What game or rule set or edition, best delivers the quintessential RPG experience?

Obviously answers will be based on personal opinion.  Over the years, I've played pretty much every version of D&D (except OD&D and 4th Ed) and Palladium (pretty much all settings before Rifts) and Marvel Superheroes so my scope is fairly limited.  I probably played some other systems also but they clearly weren't memorable enough for me to recall.

I'd have to say either B/X or 1st Ed AD&D is the quintessential RPG for me.  I have good memories of the other games with some great fun days but I still remember a couple of my fighters I rolled up for AD&D.  I remember their personalities and accomplishments.  There were summers as a teenager when I used to play D&D with my buddies every day, all day and night for weeks on end.  It was a glorious gaming time for me.  If an RPG provides me with fun memories as well as memories of specific characters, that I think is a great game.

I liked Heroes Unlimited and Marvel Superheroes and enjoyed the systems but I think that has more to do with my love for superheroes than the actual rules. 

Nostalgia clouds my judgment but I still think B/X and 1st Ed AD&D are the best RPG experience.  I lean more towards B/X simply because it is so easy to learn and so flexible.

People are going to go smug, state this is or that is, but from an objective perspective, it is D&D.  It set the genre, its still being sold and played 50 years later.  Most games quit getting published in a decade after release, but not D&D.  If you mention D&D everyone knows what it is, if you mention GURPS they say excuse you or if you mention Savage Worlds they say yes the world is really rough I hate the bloodshed.

AD&D IMO

WEG's D6 Star Wars.

Two kids with cardboard tubes running around the yard screaming with no idea of what the other kid is screaming about.

After that, D&D wherein the players often have no idea what the other players are screaming about.

Everyone seems to have their own ur-Dungeons & Dragons.  How they played it or how it should be played.  I think more have actually read the rule book these days even though the current generation aren't as much into reading.  Looking up cool attack powers is their life blood.  But the divides between those who want tactical challenges, character immersion, exploration, and just fucking around seems as vast as ever.

There is no 'quintessential RPG experience.' There are several forms of the hobby, along with cousins to it, and countless variations within each one.

The hobby is too diverse in 2024 for there to be only one answer.  The same thing happens in board games.  You can't select the epitome of board games because there are too many types of games, styles of play, mechanics, etc.  If you are trying to find the right game for you then I'd recommend thinking about genres, mechanics, and style.

Style for me looks at game play.  Are you looking for a seriously played quasi-realistic tactical simulator or a theater of the mind shared narrative story game or throw some dice and be silly with your friends? Then how much arithmetic would you like to do while playing? Do like rolling on tables? Can you easily recall rules or would you enjoy walking down the combat round flow chart on your turn (I'm looking at you 3rd edition GURPS)?  Finally do you want to play high or low fantasy? 1920s detectives? Sci-fi?  Western? a specific intellectual property like Flash Gordon or R.A. Salvatore?

To make your selection even more challenging there's a fair amount of cross over from the board game world that can give you a similar experience.  Rather than play a story game bust out Before There Were Stars or Once Upon a Time.  When my group cancels and I was itching for a combat heavy session I'll take Shadows of Brimstone off the shelf to get some RP light/tactical combat game time.  My rotten adult children won't play Call of Cthulhu with me so I have shifted to the Arkham Horror LCG.  It's a nearly perfect solo RPG experience. Nearly perfect because your choices are limited to what you have in your deck/hand and you have a set goal.  You can't have that "OMG! you joined the Yithinian cult?" moment but you can get an immersive adventure with high degrees of risk and reward.

IMHO:  Story game: 7th Sea 2e; Vanilla TTRPG: Castles & Crusades or Dragonslayer; Silly RPG: DCC; IP specific games: Savage Worlds; Sci Fi: Classic Traveller.

Board games to get the same feel: AH:LCG; Fiasco; One Upon a Time; Shadows of Brimstone; Tales of the Arabian Nights (from Zman Games)

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 19, 2024, 12:01:13 AM
What game or rule set or edition, best delivers the quintessential RPG experience?

None of them.  The great GM delivers the quintessential RPG experience.  The GM is best able to achieve greatness with a set of RPG rules that fits like a glove the game the GM is trying to run, ideally for players in a place to appreciate and roll with it.  Naturally, the exact rules (RAW, house ruled, and rulings) will vary, because a great GM inevitably develops their own style. 

Sure, there's going to be quite a bit of overlap that can be discussed, but it is in general terms, the same way that most good desserts have sugar in them. 

False.  Black bear. 

edit:  Oh, sorry.  I thought you were asking which bear is best.

Quote from: Man at Arms on March 19, 2024, 12:01:13 AM
What game or rule set or edition, best delivers the quintessential RPG experience?

The one you come up with yourself that never quite seems to meet exactly what you had in mind, no matter how much you play test and revise it. This is like asking what the epitome of a burrito is...there's always SOMETHING you'll want to change.

Quote from: RNGm on March 19, 2024, 12:05:28 PM
False.  Black bear. 

edit:  Oh, sorry.  I thought you were asking which bear is best.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galatica (1978)

I'd like to say WFRP 1e or 2e.

But the truth is the best experience I've ever had is with certain DMs and players that I really jived with.

Quote from: JackFS4 on March 19, 2024, 12:29:13 PM

Quote from: RNGm on March 19, 2024, 12:05:28 PM
False.  Black bear. 

edit:  Oh, sorry.  I thought you were asking which bear is best.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galatica (1978)

"Bears do not... What's going on? What are you doing?"   

Love that scene from the office.

For me, these days it's Old School Essentials.   A Cleaned up version of B/X that feels like D&D did when I first started playing (Though I started with the red box).