Quote from: flyingmice;804363Long time ago, I picked up AD&D 2E, but I had it excised and a skin patch over the divot. Hasn't come back yet.

Give it a few more years and the right DM.

D&D 3e. It took me a long time to abandon my prior campaigns and books (and of course I ultimately went back to them).

D&D 3rd.
When I first looked at it, it seemed OK and I gave it a try. Was fun, but didn't have the level of options or customizability that I prefer. After a number of splats came out - I really started enjoying it.

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;804362Amber Diceless, but then I realized that I wasn't put off by the system, so much as the author's tone throughout.

Seriously? What about the tone??

Quote from: Phillip;803063I'm delighted to read of that Torg experience, since my own - as GM - started very enthusiastic but quickly cooled. I might appreciate it better today.

Heroes Unlimited is one I only very recently came to like - not as much as other comicbook-hero games, but now I would at least be glad to play.  Reading the handbook ultimately changed my view, and for years I kept getting turned off from that when I had barely begun. I was well used to  Siembieda's disjointed style, but the HU book somehow was too much.

I've recently come to really enjoy the Palladium stuff. I like that the publisher jams his personal preferences right in there ("No one is neutral," "Mega heroes are boring," etc.). The Heroes Unlimited GM Guide has some really neat ideas jammed in amongst all that cruddy '90s-Image-heroes-are-grim-and-gritty style artwork. I especially like the combat rules and find them a vast improvement over D&D. There's also a certain charm to the abbreviations for attributes: M.E., P.S., S.D.C., honestly I have to write them all out to remember them. The books tend to be fun to read.

Ninjas & Superspies coupled with Mystic China is a hoot and a half.

And of course Revised Recon, the non-Palladium Palladium game, should be acknowledged as a classic in the genre.

Quote from: Will;804357GURPS is a game that's actually worth getting sourcebooks for even if you don't play or like the system.

(I'm in that category)

I think I've played GURPS all of once so far. Yet I've gotten mileage out of Aztecs, Japan, Swashbucklers, Supers, Cliffhangers, Espionage, Horror, Arabian Nights, Space, Cops, Mysteries...always have my eye out for used copies on the held at the local games store to see what might be available on the cheap.

Classic Traveller. Played it very early on, moved on to other games, but my appreciation for it has grown in the 2000s. It's like D&D - very much idiosyncratic, with emergent properties in play that are almost inexhaustible.