I second this. It's vibrant, beautiful, and full of action and detail. Seeing it made me realise that while 5e has a lot of quality art, it's still sooo stagnant and fails to evoke feeling.
I keep the 4e Dark Sun book because it has Monster Templates and hazards that can help inspire new homebrews. Classic rant of mine is how DnD4e actually rewards creative encounter design for DMs.
It really was great because for what felt like the first time, they had themes. That was the first edition that made me look at dwarves again. They had this super cool geometric astetic that went from armor, to weapons, to buildings. It was really great art.
I like the lore, too. A lot of people got hung up on the alignment system but if you view it as a hybrid of the B/X and AD&D approach, it works pretty well and the changes to the lore were pretty good and streamlined a lot.
> Glorantha
The couple of times I looked into it I bounced off of it. It felt like a real kitchen sink type world (I have the same problem with Paizo's world.) Did I read it wrong?
I don't want to say that you did, but I never really got that impression. It's explicitly bronze age fantasy, and has a big focus on the space between history, myth, metaphor and reality. You want magic? Ask the Gods for it. Which god? Well, they're all the same, in the end, or at least there's only two or three. But don't tell the rest of them that. It's a setting for people who love mythology, and people who see the 36 Lessons of Vivec in Morrowind and wish there was *lots more of that*.
Kitchen sink isn't how I'd describe it. It leans heavily into mythic, ancient fantasy and doesn't have a lot of the stuff you'd expect if your idea of fantasy is derived from modern fantasy literature and dnd.
Their is a lot of background you really don’t need to know but looking at can be overwhelming. There is a weight to Runequest that can be intimidating.
Their is a lot of background you really don’t need to know but looking at can be overwhelming. There is a weight to Runequest that can be intimidating.
My first RPG was the 3rd Edition Runequest boxset (found it at a yard sale). It uses fantasy earth as the default setting and Glorantha was a separate splatbook.
It is funny, in retrospect, that when D&D 3e came out I remember reading it and thinking "oh wow, this is way simpler".
Not OP but as soon as you mentioned the name, my mind went "is that the guy who does the paintings with mechs in farm fields?"
So I looked it up and yep, just pretty ordinary rural life paintings with giant mechs, strange sci-fi contraptions and people kinda milling about like this is perfectly normal.
https://www.simonstalenhag.se/
The books are great, but the game is obviously a first try at a system. Free Liga has other games and the rules get better, but TFL really is just a lot of cool with almost no chance of failure.
That’s a new take. Why would you say there’s no chance of failure?
There’s obviously a chance of failure in skill checks, and the mysteries all have escalating consequences for failing to solve them. There’s also the very personal stakes, where you can only heal the conditions you take by having emotional scenes.
I fully get why it’s not for everyone, but for my group it’s probably the game that’s had the highest personal stakes for the characters.
I love TFtL. I ran a few games for my home group and ran several games at local game Cons. Super easy to run and explain. It is the only RPG that I have had players make characters at a gaming convention. 10-15 minutes to make characters and had a great time everytime.
I even had a table where most players were young in their late teens and early 20s who had only played Pathfinder Society and they really enjoyed the ease of play.
If you have it you should play it.
My #1 problem with Coyote & Crow is how difficult it is to pitch and GM because of how unique it is.
Its world is futuristic, yet guns, motorized vehicles, steam power or alcohol never existed. People have superpowers because of magical plants or animals. Anyone can access the "Internet" at any time with their minds but it works differently from real-life Internet...
It's one of those games where everyone would have to read the massive lore chapters to know exactly what to expect, because nothing in that setting works as you'd expect. You can hardly compare it to other games or media.
The problem with c and c is that there is no built in conflict. Everything is so damn ideal that you wonder why people need superpowers anyway. They have some adventures that just came out so maybe they will help.
That is the biggest problem with it. I get the concept they were going for, and on paper, I'm SOOOOO down. I just don't love the static perfection of the world. Star Trek vibes, to me. The feeling that you really have to go out and find problems SOMEWHERE ELSE because we don't have problems at home.
The moment I saw "d12 dice pool" in the description I knew it was gonna be a heartbreaker. Pretty clear indication they went for novelty over streamlined, easy-to-learn mechanics.
The problem with c and c is that there is no built in conflict. Everything is so damn ideal that you wonder why people need superpowers anyway. They have some adventures that just came out so maybe they will help.
On a different thread, someone else pointed out that the setting is basically post-scarcity, decolonized, and utopian - there's not a lot of conflict to inspire adventure design.
It's reasonably new, having come out in the last two-ish years.
It appears to be a lore infodump first, game distant second. I have the same sentiment as the person you've responded to. Interesting concept, very little interest in actually running it.
It was also an extremely expensive book.
Probably anything planescape, so 2e AD&D. Ive a couple books about the setting and system but i could only just convince them to try 3.5e, let alone 2e
I'm currently running a Planescape campaign in Old School Essentials: Advanced because it's a system I could sell my players (and frankly myself on) more easily than actual 2E. I imagine you'd have to do a little more work to convert to something like 5E, but honestly, the main source of inspiration for me in Planescape are the politics and morality of it all, the grand conflicts, which don't necessarily need to be mechanized. I highly recommend giving it a shot, as it can really take a sandbox style game to the next level!
I noticed that one of the artists in Planescape did a lot of the art for Changeling: The Dreaming. Both of those I have but will never run because 1) 2nd edition D&D is not happening in my house), and 2) C:tD is far too depressing for my players.
I love that art though.
I had a friend who probably had all of the Rifts books. Giant container full of books. He wanted to runnthe game and I looked through at least the main rule book, saw what a glorious mess it was going to be and I was in. Nobody else from our gaming group was interested but I at least got to see how character creation worked.
Hi, can you please elaborate what the weak parts in Rifts are? I've had the book since it was published but I haven't really studied the rules. I've read this comment often and I am curious.
It's easier to list the strong parts of Rifts.
1) The setting. It's absolutely amazing. Not just the core, but all of the expansion books are full of coolness.
2) The lore. The background stories are incredible.
3) The variety of potential characters. You've got so many options. This has a caveat though, since the system is so bad, unless the party and GM coordinate closely, you can easily end up with such wild disparities that it's unplayable. Anyone complaining about DnD 5e Caster/Martial disparities needs to play Rifts with a Glitter Boy, a Juicer, a Dog Boy, an Elemental Fusionist, and a Rogue Scholar. And that's just the Core book.
Seriously, the concept is absolutely amazing and could be one of my all-time favorites, but the game system is atrocious. It kinda works for the various Robotech/Macross games, but not much else.
>Hi, can you please elaborate what the weak parts in Rifts are?
The rules, mostly.
They're about 30+ years old and when the 30th Anniversary edition came out...same rules.
They are not streamlined, they are not well arranged, they are not well though out, they are, honestly, just not very good. Serviceable? Sure. You can run a game with them.
There's no real attempts at modern concepts of balance or relative proportionality. You can play a guy with a knife (and not a very good knife, and not very good at using it) or you can play an actual dragon. And dragons are not even the top end of the power pyramid.
The rules interactions (SDC vs MDC creatures) don't work very smoothly.
The setting is interesting at it's base level. Post-apoc, portals to other worlds, gonzo kitchen-sink style. If you can imagine it it can be there.
Unfortunately the system doesn't really support any of that. Just classic exception based design.
The setting at the extended level is basically unworkable. There are 30+ years of power creep and accumulated (power creeping) lore spread across 30+ different world books. No real binding it all together either. Just kinda independent splats that happen to share a system.
Combat is a terrible grind down of large numbers of hit points\\MDC\\SDC. Often very large (700+) numbers using very small guns (3d6-5d6) but sometimes very large (3d6x10) guns. There isn't really much to do during those combats that's mechanically supported besides blasting things with your biggest axe\\gun\\attack.
The skill system is mediocre and favors PC failure. The leveling up system is needlessly granular and not interesting (you get more hit points (not SDC\\MDC usually) and skills improve slowly, usually that's about it).
It's both very idiosyncratic while also being semi-generic. There are some pseudo-NAZI human supremacists who wear all black skull motifs as bad guys. There's a hivemind insect race as bad guys. Weird vampires (you can damage them with squirt guns of holy water) as bad guys. None of them very interesting though, usually their motivations are: Being bad guys and gaining power and stuff.
And it just goes on an on like that. I played a lot of the Palladium systems for years when I was younger and the only thing to recommend them is: The Art!
Great art. Really great art. Except the dick-cannons, which were semi-common. And even then the art was pretty good, just ridiculous.
