Quote from: GhostNinja on April 09, 2023, 08:15:46 PM

Quote from: K Peterson on April 09, 2023, 08:05:52 PM
RuneQuest, specifically Mongoose Publishing's RuneQuest II version. It's the only fantasy Rpg I want to run anymore.

Avalon Hill's RuneQuest (RuneQuest III) is an old nostalgic favorite but I haven't run it in a few decades.

I ran the original Runequest and had a goodtime with it.   So you suggest the mongoose Runquest II version over the original edition?

I can only speak to my own preferences. I am not a Gloranthaphile and come from an angle of using RuneQuest as more of a generic frp engine.

MRQII is out of print so I honeslty wouldn't recommend tracking it down. But its general game mechanics live on in an rpg called Mythras. So if you're looking for something in that vein, that's what I'd recommend checking out.

EDIT: I should have recalled that Mongoose's Legend Rpg is a more direct descendant. And I think it's still only $1 on DTRPG. Check that one out if you're interested.

I tried a lot of exotical systems in the years, D&D not even top 10. My first game was Das Schwarze Auge, so probably d20 didn't left any imprinting to me.

Best fantasy games so far, not in order:
BLOODLUST (french): control both an hero and a sentient weapon with divergent goals. Sessions are very funny and play on their own.
WARES BLADE (japanese): I purchased an original box paying it *too much*. The rules doesn't shine, the setting is incredibly fascinating. Medieval fantasy with archeological mecha, and everything fit very well without going "anime". The d20 version kill the mood.
CADWALLON (french): Urban adventures. Highly detailed world, great emphasis on interactions. Very european, grey-toned, elegant.
ARIANRHOD (japanese) high fantasy adventures. My players are all MMORPG-gen people, so they like the overlap of concepts.
RYUUTAMA (japanese), relaxed, light-toned fantasy game about a journey. I own a spanish copy, but it look it was translated to any language.

Quote from: K Peterson on April 09, 2023, 08:24:26 PM
MRQII is out of print so I honeslty wouldn't recommend tracking it down. But its general game mechanics live on in an rpg called Mythras. So if you're looking for something in that vein, that's what I'd recommend checking out.

EDIT: I should have recalled that Mongoose's Legend Rpg is a more direct descendant. And I think it's still only $1 on DTRPG. Check that one out if you're interested.

Thank you for the information.

Quote from: migo on April 08, 2023, 04:09:39 PM
Dragonlance 5th Age - the SAGA system is quite different from D&D, while still feeling familiar in a number of ways.

While I'm not a fan of the Fifth Age changes, I still maintain that the SAGA system was the best way to model epic fantasy tales in play ever made.  Love that system, which I could get my hands on the cards as my boxed set was lost ages ago.

Shadow of the Demon Lord, hands down.

Quote from: Dropbear on April 10, 2023, 09:42:15 AM
Shadow of the Demon Lord, hands down.

Looked at it.  Played it once.  Was way over complicated for me.

Everyone has their own tastes though.

Quote from: GhostNinja on April 10, 2023, 10:15:15 AM

Quote from: Dropbear on April 10, 2023, 09:42:15 AM
Shadow of the Demon Lord, hands down.

Looked at it.  Played it once.  Was way over complicated for me.

Everyone has their own tastes though.

This was also my experience. I liked the career and advancement system, but the game overall  just didn't click for me or my players.

Quote from: deganawida on April 10, 2023, 09:15:21 AM

Quote from: migo on April 08, 2023, 04:09:39 PM
Dragonlance 5th Age - the SAGA system is quite different from D&D, while still feeling familiar in a number of ways.

While I'm not a fan of the Fifth Age changes, I still maintain that the SAGA system was the best way to model epic fantasy tales in play ever made.  Love that system, which I could get my hands on the cards as my boxed set was lost ages ago.

Wasn't there also a Star Wars game that used the Saga system?

Quote from: Tasty_Wind on April 10, 2023, 03:06:06 PM

Quote from: deganawida on April 10, 2023, 09:15:21 AM

Quote from: migo on April 08, 2023, 04:09:39 PM
Dragonlance 5th Age - the SAGA system is quite different from D&D, while still feeling familiar in a number of ways.

While I'm not a fan of the Fifth Age changes, I still maintain that the SAGA system was the best way to model epic fantasy tales in play ever made.  Love that system, which I could get my hands on the cards as my boxed set was lost ages ago.

