[Interest check] What Non D&D or Pathfinder game would interest people?

Gametime would be Sundays 1-530 pm EST (the game would be 3-3.5 hours).  What system would interest people? I'd like to try something that isn't D and D or Pathfinder.

All about besm? or OVA or even robotech by palladium? (I know besm, but never played OVA/robotech but always wanted to learn.)

Besm,WoD, Fuzion Bubblegum crisis, Iron Kingdoms, Marvel just to name a few.

Out of all of those listed so far I only have WoD (werewolf the Apocalypse). I did pick up icons on bundle of holding though, which is the marvel successor I believe. 

Just to be clear, I will GM the game. 

You could try something like the Dragon Age system or 13th age. They're pretty flexible systems that in my opinion are easy to pick up and put a lot of emphasis on narrative and combat and not Hacking and Slashing like DnD and Pathfinder are geared toward.

Call of Cthulhu, Alternity, GURPS, or Battlelords of the 23rd Century

13th age I own and I will own call of cthulhu whenever my preorder finally comes. I'd be open to running either This is really an open thread to the community. If I own the game and there is enough interest, I will probably run it

I'd be interested in GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Fate Core, or Gumshoe system. Prefer games more narrative/character-focused than the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats. 

If you do 13th age, I'm all in. Not to many campaigns using that system and I'd love to get involved in a campaign using that system.

Daniel S. said: I'd be interested in GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Fate Core, or Gumshoe system. Prefer games more narrative/character-focused than the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats.  Fate core is one I'm certainly interested in trying. Same with Cthulhu and 13th age. 

Brian said: Daniel S. said: I'd be interested in GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Fate Core, or Gumshoe system. Prefer games more narrative/character-focused than the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats.  Fate core is one I'm certainly interested in trying. Same with Cthulhu and 13th age.  I've run Fate Core a few times but only played in it once or twice. It's a pretty cool system for groups who want a fun story, instead of a game where they try to defeat the GM lol.

Daniel S. said: Brian said: Daniel S. said: I'd be interested in GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Fate Core, or Gumshoe system. Prefer games more narrative/character-focused than the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats.  Fate core is one I'm certainly interested in trying. Same with Cthulhu and 13th age.  I've run Fate Core a few times but only played in it once or twice. It's a pretty cool system for groups who want a fun story, instead of a game where they try to defeat the GM lol. I've only been defeated by mutants and masterminds. That sucked to run

Brian said: Just to be clear, I will GM the game.  I know you GM just was listing games. I would like to play as player.

I've been looking for a long while for a chance to break into a GURPS or Shadowrun game.

Run Mechwarrior. No one will see it coming.

Daniel S. said: ... the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats.  That depends entirely on the group. If the group rushes through the story to get to combat, that's what the game is.

Sharpe V. said: I've been looking for a long while for a chance to break into a GURPS or Shadowrun game. The problem with Shadowrun currently is I only have 4e stuff.  That and I haven't run and it's a notoriously difficult game to learn the rules of.  Not opposed to it, but that's the reality.

Billy Redd said: Daniel S. said: ... the average D&D/Pathfinder game which trends towards combats.  That depends entirely on the group. If the group rushes through the story to get to combat, that's what the game is. Hence why I said "the average D&D/Pathfinder game", the exact part you quoted . All systems skew towards a certain type of game. I know text on the internet can lead to people having a lot of foolish arguments based on misreads. Let's be better people and not do that, okay? Still friends? :P

Maids maybe? I've actually wanted to try playing a legit non PbP version of it.

I'd LOVE to be a player in that Mass Effect d6 game going around.. 

aaron k. said: Maybe you should list systems you know and willing to do besides Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. Sense most suggestions you do not like. Saying I don't own the game != not liking it.  