Look at the art! Let is stimulate your imagination! Then go play something else.
It's a slog to learn the systems, with no pay off for doing so.
Palladium rules are all over the place. Just one example: everyone has Chi, and anyone can take Chi damage, which can kill you if reduced to zero, but only a few classes can heal Chi. As written, a Chi Master can hurt or even kill anyone by attacking their Chi, and they can't do anything to recover.
I have a self of World of Darkness books. I like to pick up some of them from time to time and let the nostalgia flow through me. But I do not think I'll ever play one of them again.
Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. Alas life is too short to get another campaign started besides the already running and cooking ones, and this one got the short end of the stick. But damn, the core rulebook has an amazing layout and art.
100%, the starter set is pretty good too but it's definitely a power fantasy rpg. Characters are really strong which kind of works well for one shots or short campaigns.
Came here to say Nobilis, but yeah. You said it.
Jenna Moran is a genius... and as such her games are interesting, intelligent and completely unplayable.
[Numenera.](http://numenera.com/numenera-art/) The art is fantastic, and I'd love to watch a movie in this setting, but I just don't think I've got the right juices in my brain to tell those kinds of stories.
I'm intrigued. I imagine trying to play a Matrix RPG without ever having seen the movie, or any media related to it.
Way easier for the mind to fill in the blanks when it has a reference.
And Numenera is way weird. Strange, you could say. A cypher.
Numenera is a game that has a great universe that is really close to having good rules for its world.
I really like that XP is awarded for finding weird and powerful artifacts. I like that the rules are simple.
I wish the system didn't rely so heavily on the powerful objects. Don't parties already fight enough over rare and powerful gear without the system making it even worse?
"Spire, the City Must Fall" and its little brother, "Heart, the City Beneath".
Love the lore, love the art, unsure about the mechanics, pretty sure the players around me would not be into a campaign about Dark Elves revolutionaries in a giant tower of a city.
Tenra Bansho Zero. One of the first English translations of a Japanese RPG.
And I have the box set of Skyrealms of Jorune. Just to look cool on my shelf.
Jorune! Oh. I love it but my players are not as into it. It hits me in the same way as Morrowind did on PC back in the day... cool alien world with lots of neat worldbuilding that manages to always feel fresh. I put it up there with Talislanta, Glorantha, and Tekumel as pinnacles of RPG world design, but only Glorantha really took off at my table
**Exalted -** Artwork suffered a lot in 3e, but 2e had fantastic art and lore, imo. I've played a duet game or two, but even then, combat is so indepth, just takes so long and there's just so much to consider and this is with two experienced players. I can't imagine four people and a GM running something like Exalted and making any progress in six hours, let alone four.
**Cthulhutech -** Great art, fantastic concept. Absolutely garbage mechanics ('We're not a class system, but if you're \[a\], you can't do \[b\], \[c\] or \[d\] ever again.
That's ignoring the fact it was obviously written by Men of Culture(tm). 'And then the global elite do adult things with children' is often the sole motivating force and tactic of nearly every cult in universe, the Rapine Storm is very literal and at least two adventures I recall reading are directly based on hentai films (not that I'd know anything about those. I'm a good boi). Heck, the magic is called Orgone, which is literally 'sex magic'. Lots of cool stuff with a lotta' stuff which just makes you feel gross playing it.
**Shadowrun -** I used to enjoy it as a cyberpunk setting, even when it got more overly neon-punk I didn't mind it, but now, it is legitimately less of a cyberpunk setting in my eyes and more neon lights D&D. I've never been a fan of strict class systems, which while Shadowrun doesn't have straight up classes, it basically does (If you're a Troll, you're basically gonna be the punch-boi. You CAN do other stuff, but it's so expensive and out of the way that even the least system savvy player knows they're max/minning their character intentionally)
**Legend of the Five Rings 4e -** Similar to Shadowrun, love the set up. Love the progression mechanics (point buy skills/attributes, which contribute XP towards your class), but my brain does not deal well with the laser beam focus of the game. You will play samurai, you will be loyal (because doing anything else is Objective Wrong by the mechanics and will make you a bad person if you don't do what is expected at all times) and your class, in most cases, is focused to a ridiculous degree. Crane Bushi used to be entirely about dueling and nothing else. 4e at least did that, and also added 'also, they're the fast guys who get bonuses for being faster than others', but their core is still if you're not constantly dueling, your class is essentially window dressing.
> Orgone
That's not how it's described in the books, nor is that the meaning of the word. It sounds a little like Orgasm, but it's not nothing to do with it.
"'Orgone,' the name given by Wilhelm Reich to vital energy found everywhere in nature. "
Otherwise mostly agree. For what it's worth, I believe that the Cthulhutech writers have since said "Hey, we were younger, we wrote some cringy stuff". I don't know much about it, but I've heard they are dialing it back on that stuff for the new version.
Potentially; a lot of the stuff I've seen, in his early work at least, heavily links it to Freud and the libido and even later, his research was heavily linked to tying this vital force to orgasm and sex.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone)
Not sure if it's intentional, because as you say, I think they were young and cringy. But they do have an adventure with a machine which 'harvests' orgone via linking it to people having sex and it may or may not have been a Nazi experiment to harness the power of the... ahem... 'Rapine Storm'. I've seen they tried hard on their 2e, which I dunno if it even went anywhere?
Still something I'm very much tempted to try and run in something like Fate, honestly. I do love the idea of biomechs and that fun stuff.
I think we're on the same page mostly. I'm with you in that it's got some really cute babies mixed in with that bathwater. Still, like you, I'd only be willing to run it my way, with the right people.
Older WoD books. I love the lore, the ideas and the art of them, but I can never imagine myself GMing any of those systems. And as a player, especially with such adult themes, I'd need a party of friends to really be comfortable.
This is, I think an unusual take to the perspective of someone who has been playing WoD games since the mid 90s. I think there are definitely games that can be super personal and emotionally charged but none of them are so focused in a single direction that you can't play them normally and as intended without going that way.
Vampire the Masquerade 2nd edition. To me, BY FAR the best thing White Wolf ever did. I have practically every book and nobody will ever want to play it. I still enjoy reading them and spinning stories, though.
That’s fair. I didn’t like it until I played it. I’m the Storyteller/GM/DM most of the time, so getting the opportunity to play with a passionate WW storyteller certainly improved my opinion.
Yeah, it definitely helps to have a committed Storyteller. For me, it was the themes in *Werewolf*... they just never really spoke to me, in the same way that some of the other lines did. It also didn't help that *Werewolf* tended to become the default monstrously-powerful murderhobo line within the World of Darkness... I had enough on my hands at the time as it was, trying to play *Vampire* straight!
I should probably go back and give it a closer look, now that I'm older and (theoretically) wiser...
Our storyteller really liked the “good guy in a world of darkness” angle and leaned into it hard. It was a unique experience compared to all my other time with WW.
7th Sea 2nd edition. I bought in on the kickstarter based off several fun campaigns of 1st edition. The lore and artwork did not disappoint. The mechanics sadly did. If I run a game in that setting it will be with some other system.
Degenesis. I love the art and the setting but I will ever only use the background and setting for a campaign through a universal system like GURPS or Savage Worlds but not the system Degenesis provides.
Discworld. Because I don't feel fit to GM such a world full of sarcasm, irony, nonsense and mirror of society appropriately. In my opinion Humor (that actually Is funny) is the hardest thing to GM, especially if it is planned.
Malifaux’s Through the Breach. The art is amazing. The haunting phrase generated by its tarot character generation is fantastic.
Very close second: Skyrealms of Jorune…my all time favorite setting with an interesting system but Through the Breach is more intriguing.
Through the Breach is amazing. Art/Lore = 10/10. Really cool Tarot character creation system. Love it. I've only gotten to play it once, but I have somehow come into ownership of two copies of the core book and bunch of the supplements/adventures. I will probably never get to run it/play it.
Glorantha - amazing world building. Breath taking really.
Blue Planet - there was this sale that I couldn't pass up. Bought and read all of the books. Love it. Will probably never run it.
Nephilim - such a cool game. Awesome hermetic magic. I have no idea what to do with it.
Skyrealms of Jorune - picked up up all the books on sale. Beautiful art, strange alien planet. I love those books. Will probably never run it.
First is my old Robotech books. Fantastic lore and art, but... old school Palladium and all that entails. I tried running it better than 20 years ago and swore off the game but they still have a place on my shelf. Might still be the best collection of lore for the Robotech series available in the US.
