Reboots or new editions of older games don't count. OSR doesn't count unless it's radically different. Storygames obviously don't count because they're not RPGs.

Was there any RPG that first appeared after 2001 that you think was really great?

Savage Worlds I suppose.

Quote from: Mike the Mage;1039545Savage Worlds I suppose.

Ditto, including the 'I suppose' - not sure if SW is truly great, but it's interesting and different, and £6.99 full colour core book is impressive.

I have mixed feelings so far.

I bought the Delux along with the horror and Sci-fi companions and enjoyed reading them. Once I started playing SW in a fantasy setting, I started to notice the shortcomings of the magic system and invested in Shaintar: Legends Arise  which expanded the magic system so as to acheive the kind of fantasy tropes I wanted. After that I invested in Shaintar: Legends Unleashed for epic level play.

I was invested, so to speak.

However, I noticed that at this point the stat blocks were massive due to the plethora of Edges. Fast and furious was looking less and less likely.

That being said, my wife played Deadlands using the SW system and loved it.

The jury is out for me too but I got the Lankhmar SW setting and that looks kinda cool.

BTW I once heard Stork on the Happy Jacks podcast really find a flaw in the combat: that it becomes an attrition game of  whittling down the NPC bennies.

Genesys - out of the box I was getting creative with settings and gaming plans so definitely a winner for me (especially since I can’t say Mythras).

Tales of Blades and Heroes, hands down.

Re: Genesys

Not a big fan of symbols instead of numbers on dice.

DCC is about as far as I will go on expensive plastic shapes, sorry.

Mythras!!

Quote from: RPGPundit;1039538Reboots or new editions of older games don't count.

Ouch!

Now seriously, I would have said Mythras is the best game after 2001 with a straight face, but it doesn't count, because it is a direct heir of RuneQuest.

So, Fantasy Age, perhaps?

Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok  No dice! Use runes instead. Truly tactically engaging game play. Epic Viking superheroes at the end of the world. A breath of fresh air and an actually inovative game design.

Quote from: Claudius;1039577Ouch!

Now seriously, I would have said Mythras is the best game after 2001 with a straight face, but it doesn't count, because it is a direct heir of RuneQuest.

So, Fantasy Age, perhaps?

When I got the new Blue Rose, I looked at character generation. You need to roll about 7 characters before you get one with a negative ability modifier. I'm not sure how I feel about a game that almost guarantees your character have good stats from a random generator.

I'd say Mutants and Masterminds. The third iteration is a great tactical combat game, but it does not handle power disparity very well. If you try and emulate the Avengers, you're lower level characters are going to go squish, and builds pretty much revolve around hitting caps if you want to survive.

My choice would likely be Marvel Heroic Roleplaying using Cortex Plus. That system can be hacked into nearly anything. However I have also been sitting on a hack waiting for an SRD for over four years now. MWP didn't just drop the ball, they stabbed the ball and deflated it, doused in in gasoline then set it on fire before dropping it into the pit. Cortex Prime will allegedly be released this month, and I might get interested again when it does. Maybe. Let's just say my plans for writing Cortex powered Jadepunk were quite scuttled. The system itself was great and versatile, the marketing not so much.

Yeah, Cortex Plus would be my pick too.

Savage Worlds, Fate/FAE, Apocalypse World and it's hacks, Barbarians of Lemuria, The One Ring and Fria Ligan games (Mutant Year Zero, Forbidden Lands) deserve praise too.

Edit: oh and BLADES IN THE DARK! How could I forget this?:eek: It's among the better designed games I've ever seen, up there with original D&D and Pendragon imo.

BareBones Fantasy from DwD Studios.

Most especially their use of moral code and descriptors. Cut and pasted from a previous post of mine:

After not playing RPGs for many years, a friend wanted to learn and I looked at lots and lots of games and settled on BareBones Fantasy. We really, really enjoyed their Moral Code setup. You pick Somewhat, Very, or Totally for each Aspect and one option for each Aspect: Kind or Cruel, Focused or Unfocused, Selfless or Selfish, Honorable or Deceitful, Brave or Cowardly. Your character also has one or two Descriptors. When the descriptors come out in game play, the character gets an XP bonus. (My players used "likes needlessly complicate plans" and "loves water and swims any chance they can" in their first adventure.)

Skills are based on the character attributes plus specifics for specific skill training. Skills are broad and anything not covered can be done using attributes. It's a pretty fun and fast system.

Quote from: Tod13;1039584BareBones Fantasy from DwD Studios.

Good pick. It's a serious contender for my favourite percentage-based system (contra BRP).

Quote from: Mike the Mage;1039561I have mixed feelings so far.

I bought the Delux along with the horror and Sci-fi companions and enjoyed reading them. Once I started playing SW in a fantasy setting, I started to notice the shortcomings of the magic system and invested in Shaintar: Legends Arise  which expanded the magic system so as to acheive the kind of fantasy tropes I wanted. After that I invested in Shaintar: Legends Unleashed for epic level play.

I was invested, so to speak.

However, I noticed that at this point the stat blocks were massive due to the plethora of Edges. Fast and furious was looking less and less likely.

That being said, my wife played Deadlands using the SW system and loved it.

The jury is out for me too but I got the Lankhmar SW setting and that looks kinda cool.

BTW I once heard Stork on the Happy Jacks podcast really find a flaw in the combat: that it becomes an attrition game of  whittling down the NPC bennies.

Savage Worlds is my pick for this question. I actually think Hellfrost does a better job for making magic more D&D-like, as long as resource management isn't your idea of D&D.
No power points allows for spells to last long enough to have real utility uses.

Shaintar, Rifts, Supers, ect. All start getting very complicated, relatively, you end up with things that work like 3.X characters while being a lot simpler than 3.X characters but still pretty complex for Savage Worlds.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1039538Reboots or new editions of older games don't count. OSR doesn't count unless it's radically different. Storygames obviously don't count because they're not RPGs.

Was there any RPG that first appeared after 2001 that you think was really great?

Hm.  I don't know for sure about 'great', so I'll fall back on 'had a great time with'.

I think the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" game was pretty good.  I had a lot of fun with it, and I thought it had a good handle on having both powered characters (Slayers, demons, magic-users) and normals able to work side by side.  I was playing a jock type, and had a great amount of fun even if I wasn't on par with our slayer.

Similarly, I've had a lot of fun with "Savage Worlds", running one long campaign and playing in a variety of con games.  Easy to play, easy to pick up, as long as you want to play something vaguely pulpy.

ICONS I haven't played yet, but I still really like it's take on superheroics.  I dunno if it's great, but I think it's pretty good.

I'm not sure if DCC counts as 'radically different' - I think you could make a case for it with the luck economy, the spell casting system, the way fighters (and dwarves) use a die for their combat bonus and to pull off extra feats, and the unique funnel method of starting campaigns.  But it's certainly a lot of fun, and I think it's pretty great.