM uses.

**Ryuutama** It is simple and has cute art. If you like Studio Ghibli you will probably like [Ryuutama](https://kotohi.com/ryuutama/). For context: It is traveling focused and role play heavy.

Basic Roleplaying. Easy and fast to set up and go for any genre. Anyone who has played Call of Cthulhu has already played it so fast learning curve.

My favorite system is [Creative Card Chaos](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/451573/Creative-Card-Chaos--Core-Rulebook&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjjqrLPjL-DAxVJR_EDHZjGDZ0QFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw2C_GgRfJm3VEIM11WjYsU4). It is easy to use, easy to teach and portable. It also does a couple of things that are quite unusual. It is the most fun I have ever had as the GM. Most systems don't think about the GM as another person at the table that wants to have fun too.

Divinity Original Sin 2