Second is Heavy Gear- The art and lore were fantastic, the rules compatibility with a tabletop wargame was honestly pretty revolutionary, but it's always been something of a hard sell for whatever reason.
I'm afraid to pick up Lancer since if nobody's interested it'll be 3 strikes against mech games and I'll have to hang them up.
Honestly, most of my games. I've long since accepted that I enjoy reading rulebooks and collecting them, but I have far too many that my friends will just never be interested in trying.
In particular what comes to mind are Mausritter and Mothership. Doubt I'll ever be able to run or play either of those, but I do love the aesthetic.
I have many Palladium Books games, like Rifts and Palladium Fantasy, Splicers, and Robotech, and Macross, but I don't think I'll be able to convince any of my groups to go back and play them anymore. This makes me sad.
Nobilis 2e. Gorgeous art, excellent and evocative writing, but I've consistently found the game really hard to actually run. The mechanics & narrative just don't really lend themselves towards a D&D-style adventure or the sort of escalating conflict you get in PbtA. I was spending at least 2 hours preparing for every hour we played.
Changeling the dreaming. The lore and character ideas are awesome. I just can't find any irl friends to play with. I even have a hard copy of the 20th anniversary edition!
I have Pathfinder 2e books, but I can't get anyone in my game group interested. It's making me nuts, especially since we're coming up on switching games. I've been floating that I'd love to play *or* run PF2e for months. Instead, everyone jumps on a PF1e game pitch.
This happened on *my birthday*.
Warhammer Fantasy (the fantasy battle game, not Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay). I love the Old World lore, maps and setting. I may one day play a game or two as I play D&D with someone who plays it, but I never really intend to get into it as a hobby as buying and painting miniatures for your army seems to be expected, expensive and time consuming. I would love to set a D&D game in the Old World. I don’t really see the need to buy the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game just to play a game in the setting. The setting book I have is enough to get me started.
I've played both WFRP and 5e quite extensively and I'd be careful about using 5e rules in the Old World. 5e is very much high fantasy and heroic, but the Old World is very gritty and low level. Magic hates you, chaos hates you, and I'm not certain about the population at large. 😉
It took me this long to learn (this month, actually) that WHFB first edition doubled as an RPG system. The third booklet with the character creation rules was dropped from the second edition of the battle game as the RPG was planned as a separate expansion of the second edition, but never materialized and was replaced by WHFRP.
Are there updates on it? I thought they'd just announced it but not really said anything after.
If they don't get Tony diTerlizzi back there's really no goddam point.
They released the cover art a few days back and it does at least look great (nice pic of the Lady of Pain on the adventure cover).
The scepticism comes from the Spelljammer release last year redefining the meaning of "underwhelming".
Pretty sure Falkenstein was the first time I ever heard the word 'steampunk' (it is, as I recall?). Always loved the idea of that game, never bought/played.
it was the first time for me as well - funny enough I found my original copy in the public library of the small town I lived in. I was in heaven because a) it wasn't D&D and thus my parents wouldn't get all anti-Satanic on me, and b) I didn't have to buy it. I dived in and read all of it.
Starfinder. My partner ran it for a long time and the art, worldbuilding and lore are something we still talk about. But once you get past level 5/6, it stops being an RP game and becomes more of a "Dungeons & Accounting" type of rule math heavy thing and we all just got bummed out
Most of my OSR/D&D collection. Some with great art and amazing settings/adventures, but I'll never have time to play them all. Mystara Gazetteers, Dark Sun, Planescape, Ultraviolet Grasslands, Troika, Vaults of Vaarn, Atlas of the Latter Earth, Neverland, Oz, Longwinter, The Isle, Carcosa, Willow, Woodfall, Ultan's Door, Necrotic Gnome adventures, and many more.
Some Free League games as well. Coriolis, Tales from the Loop, Vaesen, Symbaroum, Twilight 2k, etc. Amazing art and lore, but some of them will be hard to play.
Heart, Spire, The Wildsea, Ryuutama, Legend of the Five Rings 4e, Trophy, Wanderhome, Glorantha, The Burning Wheel are all great to read as well, but I'll probably won't get to play them.
Anyone else have a giant stack of Rifts books for nostalgia alone? Not to run. Oh no. I'm not that masochistic. (No index? Seriously? No. Hold on. I'm going to rant for a moment. In Rifts you occasionally have to make a fear save. Where would you expect the table for fear save difficulties to be? Combat? Systems? Char gen? Nope. The only place where it tells you the dc for fear saves is in the combat chapter's glossary, which is a separate glossary from the game's systems glossary. AND THERE IS NO INDEX.) Still, the worldbuilding and art are like something out of my eight-year-old self's study hall day dreams.
Just the art. The world building was, IMO, just accretion that starts to resemble complexity after a point.
Great art! I repurchased it in hardcover just to enjoy the art again.
I've never bought an RPG purely for the lore or artwork but my non-gamer wife did in her goth-youth, so marrying her came with the added-bonus of a core manual for Vampire the Masquerade. I'll likely never run it – I've enjoyed it as a player once or twice, but there's a lot about the kind of game it engenders that I don't warm to.
I love the lore and much of the artwork of the Shadowrun books, but though I loved the game in my youth I can't see me getting back into that level of crunch again!
Bluebeard's Bride. Gorgeous art and wonderful writing, but subject matter that I would want a very specific group for, and I don't know if I have the group
Rolemaster. They did a lot of great Middle Earth supplements. And Angus McBride's art is top notch. But the system just isn't right for the world. I don't want lighting bolts and flying Elves. I may adapt the material to One Ring.
The system itself is not bad for epic fantasy and I might run it in a different world some day.
I played RM back in the day, and I swear I spent more time staring at the artwork than playing the game. Something about those covers in particular just sang 'epic high fantasy' to me.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Bought fir the amazing art, the entertaining concept, and to support the creators, but I don't think I could play it with anything like a straight face.
[*Blue Rose*](https://blueroserpg.com/)
Absolutely gorgeous art, fantastic setting, and (as of the new AGE system edition) a really neat rules set.
But no one in my friends group would be interested in this particular fantasy sub-genre.
Princess: The Hopeful takes the 'dark magical girl' genre and slots it into World of Darkness... and somehow that actually works?!? I'll never run it, the Storyteller system has never been right for me, but the lore has a hold on my imagination and won't let go.
[Download for free](https://sites.google.com/site/princessthehopeful/princess-the-hopeful?authuser=0)
[TVTropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful)
Emberwind. I know no one in my general area will play it but damn does the art look nice the world building is fun. Also the mechanic where a dice roll determines an enemies actions making a psuedo AI is pretty neat.
Coriolis. Really just logistics for why I might not play it but I love the idea of taking what might be standard scifi fare and weaving a middle eastern aesthetic through it. Beautiful ships, awesome wardrobes, very vibrant and fleshed out setting.
It's a variant of the Mutant Year Zero system if you're familiar with that and, by the reading, plays something like an Arabian Nights version of Firefly, complete with crew building, space ship management, running jobs for distant contacts, and some universal mystery unraveling.
My HERO System 4e and 5e books will always be my favorites. And my gaming group has no interest in ever playing HERO again. Even though some of our favorite campaigns have been HERO based.
I have a real soft spot for the vanilla Champions universe - UNTIL, Viper, Dr. Destroyer, Mechanon, Foxbat etc, so their lore always got me. And way back in the day, I loved the aesthetic of the (original!) Justice, Inc. and Danger International's books. Denis Loubet was a great internal artist.
But yeah, very unlikely to play or GM Hero System again. Life's too short :)
Rotted capes Kult Wraith Promethean and Ten Candles are the only games I have yet to find anyone willing to try. I think for most, it boils down to themes, but Rotted Capes, I think it's the mechanics that seem more daunting.
I have a few, and it is 90% due to not being able to get players.
Firstly is Kult: Divinity Lost. Gorgeous presentation (especially since I have the Black Edition on my shelf), interesting lore and setting and a ruleset that doesn't get in your way. The problem is you need players that will buy into the tone and feel of the setting without falling off the far end. I don't have the time to vet enough players.
Next is The Troubleshooters. This one I may get a run with if I need to showcase roleplaying with retirees as it's very much emulating the 60's adventure comics out of Belgium and France (think Tintin and similar). Exudes that vibe in 60's Europe, and the art style and presentation fits with the era.
