I am an evangelist for my favorite games: 1e AD&D, Classic Traveller '81, 2e Classic Runequest, pre-7e Call of Cthulhu, pre-4e Stormbringer, 1e WFRP, FASA Star Trek TOS-era. Favorite settings: JG Wilderlands, Prax in Glorantha (as a gonzo game setting rather than an imaginary topic for an imaginary thesis), Gazetteer-era Mystara, ICE Middle-Earth and Gygax-era Greyhawk.

There are still plenty of things I'd like to try, but an overwhelming number of things I'm not interested in.

Palladium Fantasy 1st Edition.  If you want to learn Palladium, this is the game.  Its notably simpler than the following games.  It also convinced me that D&D of the same time period was crap.  Down with  Armor Class & Thac-0, yes to strike vs parry/dodge.

I also am a fan of small, free RPGs.  Getting anybody to play them is a problem, but they're my new fascination.  Mini-6 Bare Bones, Pocket Fantasy, or cheap games like Dungeons and Delvers Dice Pool or Dark Star. 

Quote from: weirdguy564 on August 28, 2023, 11:26:58 PMI also am a fan of small, free RPGs.  Getting anybody to play them is a problem, but they're my new fascination.  Mini-6 Bare Bones, Pocket Fantasy, or cheap games like Dungeons and Delvers Dice Pool or Dark Star.

Just in case you aren't already aware of it, Warrior, Rogue and Mage is a great light weight and free system. One of my personal favourites on that space.

Shadowdark, OSE, and 5E (this is petering off).

Levels 1-36 + Godhood. System-specific skills that fit associated settings. Real weapon proficiency. Mass-combat rules. Monster catalog. Built-in setting. Racial and class limitations.

Everything you need to play D&D as it was meant to be played is in the Rules Cyclopedia.

Wildsea: From premise, playtest, art, system, layout, and fulfillment, I have never seen an RPG so flawless. It's designed to be played, and be played it will.

Cortex: Probably the most effective RPG out there at the moment, partly because it's so easy to configure it to fit your needs. I've even been able to 'fix' the narrative elements people so often complain about here. Sad how it continues to languish due to a lack of open license and series of unfortunate events.

Ron Edward's Sorcerer: Rarely play, but damn if that work didn't establish so many important principles designers are continuing to rediscover today.

Monsterhearts: Likely to never run it again because teen sexuality is a core theme. Best toxic relationship simulator I've ever encountered. All the moves are destructive in some manner. Strings turn relationships into currency. And none of it is an endorsement of such behavior.

Paranoia: Matt once said it's "lightning in a bottle" and I agree. Nothing will ever come close to its potential for social commentary even if it rarely reaches that potential in play. Ironically the best games for me have been ones where the players are trying to cooperate.

I don't evangelize much - but I will some for ones that very few people have heard of, or are largely forgotten.

Examples of weird-but-good games are The Play's the Thing, Hellcats & Hockeysticks, and Macho Women With Guns.

You heard that the Adventures of Indiana Jones game by TSR was the worst RPG of all time. You heard that it had no character creation rules.

You heard wrong.

The Adventures of Indiana Jones roleplaying game is one of the best games TSR put out in their heyday. I've run this many times at conventions and players are always surprised at how great the game is and how it captures the spirit of Indiana Jones!

Quote from: Theory of Games on August 29, 2023, 05:02:49 PM
Everything you need to play D&D as it was meant to be played is in the Rules Cyclopedia.

Gods what a great book.

I wish each edition of D&D could be summed up like this. If I ran WotC I'd do a special edition set of every edition edited and compiled into a deluxe Rules Cyclopedia with era-appropriate art and layout in a hardcover edition with a slipcase. Release the collection for the 50th anniversary next year.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on August 30, 2023, 06:43:09 PM

Quote from: Theory of Games on August 29, 2023, 05:02:49 PM
Everything you need to play D&D as it was meant to be played is in the Rules Cyclopedia.

Gods what a great book.

