I confess that I'm looking straight at the Core 4 Classes in every ruleset I consider. I like the D & D tropes; so I need to scratch that itch. I'm fairly open minded, and willing to look at something different; as long as I can address those roles in an adventuring party.
How much time must I invest in making choices, and choices, and choices, before I can play the game?
Are the rules easy to learn? That's always important, too.
What is on your short list?
Quote from: Razor 007;1107709What is on your short list?
Something new and different.
Savage Worlds books and things Kevin Crawford makes.
Even then I'm transitioning into just following the KS for PEG and Kevin.
But regardless, I'm looking for those sweet sandbox campaign GM tools. I don't need some fancy new system that no group I play with will ever use. OSR stuff is at least broadly compatible. As long as whatever it is has sandbox tools and maybe the HD of npc/monster threats, I can work at the rest. Even if I'm running Savage Worlds it works out broadly;
1-3 HD: Novice/d6 extras
4 HD: Season/d8 extras
5 HD: Veteran/d10 extras
6 HD: Heroic/d12 extras
7+ HD: Legendary/d12+1 extras/d10 Wildcard
Dangerous combat with little to no HP bloating. Or if there is a mass of HP at least the ability to still one shot with a good roll.
Games like L5R 1st - 4th, Shadowrun 1st - 3rd, Silhouette system (Heavy Gear), WFRP 1st/2nd, Traveller, Alternity, and RoleMaster (MERP).
Short List:
-Art that sells the game to me, and any players I run it for. It doesn't need to be polished or professional, so long as it is engaging.
-Random content generation: character creation, world-building, improvisational tools, stuff that makes it easier for me to just roll up an adventure/NPC/location/objective in a few minutes.
-Mechanics that encourage player-driven game-play, so I can just react to the players.
Vehicle design grounded in physics and geometry, a spartan dearth of special case rules and kewl powerz.
Quote from: David Johansen;1107731Vehicle design grounded in physics and geometry, a spartan dearth of special case rules and kewl powerz.
Still waiting on that 4e VDS...
Good reviews from the right people, or a chance to playtest a major release would be the #1 consideration for a new RPG system.
An RPG needs to have something I might use somehow in my games, one way or another. Since I've mostly preferred TFT & GURPS to everything because of their tactical combat systems and non-trope-based logical simulationist approach, this means something I buy needs to have ONE or more of the following:
* Be TFT, GURPS, or a clone, or something similar or at least simulationist.
* Have some simulationist rule systems that do something better or different than TFT/GURPS does.
* Offer something I find inspiring, adaptable, or particularly interesting.
* Be on sale for cheap.
I don't think I've bought any system with the hope I might actually play it as is rather than put part of it in GURPS, since classic Traveller (which I ended up house-ruling TFT mechanics into), or Phoenix Command (which was overkill and too opaque for me).
Oh, though sometimes I buy something to see if I can steal some of the systems for merging into GURPS, such as Ars Magica (yes) or Mage: The Ascension (no!) for the magic system.
i.e. Anything without strong mapped tactical combat isn't something I'm liable to want to play much of.
Quote from: Antiquation!;1107741Still waiting on that 4e VDS...
Yeah, pretty much. Spacemaster Privateers or Fire Fusion and Steel or Greg Porter's T4 vehicle rules are all good. But SJG promised it as a fairly early GURPS 4 release and has never really gotten there. Heck a decently comprehensive GURPS Spaceships implementation that didn't require half a dozen Pyramid articles and fan sites even.
On the other hand, GURPS is drowning in special case rules, something I find myself disliking more and more as the years go by.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1107718Savage Worlds books and things Kevin Crawford makes.
Even then I'm transitioning into just following the KS for PEG and Kevin.
I can see that.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1107718But regardless, I'm looking for those sweet sandbox campaign GM tools. I don't need some fancy new system that no group I play with will ever use.
Yeah! You ought to start a movement. Instead of OSR you could call it NFNS (No Fancy New Systems.)
Maybe not, that's too close to NSFW.
Quote from: Alexander Kalinowski;1107710Something new and different.
Quote from: Conanist;1107764Good reviews from the right people, or a chance to playtest a major release would be the #1 consideration for a new RPG system.
I'm similar to these. I don't have a specific game I am looking for -- I'll play anything from Jane Austen to post-apocalyptic action. What I look for is stuff that's:
- Well edited, with attention to detail, references, and an index
- Ideally good components and support
- Easy to pick up and play
- Well playtested with good reviews
I'll playtest stuff for people who are friends, but if I'm dropping money on a stranger, I'd prefer to get stuff that I know for sure is good.
It's gotta crackle with raw electricity and wear its passion from its creators, but be clearly playable. I gotta feel "hey, this is a new take and I can feel the author's excitement".