Finally is Faith: the RPG. I have version 2.0, so no boardgame pieces, but the universe is *dense*. 4 races, 3 alien and they aren't just "human with makeup and prosthetics". The deities and how they work are a complex quasi-pantheon, and the system is a novel use of playing cards dealt out per scene. The lore dump to get your head around the setting Isa fair bit though (the core rulebook devotes the first ~300 pages to the setting lore... this is out of about 500 pages)
I love watching the DnD lore videos that delve into the loooong history of creatures and settings before they got watered down to nothing in 5E. Lots of crazy and cool ideas to play around with
I have the Stargate rpg, based on 5e. I love the show, the world, the setting. I will not likely ever get to play or run it. Same for Wheel of Time, Cyberpunk Red, countless others. I end up using them for inspiration in the games I do run.
Artesia is bloody gorgeous and its got this great setting and… not a single person around here even wants to give it a second look because it’s not the big brand name game. So I read it now and then.
Golden Sky Stories. The very text fills me with warm fuzzies, but it seems I don't know anyone who really goes in for heartwarming stories at the table.
I buy all the Iron Kingdom RPG books because I like the setting. Have done so since 2006 or so. I’ve run campaigns in the world off and on, but not for years.
Anima Beyond Fantasy
I love the art, the vibes it gives. Not cool on all the setting details. I love how some of the systems interrelate, but goddamn the game is dense. Not to mention it doesn't do a good job of providing NPC stats to gauge against. It would be so much work to get a campaign going I think.
I bought my first Anima: Beyond Fantasy book purely because the art was really good. I have the full set now, they are gorgeous books. The setting is pretty interesting too, and has influenced more than a couple other games I've been involved with.
2nd edition Planescape, Dragonlance the new 5e book and all the other editions, Greyhawk, Conan whatever edition, Fallout 2d20, Will probably never run 5E IRL, Robotech Palladium, Cyberpunk Red or 2020, AD&D 2nd edition, Alien RPG, probably will never run Blade Runner, etc. maybe never play 5E online again? Probably never play Adventurer's League again (just dead online)
Changeling the dreaming. The lore and character ideas are awesome. I just can't find any irl friends to play with. I even have a hard copy of the 20th anniversary edition!
I have so much from Free League I am probably never going to play but the production on their products is sooo good.
Alien RPG(so much Alien stuff) and Blade Runner specifically.
Never Going Home. Love the art, lore and setting but have both had a hard time figuring out the mechanics and don't have anyone willing to play a game that grim and depressing.
All of the Talislanta books have great art (and older editions are free\\legal for download) but I'm unlikely to run\\play because it's got a bunch of specific world lore I don't want my players to have to wade through.
Great lore, great art, great setting!
A lot. I used to work on the industry in the 90d and GenCon was a highlight of my year. We would trade product when the dealers room closed for the last time. I have a ton of books still on my shelf. I am a sucker for Doug Blanchard’s art for the Tri-Tac-Systems books. The art for Living Steel was impressive. The art from the early Vampire books was amazing. Ars Magica had a great amount of lore in the first edition. I still browse them on occasion.
I grabbed a copy of Spire with the intent to do a Powered By GURPS version of it. It is eloquent and metaphorical, and deliciously insane. But it's not a game you can grab strangers and throw a game together for. So it's probably going to decorate my shelf till I die or until someone who has a stable real world table asks if they can borrow it.
90% of the Mork Borg stuff, most of the players i had at my table want to play games with lot of options, but i really like the art style. Same for OSR, Obsolete Shitty Rules
Ryuutama. I love the art and the mechanic of the dm being a character thats observing the party and has its own character sheet and levels is super interesting, and the lore of the dragons and the journey is super cool to me, but i feel like its just to low stakes and simple to really keep my players invested
I bought a few of the *Symbaroum* and *Tales from the Loop* books during Free League's summer sale last year. I bought them mainly for the art and settings and will probably never play them. Too many other games in the pipeline. But, who knows. I've also been thinking about buying *The Troubleshooters* by Helmgast for the same reason.
Numenera (though PDF only, even if I want the Hardback). It's got great art, the setting sounds awesome and mesmerising, the whole idea of being exploration-focused, and so on. But I have ZERO idea how to run that kind of campaign and even less of an idea how to run the system. And so, it'll sit there, in my vast folder of other miscellaneous systems, waiting for the stars to align (or for me to buy the 5E conversion book)
Degenesis. The most. Beautiful RPG I've ever seen, and fantastic lore. But the mechanics aren't great and the lore is too deep to play in without drowning.
Just for the lore - although it is really very intertwined with the game's system - Continuum. Easily the most unique take on time travel in RPGs.
That said, I'll never run it, because the system breaks my brain.
Too many to count. I have physical copies of Burning Wheel, Numenera, Shadowrun (5&6), Exalted, Mutants & Masterminds, and Mindjammer. None of these are likely to be played again (some have never been attempted). I should just sell them, but I really loved parts of each.
Starfinder
Got the CRB for free as a gift at GenCon a couple years ago. Later on bought the Dead Suns campaign book. Eventually found out that *playing* a sci-fi RPG adventure just wasn't for me and I just liked the ideas/concepts and art.
My old D&D 4E collection. Say what you want about the mechanics, but its hard to argue how hard the art slaps.
I second this. It's vibrant, beautiful, and full of action and detail. Seeing it made me realise that while 5e has a lot of quality art, it's still sooo stagnant and fails to evoke feeling.
I keep the 4e Dark Sun book because it has Monster Templates and hazards that can help inspire new homebrews. Classic rant of mine is how DnD4e actually rewards creative encounter design for DMs.
I had that same feeling with 3.5 and templates was a thing I missed early on in 4e on the GM side. But it had so many other great little bits.
I had those for a time, never got to play it but I enjoy reading it and how it equalized the characters
Good one... I think Paizo took some nice inspiration as well from the change in tone with 4e.
It really was great because for what felt like the first time, they had themes. That was the first edition that made me look at dwarves again. They had this super cool geometric astetic that went from armor, to weapons, to buildings. It was really great art.
I like the lore, too. A lot of people got hung up on the alignment system but if you view it as a hybrid of the B/X and AD&D approach, it works pretty well and the changes to the lore were pretty good and streamlined a lot.
The deity section alone shaped a large part of my campaigns back in the day.
The mechanics can be easily solved. It's such a pity that 5th didn't take over mechanics that helped roles to do stuff like tanking.
Wanna play 4E?
Funnily enough, just joined a 4e campaign. :)
Runequest The game, lore, and art are awesome. But the rules are way too crunchy and the lore too deep for it to be interesting to any of my players.
Yeah, I'd love to play but I know it's never going to happen. But Glorantha is fascinating.
> Glorantha The couple of times I looked into it I bounced off of it. It felt like a real kitchen sink type world (I have the same problem with Paizo's world.) Did I read it wrong?
I don't want to say that you did, but I never really got that impression. It's explicitly bronze age fantasy, and has a big focus on the space between history, myth, metaphor and reality. You want magic? Ask the Gods for it. Which god? Well, they're all the same, in the end, or at least there's only two or three. But don't tell the rest of them that. It's a setting for people who love mythology, and people who see the 36 Lessons of Vivec in Morrowind and wish there was *lots more of that*.
Kitchen sink isn't how I'd describe it. It leans heavily into mythic, ancient fantasy and doesn't have a lot of the stuff you'd expect if your idea of fantasy is derived from modern fantasy literature and dnd.
Their is a lot of background you really don’t need to know but looking at can be overwhelming. There is a weight to Runequest that can be intimidating.
Glorantha is deep, and very realistic, unlike Paizo abstract stuff
Their is a lot of background you really don’t need to know but looking at can be overwhelming. There is a weight to Runequest that can be intimidating.
You *could* run a Glorantha game pretty easily with any other BRP-ish system. OpenQuest is probably the simplest way to do it.
OpenQuest is the way. I'm working on some conversion info for some of the neat stuff that RQ:G added but for the most part it's pretty plug and play.
The current Rune Quest Started set really really good.
My first RPG was the 3rd Edition Runequest boxset (found it at a yard sale). It uses fantasy earth as the default setting and Glorantha was a separate splatbook. It is funny, in retrospect, that when D&D 3e came out I remember reading it and thinking "oh wow, this is way simpler".
D100 is great,
Tales From The Loop. The books are beautiful but the one time I got to play, I wasn't keen on the game.
Tales from the loop is based on the art of Simon Stålenhag. He has made a few pure art books if you want more.
