Best impulse purchase

Rincewind1 · December 25, 2011, 10:28:36 PM

I heard some bad things about Trail of Cthulhu, after I heard few of my friends ridiculing it, and I bought a PDF to join in on it.

The game had become one of my favourite gaming systems, replacing Call of Cthulhu for my horror games.

Skywalker · December 25, 2011, 11:40:03 PM

Probably the 4e Core Set recently. I was a staunch hater of 4e but something wouldn't let me not buy it when it was in the store (probably having bought the last three editions on release). It provided me with a lot of great gaming in 2008 to 2010 and was probably the consistently best D&D experiences I have had since I started playing the RPG.

Ancientgamer1970 · December 25, 2011, 11:47:37 PM

I do not do IMPULSE PURCHASES.

Benoist · December 25, 2011, 11:53:52 PM

Gamma World using 4e D&D rules.

"Oh but noes u just a haterz from K&K how can dat B!"

Tetsubo · December 26, 2011, 07:26:13 AM

Quote from: Rincewind1;497260I heard some bad things about Trail of Cthulhu, after I heard few of my friends ridiculing it, and I bought a PDF to join in on it.

The game had become one of my favourite gaming systems, replacing Call of Cthulhu for my horror games.

Is that the one using Gumshoe?

Ghost Whistler · December 26, 2011, 07:40:43 AM

I'm going to say SLA INdustries, even though it had a lot of faults, a stupid 'truth', and required a sourcebook to make it 'click' (Karma). I brought this from Virgin Megastore way back when after MAge the Ascension wasn't yet available. I was all set to pick that up and saw this instead and, money burning a hole, gave it a whirl. At times there were moments of genuine gothic baroque brilliance. At other times it seemed contrived and confused (Mr 'Slayer'? Seriously?)

Rincewind1 · December 26, 2011, 10:49:52 AM

Quote from: Tetsubo;497333Is that the one using Gumshoe?

Yes it is, and I found it exactly what I was looking for when I was running CoC games. I highly recommend it.

Benoist · December 26, 2011, 04:18:42 PM

Narrative-bullshit be damned, I'd like to try Trail one of these days. I suspect that, much like WoD games, you can actually ignore all that 'story'-based bullshit and have a blast with this game. I'd give it a shot with a competent GM at least.

Rincewind1 · December 26, 2011, 04:21:22 PM

Quote from: Benoist;497428Narrative-bullshit be damned, I'd like to try Trail one of these days. I suspect that, much like WoD games, you can actually ignore all that 'story'-based bullshit and have a blast with this game. I'd give it a shot with a competent GM at least.

It's a great game, but I admit that in a game where there'd be a lot of rolling (for example, a survival horror game) CoC is superior. I ran investigative games when I played CoC, and ToC just relieves me of the "Shit, they won't find this clue if they all fail this test, so I hand it out anyway" hypocrisy on my GMing part. Right tool for the right job, so to speak. Plus, the spends system is really nice once you get the hang of it. I'd not call it a strictly "narrativist" type of game, since thanks to spends, players still influence the scenario, and there's still some rolling, especially when the proverbial brown stuff hits the proverbial paddle.

I'd invite you to my game tomorrow, but you probably won't make it

.

Benoist · December 26, 2011, 04:24:10 PM

If anything, it's actually great to get to read Trail as a CoC fan, because of all the awesome stuff produced for the game by Kenneth Hite et al. I mean, some of the supplements are sooo impressive. Then you just pick them up and run them with CoC if you feel like it.

I just don't think of Trail as a competitor to CoC. Nothing beats CoC when it's with good players and a good Keeper, IMO.

Rincewind1 · December 26, 2011, 04:29:15 PM

They do give Chaosium a run for their money when it comes to supplements - especially Bookhounds of London and Dying of St Margarete, and that's a lot considering Horror in Orient Express & Masks.

Personally I think the mix of both systems'd be perfect - replacing General Abilities (save Sanity & Stability but that's discussable) with CoC's mechanics.

As for CoC vs ToC conflict (which is really mild considering the edition wars of DnD or even WFRP) - I follow a simple rule, since I have a friend who prefers CoC. When he GMs and wants to play CoC, I may whine a bit, but I play CoC. When I GM - he may whine a bit, but he plays ToC.

danbuter · December 26, 2011, 07:40:07 PM

Overall, my best impulse buy would probably be Rifts. I picked it up based purely on the artwork in the early 90s, while I was in the Navy. I ended up running it for over a year with a group on the ship.

jeff37923 · December 26, 2011, 08:05:28 PM

Quote from: Tetsubo;496811So, what has been the game you bought on a whim and we shocked to discover was really quite good?

Decades ago when I was 13, the LBB boxed set of Classic Traveller.

RPGPundit · December 27, 2011, 08:17:13 AM

Probably my best impulse purchase in recent years was the Pendragon and GPC books. I found them while vacationing in Vancouver, and had no idea of the rarity they'd achieved even by then, or of how incredible the GPC really was (though paging through it was what convinced me that these books would be worth buying).

This was in the same store where I bought over 1000 pages worth of RIFTS books for $15.

RPGPundit

Pseudoephedrine · December 27, 2011, 12:02:51 PM

The other really great gaming purchase I made was I once got ten steaks for under $20 because of some mad cow scare discount, and me and my gaming group, who were all poor university students working minimum wage dead-end summer jobs and who I had just met that summer, all ate steaks for a couple of days and hung out and became bros instead of just some dudes I played games with.