Here's an old thread about AOS's BX Mars and after 3 years, we're finally getting the gonzo fruit of his gonzo labors. This is an example of what I look for. I have no idea if I'm gonna love the final product, but the creativity screams off the page.
https://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?35170-B-X-Mars-From-The-Metal-Earth
There are a couple of things that I've learned in the past few years from writing and publishing games and settings that have influenced my choices regarding gaming purchases:
1. Your setting writing and descriptions had better be useful to me as a GM (or player). I'm not reading a game for entertainment. I'm playing a game for entertainment. So why am I reading your material? For ideas. Every sentence about your setting had better include a plot hook, or a character idea, some sort of spark of an adventure for my game tonight, or better yet, an entire campaign. Yes. In every single sentence that you devote to your precious setting, there should be something useful to me, the person actually running/playing the game. I don't need to read your setting for any other reason. In fact, the only sentences in your game that do not have to evoke some gaming-related inspiration directly useful to me should be your system mechanics. And if your mechanics do inspire something, then all the better. If you're writing like this, then I might buy your game, even if I don't plan on playing it, because of the great ideas for my table that inspire me.
2. Give me well-organized charts, and NPC statistics, and simple ways of kludging together NPCs to throw at the player characters without having to absolutely master every single widget and mechanical lever in the rules.
3. Random encounter generators: this is a new demand for me, and something that I have grown to love since starting to run Stars Without Number games. If you give me random generators for encounters and NPCs (see above) that require ten minutes of my time, and will give me something to worldbuild with the players, then I will buy your game. But the encounter charts had better have some sort of design behind them. The encounter system in Twilight:2000 is a good example of what I mean: a set of encounter charts and generators that take into account the kind of environment the PCs are travelling through.
4. Layout and art are secondary, but still can be quite evocative.
I buy most 3rd-party game settings that are written for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. TAS stuff.
I want to see a new supplement for Southern Gondor and Haradwaith for Adventures in Middle Earth.
Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1107822I buy most 3rd-party game settings that are written for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. TAS stuff.
Working on some new Traveller adventures right now including many occurring on a very large well-mapped dual-asteroid Type B spaceport with about fifteen levels, and another adventure ticket where the players book passage on a 400 ton Merchant Liner that is hijacked (...and not by the players!) while it is in jump space.
I don't really have a list. If something strikes me I will buy it. I think if it looks like it would not be particularly gameable or like it has a lot of filler, those two things will increase my chances of passing on it.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1107868I don't really have a list. If something strikes me I will buy it. I think if it looks like it would not be particularly gameable or like it has a lot of filler, those two things will increase my chances of passing on it.
This describes me as well. Though lately I've been favoring:
- random / campaign generation tools
- point crawls as in Slumbering Ursine Dunes
- settings that explicitly are NOT medieval
Lately I've taken to the view that the "anything should be able to kill you" meme in OSR circles is the gaming equivalent of hipster-speak, and would like an OSR-styled (or adjacent) game explicitly tuned to a more "pulpy" or "cinematic" tone where running in guns a'blazing is a perfectly valid approach where you stand a reasonable chance of coming through it. It need not take character death off the table. I just would like something that plays a bit like "John Woo or Antoine Fuqua made a roleplaying game". Bonus points if it includes the above bullet points as well.
Quote from: SavageSchemer;1107870This describes me as well. Though lately I've been favoring:
- random / campaign generation tools
- point crawls as in Slumbering Ursine Dunes
- settings that explicitly are NOT medieval
Lately I've taken to the view that the "anything should be able to kill you" meme in OSR circles is the gaming equivalent of hipster-speak, and would like an OSR-styled (or adjacent) game explicitly tuned to a more "pulpy" or "cinematic" tone where running in guns a'blazing is a perfectly valid approach where you stand a reasonable chance of coming through it. It need not take character death off the table. I just would like something that plays a bit like "John Woo or Antoine Fuqua made a roleplaying game". Bonus points if it includes the above bullet points as well.
If you use Kevin Crawford's Heroic PC rules in Stars Without Number, you get characters that can do that with OSR compatible stats. Given his arcanist and Magister classes, you can hack in other games spell list and move the genre around.
Quote from: jhkim;1107785I'm similar to these. I don't have a specific game I am looking for -- I'll play anything from Jane Austen to post-apocalyptic action. What I look for is stuff that's:
- Well edited, with attention to detail, references, and an index
- Ideally good components and support
- Easy to pick up and play
- Well playtested with good reviews
I'll playtest stuff for people who are friends, but if I'm dropping money on a stranger, I'd prefer to get stuff that I know for sure is good.
I'm basically a sucker for good page design and artwork. Unlike Ron Edwards, I subscribe to the creed that any game author who respects his own game (and game text) will make damn sure, it is presented in a somewhat appealing fashion. Sadly, the reverse is not necessarily true: a fair number of games from some big budget companies are beautiful to look at but fall short on substance. So, I am wary towards those highly-polished looking games from big publishers. Good looking games from smaller publishers, though, tend to get at least my attention.
