I can't just do ten


1) Hearts & Souls (I wrote it and use it regularly)
2) Marvel Superheroes (Faserip)
3) Marvel Saga
4) OVA
5) New World of Darkness
6) True 20
7) Providence
Talislanta
9) Tunnels and Trolls
10) Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes
11) Top Secret SI
12) Unisystem Cinematic (Buffy)
13) Star Wars d6
14) Cartoon Action Hour
15) Waste World

OK, first just games I've actually played:

1) Heroquest - Elegant unified resolution system, chargen beautifully combines juicy detail with ease of use, whole package is very fantasy-evocative
2) Capes - Competitive nature is fun and energizing, shared-narrative-control geared just right toward exciting storytelling
3) Over the Edge - Largely freeform system is just right for descriptive and real-seeming characters, the setting is wicked-psycho-cool!
4) PTA - Does what it's supposed to do extremely well--trims out all other elements to tell its target type of story. Also very outsider- and beginner-friendly.
5) BESM - Point-build without the more bewildering crunch of the heavier PB systems, pretty nice anime feel to its mechanics and descriptions
6) D&D 3.5 - A crunchy approach to combat that's infectious and fun, the king of ability-combo pimped-out character building
7) Advanced Marvel Superheroes - Slam-bang fun in my youth, much moreso than the supers systems that came after. And now, having revisited it, I find a lot of cool storytelling nuance that we missed as kids.
MERP/RolemasterCritical and fumble tables, baby! The system's crap for evoking tolkien, but there was something cool, if capricious, about all those gritty chart results.
9) Top Secret/SI - Hit locations done right, an easy-to-use system that felt a lot more "real" than the more fantastic sysgtems
10 Transformers Ripoff Anything Goes Robot Slugfest (AKA the game I made up with my brother in the backseat of the car after being exposed to roleplaying) - An innocence I can never return to, no unifying factor except the resolution mechanic, no worries about realism or balance or continuity.

Whew. That's not quite everything I've ever played, but close.

Hell, I'll throw in my least favorite:

1) All things Palladium - PFRP is a 2nd-rate D&D clone, and wrapping supers or secret agents or anything lese around it was unsatisfying. All the wrong detail, all the wrong resolution results, all the wrong feel. Never played Rifts, though.
2) Vampire/Werewolf/WoD - Not terribly impressed with the system, and the couple of groups I was briefly involved with were fullof wankery.
3) Star Frontiers not that I hate it or anything, just unimpressed and didn't get very fun play out of it when younger

Now, my complete list including new hotness that I'm itching to play but haven't:

1) DitV - Game tightly geared toward target thematic issues, raise-and-see resulution both exciting and adaptable for every arena of conflict
2) Heroquest
3) Capes
4) TSoY - Experience done right, geared toward character goals in a neat and fun way. And with buyoff it makes motive revesals both satisfying and incentivized.
5) Over the Edge
6) PTA
7) Riddle of Steel - A combat system approved by medieval reenactors bears witnessing firsthand, especially if it's fun in play. ANd Spiritual-attribute driven play sounds way cool.
BESM
9) D&D 3.5
10) Advanced Marvel Superheroes

[edit:] Honorable mention: Dragonraid! Yes, I've played it. Got killed by an orc in nothing flat. the game text and "setting" is a must-read! Practice your WordRunes and hone your Love, Joy and Peace for battle, kids!

Hon. Mention #2: Paranioa! I just have to play that thing before I die!

Quote from: joewolz9.  Broncosaurus Rex

Wow. I've never heard of anyone playing this game, much less making a top ten. Are you actually playing this? Is it working for you?

Dammit, I forgot Paranoia and Ghostbusters. And Gamma World. Shit...

1. Shadowrun 3rd Edition
2. Earthdawn 1st Edition

I don't really have eight others.

'Kay.  Let's boogie.

• Classic Traveller
• D6
• HERO
• Encounter Critical
• Wushu
• Call of Cthulhu
• Ghostbusters
• Paranoia 2nd Ed.
• Tunnels & Trolls 7th
• Stories System

Honorable Mentions:

• Marvel Super Heroes, for being balls-out fun
• Theatrix, for being a drama-based resolution tool
• Iron Gauntlets, for being th fantasy RPG shot in the arm everyone needs now and again

1. WFRP
2. Iron Heroes
3. RC D&D
4. D&D 3.5
5. CoC d20

Shit, ten is a lot of games.

