Quote from: Levi KornelsenI'm on your ignore list, then?

Not yet. But if I ever stumble over you and break my neck, then by golly, you will be on my list!

(Ignore lists, really? You've got killfiles in a forum now? I'm showing my age...)

A courteous visit to pay your respects to the lords and ladies of Aelfscienne before returning again to the more prosaic realms of the Earth: that was all you had reason to expect from tonight. The earthquake which sundered the royal hall in two during the grand gala was not in your itinerary.

The crimson miners of the Alfar had delved too deep, it seems, and far below the sunlit lands they awakened a tattered thing of flame and rage, bound there by the one called Cneph before ever history began. The angels and the devils, the honoured guests of the night's celebrations, dare not venture into the depths, for even from afar the undying beast whispers strangely to their hearts; and you have already heard the learned magisters of the court speculate about the Heresy of N'mosnikttiel, and the strangest flesh from which the Creator allegedly shaped the Host of Heaven after the stars had taken to the skies. Should this ancient remnant rise from its prison, they mutter in hushed tones, it would soon grow mightier and reclaim what once rightfully belonged to it. With a thousand faces torn from dead angels it would again chant words of destruction and devour one world after another until the flaming walls of the universe flickered out and nothing more than the void remained.

Times such as this, then, are the reason why you were once raised above common mortals and granted a modest measure of divinity. Tonight, your very humanity is what allows you to walk where angels fear to tread. Your powers pale in comparison with theirs, true, and the Domain entrusted to you is but small; but it too will burn with the rest of Creation unless you descend into the dark beneath the world where even miracles may gutter and fail, into the dungeons rendered sacrosanct by the breath of God himself when he pronounced his judgment on the horror.

To defend your Estate and Familia and Imperator, even if it will sear your soul to ashes?

That is the essence of Nobility.

It will suffice.

Quote from: GrimGentN'mosnikttiel

Gesundheit.

Quote from: SosthenesGesundheit.

That name comes from an apocryphal angel of wrath, if memory serves. And yes, you can do a dungeon crawl in Nob. It's just going to be a pretty odd dungeon.

Masque of the Red Death (2E) - Gothic 1890s adventures.  Had so much potential, but it tanked and I still don't know why.  I believe they tried to revive it some time back, but I'm so far out of the d20 loop I wouldn't know what to do with it anymore.  

Wraith - Awesome, evocative setting - the problem:  Every player had to be familiar with it to play.  It's hard enough getting every player at the table to buy their own copies of a book, much less read through it all.    

Star Wars WEG - I use a hybrid of 1E and 2E.  This game has provided some of the best gaming fun I've ever had.  

Dead Meat: Ultima Carnexnx della Zombi - A quick and easy zombie survival game designed for 120 minutes of play written by Sean Wipfli.  It's rough (a free 4-page download) and I've had to make a few house rules, but I've never had a bad session with it.  

Games that really rock! - Dreamwalker: Roleplaying in the Land of Dreams (%, AE, and d20M versions), Dog Town, Iron Gauntlets, Coyote Trail, Hunger: Zombies Must Feed. - OK, so I might be a bit biased here.  

Pete

BTRC's old Timelords rpg rocks because it lets you play yourself as a character, and gives you guidelines for measuring your abilities. Its basic premise is that you are regular Joes who are thrown into time-travelling adventure by a small portable time machine, which for some unknown reason is shaped like a d20.

Average Joes and Jos, tossed against their will into adventure. Awesome!

Also, it has stats for the damage caused by a billiard ball.

Seconding the love for Runequest, classic Traveller, and Timelords.

Angel, and its sister-game Buffy the Vampire Slayer both rock so very hard there's always the constant danger of a low-scale earthquake.  Not only are they incredibly flexible, not only do they play wonderfully fast, but moreso than any other licensed RPG I've encountered, they actually help the GM and players to faithfully recreate the feel of the source material that they're based on, while at the same time giving you the freedom (and encouraging you to do so) to go beyond the canon and make the game your own.

Dangerous Journeys

A system that allows quick adaptation to most any genre you can think of.

Character creation (with background and plot hooks) that's an adventure in itself.