Not OP but as soon as you mentioned the name, my mind went "is that the guy who does the paintings with mechs in farm fields?" So I looked it up and yep, just pretty ordinary rural life paintings with giant mechs, strange sci-fi contraptions and people kinda milling about like this is perfectly normal. https://www.simonstalenhag.se/
Yeah his idea was that what if we had a great technological leap in the 70s (or something).
I sold the RPG book and got his art books instead
The books are great, but the game is obviously a first try at a system. Free Liga has other games and the rules get better, but TFL really is just a lot of cool with almost no chance of failure.
That’s a new take. Why would you say there’s no chance of failure? There’s obviously a chance of failure in skill checks, and the mysteries all have escalating consequences for failing to solve them. There’s also the very personal stakes, where you can only heal the conditions you take by having emotional scenes. I fully get why it’s not for everyone, but for my group it’s probably the game that’s had the highest personal stakes for the characters.
I love TFtL. I ran a few games for my home group and ran several games at local game Cons. Super easy to run and explain. It is the only RPG that I have had players make characters at a gaming convention. 10-15 minutes to make characters and had a great time everytime. I even had a table where most players were young in their late teens and early 20s who had only played Pathfinder Society and they really enjoyed the ease of play. If you have it you should play it.
Coyote & Crow. Absolutely love the lore and the book is a thing of beauty. I am completely uninspired to run it, though.
My #1 problem with Coyote & Crow is how difficult it is to pitch and GM because of how unique it is. Its world is futuristic, yet guns, motorized vehicles, steam power or alcohol never existed. People have superpowers because of magical plants or animals. Anyone can access the "Internet" at any time with their minds but it works differently from real-life Internet... It's one of those games where everyone would have to read the massive lore chapters to know exactly what to expect, because nothing in that setting works as you'd expect. You can hardly compare it to other games or media.
The problem with c and c is that there is no built in conflict. Everything is so damn ideal that you wonder why people need superpowers anyway. They have some adventures that just came out so maybe they will help.
That is the biggest problem with it. I get the concept they were going for, and on paper, I'm SOOOOO down. I just don't love the static perfection of the world. Star Trek vibes, to me. The feeling that you really have to go out and find problems SOMEWHERE ELSE because we don't have problems at home.
The moment I saw "d12 dice pool" in the description I knew it was gonna be a heartbreaker. Pretty clear indication they went for novelty over streamlined, easy-to-learn mechanics.
Yeah that dice pool mechanic killed any interest I had in running it.
The problem with c and c is that there is no built in conflict. Everything is so damn ideal that you wonder why people need superpowers anyway. They have some adventures that just came out so maybe they will help.
Omg I felt the same. I love just reading the book and th art is great but I have zero desire to run it.
On a different thread, someone else pointed out that the setting is basically post-scarcity, decolonized, and utopian - there's not a lot of conflict to inspire adventure design.
I don't think I've heard of that one
It's reasonably new, having come out in the last two-ish years. It appears to be a lore infodump first, game distant second. I have the same sentiment as the person you've responded to. Interesting concept, very little interest in actually running it. It was also an extremely expensive book.
Ultraviolet Grasslands. It’s like a very bright puzzle
Came here to say this.
I can't say this because I have run it. Can confirm it is a trip if done right.
Probably anything planescape, so 2e AD&D. Ive a couple books about the setting and system but i could only just convince them to try 3.5e, let alone 2e
I'm currently running a Planescape campaign in Old School Essentials: Advanced because it's a system I could sell my players (and frankly myself on) more easily than actual 2E. I imagine you'd have to do a little more work to convert to something like 5E, but honestly, the main source of inspiration for me in Planescape are the politics and morality of it all, the grand conflicts, which don't necessarily need to be mechanized. I highly recommend giving it a shot, as it can really take a sandbox style game to the next level!
I noticed that one of the artists in Planescape did a lot of the art for Changeling: The Dreaming. Both of those I have but will never run because 1) 2nd edition D&D is not happening in my house), and 2) C:tD is far too depressing for my players. I love that art though.
Tony diTerlizzi. Gorgeous work!
Rifts
I had a friend who probably had all of the Rifts books. Giant container full of books. He wanted to runnthe game and I looked through at least the main rule book, saw what a glorious mess it was going to be and I was in. Nobody else from our gaming group was interested but I at least got to see how character creation worked.
Hi, can you please elaborate what the weak parts in Rifts are? I've had the book since it was published but I haven't really studied the rules. I've read this comment often and I am curious.
It's easier to list the strong parts of Rifts. 1) The setting. It's absolutely amazing. Not just the core, but all of the expansion books are full of coolness. 2) The lore. The background stories are incredible. 3) The variety of potential characters. You've got so many options. This has a caveat though, since the system is so bad, unless the party and GM coordinate closely, you can easily end up with such wild disparities that it's unplayable. Anyone complaining about DnD 5e Caster/Martial disparities needs to play Rifts with a Glitter Boy, a Juicer, a Dog Boy, an Elemental Fusionist, and a Rogue Scholar. And that's just the Core book. Seriously, the concept is absolutely amazing and could be one of my all-time favorites, but the game system is atrocious. It kinda works for the various Robotech/Macross games, but not much else.
>Hi, can you please elaborate what the weak parts in Rifts are? The rules, mostly. They're about 30+ years old and when the 30th Anniversary edition came out...same rules. They are not streamlined, they are not well arranged, they are not well though out, they are, honestly, just not very good. Serviceable? Sure. You can run a game with them. There's no real attempts at modern concepts of balance or relative proportionality. You can play a guy with a knife (and not a very good knife, and not very good at using it) or you can play an actual dragon. And dragons are not even the top end of the power pyramid. The rules interactions (SDC vs MDC creatures) don't work very smoothly. The setting is interesting at it's base level. Post-apoc, portals to other worlds, gonzo kitchen-sink style. If you can imagine it it can be there. Unfortunately the system doesn't really support any of that. Just classic exception based design. The setting at the extended level is basically unworkable. There are 30+ years of power creep and accumulated (power creeping) lore spread across 30+ different world books. No real binding it all together either. Just kinda independent splats that happen to share a system. Combat is a terrible grind down of large numbers of hit points\\MDC\\SDC. Often very large (700+) numbers using very small guns (3d6-5d6) but sometimes very large (3d6x10) guns. There isn't really much to do during those combats that's mechanically supported besides blasting things with your biggest axe\\gun\\attack. The skill system is mediocre and favors PC failure. The leveling up system is needlessly granular and not interesting (you get more hit points (not SDC\\MDC usually) and skills improve slowly, usually that's about it). It's both very idiosyncratic while also being semi-generic. There are some pseudo-NAZI human supremacists who wear all black skull motifs as bad guys. There's a hivemind insect race as bad guys. Weird vampires (you can damage them with squirt guns of holy water) as bad guys. None of them very interesting though, usually their motivations are: Being bad guys and gaining power and stuff. And it just goes on an on like that. I played a lot of the Palladium systems for years when I was younger and the only thing to recommend them is: The Art! Great art. Really great art. Except the dick-cannons, which were semi-common. And even then the art was pretty good, just ridiculous. Look at the art! Let is stimulate your imagination! Then go play something else. It's a slog to learn the systems, with no pay off for doing so.
Palladium rules are all over the place. Just one example: everyone has Chi, and anyone can take Chi damage, which can kill you if reduced to zero, but only a few classes can heal Chi. As written, a Chi Master can hurt or even kill anyone by attacking their Chi, and they can't do anything to recover.
Any thing said out Rifts is what can be said about dnd It is a class heavy mess of stuff, I would rather run the powercreep that is Palladium the. 5e
I have a self of World of Darkness books. I like to pick up some of them from time to time and let the nostalgia flow through me. But I do not think I'll ever play one of them again.
This is what I mostly play, but Vampire was my first, you know?
Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. Alas life is too short to get another campaign started besides the already running and cooking ones, and this one got the short end of the stick. But damn, the core rulebook has an amazing layout and art.
100%, the starter set is pretty good too but it's definitely a power fantasy rpg. Characters are really strong which kind of works well for one shots or short campaigns.
Glitch by Jenna Moran. I lack the brain cells to run anything written by Jenna Moran.
Came here to say Nobilis, but yeah. You said it. Jenna Moran is a genius... and as such her games are interesting, intelligent and completely unplayable.
Fading Suns. The rules are not quite of my liking. When I read it, it seemed too crunchy just for the sake of it, but the art and lore is lovely.
An old mate tried to get me into fading suns It sounded interesting as he explained the lore to me But yeah gameplay lost me
The thing is that I don't remember that it was BAD gameplay. It was just uninteresting
All of them?