Coolest Game I Have No Idea How to Run Well: Shadowrun 4.0

Best Game I'll Likely Never Play: Exalted 2e

Special Achievement in Metaplot Fucking You in the Ear: L5R 3rd

G'night everybody!

Quote from: Zachary The FirstHow it works: Rank your favorite RPGs right now from 1-10. A #1 ranking is worth 10 points, a #10 worth 1. Whenever the hell we feel like it, we tally it up and see what we have.

EDIT:  This is too tough.  Let's say you can also name 3 Honorable Mentions, for 1/2 point each.
 
So there we are. Let this completely meaningless, soon-to-be argument-prone exercise begin!
 

Since I have some spare time, I've ranked all the games in this thread using the above system.  I've also marked the number of posts in the thread and subscribed to the thread so I can receive email when it's updated.  Just tell me when you want to see the results, Zach.

Oops, yer right. Wishful thinking I guess.



QM

Quote from: joewolzSince I have some spare time, I've ranked all the games in this thread using the above system.  I've also marked the number of posts in the thread and subscribed to the thread so I can receive email when it's updated.  Just tell me when you want to see the results, Zach.

Whew!  Thanks, Joe!  I was wondering when I'd find the time to do it.

Let's see if we get to 50 or so today, and then can do an update.

Here's my top ten.

1.  Sla Industries
2.  Little Fears
3.  Kult
4.  Cyberpunk 2020
5.  Twilight 2000
6.  Unknown Armies
7.  Artesia
8.  Vampire: TM (1st edition)
9.  Rolemaster
10.  Legend of the Five Rings (1st edition)

My Top 10 games I've played:

1) Shadowrun (4E, but also 2E and 3E... I love them all!)
2) Amber DRPG
3) Qin: The Warring States
4) WFRP 2E
5) Earthdawn 1E
6) True20
7) Captain Alatriste
D&D 3.5
9) Paranoia
10) Feng Shui

Honourable Mentions: Cold Space, In Harm's Way, Blue Planet, Mechwarrior, Aquelarre. I only played the last one of these five, though.

1) (Mega)Traveller
2) Mechwarrior
3) D&D 3.5
4) Rules Cyclopedia
5) Star Wars D6, 2nd Ed. Revised
6) Harnmaster
7) Dark Conspiracy
Twilight: 2000
9) Rifts
10) 2300 AD

Honourable Mention:

The most interesting one-shot: Psychosis, by Chameleon Ecclectic

The game I´ll never get:  Any Superheroes Game

Biggest disappointment: Blue Planet

And in a very special category of it´s own: Wraeththu

Okay, restricting myself strictly to games which I have played:

10: Weapons of the Gods. If the rulebook's organisation wasn't completely horrible it would rank higher.

9: WFRP. I suspect it'll be higher up if I'd played more.

8: Paranoia. Wonderfully cathartic, even if it does sometimes bring out the worst in people.

7: Pre-3.0 D&D. AD&D 2e was the game which introduced me to roleplaying, though I mildly prefer AD&D 1e and Rules Cyclopedia D&D.

6: Dogs In the Vineyard. Mainly for its value as a pick-up-and-play game; it loses points because I don't think it would work for a campaign, and while it's good as a pick-up game if you are surrounded by dyed-in-the-wool gamers, it's less good for less experienced folk.

5: A|State. What's that? A reasonably solid system, a well-described setting, and a heap of interesting and useful locations, organisations and NPCs all in the main rulebook? I thought that kind of value for money went out in the 1980s!

4: Burning Wheel. I played a one-shot of this yesterday and it's just confirmed two things for me: firstly, that the system isn't as horrifyingly overcomplex as it first apears, and secondly that I really want to run a proper campaign of it.

3: Call of Cthulhu, because as cliched as it is when you're in the mood for it there's nothing better.

2: Ars Magica. The latest edition is the best the game's seen yet, and the supplements are both optional enough to ignore if you like but useful enough to really enhance your game if you use them.

1: Pendragon, the amount of love Greg Stafford has invested the game with really shines through.

1.Risus
2.Freak Legion
3.In Nomine
4.Changeling
4.Sla Industries
5.Warhammer FRP 1st ed
6.Amber
7.Call of Cthulu
8.Cyberpunk
9.Feng Shui
10.Game of Thrones