Today I said farewell to my Exalted Second Edition Core Rules, as I posted it off to a new home, courtesy of Amazon UK Market Place.
I'll miss it, or, more accurately, I'll continue to miss First Edition, which I ditched when I 'upgraded' to 2nd.
I've already sold my D&D 4th Ed books, because they are slightly less evil than the Necronomicon, and been paid monies for them. Oddly, they are still at my house. Jay - do you actually want them? I have spent the cash.
Finally, I have my Ars Magica 5th Ed for sale, as, once again, it doesn't compare to the previous edition, IMHO.
What this essentially means is that I've ejected all of my Fantasy RPGs, and retained only my Modern, Horror and Sci-fi games.
There is a gap.
I intend to get Pathfinder, but I am slightly dubious - I didn't love D&D 3.5, and I suspect I'm considering Pathfinder because I hate D&D 4.
So, a question.
Considering that my favoured system is New World of Darkness, and that I dislike rules heavy games like Exalted, yet would prefer something still in print and available through Amazon, what fantasy RPG would you recommend?
Maybe Green Ronin's Dragon Age RPG based on the video game. It's not bad and there's starting to be a lot of fan support for tweaking it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the system like?
ReplyDeleteI own that game. Perhaps I should give it a read.
ReplyDeleteAs I a player, I am quite liking Pathfinder. I am not sure I would enjoy running it, though. The rules-heavy aspect of 3.5 gave me headaches and Pathfinder is pretty much 3.5
If you want simple but interesting -- and available now -- try Dragon Age RPG. It really is excellent.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lighter version of 3.5 with some old-school touches AND some really interesting new school kind of touches.
It's good stuff.
Also, Pathfinder is a good game too, but if you really didn't like 3.5 -- I'd stick to Dragon Age.
Heroquest by Robin D Laws. It's not genre specific, but it was designed with Glorantha in mind. Very light system that encourages narrative. Just about as far away from the d20 system as you can get, even if it does use d20s.
ReplyDeleteDCC RPG from Goodman games. The Beta is about to drop any day now in prep for FreeRPGDay.
ReplyDeleteWait--Exalted is rules-heavy to you? :)
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for a story-based game, why not stick with WoD? There is plenty of material between all of the core books to build an interesting fantasy setting.
Barring that idea, what sort of features are you looking for?
For something rules-light but level-based, maybe you should try out Labyrinth Lord (or another retro-clone.) If you want something with a little less dungeon crawling and a little more story, I recommend the Burning Wheel. (In fact, I recommend anyone who takes RPGs seriously to read the Burning Wheel, even if they aren't interested in playing it.) Lastly, you might want to try out Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay--the earlier editions are great fun if you can get your hands on them, but the latest edition seems interesting too (although I haven't played it yet.)
Try war hammer frp. or dark heresy for teh sci-fi
ReplyDeleteYes I will collect ASAP lol.
Jay
Dragon Age is a great system, the setting is so-so I thought.
ReplyDeleteI think your game choice really depends on what you like and the whole rules lite----heavy spectrum. Plus, gods, there are many to choose from these days.
I've downloaded the Dragon Age Free RPG Day quick start, and will be checking that out.
ReplyDeleteI've also decided to retain my copy of Ars Magica 5, and still intend to invest in Pathfinder, so hopefully I'm covered.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Das Schwarze Auge - The dark eye
ReplyDeleteI've made a fantasy setting out of WoD. Well, a barebones one that I've spent the past eleven weeks blogging four times a week. Still, moral of the story is that it isn't very hard. I used Changeling kith blessings to create races and classes and divided up the merits so that they cost twice as much to get out-of-class merits. It's a bit heavyhanded, I know, but I was going for a Classic Fantasty style using WoD rules so it worked for what I was after. You could probably create one from scratch far more easily if you weren't after that.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that people have been using Changeling: the Lost to hack out a fantasy game using nWoD rules. I can totally see that. Just limiting the game to Hollows in the Hedge opens the game up to all sorts of different genres.
DeleteThere's also the Dark Fantasy shards in World of Darkness: Mirrors, which offers a good starting point.
I've also got the base rules for the Dark Ages games, which you can get from DrivethruRPG for free, which I could use.
I'm interested in your setting, though. It's got a strong D&D feel to it, from what I've skimmed on the way into work.