RPG Top 25
Over at RPG Blog II, Zachary is holding a vote for the top 25 RPGs. While the inherent selection bias (the blog’s audience) will no doubt affect the final numbers, it’s an interesting thing to think about, and I’m looking forward to seeing the ranked results. Not least because it might give me some more games to check out.
I was a little surprised to realize that I have, in fact, played more than 25 RPGs. And that’s just the ones that I remember playing. This would be the case even if I weren’t counting each edition of D&D (and their clones) and each World of Darkness book separately. There are a lot of RPGs out there.
My list, after the jump.
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Reminder: Contest Closing Today
Today is the final day to enter to win a copy of the Open Game Table Anthology. Give me feedback, get entered, easy as that.
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If you love Ochre Jelly…
So far, this April’s been a bit of a downer. Between the recent Wizards PDF kerfluffle, the passing of Dave Arneson, and the illness of Aaron Allston, it perhaps hasn’t been the best of times for an RPG Blog Carnival about humor. But one of the purposes of humor is to take our minds from dark places, so, in the spirit of the carnival, I present this little bit of silliness. Call it my tribute to the Dragon magazines of old. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s been done in one of those Dragons…
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5 Games I Want to Play
I’ve never played any of these, but I wish I could:
Even catchier than snakes on a plane...
Primetime Adventures. I’ve got the rules and it looks like an elegant and rules-light universal system. Universal because of its conceit: the players play the star characters in a (nonexistent) television series. Gritty crime drama, soap opera, shoujo high-school romantic comedy, post-apocalyptic cooking show, new Star Trek series… pretty much anything works as a topic. If the group gets bored with one genre, nothing’s stopping you from skipping to another… possibly even using the same characters. (We’ve all seen those “nothing will ever be the same” episodes, right?)
Spirit of the Century. Pulp is another of my favorite genres, but one I get to indulge much less frequently than superhero (despite their similarities). And look at that cover! A gorilla flying a biplane, a masked avenger, a zeppelin aflame in the background… how can you not love that? That’s pure Rule of Cool right there. It’s not quite Giant Talking Space Monkey Pirates, but it’s damn close. Also, Spirit of the Century uses the FATE system, which I’ve been wanting to see in play for a while.
Dogs in the Vineyard. I haven’t got the rules for this one yet, but reading play reports intrigues me. It’s a Western of sorts where you play a posse of divinely-sanctioned avengers. You go from town to town, root out the sources of their troubles, and decide whose sins to forgive and whose to judge. You’re the law of the faith — but not necessarily the law of the land, which might lead to some interesting conflicts.
Mutants & Masterminds. I keep hearing good things about this, and it’s at the top of my to-read list… I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m a Champions player from way back, but I like superhero systems, for whatever reason; I’m always picking up another one. If half of what I hear about M&M is true, it might just take the #2 spot away from the 1980s Marvel Super Heroes RPG. Maybe even dethrone HERO, although I doubt that; HERO has the ability to do damn near everything, with pretty minimal effort required beyond the initial investment of learning the system (which is significant, but which I paid long ago).
Capes. Speaking of superhero games… I’m not so sure about this one, actually, but the flash demo on the website intrigued me. It seems as if it would be a lot of fun for a one-shot or a short campaign. I don’t know whether it would sustain a longer run… but then, that wouldn’t be what I’d be looking to it for. I’ve got HERO for that. The no-GM, competitive-round-robin style of Capes seems like it might offer a different set of opportunities for story development, and I think that’d be a good experience for me and my players. Never hurts to shake things up a bit.
Maybe at Gencon this year, I’ll be able to track down a session of one of these…
In other news, 6d6 Fireball is running an adventure writing contest. Adventures need to either be written for 3.5e (and follow the OGL) or be system-neutral. The deadline is May 12, which means time is pretty tight, but the winners get published in July.
And speaking of contests, don’t forget to enter to win a copy of the Open Game Table Anthology right here at A Butterfly Dreaming.
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Anthology Contest Update
The contest I’m running (in which you could win a copy of the Open Game Table Anthology! Have I mentioned how awesome this book is yet? Yes, yes I have. Okay, then.) has been extended until Wednesday, April 15. When I made the post, I completely blanked on the Easter holiday — I’m going to be out of town for the weekend. So I figured I’d throw in a couple of extra days to accomodate anyone else who might be traveling.
If you haven’t yet, please check it out. I love feedback.
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