Just about everyone has a favorite system. Why do you like it so much? I don't care about the setting or how you feel when playing it. I want to know what it is specifically about the game that makes you come back to it. For example, if it's d20, is it because you can collect new feats for it left and right? If it's Dogs in the Vineyard, is it because you get a bonus for relationships?
Here's the deal: a) No long-winded answers - keep it to one paragraph; b) No talking about someone else's choice, only yours; and c) in the spirit of RPGPundit, no swine answers. Every time someone answers this question, there's some sort of intangible explanation. I want to read about something tangible. And no propaganda.
Bring it on...
I haven't got a favourite system....
My favorite system is D&D.
I like it because it involves fantastic characters taking part in spectacular battles against amazing monsters in weird places.
Quote from: droogI haven't got a favourite system....
Well...what do you get out of
that?
!i!
Quote from: Abyssal MawMy favorite system is D&D.
I like it because it involves fantastic characters taking part in spectacular battles against amazing monsters in weird places.
That's not an answer. I can do that with any game. Why D&D specifically?
I like GURPS.
I got this weird sense of freedom when I first saw GURPS. I could build my characters the way I wanted them. The combat was full of tactical crunch that detailed combat unlike anything else I'd seen. There was advantages and disadvantages that put meat on character bones, and had real crunchy affects in the game.
I liked getting to know a system really well and then letting it drop to the background whatever genre me and my group wanted to play. I rarely mixed genres but when I did I loved being able to use rules that were meant for those other genres, the same rules we'd been using all along. In the future I plan on a LOT more genre mixing, and I like having rules meant to support that out of the box. Rules that support my love of crunch and fluff.
True20
1) really low prep time. I can stat an advasary in seconds, literally. I have school, kids, a long commute and a wife, low prep time is not just good- it is the difference betweenplaying and not playing.
2) flex- i've used it for a number of genres and it has been just swell. This is also good because I get bored easy and time contraints make learning another system impractical.
3) Damage track as a opposed to hit points. No logical reason here, I just prefer this particular abstraction to the other.
4) Easy to learn. My players and I picked it up without any real d20/ogl experience and learned thoroughly in a couple of sessions.
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaWell...what do you get out of that?
A bit of variety.
Unknown Armies
It's fun. I don't know what else to say. I think it's when you roll some your percentile, there's so much that can happen on the roll. However it doesn't feel out of line, out of character, un-believable or
too random.
Oh, and it's still simple.
I like Tristat. It lets me run some really wonky games with just the one book I have (Ex Machina) and a little internet support. I like it less for what it does and more for what it doesn't. Doesn't get in my way as much as GURPS would. Doesn't cost for a shitload of supplements like DnD would. Also a bigger focus on cool powers and neat tricks as opposed to numerical differentiation in characters.
While I like many systems, my favourite system is shown by my actions - I choose to play D20 more than any other system. Therefore, D20 is my favourite system.
I get the satisfaction of being skilled, and using and displaying that skill to benefit myself and others, and receiving the approval of myself and others for my skill at it. It's a very deep kind of satisfaction, and it's a kind I strive for in most everything that I care about.
Icar (http://www.icar.co.uk).
It's my favourite because I can make it how I want it to be and I can solve any problems that arise, I'm not bound to someone else's vision.
My favorite system is Heroquest. I don't get to play it nearly as often as i'd like. I like it because A) all traits have equal weight, from my Seven Dragons Sword Style to my Strong, Like the Reed that Does Not Bend to my Undying love for Wai Wei, the Empress' daughter. If I want the Loyalty of Sam to have a decisive effect on the story, then by God, it will! I also love it because B) I don't have to fear failure. I can suffer as many crippling failures as I have to in my struggle, and not be all nervous that an awesome crit is gonna wipe me out and I'll have to roll up a new character. Failure is just a setback (i.e. a good dramatic complication) unless we all agree that it's fitting to be the character's death or final defeat. Liberating! Which brings me to C) Hero Points. Since I can bump my successes up, I can usually avoid a really nasty failure if I wanna--and so, because of B) I can fearlessly choose when a conflict will be victory or defeat, based on what's coolest for the story.
Peace,
-Joel
My favourite system does not exist.
Quote from: pigames.netJust about everyone has a favorite system. Why do you like it so much? I don't care about the setting or how you feel when playing it. I want to know what it is specifically about the game that makes you come back to it. For example, if it's d20, is it because you can collect new feats for it left and right? If it's Dogs in the Vineyard, is it because you get a bonus for relationships?