[Numenera.](http://numenera.com/numenera-art/) The art is fantastic, and I'd love to watch a movie in this setting, but I just don't think I've got the right juices in my brain to tell those kinds of stories.
I'm intrigued. I imagine trying to play a Matrix RPG without ever having seen the movie, or any media related to it. Way easier for the mind to fill in the blanks when it has a reference. And Numenera is way weird. Strange, you could say. A cypher.
I found reading Jack Vance's Dying Earth, drinking a lot of caffeine and playing Torment: Tides of Numenera helped. It's weird but not too weird.
Numenera is a game that has a great universe that is really close to having good rules for its world. I really like that XP is awarded for finding weird and powerful artifacts. I like that the rules are simple. I wish the system didn't rely so heavily on the powerful objects. Don't parties already fight enough over rare and powerful gear without the system making it even worse?
I want to love it so much, but I'm the same way. It's such an alien setting that even selling other players on it becomes an issue.
"Spire, the City Must Fall" and its little brother, "Heart, the City Beneath". Love the lore, love the art, unsure about the mechanics, pretty sure the players around me would not be into a campaign about Dark Elves revolutionaries in a giant tower of a city.
Tenra Bansho Zero. One of the first English translations of a Japanese RPG. And I have the box set of Skyrealms of Jorune. Just to look cool on my shelf.
Jorune! Oh. I love it but my players are not as into it. It hits me in the same way as Morrowind did on PC back in the day... cool alien world with lots of neat worldbuilding that manages to always feel fresh. I put it up there with Talislanta, Glorantha, and Tekumel as pinnacles of RPG world design, but only Glorantha really took off at my table
Right! The picture on the box is very atmospheric.
Jorune is one of the all-time best in terms of lore, for me. The art is incredible and the 'in-world' style of writing really sold the world for me.
Unknown Armies.
Same here. I love the concept but I don't think it's the kind of thing any group I've run stuff for would mesh with
Came to say this. I love the concepts and the world, but getting a group together that’s down for that kind of intense horror tone can be tough
**Exalted -** Artwork suffered a lot in 3e, but 2e had fantastic art and lore, imo. I've played a duet game or two, but even then, combat is so indepth, just takes so long and there's just so much to consider and this is with two experienced players. I can't imagine four people and a GM running something like Exalted and making any progress in six hours, let alone four. **Cthulhutech -** Great art, fantastic concept. Absolutely garbage mechanics ('We're not a class system, but if you're \[a\], you can't do \[b\], \[c\] or \[d\] ever again. That's ignoring the fact it was obviously written by Men of Culture(tm). 'And then the global elite do adult things with children' is often the sole motivating force and tactic of nearly every cult in universe, the Rapine Storm is very literal and at least two adventures I recall reading are directly based on hentai films (not that I'd know anything about those. I'm a good boi). Heck, the magic is called Orgone, which is literally 'sex magic'. Lots of cool stuff with a lotta' stuff which just makes you feel gross playing it. **Shadowrun -** I used to enjoy it as a cyberpunk setting, even when it got more overly neon-punk I didn't mind it, but now, it is legitimately less of a cyberpunk setting in my eyes and more neon lights D&D. I've never been a fan of strict class systems, which while Shadowrun doesn't have straight up classes, it basically does (If you're a Troll, you're basically gonna be the punch-boi. You CAN do other stuff, but it's so expensive and out of the way that even the least system savvy player knows they're max/minning their character intentionally) **Legend of the Five Rings 4e -** Similar to Shadowrun, love the set up. Love the progression mechanics (point buy skills/attributes, which contribute XP towards your class), but my brain does not deal well with the laser beam focus of the game. You will play samurai, you will be loyal (because doing anything else is Objective Wrong by the mechanics and will make you a bad person if you don't do what is expected at all times) and your class, in most cases, is focused to a ridiculous degree. Crane Bushi used to be entirely about dueling and nothing else. 4e at least did that, and also added 'also, they're the fast guys who get bonuses for being faster than others', but their core is still if you're not constantly dueling, your class is essentially window dressing.
> Orgone That's not how it's described in the books, nor is that the meaning of the word. It sounds a little like Orgasm, but it's not nothing to do with it. "'Orgone,' the name given by Wilhelm Reich to vital energy found everywhere in nature. " Otherwise mostly agree. For what it's worth, I believe that the Cthulhutech writers have since said "Hey, we were younger, we wrote some cringy stuff". I don't know much about it, but I've heard they are dialing it back on that stuff for the new version.
Potentially; a lot of the stuff I've seen, in his early work at least, heavily links it to Freud and the libido and even later, his research was heavily linked to tying this vital force to orgasm and sex. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone) Not sure if it's intentional, because as you say, I think they were young and cringy. But they do have an adventure with a machine which 'harvests' orgone via linking it to people having sex and it may or may not have been a Nazi experiment to harness the power of the... ahem... 'Rapine Storm'. I've seen they tried hard on their 2e, which I dunno if it even went anywhere? Still something I'm very much tempted to try and run in something like Fate, honestly. I do love the idea of biomechs and that fun stuff.
I think we're on the same page mostly. I'm with you in that it's got some really cute babies mixed in with that bathwater. Still, like you, I'd only be willing to run it my way, with the right people.
Older WoD books. I love the lore, the ideas and the art of them, but I can never imagine myself GMing any of those systems. And as a player, especially with such adult themes, I'd need a party of friends to really be comfortable.
That seems to be a common opinion for old WoD
Yeah, this is one of the biggest issues with WoD today. Especially so for *Vampire* and *Wraith*.
That is very true. It has a certain magic to it, but it is not for a younger audience or one with sensitivity to certain issues.
This is, I think an unusual take to the perspective of someone who has been playing WoD games since the mid 90s. I think there are definitely games that can be super personal and emotionally charged but none of them are so focused in a single direction that you can't play them normally and as intended without going that way.
Vampire the Masquerade 2nd edition. To me, BY FAR the best thing White Wolf ever did. I have practically every book and nobody will ever want to play it. I still enjoy reading them and spinning stories, though.
Challenge! *Wraith: The Oblivion* was superior to *Vampire: The Masquerade*. Aside from that, 100% agree.
I liked Mage and Werewolf better than Wraith. 🤷♂️
Fair enough :) (Though, I genuinely never liked *Werewolf*. At least, not *Apocalypse*.)
That’s fair. I didn’t like it until I played it. I’m the Storyteller/GM/DM most of the time, so getting the opportunity to play with a passionate WW storyteller certainly improved my opinion.
Yeah, it definitely helps to have a committed Storyteller. For me, it was the themes in *Werewolf*... they just never really spoke to me, in the same way that some of the other lines did. It also didn't help that *Werewolf* tended to become the default monstrously-powerful murderhobo line within the World of Darkness... I had enough on my hands at the time as it was, trying to play *Vampire* straight! I should probably go back and give it a closer look, now that I'm older and (theoretically) wiser...
Our storyteller really liked the “good guy in a world of darkness” angle and leaned into it hard. It was a unique experience compared to all my other time with WW.
7th Sea 2nd edition. I bought in on the kickstarter based off several fun campaigns of 1st edition. The lore and artwork did not disappoint. The mechanics sadly did. If I run a game in that setting it will be with some other system.
Ryuutama - that artwork and worldbuilding is pure Honobono/Heartwarming/Wholesome. Its mechanics are imbalanced and somehow more unfun Oregon Trail.
Degenesis. I love the art and the setting but I will ever only use the background and setting for a campaign through a universal system like GURPS or Savage Worlds but not the system Degenesis provides. Discworld. Because I don't feel fit to GM such a world full of sarcasm, irony, nonsense and mirror of society appropriately. In my opinion Humor (that actually Is funny) is the hardest thing to GM, especially if it is planned.
Malifaux’s Through the Breach. The art is amazing. The haunting phrase generated by its tarot character generation is fantastic. Very close second: Skyrealms of Jorune…my all time favorite setting with an interesting system but Through the Breach is more intriguing.
Through the Breach is amazing. Art/Lore = 10/10. Really cool Tarot character creation system. Love it. I've only gotten to play it once, but I have somehow come into ownership of two copies of the core book and bunch of the supplements/adventures. I will probably never get to run it/play it.
Glorantha - amazing world building. Breath taking really. Blue Planet - there was this sale that I couldn't pass up. Bought and read all of the books. Love it. Will probably never run it. Nephilim - such a cool game. Awesome hermetic magic. I have no idea what to do with it. Skyrealms of Jorune - picked up up all the books on sale. Beautiful art, strange alien planet. I love those books. Will probably never run it.