Hey Brian, long time no talk.  What are you interested in?  You remarked that M&M was a headache to run, so perhaps something a little lighter ruleswise?  I wasn't in love with 13th Age, and I really wanted to like it, but ymmv.  I love some of the weird west stuff, like Sixth Gun (think Deadlands without the baggage) in Savage Worlds, which I would also seriously consider for a Shadowrun-esque game (the Shadowrun rules are brutal) or a Star Wars one.   Werewolf the Apocalypse can actually be a pretty fun game, but again it takes a lot of startup to get into and White Wolf games are aggressively unhelpful to the GM.  So, I'd take a pass on it.  There's a lot of WW stuff that I like, but I'd have to find a hack for it that works.  I have the Atomic Robo FATE game that I'd be interested in actually reading at some point.  FATE is a bit too generic for me without a solid background, but I also don't know how much fun it would be to do something that rules-lite for more than a few sessions.   But, basically, what are you looking for?  Intrigue, action, dice chucking?  How important are things like complexity, ease of GMing, game balance, and so on?  That will help narrow down the list.  For example, Rifts is great for gonzoness and dice chucking, but complex, a pain in the ass to GM, and treats game balance like its polio.   If you're looking for a list of campaigns to run from people, I can always throw my opinionated hat in the ring, but that's more like "what would Nick like to kidnap someone and make them run" which ... umm, may not really answer your question.* Hope that helps!   *just for the record, off the top of my head, they would be:  (1) Warhammer 40k game using the Wild Talents/ORE system, (2) Star Wars using something like Savage Worlds, (3) high powered defending the world type of game either along the lines of Evangelion or the Justice League (though that's probably M&M, so that's probably out), (4) weird west.

Nicholas A. said: Hey Brian, long time no talk.  What are you interested in?  You remarked that M&M was a headache to run, so perhaps something a little lighter ruleswise?  I wasn't in love with 13th Age, and I really wanted to like it, but ymmv.  I love some of the weird west stuff, like Sixth Gun (think Deadlands without the baggage) in Savage Worlds, which I would also seriously consider for a Shadowrun-esque game (the Shadowrun rules are brutal) or a Star Wars one.   Werewolf the Apocalypse can actually be a pretty fun game, but again it takes a lot of startup to get into and White Wolf games are aggressively unhelpful to the GM.  So, I'd take a pass on it.  There's a lot of WW stuff that I like, but I'd have to find a hack for it that works.  I have the Atomic Robo FATE game that I'd be interested in actually reading at some point.  FATE is a bit too generic for me without a solid background, but I also don't know how much fun it would be to do something that rules-lite for more than a few sessions.   But, basically, what are you looking for?  Intrigue, action, dice chucking?  How important are things like complexity, ease of GMing, game balance, and so on?  That will help narrow down the list.  For example, Rifts is great for gonzoness and dice chucking, but complex, a pain in the ass to GM, and treats game balance like its polio.   If you're looking for a list of campaigns to run from people, I can always throw my opinionated hat in the ring, but that's more like "what would Nick like to kidnap someone and make them run" which ... umm, may not really answer your question.* Hope that helps!   *just for the record, off the top of my head, they would be:  (1) Warhammer 40k game using the Wild Talents/ORE system, (2) Star Wars using something like Savage Worlds, (3) high powered defending the world type of game either along the lines of Evangelion or the Justice League (though that's probably M&M, so that's probably out), (4) weird west. Hey Nick!  Actually, I am looking for people to say what they'd want to have run.  More precisely, it's kinda what system they're interested in.  I'm currently running Savage Worlds so I wouldn't mind running that but I would be interested in branching out a bit.  Atomic Robo is a great example of this (I have a number of other FATE Core settings as well).  I have 40K stuff from FFG, not Wild Talents/ORE.  I'd be tempted to try running it in Savage Worlds TBH since that would be a little less rules intensive.