Wasn't there also a Star Wars game that used the Saga system?

I don't believe it was all-caps SAGA, just called Saga, and didn't use the SAGA system.  There was a Marvel superheroes version of Saga, though. 

Time to be a bit of an odd ball...Palladium Fantasy.

Quote from: Tasty_Wind on April 10, 2023, 03:04:53 PM
This was also my experience. I liked the career and advancement system, but the game overall  just didn't click for me or my players.

Yep.  I used to be ok with complicated systems when I had more time (Like Hero System, the mother of overcomplicated systems) but these days I like fast and fun games

Quote from: zer0th on April 09, 2023, 08:10:42 PM
The DragonLance Fifth Age Boxed Set came at a time old school DragonLance fans would rather never happened: when Weis & Hickman were "excused" from TSR/WotC and another team was put at the helm of development of DragonLance, and they took that world to a direction hated by a lot of people. It was my first contact with DragonLance, so I don't hate on it for being an interloper in my cozy DragonLance.

  A little more detail: Weis & Hickman had left TSR years ago, but were asked in the mid-90s to do one last Chronicles book. They came up with the Chaos War concept, and wanted to expand it to a trilogy or more of novels and game supplements. TSR stuck with 'we contracted for one book, and that's what we want', so they gave us Dragons of Summer Flame. Due to the preorders on that book, the Dragonlance boosters on TSR's staff (including Harold Johnson, who is often ignored but arguably deserves 'co-creator of DL' credit as much as anyone short of the Hickmans) got permission to relaunch Dragonlance as a game. However, TSR imposed several limits on them: It couldn't be AD&D-based (original design, I'm told, would have looked a lot like the Lankhmar set released a month or two before DL:5A), it had to be card-based, and it had to be set after Dragons of Summer Flame.

   I was a fan of the Dragonlance novels in the last 80s/early 90s, but by the time they started on the Meetings Sextet, I felt the flavor had gone out of Krynn and stopped keeping up. I came back with the release of The Second Generation and Dragons of Summer Flame, but after reading the latter, my initial reaction was "OK, they're going to close up shop." DRAGON Magazine and online posts by design team member Steve Miller (whom I was following for his work on Ravenloft) got me interested, and I kept up with the promotional material and eagerly adopted the game at launch. I've used it for several short campaigns ... but never in Krynn. I have run Ravenloft, Dragon Quest (Warrior), and Final Fantasy-based games with it, though.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on April 10, 2023, 04:18:41 PM
[...] eagerly adopted the game at launch. I've used it for several short campaigns ... but never in Krynn. I have run Ravenloft [...] with it, though.

That is so cool that you ran Ravenloft using the SAGA System. Did you make a Fear, Horror, and Madness subsystem for you game? It was one of the things I loved in Domains of Dread, until I played it more extensively and had to refer back to the 18 pages of rules all the time.

Quote from: zer0th on April 10, 2023, 08:12:10 PM

That is so cool that you ran Ravenloft using the SAGA System. Did you make a Fear, Horror, and Madness subsystem for you game? It was one of the things I loved in Domains of Dread, until I played it more extensively and had to refer back to the 18 pages of rules all the time.

    I only got a couple of playtest sessions in, but I just treated them as Essence (Spirit) actions with difficulty to be set by the grade of the threat/horror, and used the standard results for failure. My use predated Domains of Dread, so I was using the simpler approach from the Black/Red boxes.

    For more information on SAGA in Ravenloft, see DRAGON #240, #264, and the Kargatane's Book of Souls netbook.

Quote from: Malaky on April 10, 2023, 03:51:48 PM
Time to be a bit of an odd ball...Palladium Fantasy.

You're not weird (that's my job, hence the username).

I second this.  Palladium Fantasy.   I just love the strike-parry-dodge system over D&D Armor Class and skyrocketing hitpoints.  In Palladium your strike, parry, and dodge bonuses are what get better over time.  Your hitpoints and armor don't (ok, hitpoints do technically go up, but it's a shallow increase).

I also recommend the 1st edition.  It's just easier, with the caveat that it's not as compatible with the other games they make.  In fact, I like to think of Palladium Fantasy 1E as the introduction set of rules before modern and sci-fi rules start to creep into the system and start adding inconsistencies or unclear rules that modern Palladium is known for.