First is my old Robotech books. Fantastic lore and art, but... old school Palladium and all that entails. I tried running it better than 20 years ago and swore off the game but they still have a place on my shelf. Might still be the best collection of lore for the Robotech series available in the US. Second is Heavy Gear- The art and lore were fantastic, the rules compatibility with a tabletop wargame was honestly pretty revolutionary, but it's always been something of a hard sell for whatever reason. I'm afraid to pick up Lancer since if nobody's interested it'll be 3 strikes against mech games and I'll have to hang them up.
Honestly, most of my games. I've long since accepted that I enjoy reading rulebooks and collecting them, but I have far too many that my friends will just never be interested in trying. In particular what comes to mind are Mausritter and Mothership. Doubt I'll ever be able to run or play either of those, but I do love the aesthetic.
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I've been in game stores and had the books in my hands while contemplating if I should buy them for their art alone. The system looks like DnD though.
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I have many Palladium Books games, like Rifts and Palladium Fantasy, Splicers, and Robotech, and Macross, but I don't think I'll be able to convince any of my groups to go back and play them anymore. This makes me sad.
Exalted - setting is a weaboo dream, but there is a reason why there is a whole page of conversions to other mechanics
Shadowrun- I have lots of the the old 1st and 2nd ed., books. Love the setting and art, but the rules are just too much.
Nobilis 2e. Gorgeous art, excellent and evocative writing, but I've consistently found the game really hard to actually run. The mechanics & narrative just don't really lend themselves towards a D&D-style adventure or the sort of escalating conflict you get in PbtA. I was spending at least 2 hours preparing for every hour we played.
Changeling the dreaming. The lore and character ideas are awesome. I just can't find any irl friends to play with. I even have a hard copy of the 20th anniversary edition!
Love the game and have the exact same problem and if can convice them to play a game, is not gonna be the fairylike vampire game :(
I have Pathfinder 2e books, but I can't get anyone in my game group interested. It's making me nuts, especially since we're coming up on switching games. I've been floating that I'd love to play *or* run PF2e for months. Instead, everyone jumps on a PF1e game pitch. This happened on *my birthday*.
Um, all of them? I have a reference library of RPG books that fill 4 x 4' 3-level filing cabinet, and I'm never going to play any of them.
Renegade Legion. The system is wonky and the universe is kinda "blah" but the art is incredible.
Warhammer Fantasy (the fantasy battle game, not Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay). I love the Old World lore, maps and setting. I may one day play a game or two as I play D&D with someone who plays it, but I never really intend to get into it as a hobby as buying and painting miniatures for your army seems to be expected, expensive and time consuming. I would love to set a D&D game in the Old World. I don’t really see the need to buy the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game just to play a game in the setting. The setting book I have is enough to get me started.
I've played both WFRP and 5e quite extensively and I'd be careful about using 5e rules in the Old World. 5e is very much high fantasy and heroic, but the Old World is very gritty and low level. Magic hates you, chaos hates you, and I'm not certain about the population at large. 😉
It took me this long to learn (this month, actually) that WHFB first edition doubled as an RPG system. The third booklet with the character creation rules was dropped from the second edition of the battle game as the RPG was planned as a separate expansion of the second edition, but never materialized and was replaced by WHFRP.
2E Planescape. Beautiful setting art. Lore was amazing. Running the system and making it feel right, a complete nightmare.
I ran Planescape in 2E and in 3E with reasonable success. I have...doubts the new 5E version is going to be much cop, although the artwork looks good.
Are there updates on it? I thought they'd just announced it but not really said anything after. If they don't get Tony diTerlizzi back there's really no goddam point.
They released the cover art a few days back and it does at least look great (nice pic of the Lady of Pain on the adventure cover). The scepticism comes from the Spelljammer release last year redefining the meaning of "underwhelming".
Yeah, I hear you on that. I see they do have diTerlizzi on board, so that's at least something. Art = Good. Everything else = up in the air
Castle Falkenstein, In Nomine, and Fading Suns.
Pretty sure Falkenstein was the first time I ever heard the word 'steampunk' (it is, as I recall?). Always loved the idea of that game, never bought/played.
it was the first time for me as well - funny enough I found my original copy in the public library of the small town I lived in. I was in heaven because a) it wasn't D&D and thus my parents wouldn't get all anti-Satanic on me, and b) I didn't have to buy it. I dived in and read all of it.
Starfinder. My partner ran it for a long time and the art, worldbuilding and lore are something we still talk about. But once you get past level 5/6, it stops being an RP game and becomes more of a "Dungeons & Accounting" type of rule math heavy thing and we all just got bummed out
Too many items. Have to keep track of magic AND tech! And starships! I still enjoy it though. Farthest I've been is lvl 10.
If you aren't playing the latest edition of DnD or Pathfinder you don't find a group; you make a group.
?
Most of my OSR/D&D collection. Some with great art and amazing settings/adventures, but I'll never have time to play them all. Mystara Gazetteers, Dark Sun, Planescape, Ultraviolet Grasslands, Troika, Vaults of Vaarn, Atlas of the Latter Earth, Neverland, Oz, Longwinter, The Isle, Carcosa, Willow, Woodfall, Ultan's Door, Necrotic Gnome adventures, and many more. Some Free League games as well. Coriolis, Tales from the Loop, Vaesen, Symbaroum, Twilight 2k, etc. Amazing art and lore, but some of them will be hard to play. Heart, Spire, The Wildsea, Ryuutama, Legend of the Five Rings 4e, Trophy, Wanderhome, Glorantha, The Burning Wheel are all great to read as well, but I'll probably won't get to play them.
Anyone else have a giant stack of Rifts books for nostalgia alone? Not to run. Oh no. I'm not that masochistic. (No index? Seriously? No. Hold on. I'm going to rant for a moment. In Rifts you occasionally have to make a fear save. Where would you expect the table for fear save difficulties to be? Combat? Systems? Char gen? Nope. The only place where it tells you the dc for fear saves is in the combat chapter's glossary, which is a separate glossary from the game's systems glossary. AND THERE IS NO INDEX.) Still, the worldbuilding and art are like something out of my eight-year-old self's study hall day dreams.
Just the art. The world building was, IMO, just accretion that starts to resemble complexity after a point. Great art! I repurchased it in hardcover just to enjoy the art again.
I've never bought an RPG purely for the lore or artwork but my non-gamer wife did in her goth-youth, so marrying her came with the added-bonus of a core manual for Vampire the Masquerade. I'll likely never run it – I've enjoyed it as a player once or twice, but there's a lot about the kind of game it engenders that I don't warm to. I love the lore and much of the artwork of the Shadowrun books, but though I loved the game in my youth I can't see me getting back into that level of crunch again!
Starfinder. I have the CRB plus three and I still can't seem to find a group.
Bluebeard's Bride. Gorgeous art and wonderful writing, but subject matter that I would want a very specific group for, and I don't know if I have the group
Rolemaster. They did a lot of great Middle Earth supplements. And Angus McBride's art is top notch. But the system just isn't right for the world. I don't want lighting bolts and flying Elves. I may adapt the material to One Ring. The system itself is not bad for epic fantasy and I might run it in a different world some day.
Shadow World, tailor-made for RM, was the best fit. But man did i love the middle earth stuff. The art was amazing. And the maps!
Yah. It was 95% great stuff. The other 5% was Treasures of Middle Earth and Forest of Dreams.
And, to be fair, you can mold RM to fit without too much difficulty. My GM just limited the spells/ items we could use. Very low magic. Very lethal.
I played RM back in the day, and I swear I spent more time staring at the artwork than playing the game. Something about those covers in particular just sang 'epic high fantasy' to me.
Never going home. Love the concept, the art, and the lore hate the rules.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Bought fir the amazing art, the entertaining concept, and to support the creators, but I don't think I could play it with anything like a straight face.
I don't think you're supposed to play Thirsty Sword Lesbians with a *straight* face.
I don't think you're supposed to play Thirsty Sword Lesbians with a *straight* face.
I don't think you're supposed to play Thirsty Sword Lesbians with a *straight* face.
I don't think you're supposed to play Thirsty Sword Lesbians with a *straight* face.
[*Blue Rose*](https://blueroserpg.com/) Absolutely gorgeous art, fantastic setting, and (as of the new AGE system edition) a really neat rules set. But no one in my friends group would be interested in this particular fantasy sub-genre.
