Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Long Answer to a Short Question: Favorite RPG You Never Get to Play

Post not interesting?  Just add Red Sonja.
I don't do many of the day-to-day blog things.  This month there is #RPGaDay.  I've entered a few of those.  But once in a while one get me to thinking.  Or gets me to look at my gaming shelves and wonder what the hell was I thinking.  Today's question is what is your favorite RPG you never get to play?  I've a group of them.  And here they are in no particular order.

As I scan my shelves I see Hackmaster.  Love the idea of the game, but never had a chance to play it.  We attempted to make characters one night and when we were into the second hour of creation we bailed.  Still, I'd like to see how it runs.  I also have the fancy books of Hackmaster Basic.  Beautiful books, but they sit on my shelf only to be taken down once in a while to be browsed through.

Beside my Hackmaster books are my Pendragon books.   I've had these for years.  I'm still attempting to collect them all.  I've written adventures using Pendragon background.  But I have never played the Pendragon system.  I like low fantasy settings.  Magic is scarce or just a background element while the humans struggle with their own drama.

Pathfinder would fall into this category also.  I've got a big batch of their books, even have an adventure path, but never played it.  I wasn't into 3.5 all that much.  During it's heyday I was deeply immersed in GURPS.  Pathfinder being the 2.0 of 3.5 is something I way always interested in playing, but haven't yet.  With it's strong following I may yet.

Some of the Drama Systems, like Hillfolk and Dungeon World interest me.  I've got the rule books, but haven't read them thoroughly.  Browsed the pages and found some cool stuff that I would like to see how it plays.

There are a handful of old school systems that I haven't played, but would like to give them a go sometime.  To name a few: Adventures Dark & Deep, Scarlet Heroes, Fantasy Heroes & Witchery, Ambition & Avarice.  There are a couple systems that I have played one or two sessions with, but would love to use them in a campaign such as The Neoclassical Geek Revival and DCC.

But the winner right now, the system that has my attention that I want to develop adventures for and to run is Exoterrorists.  I guess GUMSHOE would be the system and Exoterrorists it the setting.  I can see running multi-session, episodal adventures.

15 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed esoterrorists, it's one of the most memorable campaigns my group has ever done. The only problem is that it's a real slog making adventures for it because of the intricate interlocking of the clues and the need for it to all make enough sense for the players to figure things out.

    Fortunately there's a ton of excellent adventures published by Pelgrane Press, months and months of games worth of them.

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  2. I don't know why I keep calling it exoterrorists. I grab one or two of the adventures to see how the build one. It does look like the construction of the adventures is detail oriented, but I think that's part of the draw for me. Plus is would be very easy to do episodes with it.

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  3. So you know the Hackmaster we tired was 4e which is a souped up AD&D on steroids. Hackmaster Basic is 5e and a different game altogether although still D&Dish fantasy. I wouldn't mind trying out a session of HM Basic as a player or referee.

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    1. Yup. Remember I got you to buy it...and not use it. Yeah, running a Hackmaster 5e game would be fun.

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    2. LOL yeah, I even ended up with TWO gamemaster guide. But hey thanks to Zachary's blog I started looking at various random tables and they will be really handy to use as idea generators. So it will see some use.

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  4. If you head on over to the KenzerCo forums (http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/forum.php) you might find somebody local to try the game with. My home group has been sporadic lately, but if you are in the Boise area on a Sunday evening you could try HackMaster with us.

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    1. Boise may be out of my range, but I will keep it in mind. Not sure how Frugal it would be. ;)

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  5. I'll put Crypts & Things, Cyberpunk 2020, and Savage Worlds as the games I want to play, but can't get my gaming group to do (with any sort of consistency, anyway).

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    1. BTW Tim, are you running a Cob game this year? If so, can I claim a seat now?

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    2. I haven't submitted anything yet. I need to get on the ball. I think I'll be going for the full four days.

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    3. I'm thinking about running an Aliens Colonial Marines game...

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  6. I'm in. Hopefully this time I won't be so damn sick.

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  7. I've also had Hackmaster sitting on my shelf. I like the way combat appears to run with simultaneous action. I've thought about perhaps just lifting that part out to play with D&D 5e...

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