HurstGM
So as GM's (current and former) What are your favorite systems? What are your favorite genres?
Me personally?
I like horror, survival, and more modern games
As far as systems I like well to be bias mine and palladium if its hacked up a bit
I tried 4e and i could not stand it.
Comments
Genre-wise, I prefer fantasy and horror (which are not mutually exclusive, as some poor PCs are discovering...).
Systems: Pathfinder for Fantasy and Alternity for Sci-fi.
-Ken See
Fantasy: Seventh Sea
Genre- Have played everything, and find that the genre and the systems are less important than the gm and the players.... but if I were to pick only one, it would be fantasy.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
"Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
and i must through in "Avatar d20":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/avatar_adventures/wikis/avatar-d20 , the system for benders has been the most fun gameplay i've ever experienced!
DM, Current Campaign: The Godlands: Rise of the Blood Moon Kings
DM, Previous Campaign: Avatar: Conquest of the Imperial Order - CotM: November 2011
I am an OSR guy as well
Mouseguard too and Cthulhu is always good. I played the BBEG in a marvel superheros campaign against the rest of the party in the 80ies. (Masterful GM able to keep me in a side game vs the party at the same table the whole time.) I also play a lot of indie games and I am playing a lot of stuff that is about to be released currently in a side project of mine that is all really fun. Dresden Files is cool, I keep wanting to play Shadowrun.
You know what?
Screw it ... just hand me dice and teach me what you like and I will play at least one game of it. I am of the philosophy its not the rules its the shared experience, what our hobby needs is more gamers not the "perfect game".
I had a girlfriend once who refused to "play those games" with me... but I got her hooked on a text (as in text on the phone) game I would play with her called "Toaster Quest" which was basically a story game where she was a sentient AI toaster that had just become self aware when the owners of the house left her plugged in and left for work. Antics ensued...
She loved that game, didn't even realize she was playing an RPG.
I dumped her anyway.
Setting: I have played it all and like it all as long as the GM, the story and the players are half way decent.
-Jaymes
"Changing History":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/l5r-changing-history
-Jaymes
Campaign of the Month Febuary 2013
I've played D&D 3.5 and 4e, as well as new WoD, some Shadowrun, and Warhammer Fantasy RP (not the newest version, although I don't know which it is).
As for the setting, I really want to play/run in an Age of Sails type of game or a western-esque setting involving early tech guns. Although I haven't actually gotten to play in either of these settings yet... Second to those I enjoy sci-fi and high fantasy.
One of my real pleasures however has to be the Paranoia system. I absolutely love that damn game.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
"Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
As far as systems goes I am very partial to Pathfinder and 3.0/3.5. I love so much about Shadowrun but the edition I had played years ago had us rolling sooo many dice all the time that it was annoying. I like the streamlined d20 system so I usually use those rules for any world setting I am running.
Killervp - I really want to get Toon sometime and play it with the group I was in before I moved. It would make for the funniest/goofiest night ever. We use to run one shot adventures that were mainly made up on the spot whose whole purpose it was was to be goofy. We called them "goon worlds". The most memorable was Intergalactic Gladiators. More recently we played as goofy Italian mobsters and that world was a lot like a cartoon. Good times. :)
Had the most fun and memorable characters with Shadowrun 2e. Also got alot of mileage out of the Marvel RPG
My favorite Settings are SciFI (star wars, robotech, cyberpunk)
But system i've probably GM'd the most (and own the most books for) are OWoD
Dresden is my most recent fave (though i'm just playing currently)
_Flashing Blades_, _Top Secret_, _Boot Hill_, and _Traveller_.
bq. What are your favorite genres?
Espionage - EVERYTHING I run turns into a spy caper at some point - swashbuckling, Western, and sci fi.
Mike aka Black Vulmea
"_Le Ballet de l'Acier_":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/le-ballet-de-l-acier - swashbuckling adventures in the age of the Three Musketeers and Captain Alatriste
Featured Campaign of the Month - August 2011
twiggyleaf
"Shimring - The Faces of Divinity":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
(a multiplanar 3.5 D&D campaign)
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
As far as genre goes, I'm not sure it matters that much to me. I don't care if we're modern day, fantasy, military sci-fi, etc., just as long as the main feature isn't killing things just to take their stuff.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Yeah the whole "flexible magic system" reference is a bit cryptic, but that's only because my own thoughts on the matter are a bit vague at the moment. But essentially I am looking to get away from the "spell slot" system of D&D, which I find unrealistic and unduly constraining. For instance, a Sixth level Sorcerer in Pathfinder can cast 6 1st level spells, 5 2nd level spells, and 3 third level spells per day. Now on the one hand, it makes sense that the higher level spells are more difficult to cast (i.e. require more will to master, or more inner strength etc), and this is reflected in the spell slot distribution. However, why couldn't a Sorcerer decide on a given day to reserve his resources and, rather than casting his 3rd level spells, instead channel that energy into casting more 1st level and/or 2nd level spells? Likewise, why couldn't the same Sorcerer decide to reserve his energy, forgoing his minor spells that day, to cast a couple more 3rd level spells? I'm looking for a system that has this kind of flexibility. I've tinkered around with a manna system, and think there is some potential there, but I just haven't worked out the details as of yet.
Another thing that I'd love to see within a magic system are a set of principles (i.e. law-like regularities akin to those we find in physics) governing the arcane realm. These could be as simple as say a system which begins with 4-5 (e.g. water, fire, earth, air etc) primary elements with a few rules for combination of the elements. Such a system would also be flexible in the sense that it would allow for, and perhaps even encourage the creation of new spells, and this might inspire players running arcane casters to get creative with their spells. A good example of the kind of thing I'm suggesting here is found in Patrick Rothfuss' _The Kingkiller Chronicles_. Of course the challenge in constructing such a system would be, how to allow for this kind of flexibility whilst keeping the system simple and user friendly.
Well, did that help to answer your question Hurst?
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
As far as simple well its pretty simple. Cast the spell, measure the effect based on the description, and deduct the HP and your done. A mage gets more powerful as they grow in exp as they get more HP of course and the spells grow as well. A mage can cast as many spells as they have HP for. Recovery is not too bad in play testing a mage who exhausted his HP needed a couple of days to recover. (Now this was in epic endgame battle kind of stuff.) I have provisions for all different kinds of magic but i have not tested all of them, but seeing as how they all follow the rules of "Magic Physics" they seem to flow seemlessly
@arsheesh - D&D Dragonlance 5th edition used a card based magic system. It was kind of dorky, but allowed a sort of flexibility with restriction. It has been years, but as I remember it the DM set the difficulty for what ever spell the player came up with and then the player had to meet that difficulty in spell cards. Then there is Mage the Awakening that as I understand has a flexible system. Neither really works in relation to other systems though you might finagle something closer with the Dragonlance one in a 3.5/d20 game.
@Sorwen - 5th edition?! You say you played Draganlance 5th edition years ago? I thought WoTC had just announced that 5e was in the works. Hm, I've heard good things about Mage, and the whole _World of Darkness_ rule system for that matter. Perhaps one of these days I'll give it a try.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
"http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2179":http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2179