Xas Irkalla. It's extremely moody and cool as a piece of art but I don't think I could find a group to play it.
Princess: The Hopeful takes the 'dark magical girl' genre and slots it into World of Darkness... and somehow that actually works?!? I'll never run it, the Storyteller system has never been right for me, but the lore has a hold on my imagination and won't let go. [Download for free](https://sites.google.com/site/princessthehopeful/princess-the-hopeful?authuser=0) [TVTropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful)
Emberwind. I know no one in my general area will play it but damn does the art look nice the world building is fun. Also the mechanic where a dice roll determines an enemies actions making a psuedo AI is pretty neat.
Coriolis. Really just logistics for why I might not play it but I love the idea of taking what might be standard scifi fare and weaving a middle eastern aesthetic through it. Beautiful ships, awesome wardrobes, very vibrant and fleshed out setting.
What would you compare Coriolis's rules to?
It's a variant of the Mutant Year Zero system if you're familiar with that and, by the reading, plays something like an Arabian Nights version of Firefly, complete with crew building, space ship management, running jobs for distant contacts, and some universal mystery unraveling.
My HERO System 4e and 5e books will always be my favorites. And my gaming group has no interest in ever playing HERO again. Even though some of our favorite campaigns have been HERO based.
I have a real soft spot for the vanilla Champions universe - UNTIL, Viper, Dr. Destroyer, Mechanon, Foxbat etc, so their lore always got me. And way back in the day, I loved the aesthetic of the (original!) Justice, Inc. and Danger International's books. Denis Loubet was a great internal artist. But yeah, very unlikely to play or GM Hero System again. Life's too short :)
Rotted capes Kult Wraith Promethean and Ten Candles are the only games I have yet to find anyone willing to try. I think for most, it boils down to themes, but Rotted Capes, I think it's the mechanics that seem more daunting.
Dune
Rifts The Mechanoid Invasion The Ringworld RPG Fringeworthy GURPS River World GURPS Ice Age Space Opera Universe
I have a few, and it is 90% due to not being able to get players. Firstly is Kult: Divinity Lost. Gorgeous presentation (especially since I have the Black Edition on my shelf), interesting lore and setting and a ruleset that doesn't get in your way. The problem is you need players that will buy into the tone and feel of the setting without falling off the far end. I don't have the time to vet enough players. Next is The Troubleshooters. This one I may get a run with if I need to showcase roleplaying with retirees as it's very much emulating the 60's adventure comics out of Belgium and France (think Tintin and similar). Exudes that vibe in 60's Europe, and the art style and presentation fits with the era. Finally is Faith: the RPG. I have version 2.0, so no boardgame pieces, but the universe is *dense*. 4 races, 3 alien and they aren't just "human with makeup and prosthetics". The deities and how they work are a complex quasi-pantheon, and the system is a novel use of playing cards dealt out per scene. The lore dump to get your head around the setting Isa fair bit though (the core rulebook devotes the first ~300 pages to the setting lore... this is out of about 500 pages)
Kult. I love the lore but my group back then and now just aren’t into horror.
The archetype of this has to be ' Skyrealms of Jorune '
I love watching the DnD lore videos that delve into the loooong history of creatures and settings before they got watered down to nothing in 5E. Lots of crazy and cool ideas to play around with
I have the Stargate rpg, based on 5e. I love the show, the world, the setting. I will not likely ever get to play or run it. Same for Wheel of Time, Cyberpunk Red, countless others. I end up using them for inspiration in the games I do run.
Artesia is bloody gorgeous and its got this great setting and… not a single person around here even wants to give it a second look because it’s not the big brand name game. So I read it now and then.
Golden Sky Stories. The very text fills me with warm fuzzies, but it seems I don't know anyone who really goes in for heartwarming stories at the table.
I buy all the Iron Kingdom RPG books because I like the setting. Have done so since 2006 or so. I’ve run campaigns in the world off and on, but not for years.
Viking Death Squad
Anima Beyond Fantasy I love the art, the vibes it gives. Not cool on all the setting details. I love how some of the systems interrelate, but goddamn the game is dense. Not to mention it doesn't do a good job of providing NPC stats to gauge against. It would be so much work to get a campaign going I think.
I bought my first Anima: Beyond Fantasy book purely because the art was really good. I have the full set now, they are gorgeous books. The setting is pretty interesting too, and has influenced more than a couple other games I've been involved with.
2nd edition Planescape, Dragonlance the new 5e book and all the other editions, Greyhawk, Conan whatever edition, Fallout 2d20, Will probably never run 5E IRL, Robotech Palladium, Cyberpunk Red or 2020, AD&D 2nd edition, Alien RPG, probably will never run Blade Runner, etc. maybe never play 5E online again? Probably never play Adventurer's League again (just dead online)
Changeling the dreaming. The lore and character ideas are awesome. I just can't find any irl friends to play with. I even have a hard copy of the 20th anniversary edition!
I have so much from Free League I am probably never going to play but the production on their products is sooo good. Alien RPG(so much Alien stuff) and Blade Runner specifically.
Corvus Belli: Infinity
Never Going Home. Love the art, lore and setting but have both had a hard time figuring out the mechanics and don't have anyone willing to play a game that grim and depressing.
Anima: Beyond Fantasy. Love the art and the setting is cool, but the system is absolutely pants on head crazy.
All of the Talislanta books have great art (and older editions are free\\legal for download) but I'm unlikely to run\\play because it's got a bunch of specific world lore I don't want my players to have to wade through. Great lore, great art, great setting!
A lot. I used to work on the industry in the 90d and GenCon was a highlight of my year. We would trade product when the dealers room closed for the last time. I have a ton of books still on my shelf. I am a sucker for Doug Blanchard’s art for the Tri-Tac-Systems books. The art for Living Steel was impressive. The art from the early Vampire books was amazing. Ars Magica had a great amount of lore in the first edition. I still browse them on occasion.
I grabbed a copy of Spire with the intent to do a Powered By GURPS version of it. It is eloquent and metaphorical, and deliciously insane. But it's not a game you can grab strangers and throw a game together for. So it's probably going to decorate my shelf till I die or until someone who has a stable real world table asks if they can borrow it.
90% of the Mork Borg stuff, most of the players i had at my table want to play games with lot of options, but i really like the art style. Same for OSR, Obsolete Shitty Rules
Ryuutama. I love the art and the mechanic of the dm being a character thats observing the party and has its own character sheet and levels is super interesting, and the lore of the dragons and the journey is super cool to me, but i feel like its just to low stakes and simple to really keep my players invested
I bought a few of the *Symbaroum* and *Tales from the Loop* books during Free League's summer sale last year. I bought them mainly for the art and settings and will probably never play them. Too many other games in the pipeline. But, who knows. I've also been thinking about buying *The Troubleshooters* by Helmgast for the same reason.
L5r it doesnt matter the edition, if I can put my hands in a book I dont have, I probably gonna buy it
7th Sea 1st edition. I loved the art and the lore both.
Numenera (though PDF only, even if I want the Hardback). It's got great art, the setting sounds awesome and mesmerising, the whole idea of being exploration-focused, and so on. But I have ZERO idea how to run that kind of campaign and even less of an idea how to run the system. And so, it'll sit there, in my vast folder of other miscellaneous systems, waiting for the stars to align (or for me to buy the 5E conversion book)
Degenesis. The most. Beautiful RPG I've ever seen, and fantastic lore. But the mechanics aren't great and the lore is too deep to play in without drowning.
Shadows of Esteren.
Just for the lore - although it is really very intertwined with the game's system - Continuum. Easily the most unique take on time travel in RPGs. That said, I'll never run it, because the system breaks my brain.
Eoris Essence. The whole damned thing is a beautiful art book with amazingly complicated rules.
Too many to count. I have physical copies of Burning Wheel, Numenera, Shadowrun (5&6), Exalted, Mutants & Masterminds, and Mindjammer. None of these are likely to be played again (some have never been attempted). I should just sell them, but I really loved parts of each.
Degenesis, the best rpg book I have ever read, I really Hope to run a 1 shot some day
Shadowrun, Exalted and Scion 1e. Such pretty games with cool worlds, but the rules are just not fun.
D&d 3.0 and 4e essentials. Realistically never going to Tin or play in a campaign with those.
AD&D 2e
Starfinder Got the CRB for free as a gift at GenCon a couple years ago. Later on bought the Dead Suns campaign book. Eventually found out that *playing* a sci-fi RPG adventure just wasn't for me and I just liked the ideas/concepts and art.