I love RuneQuest because percentile systems are intuitive, and because its system is gritty, quick, and covers most situations. I like the four approaches to magic, as I find that can simulate pretty well most magic levels.
Quote from: pigames.netThat's not an answer. I can do that with any game. Why D&D specifically?
I thought you wanted short answers! Well, I am hereby freed from your restrictions of short answers, then.
D&D (all versions, from the earliest version to the very latest) links strategic fantasy adventuring (where player characters go and what they do) into tactical minigames (battles), challenges (skill challenges), and puzzles in a uniquely manageable and non-self-conscious way. Few other games do that (usually you have to deal with setting details built into the rules or whatever.. or the game is extremely self-conscious about concerns like realism).
As a GM I like how the latest version of D&D facilitates the creation of my own detailed content: I can create adventures, worlds, locales, cities, npcs, monsters without being restricted by anyone's setting. I like how things are modular- I can take recombine common entities to create content. It's like legos. You can take an entity ("a goblin") and add on class levels ("three levels of rogue"), choose unique feats ("dodge.. and lets say.. point blank shot.."), and then apply other layers (templates, special gear, whatever) and at the end you get re-usable game content that is totally unique. Few other games really do that at all.
No other game really does that like D&D.
As a player, (and as a GM of players) I like how characters are expandable and do not stop being detailed when they are in use. They are primarily developed during the game. That's crucial. This is the primary difference (to me, anyhow) between D&D and say.. Gurps or Hero (which have similar capabilities).
D6, both for nostalgia (SW was my first rpg), and the simple character creation and mechanics that still let me create the exact character I want and can handle any situation quickly with one simple mechanic. And so easy to modify if desired.
"Killing and breaking things - that's what sums up the HackMaster™ phenomenon."
WFRP has been my favourite over the years primarily for being a system with character. The rules are easy to grasp, and their expression via the career system and gritty, visceral combat helps create an idiosyncratic play experience that meshes perfectly with the setting.
Character creation has a large degree of randomness that channels player creativity, often throwing up completely unexpected results they may have discarded out of hand if presented with the choice. It's great to watch a player's attitude transform from faint disappointment to outright excitement as he creates a plausible and coherent personality that threads together what at first glance appears to be contradictory results. The entire process takes at most 15 minutes, which is another point in favour.
Task resoloution is fast and intuitive, being based on a percentile system that new players and old hands alike take to almost instantly. The design philosophy eschews byzantine assumptions of necessary complexity in favour of a simple, brutal approach toward success and failure that lets everyone know what page they're on.
Set in a quasi-european renaissance era world undergoing the early phases of cultural and technological change that will lead to modernism, it's far more inclusive of fantasy genre variations than first meets the eye. The setting and system can handle anything from a farmhand being cheated out a days pay to treacherous mercantile politics to barbarian heroes facing unnamable horrors in the frozen north. The system easily scales from the common boatman or ratcatcher fighting for his life to the mighty champion who has a chance of overcoming the most potent of threats.
Really, I could bang on about the game all day. Suffice to say it's been a constant in my gaming life since first publication, and I'm loving the renewed popularity and vigour the system has gained since Green Ronin gained the license. It's one of the few rules-medium games I can pick up and run at a moments notice, and has an attitude and aesthetic that makes it pretty much an instant hit with anyone who plays.
I made Capes because I was sick-unto-death of having unlimited narrative power and having to hold back for fear of overpowering people and ruining their fun. Now I can have unlimited narrative power and play it to the hilt, because the math of the system assures that my victory today results in victory for someone else tomorrow. The harder and more competitive I play, the more fun we all have.
Alright, I've got a few moments, I'll bite.
As you seem to refer to d20 as a system in the OP, I'll fly with that, though I really think of it as a family of related systems based around a common substrate more than a single system like I would think of GURPS and HERO.
So here goes, bulleted for your reading pleasure:
- Class based design allows realization of cohesive character concept related to the genre of the particular game, and doesn't overcomplicate character design by requiring too many decisions.
- At the same time, skills, feats, selectable class abilities, and multiclassing allows sufficient customization when I am looking for more than what a single class along provides.
- Easy to use, robust task system. The linear nature of the "d20 + mods" makes it easy for the GM to eyeball the odds, and innovations like "take 10" and "take 20" handle some aggravating burrs that typically plague random resolution.
