Games you should play before you die RPG Edition. Not in any particular order.

[firesion]

Games you should play before you die RPG Edition. Not in any particular order.

1st) D&D 4th edition - By far the best D&D game ever. This game takes the concept of adventure based dungeon crawling to a whole new level and represents the best D&D has to offer. Anyone who says otherwise is simply missing the point. Anyone who says 3.0/.5 is better should be punched in the face. OGL killed every good creative thing about roll playing for a good few years. Remember when every other game you ever loved got crushed into the same tired level 1-20 system. 3.0 nearly killed gaming. 4.0 is taking a better approach by keeping the game in house and reducing the number of bad products. That and mechanically it is simply better.

2nd) Deadlands Reloaded - This one is hard because I have a lot of love for Deadlands 1.0, but it does have a lot of mechanical problems that make the game very unstable. Savage Worlds is a better universal system and overall is the best way to enjoy Deadlands. The Reloaded book is also one of the best RPG books ever from a production standpoint.

3rd) Vampire the Masquerade - This is the game you use to get women to play role playing games. You could use other world of darkness products but overall nothing they have plays as well as Vampire. I know some people will be mad that I just said Mage does not play as well. To you people I say go grab Ars Magica and you will understand why I think Mage is not the best Mage system out there.

4th) Aberrant - The best single book superhero game out there. Mutants and Masterminds is also really good, but to me the story portion of the Aberrant universe is also nice. I would not challenge anyone who said that Mutants and Masterminds is a better overall super hero game.

5th) In Nomine - God I love this game. This game is often my number one ranked role playing game. The problem is that it really needs a new edition. The rules are great the setting is more powerful then any other setting for most people to grasp. This game has so much potential and well it just works so good for so many different types of stories. The character generation is also great as everyone gets something that makes them different without breaking the party. If anyone knows Steve Jackson please let him know that I for one would pay a large sum of money to have another In Nomine fix.

6th) Shadow Run 2nd edition - This is the game that I love for post apocalyptic settings. The new shadow run is a better game, but I miss rolling 30 dice at once when I shoot something. 3rd and 4th are also great games and better places to start learning the game, but you should do at least one run in 2nd edition as it will only take you one gaming session. That and at least one person should try to fight with a mono filament whip.

7th) Spirit of the Century - The best character generation system ever. Any other system pails in allowing you to make the character you want and translate that into game mechanics.

8th) Call of Cthulhu (any edition that is not d20) - Yea your not going to live or worse yet end up insane, but that’s the point. Call is about facing impossible odds and reaching for each next breath while battling back evil. You never give up you never surrender and if you do surrender to the darkness you hope the people playing with you put that last bullet in your skull. The game is not about recognition, reward, or even being successful. Its joy comes from knowing that a Planet sized evil being must divert its attention away from the universe just to kill you. This is the game where you go against a god without magical powers or anything like that. You stand in front of him with a revolver and shoot him in the face daring him to do its worst to you. All of this so that while he is killing you the rest of humanity gets another day to live.

9th) 7th Sea - Best pirate game ever! You like pirates? This is the game for you.

10th) Rifts - Ok this is hard you should never start your gaming experience with Rifts. However, once you know what you are doing and have the right GM Rifts gives an experience unlike any other game I have played. You really have to work to make your character. No index, no problem should be your motto. Once you finish your character and get in your first fight you will realize that this game is not balanced. Yup life is not fair and the rules of this game don’t care if each party member is at the same power level. It does not care if the beginning monsters will often kill you in one hit. The only way to win and Rifts is to think on your feat and roll play your way out of the situation. The rules in this game will not save you. That is the charm of it. Its artistic direction and story are also very high quality.

Did I miss something?

Comments

[chigatana.livejournal.com]

No Exalted? Best game to play a ninja in. And I'm surprised you don't have L5R on the list. I thought you loved that game.

[firesion.livejournal.com]

Exalted did not make the list because it is not a must play game. D&D 4th gives you the same basic experience. And personally is less cumbersome. Not saying Exalted is not a good game as it holds a sizable section of my book shelf. It just does not do any one thing really well. Also the story of Exalted is not as compelling. So if I want to crawls dungeons I would do it by D&D if I wanted to do grand scale fantasy I think 7th Sea is better story wise and mechanics wise.

[chigatana.livejournal.com]

Fare enough. I always liked Exalted, but it wasn't that compelling, it's true.

[firesion.livejournal.com]

As to L5R it just barely missed the cut. It would be probably number 11 if the list went that long.

[brokenallbroken.livejournal.com]

In Nomine - God I love this game.