It is one of the best fantasy systems ever in a book. The problem is that the errata, when printed, fill several pages. I always hoped for a PDF version cleaned up. Having said that, this book plus (choose a Gazetteer or two) contain years of playing.

Quote
I wish each edition of D&D could be summed up like this. If I ran WotC I'd do a special edition set of every edition edited and compiled into a deluxe Rules Cyclopedia with era-appropriate art and layout in a hardcover edition with a slipcase. Release the collection for the 50th anniversary next year.

For a Rules Cyclopedia cleaned up plus three Gazetteer in a slipcase (Karameikos, Glantri and The Minrothad Guilds IMHO) I would easily pay $150.

Quote from: tenbones on August 26, 2023, 01:14:27 PM
I'm curious since you openly admit how much you love the crunch for its mechanical benefits *as* an element of the game, if you've ever taken a look at Fantasy Craft, and what your opinions of it were? Because... (and I've said this many times on this forum and other places) Fantasy Craft is the apotheosis of 3.x design. It fixes *all* the mechanical issues of 3.x and PF and is even more high-octane.

No, I never tried it. But, since I found myself with some pocket money, I just bought it on DriveThroughRPG. I'll read it this week-end.

I may get some flak for this, but I won't apologise for it: the Adventure Game Engine system by, yes, Green Ronin, is a great system to introduce people to TTRPGS. You can say about GR what you want but the system as it is, is one of the best there is (I've played, I must add). Though as an introduction you're better off with the first edition. It's fast, it's simple and it gives a good taste of what TTRPG actually is.

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on August 31, 2023, 06:22:57 AM
I may get some flak for this, but I won't apologise for it: the Adventure Game Engine system by, yes, Green Ronin, is a great system to introduce people to TTRPGS. You can say about GR what you want but the system as it is, is one of the best there is (I've played, I must add). Though as an introduction you're better off with the first edition. It's fast, it's simple and it gives a good taste of what TTRPG actually is.

Green Ronin is too Woke for me. I'll never buy another one of their products, even though Mutants and Masterminds is in my top 3 best superhero games.

Quote from: Reckall on August 31, 2023, 02:24:05 AM

It is one of the best fantasy systems ever in a book. The problem is that the errata, when printed, fill several pages. I always hoped for a PDF version cleaned up. Having said that, this book plus (choose a Gazetteer or two) contain years of playing.

Which errata are you talking about? Do you mean the massive one that is posted over on Dragonsfoot? Because that one is actually full of house rules and not just errata per se.

Quote from: Reckall on August 31, 2023, 02:24:05 AM

For a Rules Cyclopedia cleaned up plus three Gazetteer in a slipcase (Karameikos, Glantri and The Minrothad Guilds IMHO) I would easily pay $150.

Agreed! Sadly the current darklords in charge of Watzi would never do that. They have no love or respect for the history of the game. Just like the evil witch in charge of LucasFilm has no love for Star Wars, just access to that audience to preach her sick twisted ideology to.

7th Sea Second Edition is the game I wind up talking about the most at conventions.  I think I was annoying the Chaosium booth-folk this GenCon because a bunch of people asked what it was when I was looking to see if they had any new books and I spent much of time explaining the system when I got the impression the Chaosium folks wanted to move new customers to Glorantha or CoC.  My friends who played 7th Sea 1e don't like the new edition, but I never played 1e so I don't have a frame of reference to compare the two lines.

The game is more cinematic co-operative narrative versus your more traditional RPG.  You chuck a fistful of dice and do heroic stuff until you run out of raises then move on to the next scene where you repeat the process until you have thwarted the cardinal, tossed the defeated captain overboard, wooed the Countess de Quelestson Pantalon, etc.  If you didn't get enough raises then oh well you get marooned on the island, Countess de Quelestcon Pantalon turns you over to her husband as a thief, etc.  and the story continues.

The villain mechanics are really what win my affection.  The big bad invests bad guy resources into schemes.  If the schemes go off well the investment pays off and they get more formidable.  If the PC manage to interfere then those resources are lost and the big bad gets knocked down a peg.

DCC/MCC It has the same feel as my games from my youth (early 1980s) with the right mix of silly and serious.