2E domains of dread

Shadow of the Demon Lord Core Revised is top on my list. I'd have to agree with WFRP 1E being pretty darned good as well, if only I still had a copy other than on pdf. And I do really like the new Fading Suns stuff and Solar Blades & Coamic Spells a lot too.

Best?

I like games where 1 book can generate 100+ awesome sessions.

For me, the first purchase that achieved that was Gamma World 1e. While its not "the best" game book, it certainly has been responsible for far more awesome fun sessions than most of my other single book purchases. 

Quote from: Spinachcat on August 26, 2021, 07:54:17 PM
Best?

I like games where 1 book can generate 100+ awesome sessions.

For me, the first purchase that achieved that was Gamma World 1e. While its not "the best" game book, it certainly has been responsible for far more awesome fun sessions than most of my other single book purchases.

By that criteria, I'd change my vote to Toon.  Lot of good gaming out of one pretty thin book.  Even more if you take the bigger, later edition which retained everything good about the original except the light physical weight.

Quote from: Jam The MF on July 29, 2021, 09:01:26 PM
What's the Single Best RPG Book, you can think of?

Gamemastering by Brian Jamison

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on August 27, 2021, 08:07:04 AM

Quote from: Spinachcat on August 26, 2021, 07:54:17 PM
Best?

I like games where 1 book can generate 100+ awesome sessions.

For me, the first purchase that achieved that was Gamma World 1e. While its not "the best" game book, it certainly has been responsible for far more awesome fun sessions than most of my other single book purchases.

By that criteria, I'd change my vote to Toon.  Lot of good gaming out of one pretty thin book.  Even more if you take the bigger, later edition which retained everything good about the original except the light physical weight.

GURPS is my jam and yet I think Toon is probably the best RPG material SJG ever released.

Quote from: Dropbear on August 25, 2021, 07:11:17 PMShadow of the Demon Lord Core Revised is top on my list.

I've been going back and forth on getting this one. What would you say makes it so great?

Earthdawn 1st ED.

Still to this day, any system I run for the background OS for my game world will always have some Earthdawn flavoring added into it.  Always.

Magic items that grow with you, Blood Magic & Weaving elemental magic into items.  Yes please!

I've been helping my daughter learn the Earthdawn rule system because she wants to run it for her group of friends

Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering.

Robin Laws is a TTRPG genius of a sort. Grabbed the pdf off of Warehouse 23 on a lark and it completely changed how I run games. Rather than a focus on the PCs, the work stresses knowing what kinds of players are at your table and what they want to experience in-game. RLoGGG improved everything for everyone at the table, including me.

Honorary Mention: GURPS Third edition. You can do ANYTHING with those rules and that library of supplements.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser on August 28, 2021, 08:22:17 PM

Quote from: Dropbear on August 25, 2021, 07:11:17 PMShadow of the Demon Lord Core Revised is top on my list.

I've been going back and forth on getting this one. What would you say makes it so great?

The things that appeal to me the most about Shadow of the Demon Lord are as follows:

- No expansive skill lists to track; professions are used to detail what a character knows and can do instead.

- Ease of determining attribute modifiers; any attribute's value over 10 provides a die bonus equal to the number over 10 (11= +1, 12 = +2, etc.)

- Character creation is set - your ancestry provides base stats - and random, as you roll for many other attributes of your character as well, making it quick and easy to jump in on yet varied.

- Paths provide an interesting alternative to classes in many other games. You have your novice, expert, and master paths which can follow a progression of providing a narrower array abilities improving at an increasing rate, or can follow a progression of providing a broader array of abilities.

- Leveling up is done as a group and without having to track experience points; no experience modifiers, no differing xp tracks to follow that leave party members at varying levels within the group.

- Target number ease in pass/fail rolls; your target's Defense rating for attacks, or a 10 for challenge rolls.

- Less roll modifiers; rather than positive or negative numbers cascading into a dozen modifiers for a roll, boons (d6s added to a roll) and banes (d6s subtracted from a roll) are more commonly used. If you have multiple boons and banes on a roll, they cancel each other out until whatever you have left, boon, bane, or none, are applied to your roll. When multiples of boons or banes are rolled, the highest of them count for or against your roll.

- Hit Point (Health) bloat is not nearly as bad as in the vast majority of RPGs that use hit dice. Your character will start out with an average of 10, with any Strength bonus. Level up provides maybe one or two additional Health per level, maybe a little more if you get a Strength bonus as well. This makes combat being something that can be lethal more easy to portray in-game than say 5E or Pathfinder.

- A character isn't a superhero at first level. Starting characters don't even have a level until they complete their first adventure.

- Magic is something everyone can do if they are willing to pay the price, but it isn't something everyone can necessarily be good at.

- The basic premise behind the setting is that evil has already won and a slow (or fast, if you're an evil GM) spiral towards decay is inevitable. But you can utilize the rule set with a setting of your own design just as easily. I did this (and plan on continuing to do this) with my Days of the Lost setting.

All of these things, and more, I find appealing about the game. You might or might not agree with some or all of them. If you decide to make the leap, I hope you enjoy it!

Sorry it took a bit for me to respond, I've been working six days on this week for twelve hours, and have made time for little else but sleep when not working. And I'm not entirely sure I had the notification of replies on, although it is now.

Quote from: Dropbear on August 29, 2021, 07:38:51 PMSorry it took a bit for me to respond, I've been working six days on this week for twelve hours, and have made time for little else but sleep when not working. And I'm not entirely sure I had the notification of replies on, although it is now.

No problem at all, thanks for getting back to me.

I confess that I've never been a big fan of "dark world" type games where the strong implication is that the best you can do is slow the fall of night (cf. Warhammer, CoC, WoD etc.), but I may see if I can find a hardcopy to flip through and see if the rules have good ideas. Thanks again for the note.

Pirates of Drinax

Quote from: Pirates of DrinaxPossibly the greatest RPG campaign of all time - The Pirates of Drinax is a truly epic sandbox campaign that grants the Travellers a Letter of Marque and then lets them loose across an entire sector and nearly 600 pages of adventure to find their own destiny. Included is the Trojan Reach sector, Aslan characters and many new ships!

I think I'd have to go with TMNT. That single book gave my gaming groups hundreds of hours of gaming by itself, and then hundreds more once they added supplements. I'm a little sad that the license lapsed and they couldn't relicense it for whatever reason. I imagine it just got too expensive.

Quote from: therealjcm on September 01, 2021, 04:06:50 PM
I think I'd have to go with TMNT. That single book gave my gaming groups hundreds of hours of gaming by itself, and then hundreds more once they added supplements. I'm a little sad that the license lapsed and they couldn't relicense it for whatever reason. I imagine it just got too expensive.

If you are mainly interested in the game system, they filed the TMNT serial numbers off and rereleased it as After the Bomb.

Quote from: Squidi on September 01, 2021, 04:46:47 PM
If you are mainly interested in the game system, they filed the TMNT serial numbers off and rereleased it as After the Bomb.

I happened across that in the Bundle of Holding a few months back. I'm haven't had a chance to really dig into it yet and run a game, but I'm hoping that it holds up.