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Author Topic: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?  (Read 14456 times)

Tait Ransom

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #30 on: January 19, 2022, 03:27:29 PM »
 Cypher System, Star Wars d6, and D&D 3rd edition.

Slambo

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #31 on: January 19, 2022, 03:42:30 PM »
For me its probably Hyperborea. Love it immensely, setting and game.

For a pure setting i shill for, Mystara, and im taking a look at 4e's Neinter Vale setting and i kinda like it, not quite an evangelist fornit yet though

Aglondir

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #32 on: January 19, 2022, 04:05:40 PM »
Rolemaster Standard System and Spacemaster Privateers occasionally ironically descending to the point of self parody
SM Privateers is one you don't hear about that much. What's it like?

HappyDaze

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #33 on: January 19, 2022, 04:17:33 PM »
Rolemaster Standard System and Spacemaster Privateers occasionally ironically descending to the point of self parody
SM Privateers is one you don't hear about that much. What's it like?
Rolemaster in space with animal-people as alien species. The rules are solid, but the setting is pretty awful.

Persimmon

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #34 on: January 19, 2022, 04:51:52 PM »
I like a lot about C&C. The concept of an AD&D1e compatible game, with the core mechanics stripped out and replaced with more modern ones. The art. That the Troll Lords are real gamers, who are clearly doing this out of love for the game. The general feel, like the bard, knight, and illusionist. But I'm not a fan of attributes as saves or the SIEGE engine. It's a solid miss for me, but I can see why people like it.

Interesting points.  C&C was actually my entry into the OSR, even if it's not quite a clone.  I played it hard for about 18 months then discovered various other games like Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Hyperborea, etc., and played them, eventually mashing them all together.  After my house rules got too unwieldy, I ended up going back to C&C because I wanted fewer house rules and you can still basically play it with the other OSR (and classic D&D) stuff.  I wasn't always crazy about the Siege Engine either, but now I have a better appreciation of its elegant flexibility.  And it does serve to keep high level play pretty lethal. 

So now it's C&C as the norm, with occasional forays into Swords & Wizardry/White Box.  For example, I've decided to convert The One Ring 2e to White Box because I don't like the TOR rules and my players don't want to learn them but they're up for gaming in Middle earth and we want the experience to be more streamlined than our C&C game.

markmohrfield

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #35 on: January 19, 2022, 05:41:19 PM »
HeroQuest/Questworlds for system and Gloranatha for the setting. I'm lucky my favorite system was created specifically for my favorite setting.

David Johansen

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #36 on: January 20, 2022, 12:23:09 AM »
Rolemaster Standard System and Spacemaster Privateers occasionally ironically descending to the point of self parody
SM Privateers is one you don't hear about that much. What's it like?
Rolemaster in space with animal-people as alien species. The rules are solid, but the setting is pretty awful.

Sooo...I like some things about the setting, it's designed to be very easy to drop into and play.  The races are deliberately archetypical and the setting gives the automatic PCs as privateers trying to stem the tide in a losing battle.  If you got the Races and Cultures book and Datanets it gets a bit more depth and the races feel less flat.  Too specialized, and too archetypical, with ratings like these it's very hard to play against type.  The velociraptor Valesians are in particular nothing but murder hobos writ large.  Even so, I think it would have made a great miniatures wargame setting.  But for roleplaying it's too narrow, got too little material, there were supposed to be two setting books but they never happened.  There's some fun enigmas going on that never got answered.  The pacifist bear people are going crazy buy nobody knows why (but they were clearly carnivores at some point) and any android that logs into the sensenet dies instantly (I suspect the author had some bad experiences with netrunning in cyberpunk games) Earth was clearly intended to be a Valesian world but got hit by a comet so it was reworked for humans.
 (I like to think it indicates that the precursors were actually Valesians)  There's more of a setting than Star Frontiers has and I do like the basic setup.  The pages in the core book that got wasted on fluff fiction could have been much better used for the skills and talents that got dumped into Future Law but hell they'd even have been better used for more setting information.  I've run it twice and I don't think I'd use the setting again.

Mechanically it's a crunchy variant of Rolemaster with skill categories and training packages.  Talents are left to the Future Law supplement.  The neat thing is that the training packages have evolved into even more of a life path system than RMSS.  You can build a background for your character.  Sadly you'll need Future Law just to get the full skill and training package list.  The other place SPAM really shines is robot characters.  Easily the best implementation of robot PCs I've ever seen.  Stuff like experience and skills verses programs really mesh with the system and given that robots are pretty fixed packages, they're actually easier and faster to roll up than organic characters.  I also like the handling of vehicles.  I think it hits the sweet spot between realism and detail.  The design system is a pretty basic build a box and put in systems setup.  It's a bit messy to follow at times and I know one dedicated individual actually went through it to create an errata and adjustments file.  Really the worst thing about SPAM is the organization.  The editing isn't great but it was originally intended as a three book core and got reformatted during ICE's darkest hour during the bankruptcy proceedings.  Still, I think it's about my favorite sf rpg.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2022, 12:35:01 AM by David Johansen »
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Slipshot762

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #37 on: January 20, 2022, 04:55:44 AM »
D6 Space-Adventure-Fantasy; WEG Star Wars D6.