- HP mechanics and variants, while not realisting, provide a feel of creeping danger as they diminish, instead of the capricious random death that many systems provide with their supposedly more realistic systems.
- Large player base means that I can plug into a network of D20 players about anywhere I go, and I can try most d20 variants with minimal explanation and associated substandard gaming time while learning the ropes.
- The impessive body of third party publishers means that I can get ready-to-go support for a huge variety of topics, both giving me new ideas and doing the footwork for ideas I may have thought of.
I love Amber.
Because its competitive.
RPGPundit
I'm sort of stuck, I have about 4 systems that I like equally well but a lot more than the rest.
Iridium System: I like percentile mechanics, free form magic, and rolling lots of dice.
GDi: This is a new one on my list that took a while to win me over. It can do most anything. I like how the gimmicks and such add to character detail while giving a mechnical advantage(or disadbvantage) as well. Stupid simple mechnics, in a good way.
FUDGE: Build your own system, intuitive ladder mechanics, and I like the weird dice.
StarCluster 2: The sytem. Like I said I like percentile systems. Took me a while to like the damage system, but now it clicks for me.
My favorite system is D6.
It's fast to pick up and play and can be used with a variety of settings with ease.
My favourite system used to be Shadowrun.
As my second system it relieved me of my "small-small storytelling" TDE trauma, it had a lot of tactics involved with its pools, it had a cool way to generate classes by the limited resource Essence, and it helped a lot to build up a shared setting with its Connection rules. Finally, it made you wet if you managed to overcome target number 18 with two meager dice ;)
Nowadays I don't have my single favourite system anymore.
Quote from: SkyrockMy favourite system used to be Shadowrun.
Oh my. At times like these I'm really thankful for my sheltered childhood. The mere thought...
Quote from: SosthenesOh my. At times like these I'm really thankful for my sheltered childhood. The mere thought...
Trust me, there are reasons why it isn't so in anymore.
And if you got introduced into the hobby with TDE,
every other thinkable system is better ;)
Right now, I'm playing Exalted, and I really love how the dice work to my favor, for once, in a Storyteller game. :haw:
But I think I'm on a big True20 kick. I love the system the most because it gives me so much to work with in a very unified set-up. It scales up and down in a way I understand well, and I love the modular "Lego Brick" Feat work. I'm feeling very enthusiastic about it.
Quote from: SkyrockAnd if you got introduced into the hobby with TDE, every other thinkable system is better ;)
Well, I'd say with both systems, the attached setting is much more habit-forming.
And I'd much rather play Ausbau/Tharun TDE than Shadowrun 2/3E. ;)
TDE?
The Dark Eye, as was the English version of Das Schwarze Auge named. The most popular RPG in Germany with which most gamers here are introduced into the hobby.
The best thing to say about it is that it would be completely off-topic to talk about it in a thread about favorite systems :D
Quote from: SkyrockThe best thing to say about it is that it would be completely off-topic to talk about it in a thread about favorite systems :D
Well, I'm currently without a favorite system, but I have to say that there are still some elements from TDE that I really liked and often find myself adapting to other systems. Generally the system got worse with every iteration, but it had some neat mechanics.
Courage to determine initiative. Magic energy that didn't totally regenerate daily. And the power level of the wizardry is still my favorite one. The negative attributes (curiosity, greed etc.) were quite interesting, too (and really showed who was translating both Pendragon and Tunnels & Trolls into German). Attack series are a good idea, too. Like I said before, their first skill system combined with the advanced combat from their short-lived hollow world campaign was a rather decent system. But after that it got too cumbersome and the world evolved into a weak, PC carbon copy of all existing cliches. Ah, back in the days when you found out that the mighty wizard really was that powerful because of some alien artifacts. Retconned out by now, of course (just as the sci-fi elements disappeared from D&D, too).
So, no favorite system for me, but a couple of them serve as some kind of yardstick for me to measure other stuff against. D20, GURPS and yes, TDE really influence my opinion of most other systems, too. Now if I only could come up with my own perfect combination. By next sunday. ;)
Stormbringer 1st Ed
1. Percentile systems are intuitive. I understand what a 40% chance means.
2. Random character generation. I like fast character generation and let the fates decide what I play.
3. No talents, feats, advantages, disadvantages, weaknesses, etc. Did I mention I like fast character generation.
4. Quick combats.