Phæree a truly soul warping place, complete with Nazis both as ubermensch (the slaugh), treacherous bastards (the Drow), and stuck up prigs (the Fey).

A world ruling lady computer.

A robot ruled moon.

Dinosaurs on Venuz and canals on Marz.

Necromantic rituals in abandoned subway tunnels under Manhattan. Way under Manhattan.

Powerful wizards with homes in town, friends in the local church, and a position on the city council. (take that Ars Magica!)

House cats that can't kill commoners.

12 different kinds of horses.

15 different kinds of elephants.

9 different kinds of bears.

20 different kinds of snakes

14 different kinds of rhinoceros.

I have the rules for Changeling and Unhallowed and the manuscript for the (rather incomplete) Phæree Bestiary

I'm going to sing hallelujah for the delight that is Black Industries' Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), a fan-favourite from the late 80's released in a spanking new edition last year.

WFRP's first great merit is the essential simplicity of the core mechanics- built around a percentile system-  which make the game one which a competent GM really can get running in a week or two with just the core rulebook at their disposal. After months of trying to pull a roleplaying group together, I got WFRP2 on its release last May, and I ran  my first session 5 days later. Admittedly I'd played the 1st edition back in the 80's, and I did know a bit about the setting, but like I said: the core rulebook includes an introductory adventure and enough background material that an experienced GM could easily put together a short campaign without too much difficulty and getting it up and running pretty quickly.

So WFRP2's first great merit is that it is a good game to pick up and try out to see if you like the taste of it.

If the accessibility of the basic game is WFRP2's first merit, the unique flavour and richness of the Warhammer Old World is what makes the game rock. Imagine Tolkein meets Moorcock meets Lovecraft in a medieval/renaissance setting with all the dials turned up to 11 and you have an idea of what the Old World's about. The setting contains pretty much every classic fantasy and supernatural trope you can think of, plus a few that are unique to Warhammer. At the same time, the ever-present threat of the dread forces of Chaos mean that you can play the game in pretty much any style you wish: epic dungeon bashes, intrigue, mysteries- you name it, you can do it in the Old World.

This richness means that the Old World is a wonderful place to run as a GM. There is a wealth of information available about the setting- both official and unofficial. Couple this with the fact that the rules are eniminently suited for house-ruling, and what you have is a world which positively invites you pore through the tomes looking for hooks to use to bring the setting to life while putting your own special stamp on the place. What more can a creative GM ask of a roleplaying setting?

Finally, WFRP has great support. BI have published 15 different supplemental products, ranging from a 3-volume epic campaign- 'The Paths of the Damned', to sourcebooks detailing regions of the Old World or entire monster races. Opinions vary about the quality of these products, but I have to say that I am satisfied with them all; to my mind they do what they are supposed to do- namely they provide GM's with the sort of material needed to develop and enrich their campaigns.

And the online support is great too. The game has a dedicated fanbase which has created a wealth of high quality material. This is too vast to detail, but an idea of how extensive it is can be gleaned from the fact that I have downloaded 52 fanmade scenarios from the BI website alone. So you really could GM WFRP for years without ever having to create your own scenarios from scratch.

And that's it: the system's slick; the setting is the bomb; and the support is strong. This game has revived my GM'ing career and given me my first epic campaign. I'm sure that I'll running WFRP for many years to come. Damn, but I just love this game!

Vampire: the Requiem
 
Vampires are real. You've just become one.
Your emotions are as faint as your heartbeat. Your laughter is formal. Your tears are red and false.
Do not waste your time trying to feel, you've got shit to do. You're a baby. A childe. Your Sire made you for a reason, and if she didn't, you better make one up quick. Don't make too many enemies among your kind. We live forever, and revenge gets real cold when you've got that much time.
 
Yeah. V:tR rocks. The flexibility of the setting combined with simple and flexible character creation and rules, means you get the cool, fun Vampire game you always wanted, with none of the shit you don't.

Dude, as unpopular as it is to say, I have to say that V:TR is a pretty solid game. The NWOD totally brought me back to the table, although I'm still not too fond of the clans and what-not, and still hate what they do with Werewolves.