Opaopajr

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #38 on: January 20, 2022, 09:15:12 AM »
Y'know, I just realized I don't promote WEG Star Wars and d6 enough. Good times, good times.  8)
Just make your fuckin' guy and roll the dice, you pricks. Focus on what's interesting, not what gives you the biggest randomly generated virtual penis.  -- J Arcane
 
You know, people keep comparing non-TSR D&D to deck-building in Magic: the Gathering. But maybe it's more like Katamari Damacy. You keep sticking shit on your characters until they are big enough to be a star.
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FingerRod

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #39 on: January 20, 2022, 09:20:30 AM »
For systems—early D&D editions, particularly OD&D. Those who like d20, Whitehack 3e is basically perfect.

Looking at settings, I primarily use my own, but I also think Dragonlance offers a little bit of everything depending on the age your game takes place in.

Armchair Gamer

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #40 on: January 20, 2022, 10:41:30 AM »
Looking at settings, I primarily use my own, but I also think Dragonlance offers a little bit of everything depending on the age your game takes place in.

  My relationship with Dragonlance is complicated, but I will still stand up for the SAGA Rules System and the original (pre-War of Souls retcons) Fifth Age.

VisionStorm

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #41 on: January 20, 2022, 11:03:43 AM »
I never fully got into Dragonlance (though, I did read several of the Elf novels dealing with the Silvanesti/Kagonesti split, which I thought were good at the time, but hard to recall details now), but I always thought it was one of the better "generic" fantasy D&D settings, which its own unique feel and idiosyncrasies.

One of my major hung ups with it, though, was the color coded magical schools, which required my character to dress a certain way and base their choice of clothing color around their school and alignment (announcing it to the world). So if I had a Chaotic Good mage, I was obligated to wear white, even if I preferred black, or blue, whatever. Then I eventually gave up on the idea of alignment and it became more of an issue.

Looking back on it I should've just handwaved or downplay the requirement, or handled the schools as just seeking their own agendas or styles of magical practice and forget about the alignment thing, but I was more focused on other settings at the time (Spelljammer and eventually Planescape for world-hopping adventures, often with Forgotten Realms as a base, despite it not being my favorite setting, cuz I always considered it the "default" D&D world. Also Ravenloft at one point, cuz one of my players, who sometimes DMed, was obsessed with it).
« Last Edit: January 20, 2022, 11:05:24 AM by VisionStorm »

FingerRod

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #42 on: January 20, 2022, 11:29:46 AM »
Looking at settings, I primarily use my own, but I also think Dragonlance offers a little bit of everything depending on the age your game takes place in.

  My relationship with Dragonlance is complicated, but I will still stand up for the SAGA Rules System and the original (pre-War of Souls retcons) Fifth Age.

The SAGA lore reference material is my single source for background. Love it.

FingerRod

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #43 on: January 20, 2022, 11:35:10 AM »
I never fully got into Dragonlance (though, I did read several of the Elf novels dealing with the Silvanesti/Kagonesti split, which I thought were good at the time, but hard to recall details now), but I always thought it was one of the better "generic" fantasy D&D settings, which its own unique feel and idiosyncrasies.

One of my major hung ups with it, though, was the color coded magical schools, which required my character to dress a certain way and base their choice of clothing color around their school and alignment (announcing it to the world). So if I had a Chaotic Good mage, I was obligated to wear white, even if I preferred black, or blue, whatever. Then I eventually gave up on the idea of alignment and it became more of an issue.

Looking back on it I should've just handwaved or downplay the requirement, or handled the schools as just seeking their own agendas or styles of magical practice and forget about the alignment thing, but I was more focused on other settings at the time (Spelljammer and eventually Planescape for world-hopping adventures, often with Forgotten Realms as a base, despite it not being my favorite setting, cuz I always considered it the "default" D&D world. Also Ravenloft at one point, cuz one of my players, who sometimes DMed, was obsessed with it).

Kinslayer Wars trilogy! Was outstanding. Like you said, not sure how well it might hold up. I would guess slightly better than the mainstream trilogies though.

My issue with the magic was always tracking the moon cycles. Had plenty of adolescent jokes about that by the way. We ultimately ignored that AND the robe colors.

VisionStorm

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Re: What Systems/Settings are you an Evangelist for?
« Reply #44 on: January 20, 2022, 12:49:50 PM »
I never fully got into Dragonlance (though, I did read several of the Elf novels dealing with the Silvanesti/Kagonesti split, which I thought were good at the time, but hard to recall details now), but I always thought it was one of the better "generic" fantasy D&D settings, which its own unique feel and idiosyncrasies.

One of my major hung ups with it, though, was the color coded magical schools, which required my character to dress a certain way and base their choice of clothing color around their school and alignment (announcing it to the world). So if I had a Chaotic Good mage, I was obligated to wear white, even if I preferred black, or blue, whatever. Then I eventually gave up on the idea of alignment and it became more of an issue.

Looking back on it I should've just handwaved or downplay the requirement, or handled the schools as just seeking their own agendas or styles of magical practice and forget about the alignment thing, but I was more focused on other settings at the time (Spelljammer and eventually Planescape for world-hopping adventures, often with Forgotten Realms as a base, despite it not being my favorite setting, cuz I always considered it the "default" D&D world. Also Ravenloft at one point, cuz one of my players, who sometimes DMed, was obsessed with it).

Kinslayer Wars trilogy! Was outstanding. Like you said, not sure how well it might hold up. I would guess slightly better than the mainstream trilogies though.

My issue with the magic was always tracking the moon cycles. Had plenty of adolescent jokes about that by the way. We ultimately ignored that AND the robe colors.

Oh yeah, the Moon cycles thing was a nice colorful touch from a backstory perspective, but in practice tracking in-game calendars and astronomical phenomena is a pain. I usually forget that stuff even exists during play.