I sorta kinda hate the FFG Warhammer 40k systems.  Like, I could fill this thread with my dislike for them.  Part of my dislike is that they are very rules intensive in kind of the worst ways.  Savage isn't a terrible option for it.  It doesn't have the same quick brutality that Wild Talents/ORE has, which I could introduce you to.  That, and Savage sorta sucks with wacky powers, while Wild Talents does them pretty well, being an effects based, although that does mean building them all from scratch.   I could give some more campaign ideas some thought, as that's what you're asking for.  I can whip up a few campaign pitches over the next couple of days (work is currently in complete kick my ass mode, so I'm sorta kinda braindead as I write this). I am bimodal in my gaming tastes.  My default is as an action gamer, personally.  I like big set pieces and awe-inspiring actions.  Give me a crumbling tower and a heroic last stand or a city smashing robot vs. a city smashing monster and I'm happy as a clam.  And, I'm more interested in all that than loot (though it's fine in context).  On the other hand, I've always loved Vampire and Mage, and what I loved most about Werewolf were the interesting social dynamics married to a violent guerrilla war going on in the background.  And, that's all intrigue.  But, I think that's really challenging, especially online.  It takes a long time to setup and is often just not worth the candle.  I'm kind of lukewarm on mysteries in most games, as I've found them to be more frustrating than fun.  I imagine a system built around them, like Gumshoe, will be different, but lately they've been mostly exercises in annoyance.  

Victor said: Brian said: something that isn't D and D or Pathfinder. Yes... just yes. To be a little more specific and answer your question better; I'm with a few others who mentioned GURPS or Savage Worlds for a weird west or space opera style game. Call of Cthulhu also sounds good to me as well as Marvel or a Justice League type game, not sure if you're burned on supers in general or just had a bad experience with M&M.  Cthulhu is getting love here.  If the book gets here in a reasonable time (it was supposed to be here "in a week" like two weeks ago), I'd probably try running it a couple sessions.

Nicholas A. said: I sorta kinda hate the FFG Warhammer 40k systems.  Like, I could fill this thread with my dislike for them.  Part of my dislike is that they are very rules intensive in kind of the worst ways.  Savage isn't a terrible option for it.  It doesn't have the same quick brutality that Wild Talents/ORE has, which I could introduce you to.  That, and Savage sorta sucks with wacky powers, while Wild Talents does them pretty well, being an effects based, although that does mean building them all from scratch.   I could give some more campaign ideas some thought, as that's what you're asking for.  I can whip up a few campaign pitches over the next couple of days (work is currently in complete kick my ass mode, so I'm sorta kinda braindead as I write this). I am bimodal in my gaming tastes.  My default is as an action gamer, personally.  I like big set pieces and awe-inspiring actions.  Give me a crumbling tower and a heroic last stand or a city smashing robot vs. a city smashing monster and I'm happy as a clam.  And, I'm more interested in all that than loot (though it's fine in context).  On the other hand, I've always loved Vampire and Mage, and what I loved most about Werewolf were the interesting social dynamics married to a violent guerrilla war going on in the background.  And, that's all intrigue.  But, I think that's really challenging, especially online.  It takes a long time to setup and is often just not worth the candle.  I'm kind of lukewarm on mysteries in most games, as I've found them to be more frustrating than fun.  I imagine a system built around them, like Gumshoe, will be different, but lately they've been mostly exercises in annoyance.   I feel like Atomic Robo would be a good game for us to do together based on your love of big set pieces. I actually forgot Mage was a WoD game.  I have that one too.   This isn't so much "looking for inspiration" as it is me wanting to branch out a bit and just want to run something that the community would appreciate.

Brian said: I feel like Atomic Robo would be a good game for us to do together based on your love of big set pieces. I actually forgot Mage was a WoD game.  I have that one too.   This isn't so much "looking for inspiration" as it is me wanting to branch out a bit and just want to run something that the community would appreciate. Cool.  Well, keep me posted.  The list of games I'm familiar with isn't the longest.  The ones I know well are:  D&D, Pathfinder, M&M, ORE, Savage Worlds, and World of Darkness, but I'm not wedded to any of them.  I have my own other biases -- like I'm sick of playing murder hobos who have no sense of connection to the world -- but that's more of a concern for once there's a game and a system on the table :).  

Exalted!

