Lets kick this community off with some of the good stuff. I’ll go first:
- Stars without Number - The first of many Kevin Crawford games I love, it’s got excellent mechanics that can be easily extracted from the lore for homebrew purposes, but the lore is still pretty cool too.
- Godbound - Probably the most absurd-in-scope RPG i’ve ever run. Turns out that when your players are heroes of steel in a world of glass you can teach them valuable lessons about the unintended consequences of taking the easy way out.
- Star Wars FFG - Hard to run at first, it still has a certain appeal to me for the way it handles success and failure.
- Lancer: Crunchy mechs and a strategy layer that’s quite fun to play. The non-combat stuff is relatively freeform too which encourages RP.
- Mutants and Masterminds - Last but not least, M&M comes with some caveats: Superheros are so much fun to make. Sure it takes a couple hours, but conceptualizing and building these characters mechanically is actually a ton of fun (protip: use herolab classic to build, its muuuuuuuch easier) The GM guide has some really solid advice on running hero stories of gold, silver, iron, and four color genres. What’s more, the mechanics encourage acting like a comic book hero, so players /want/ to save the civilians even if the bad guy escapes because the game rewards them for it!
I could talk a lot more about these games, but this post is already looking pretty long. Tell me about some of your experiences and favorites!
I love me some weird gonzo old school inspired stuff!
Mörk Borg: a doom metal album of a game. Everything is over the top, the rules are simple, and you get straight into the action. Not made for long term campaigns thought (there’s an apocalypse mechanic built into the system, so your campaign is ending one way or another)
Knave: by Ben Milton of QuestingBeast. If I’m being honest I haven’t tried this one yet but am very intrigued. It’s got tons of cool mechanics like slot based inventory and is compatible with old school adventures without much conversion.
Vaults of Varn: a fork of Knave, it’s based off the computer game Caves of Qud, where you’ve got this post apocalyptic land filled with blue sand, mutants, and cyborgs. Cool art style and simple mechanics.
Well those are some fun ones! Personally my out-there favorites I haven’t gotten to play yet are: Flexorcists - Cryptid hunting/Ghostbusters meets prowrestling Honor and Intrigue - A love letter to Princess Bride/Three Musketeers Mechas and Monsters - Pacific Rim but with some fantastic homebrew settings like giant robot iron chef competition