Otherwise, all the things you mentioned above are nice-to-have -but nothing more- for me. If a game was as intriguing to me as Shadowrun 1E, I'd read and play a game like Shadowrun 1E, in spite of its poor editing and poor rules (staging, matrix). Even today. I'd rather have game companies concentrate their attention to what matters (except art and graphics design).
- Is there a chance that I might play this in the next few years?
- Is there a strong chance that I might use something from it in another game?
If it doesn't hit one of those two (and preferably both), then I'm not buying it, period. Which means that usually I don't buy it, since my tastes in both systems and genre are narrow relative to the hobby as a whole. That means the game has to be fantasy, work on being "fantastical" and not just vaguely medieval with an occasional wizard in a hut, but not too edgy or weird for the sake of it, have a system that is solid in a middle ground of complexity and uses that complexity "budget" well, and written by an author who isn't trying to preach some cause (any cause!).
Quote from: SavageSchemer;1107870- random / campaign generation tools
- point crawls as in Slumbering Ursine Dunes
- settings that explicitly are NOT medieval
These are pretty close to what I look for. In general I'm really not 'in the market' for systems or new games anymore; I've got everything I want to run already. However, random generators, system agnostic (or close to it anyway) adventures or pointcrawls I can mine for content and ideas, Kevin Crawford's GM tools, interesting settings I can plug in to games I'm already running, that type of stuff really appeals to me. If it's something I can use straight or rip off and shove into my own games, that's right up my alley. Some OSR stuff can qualify in that regard, they're usually pretty straightforward to convert.
Quote from: Antiquation!;1108011These are pretty close to what I look for. In general I'm really not 'in the market' for systems or new games anymore; I've got everything I want to run already. However, random generators, system agnostic (or close to it anyway) adventures or pointcrawls I can mine for content and ideas, Kevin Crawford's GM tools, interesting settings I can plug in to games I'm already running, that type of stuff really appeals to me. If it's something I can use straight or rip off and shove into my own games, that's right up my alley. Some OSR stuff can qualify in that regard, they're usually pretty straightforward to convert.
I just started reading Kevin's Silent Legions, I like how even the Madness system can be ported into any other game. The ability to port/steal various stuff from a book highly influences how much I like it.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1108027I just started reading Kevin's Silent Legions, I like how even the Madness system can be ported into any other game. The ability to port/steal various stuff from a book highly influences how much I like it.
Yeah, he's really a genius with those types of mechanics. I just started reading through An Echo Resounding, and while the mass combat-specific material is pretty OSR-specific the rules for establishing a domain management and domain actions are pretty damn solid to port anywhere you like. I really enjoy the way it's designed to plug into any sort of hex map too, and in general the guidelines and advice around setting up a map to facilitate faction conflicts is really good stuff.
I specified "willing to drop coin upon" in the opening post; because many will download and review free content, who are never going to spend a dime on the retail product. Free downloads which might see some gameplay are a cool part of the hobby, but the people dropping coin should be the target audience.
Quote from: Razor 007;1108046I specified "willing to drop coin upon" in the opening post; because many will download and review free content, who are never going to spend a dime on the retail product. Free downloads which might see some gameplay are a cool part of the hobby, but the people dropping coin should be the target audience.
It turns out I'm entirely too willing to drop actual coin on RPG-related material. Something tells me if I ever add up the dollars sitting on my bookshelf, I'll cry.
Quote from: SavageSchemer;1108062It turns out I'm entirely too willing to drop actual coin on RPG-related material. Something tells me if I ever add up the dollars sitting on my bookshelf, I'll cry.
Same here. I wonder how much I've spent on pdfs too...
Quote from: HappyDaze;1108066Same here. I wonder how much I've spent on pdfs too...
*checks Google Drive PDF folder*
*81.1 gb*
:eek: Err, don't ask...
Quote from: SavageSchemer;1108062It turns out I'm entirely too willing to drop actual coin on RPG-related material. Something tells me if I ever add up the dollars sitting on my bookshelf, I'll cry.
I did, and I did.....
If old editions of Stormbringer, Corum, Hawkmoon and other related Eternal Champion RPGs were to get a physical reprint, I would buy them all. :)
Items like the original Greyhawk supplement and the Arduin Grimoire. Grab bags of optional ideas. Maps with features, like mountains, forests, deserts, plains, rivers, lakes, streams, oceans, islands, etc. But I get to add the cities, trade routes, ruins etc. Available in various sizes up to 3 feet by 6 feet, in basic black and white. A master copy for the DM and a dozen player copies, so those can be replaced when needed.
I'd love to see a 1e/ 3e D&D hybrid rpg, but unfortunately....5e is not that game. If such a game also had elements of Warhammer and Gamma World in it, that would be cool.
Will this be fun to run/play?
Quote from: Antiquation!;1108068*checks Google Drive PDF folder*
*81.1 gb*
:eek: Err, don't ask...
81 gigs...whatever. Let me know when you hit a terabyte.