Have you tried Nobilis? R. Sean Bergstrom was one of the contributors to IN. It's also about divine powers and mystical metaphysical shit. Also backflips off exploding missiles. Super-deep setting. Haven't played it, but the book all by itself is such a good read I totally don't mind how much I paid for it.

You do know In Nomine titles are some of the bestselling PDFs over at Steve's e23 yes? And arcangelbeth mentions a new edition from time to time.

[firesion.livejournal.com]

Nobilis is a hard game for me to like. First it is dice less. And fundamentally I don't care to much for dice less systems. You will also notice that I did not put any LARP system on the list. This is because I do not have enough experience with LARPs to really detail out my thoughts. I have done one white wolf LARP that was fun and one that was not fun. Diceless systems to me fall into the same category as LARP systems. Amber and Nobilis are possible great games with the right people, but I have no idea who those people are. I consider the 10 games on my list to be enjoyable at least in moderation with just about any gaming group.

I feel that most people can not easily grasp Nobilis where as In Nomine is stuff everyone knows thanks to large part of the christian religious upbringing of Americans. I am not saying that everyone was raised christain just that the story of angels and demons, Heven and Hell, is very easy for most people I have met to grasp.

Nothing against RSB as she did write some of my favorite In Nomine supplements. Have you ever played Nobilis?

[firesion.livejournal.com]

That should have said have you ever known anyone who has played Nobilis? :)

[brokenallbroken.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no I don't.

[brasslizard.livejournal.com]

I was about to scream and shout about your love of 4.0 but the points you brought up are entirely valid. The OGL DID kill most of my favorite systems at the time.

Haven't played reloaded but I LOVE the original. Although, I did play Hell on Earth and didn't much care for it.

*blink* You're gonna bring female gamers in with a vampire setting? Really? Speaking as a female gamer, that would be the LEAST likely thing to interest me.

Love Aberrant.

Never heard of In Nomini - what type of setting is it?

I got into Shadowrun late so I've only ever really played fourth ed. But my current group loves it so much we've got 3 campaigns running right now.

LOVE spirit of the century - this could easily become my favorite system. And it has the BEST gm guide I've ever read. And I'm right there with you on character gen.

CoC. Haven't played it. Not really interested.

7th Sea has been my all time favorite for years and years and years. PIRATES. Enough said.

Rifts. Words cannot even begin to describe my loathing for this system. My one and only experience was that campaign run by Kit - I think you were there for that. What was it? Six hours for 30 seconds of combat? Wherein no one in the party took so much as 1 point of damage? I think I had maybe 2 or 3 actions? In SIX HOURS. This is not what gaming should be. DEEP and abiding HATRED.

[firesion.livejournal.com]

In Nomini you play as angels or demons fighting for dominance in present day before Armageddon. You die in the main realm and you get sent back to heaven or hell depending. Where you climb back up or down to continue the good/bad fight. Think good omens but can be played seriously.

CoC is "technically" what dirk is running in our Friday game. :)

Rifts is not about being one of the top games ever its about the experience the game delivers when played. Look at it this way you sometimes need to see the good and the bad to have a well rounded gaming education. Also rifts is about as twink as a game can get and still be playable. I consider it the polar opposite of Spirit of the century.

[brasslizard.livejournal.com]

But it's not classic coc - this has (at least from the few games I haven't missed) more pulp than horror. I LIKE pulp.

[jadesymb.livejournal.com]

Liz- You are totally the exception when it comes to vampire.

[brasslizard.livejournal.com]

But...but I thought it was an emo thing...it's really just a female thing? Really?

And I prefer mage to any of the other world of darkness settings. Even though it's a blatant rip off of Ars Magicka (which is way, way, WAAAAY better) - it's more a statement about the other settings than about mage.

[jadesymb.livejournal.com]

Honestly part of it has to do with the "romance" of vampires, and also the ease of use of the system. Character gen for white wolf is so easy, and the vampire tends to be the easiest introduction to that.

There is an EMO element, don't get me wrong, but vampires tend to appeal to women more than mages.

[firesion.livejournal.com]

I would have thought the least likely thing to bring in female gamers would have been the D20 supplement that stated women would get a +2 to Cha and a - 2 to Str, Wis, and Int. The paragraph that justified this was also very difficult to believe. That and the cover of the book had a woman with a sword in a chain mail bikini on it.

[brasslizard.livejournal.com]

Hunh. I never saw that supplement. I agree; if that had been my introduction to gaming, I would most likely not be a gamer now.

The sword was in a chain mail bikini...? :-P