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Divine Paladin

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Simple as the title says, recommend some games. New or old, I don't care. Here's what I've played, and some things that bother me to narrow things down.

I've played D&D4e and 3.5 (dislike 4e due to super excessive focus on combat to the detriment of EVERYTHING else, and characters being really pidgeonholed into their roles), Pathfinder (which I prefer to 3.5 for fixing some really crap mechanics, i.e. grappling and the draconian skill system), and Call of Cthulhu (which I have problems with... everyone has the mentality that if you're the DM, your job is to kill the players in horrible ways. If you're a player, your job is to have a ton of characters made so when you inevitably get killed / go insane because of the killer DM, you can keep playing, even though there's absolutely no chance of winning. I think this is wrong, even if it is how Lovecraft stories go. It's a game, and games should be winnable, and you shouldn't have to put a ton of characters through a meat grinder to do it).

I have the Mutants and Masterminds core book (and Mecha and Manga) and I'm currently reading through them. Is there no character progression in this? o.O

Pet peeves include dice pools, lack of character customization, excessively high odds of death even if you're playing well, excessive focus on ONE aspect of a game (looking at you 4e), and really confusing / cluttered presentation in the books. Looking at a 3.5 book and then a PF book is like night and day to me... if there's one thing I like that PF did, it made all the books gorgeous and easy to navigate, and for the most part there aren't many tiny situational rules you have to dig for (mostly).

Liberal Raider

Try the Savage World books, the core mechanics are really easy to pick up and learn, once you have the core down you get setting books that add flavor and sometimes additional rules and mechanics. The system is very fast pace and blends well to less serious games, but really can be done for anything. My favorites include Necessary Evil (Earth's heroes are all dead it is up to the super villians to save the world). Dead Lands Reloaded (a sort of magic/steampunk/altered wild west), Runepunk(magic/steam punk setting) and 50 Fathoms(magic/pirates), and Slipstream(scifi b movie scifi like Flash Gorden or Lost in Space). Because it is only the specific settings that change or add rules, it is also very easy to make home brew settings and rules for too. One of My all time favorite systems. Savage Worlds is My go to when the group doesn't know what to play, or want to do something impromtu.

The other suggestion is Rifts, it is a mishmash of about everything, and plays similar to D&D 3.5 with less focus on pure combat. It does have a lot of drawbacks and only mention it because it is a personal favorite. The material is very very dense, and extremely unbalanced, though that is partly by design. Everything is very specific which means once you make a character your more or less cemented into it. It can however be a lot of fun, easy to bounce from extremely silly to deadly serious with little effort but is very intimidating for most and usually only min/max like to play it regularly which are the worst people to play it with because of the massive balance issues, not something to pick up casually, but it meets all your other needs.

Divine Paladin

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Linfac
Try the Savage World books, the core mechanics are really easy to pick up and learn, once you have the core down you get setting books that add flavor and sometimes additional rules and mechanics. The system is very fast pace and blends well to less serious games, but really can be done for anything. My favorites include Necessary Evil (Earth's heroes are all dead it is up to the super villians to save the world). Dead Lands Reloaded (a sort of magic/steampunk/altered wild west), Runepunk(magic/steam punk setting) and 50 Fathoms(magic/pirates), and Slipstream(scifi b movie scifi like Flash Gorden or Lost in Space). Because it is only the specific settings that change or add rules, it is also very easy to make home brew settings and rules for too. One of My all time favorite systems. Savage Worlds is My go to when the group doesn't know what to play, or want to do something impromtu.

The other suggestion is Rifts, it is a mishmash of about everything, and plays similar to D&D 3.5 with less focus on pure combat. It does have a lot of drawbacks and only mention it because it is a personal favorite. The material is very very dense, and extremely unbalanced, though that is partly by design. Everything is very specific which means once you make a character your more or less cemented into it. It can however be a lot of fun, easy to bounce from extremely silly to deadly serious with little effort but is very intimidating for most and usually only min/max like to play it regularly which are the worst people to play it with because of the massive balance issues, not something to pick up casually, but it meets all your other needs.


i actually remember seeing something about deadlands a while back and thinking it looked interesting, it's kinda like horror mixed with western right? what books do you need to play it? and have you played the original deadlands? i'm not sure what reloaded does with it.

Liberal Raider

Deadlands was it's own system originally, Deadlands Reloaded is the Savage World version, you'd need a Savage World core, Deadland's player and Marshal guides. That's it to start there are more books but that's the basics, you can get the explorer editions rather cheaply for RPG books around 10 to 20 bucks each. It is sort of a horror and steampunk altered history setting, Magic can get a bit bogged down because it is based off poker hands but the Savage World rules streamline it compared to the original. I played the original only a few times, and honestly don't really remember much but I have friends that fans of both. Reloaded just makes it fit the core rules of Savage World and makes a few things (like magic casting) more streamline and go fast. I don't think that really takes anything away from the game though.

Divine Paladin

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is there character progression or does your character just stay the way you made it? i'm sorta realizing that a lack of character progression is kinda a turnoff for me. without it i think i'd get bored of my character really fast because they can never change or improve, and that also means the kinda stuff they face always stays around the same level. and idk where the challenge would come from there other than just luck.

Divine Paladin

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i just looked at savage worlds test drive stuff and oh my god i am in love with this system. it's so simple and elegant.

Liberal Raider

I am glad you like it. It is one of My all time favorites. Character progression is there but slow, not as easily tracked as say D&D but it is a lot easier than say Rifts.

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