If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I am very entrenched in the older ruelsets of D&D, their clones and derivatives. There are many reasons for this, but probably the main one beyond nostalgia is "comfort zone". I can pull out a classic D&D derivative and find my feet well situated on familiar ground.In my early days of playing, especially the high school and early college years, I was much more of a "system vagabond". Sure, AD&D 1e and 2e were my familiar homes, but it was not surprising to se me run a campaign of WFRP, MERPS, Spacemaster, Paranoia, Runequest 2 or even dabble in a dozen other systems for a session or three.
It seems with middle age, my ability to learn significantly new system mechanics has declined. I thinkthat has more to do with free time to learn such mechanics than a lessened desire to do so, but for me, the results are the same. The DCC RPG is about as far from core OSR as I am willing and able to stray these days, and even that required defaulting to 1e rules when in doubt.If you are mostly an OSR gamer, what non-OSR games do you dabble in (if there is one)? If you are mostly a non-OSR gamer, what is your "go to" system and why?
Hero system.
ReplyDeleteDo I want it to be Rolemaster? yes.
It is Champions
Risus. ;) And I'd like to play a few MERP sessions, too.
ReplyDeleteNon-OSR,own no D&D clones. Prefer Superworld, Champions, TSR MSH, Golden Heroes, DC Heroes, V&V.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to play D&D, I have the real one so need no clones.
For non-superhero, Flashing Blades, Bushido, WEG Star Wars, WEG Ghostbusters.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one that find it harder to learn new systems since middle age.
ReplyDeleteMy group is stuck playing D&D 3.X and D20 variants (M&M, Spycraft, etc).
Call of Cthulhu, and a little MERP, from time to time..
ReplyDeleteWhy I tend to gravitate towards GURPS.... can strip out rules for a "basic" mechanic and play just about anything with it.
ReplyDeleteTorchbearer. Torchbearer is actually THE game I am playing all the time nowadays.
ReplyDeleteCall of Cthulhu but haven't played or run it in a long time.
ReplyDeletePart time OSR game.
ReplyDeleteMy goto OSR game is Castles & Crusades.
Main game is D&D4E.
And my goto non medieval systems/games are Savage Worlds (pulp, modern, horror, sifi ...) and Numenera.
For me, it's GURPS obviously.
ReplyDeleteGURPS is my main game. I'll go to D&D, either 3.5 or B/X. Savage Worlds is one I've loved playing, but have not run yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm relatively new to D&D and the OSR (3-4 years). My go-to game used to be GURPS, but I'm gravitating to Traveller and TFT/Heroes and Other Worlds now.
ReplyDeleteBurning Wheel, FATE or Cortex depending on what I'm wanting to do.
ReplyDeleteCall of Cthulhu or any of the BRP rules derived systems (Runequest, Stormbringer/Elric Pendragon, etc.). Lately I have taken a fancy to trying to run a genuine Magic World campaign which is really a set of all the BRP rules from Stormbringer/Elric and a few other places brought together in one rule set.
ReplyDeleteI cut my teeth on AD&D in college ('79-'83) and stayed with it pretty much until 3.0 came out. My current group drank the 3.x Kool-aid when it came out, so I followed along. It soon became apparent, and verified by 3.5, that it was costing *a lot* of money to keep up with all the "new" stuff. We were debating whether to switch to Pathfinder, and when 4.0 came out, that sealed it. We have been PF ever since. We have self-limited ourselves as far as what books we allow. Right now it's Core Rules and Advanced Players Guide. We also get to use the Player's Guides for the adventure path we are on at the time. This group doesn't seem to have any interest in trying anything else, either in setting or rule set. Everyone else pretty much comes from a 2e background, although one player had previous experience in both AD&D and MERP.
ReplyDeleteWarhammer FRP 2E - currently adapting Paizo's last Dungeon Adventure Path to the system/Old World setting.
ReplyDeleteYep. Old guy here. I had some difficulty with 4e. Today? I know I couldn't learn new mechanics the way I did in my youth.
ReplyDeleteI like Champions but my family only plays OSR and 3.X so that's what we play.
I have a hard time gettin thru today's 300-400 page rulebooks. I wanted to like M&M but my eyes glaze over. It takes so long to get to the point. Same problem with many other "modern" games. It feels like they are trying to make the book thicker than it needs to be to justify the hard cover, glossy paper, and high price tag. Wasn't Champions something like 64 or 96 pages on the outside 30 years ago? I could handle that. The recent versions (past '89) I can't 'get thru.
ReplyDeleteForgot original Traveller and James Bond 007.
ReplyDeleteI like the Mayfair exponential system (DC hero's 3rd) but I guess that's pretty old school now.
ReplyDeletehave been enjoying Numenera weekly
Fate Core..
For fantasy gaming it's Pathfinder. For non-fantasy it's d20 Modern or Call of Cthulhu.
ReplyDeletePlayed basic to start, then advanced for years, got back into rpg with mere, a gateway drug to role master.
ReplyDeletePlayed hero, then mrq2 and am absolutely hooked on rq6 now.
Struggle with hit points and levels and classes.
Backed the fantasy hero kick starter...
GURPS and Traveller (CT or MT, please, though MgT is a reasonable alternative). GURPS gives me maximum flexibility to present exactly the setting I want, so long as I am willing to do a little work shaping the raw kit (as I am doing for my "Sixguns & Sorcery" setting). Traveller is just an excellent way to game '60s-'70s space opera SF with a nod to the '80s.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of non-D&D-like games that I play when I get the chance, but I can't say that they are "go-to" games - for instance, Top Secret, Flashing Blades, Marvel Superheroes, RuneQuest, Villains & Vigilantes, and Lords of Creation.
I am really enjoying the Cortex Plus system from Firefly RPG. And I really like the The One Ring RPG for a Middle Earth Campaign and well as the new FFG Star Wars RPG.
ReplyDeleteMy OSR go to games are DCC RPG and Labyrinth Lord. :)
My own homebrews and Cosmic Patrol predominately but, I'll dabble in most things of medium or less crunch... prefferably way less than medium.
ReplyDeleteUnisystem. Mostly Ghosts of Albion.
ReplyDeleteI've been playing Trail of Cthulhu which is Gumshoe and I'm loving it. I can't wait to run TimeWatch, another Gumshoe game for a time travel setting.
ReplyDeleteMy go-to games are Burning Wheel and Torchbearer...I have a group for each that meets every week. I still play a fair bit of D&D, almost always B/X, though we've played a bit of LotFP, ACKs and DCC.
ReplyDeleteWe try to play other old-school systems too. We played a six session HarnMaster game last year and we started a WFRP 1st game last week that we plan to pursue on an ad hoc basis. I want to take the new Tunnels & Trolls for a spin when I get my copy, and I also have a The Fantasy Trip retroclone (Heroes & Other Worlds) that I'd like to try out. And that gorgeous new RQ6 book is sitting on my shelf...I want to see how it stacks up against the earlier editions.
My non-OSR go to game these days is Savage Worlds. It does what I want quickly and easily, which is great when you're a gamer where time is a big time premium.
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