Does Savage Worlds count? I liked what i played of it.

Quote from: Slambo on July 22, 2024, 10:54:22 PMDoes Savage Worlds count? I liked what i played of it.

Sure, it counts. 

What's the working definition for "New" or "Modern"?


I really liked 13th Age when it came out. No idea why the company didn't market it properly and extensively. It really combined ideas from the OSR and 4e extremely well.

I was quite excited about Cy_Borg until I learned the company was drooling retarded commies and my money went back into my wallet.

Best money I've spent recently is the CRUSADERS superhero rpg and it quite possibly will end my need for future supers games.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/400193

No idea why Crusaders hasn't become popular yet.

I'm always open to "the next kewl thing", but nothing this year has jumped out and grabbed my attention.

My preference for OSR games is that I want rules light, fast combat and a game that's easy to modify for my own campaigns.

And when I say OSR, I'm including games that use D20s, D100s or 2D6 for mechanics.

Pocket Fantasy is another free game.  It's also very rules lite.

That being said, it's not missing much for being that small.

At its core it is based on 1D6 skill checks vs target number 2-6 set by the GM, while combat attacks are opposed roll, with the margin of success being the damage.  Aka I attack with my wizard and roll my 1D6-2 wimpy fighting skill, get a 4 reduced to 2, and the orc rolled 1D6-1, getting a 5 reduced to 4.  I do no damage. 

Rolling up a character is a misnomer. You don't roll anything.  You just pick a race and a class. That's it. 

It's super simple.  We have even played it with my six year old son on car trips using dice roller app on my phone.   

Quote from: Spinachcat on July 23, 2024, 04:39:45 AMWhat's the working definition for "New" or "Modern"?


I really liked 13th Age when it came out. No idea why the company didn't market it properly and extensively. It really combined ideas from the OSR and 4e extremely well.

I was quite excited about Cy_Borg until I learned the company was drooling retarded commies and my money went back into my wallet.

Best money I've spent recently is the CRUSADERS superhero rpg and it quite possibly will end my need for future supers games.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/400193

No idea why Crusaders hasn't become popular yet.

I'm always open to "the next kewl thing", but nothing this year has jumped out and grabbed my attention.

My preference for OSR games is that I want rules light, fast combat and a game that's easy to modify for my own campaigns.

And when I say OSR, I'm including games that use D20s, D100s or 2D6 for mechanics.

13th Age is definitely a modern RPG, being a blend of D&D 3rd and 4th editions.  Modern, as compared to the OSR movement.

Quote from: Man at Arms on July 22, 2024, 05:26:36 PM

Quote from: Vidgrip on July 20, 2024, 12:56:55 PMI like Cairn and Black Sword Hack. Both are classless. Both can function easily with a human-centric setting since little or nothing is said about a character's species/race/ancestry. Backgrounds are important but players can freely choose some of their abilities. This puts magic within the reach of any character who would risk it. Whiles some may debate whether this is a bug or feature, both games are very rules-light. Magic spells are generally described without numerical stats in one sentence each (for Cairn) or two sentences each (for Black Sword Hack).

One could certainly argue that BSH is OSR, which makes it difficult to answer your second question. My OSR go-to is Swords & Wizardry which is more traditional. I do prefer the more complete spell descriptions.

Black Sword Hack, seems interesting.  No classes, roll under ability scores, etc.

The same author did another game called "Fleaux!" (he's French), which is possibly a better investment depending on what you want. It's meant to be a Black Hack take on Warhammer Fantasy RPG, so still classless with the role-under system, but it has different attributes, rules for playing races, a slightly more involved background and talent system.

I own both, and I think they're good games, but I have to say they bumped me a bit as value propositions. Both books are under 100 pages of smaller format (A6 for BSH I think; not sure what Fleaux! is in), with very generous margins and spacing. The core system doesn't really require much page count, but they have very few spells, items, backgrounds, etc. (the kind of thing you want more of to provide variety to a campaign). Current hardcopy prices are around $20 and $40 respectively, which isn't too bad, but I think with how feature-lite most Black Hack game books are, you really want to buy several games and combine them to have the material to run a long campaign.

Not really.

I like the new BRP, but it's essentially from the 70s so I don't even know if that counts.

Shadowdark by Arcane Library.  All the feel of 1e's grim and gritty dungeon crawlling goodness with simplicity of 5e-lite mechanics.

Quote from: Festus on July 22, 2024, 02:55:14 PMIndex Card RPG (ICRPG) by Runehammer Games

+1, I also like this system a lot.

very flexible, keeps the action fast, light rules and mechanics, clever and open world designs
easy prep and setup.

I've recently heard about a game called Nimble 5E on Backerkit. The author is asking for $5000, and has $119,000 with 24 days left to go as of this writing.

Nimble 5E website

It is apparently meant to be a streamlined, faster version of 5E.

The main features it's changing are this.

Attacks are made with your weapon damage dice roll, no d20 needed.  Rolling a 1 damage is a miss.  Rolling max damage can explode.  This makes small weapons crit and miss more, while big weapons more consistent because they crit and miss less often. 

Every level gives your character something useful.  There are no dead levels. 

I haven't looked into it a whole lot, but big YouTube guys like Bob the World Builder have.  That is how I found out about the game.

And this just came out. 

True-D6 Printed Edition. 

True-D6 on DT-RPG

This game uses a simple concept of roll equal or under your stat of 1-4.    This also is your damage.  Armor reduces damage. 

Spells and other special moves are skill checks.  Again, roll equal or under a stat to pull it off.  Most restrict the usage after any failed roll, or some to once per day. 

There are also solo play rules included. 

For moder rules with an old school feel, I like TLG's Castle & Crusade. Fairly simple rules - 2 target numbers dependeing on your prime attribute, modified by attribute bonus (or negative) and if a class skill your level. It is VERY easy to rul almost all old 1e-2e adventures with it. And the best is that it is easily house rule able ! I am a habitual tinkerer with my games and nothing I have added to or taken out breask the rules.

For non-D&D games. I LOVE Traveller for sci fi (space sci fi of different science fantasy v hard science, and Cyberpunk type games), and Call of Cthluhu for modern / investigation games. CoC can be very flexiable if you cut out (or tone down) the mind melting Lovecraft horror -I tend to more Poe or Gothic in my games. I haven't tried it, but I'd bet you can play a CoC or Delta Green game that is 100% spy or something like that with NO horror elements.

I've always wanted to run / play Rune Quest / Mythras. Since it is so close to CoC I don't think I'd have a huge learning curve for it. To bad there is only so much time a week to do game stuff ...

The Discord group I game with is getting ready to start an Against the Dark Master game and it brings back great memories from the good ole days playing MERP !

Castles and Crusades is most like AD&D, with modern features like ascending armor class. 

I think the only commercial games out right now that use 5E bits are Shadow Dark and Olde Swords Reign. 

Shadow Dark is notable for being very popular, uses random tables to determine what you get for leveling up, and spell casting is a skill check that can backfire in hilarious or deadly ways. 

Olde Swords Reign is free, has four classes that are customizable enough that you don't need the other classic classes like Paladin or Necromancer. The existing customizations can recreate those other classes.  The game also uses a blanket Proficiency Bonus for situations where your character is good, like a warrior trying to save vs exhaustion or a halfling saving vs magic, or a cleric attacking with a mace. 

I personally like Olde Swords Reign.  Since it's free, just check it out anyways.  What do you have to lose?

There has been an update for True-D6. 

The printable, hard copy version is now available. 

DTRPG link to True-D6