Nicholas A. said: I sorta kinda hate the FFG Warhammer 40k systems....Part of my dislike is that they are very rules intensive in kind of the worst ways.  100% agreement with you on the FFG 40k games. I originally was going to do one of them (Rogue Trader) for the first campaign I had ever run, and gave up before I even did session 0. It sounds like we're narrowing down to what's the most appealing for Brian to run as a GM and us as the players. Is there a list of games you're willing to run Brian? As for me as a player: I prefer to play a game where I take on a character, make imperfect decisions, and help create a story with the rest of the group. My two main types of fun are Narrative and Discovery. I'm game for anything FATE-related, although Atomic Robo might be wasted on me as I know little to nothing of it, other than that it sounds very superscience pulp, in which case I'm in. Call of Cthulhu is the D&D of Horror games, so it's very accessible if people haven't played much beyond D&D. I know 7th ed is still shipping but the quick start rules PDF has been out for years and covers most of what you need until your book arrives.  I've never played Savage Worlds but it sounds like a fun system. 

Brian said: Victor said: Brian said: something that isn't D and D or Pathfinder. Yes... just yes. To be a little more specific and answer your question better; I'm with a few others who mentioned GURPS or Savage Worlds for a weird west or space opera style game. Call of Cthulhu also sounds good to me as well as Marvel or a Justice League type game, not sure if you're burned on supers in general or just had a bad experience with M&M.  Cthulhu is getting love here.  If the book gets here in a reasonable time (it was supposed to be here "in a week" like two weeks ago), I'd probably try running it a couple sessions.   There are also Cthulhu variants that might catch your fancy.  Delta Green is a Cthulhu meets X Files game and just had a kickstarter.  Or there are two cthulhu in WWII variants (one is savage worlds).  Or if you wanted to be more investigatory there is trail of cthulhu with a host of excellent campaigns.

I loved Delta Green when it was still under the CoC umbrella!  Interested to see what you pick!

Godbound or AMP: year one :D i never see these listed on roll20 even tho they are great games...a bit new perhaps

Daniel S. said: Nicholas A. said: I sorta kinda hate the FFG Warhammer 40k systems....Part of my dislike is that they are very rules intensive in kind of the worst ways.  100% agreement with you on the FFG 40k games. I originally was going to do one of them (Rogue Trader) for the first campaign I had ever run, and gave up before I even did session 0. Yeah, my solution was to do a hack involving ORE.  I found the FFG systems were getting in the way so so much.  If you're interested in it, and not cluttering poor Brian's super cool thread with this stuff, shoot me a PM.   Marek Z. said: Godbound or AMP: year one :D i never see these listed on roll20 even tho they are great games...a bit new perhaps Can you say more about these?  I've never even heard of them.  Which isn't surprising, I guess, I'm not that plugged into recent game developments.

I'm just a huge weeaboo. I love Japan and anime and things of that nature. It's why I like BESM so much, I just sadly have not had a chance to play it at all for a rather long time. I feel a good game needs to be at very least 30/70 RP and action/combat. Maybe 50-50-60/40 as a good benchmark. 70/30 at most maybe. I also really like characterization, fun NPCs, and being able to do whatever till it's time for plots. I enjoyed EoE Star Wars pretty well when I played it. Iron Kingdoms is also pretty good. I've had the most XP with Iron Kingdoms, 3.5 DND/D20, and BESM systems however.

Since people are asking for it, here's the complete list of games that I own/would run: 13th Age, All for One, Barbarians of Lemuria, Blue Planet, Brave New World, Castles and Crusades, Champions, Covert Ops, Crimson Exodus, Demon the Descent, Desolation, Dungeon World, Fate Core (I have a number of settings for this so I'm not going to list them), Heroes, Hollow Earth, Leagues of Adventure, Legacy, Mage the Ascension, Mazes and minorous, Mutants and Masterminds (this I'm less fond of generally.  It'd have to be a VERY tight power build), Savage Worlds (not IZ 2.0 or Deadlands as I have a game that will probably run those soon enough), Shadowrun 4e, Star Wars FFG, Sword Noir, Traveller, Tavern Tales, Warhammer 40K (FFG), Werewolf the Apocalypse

Thanks for the list Brian! That helps me give a better list of things that appeal to me. In Order: 1. Of all these, I think Fate Core and Traveller are at the top of my preference. Unless this is the crazy rules-heavy version of traveller (T5?). I don't own Traveller but I've loved the idea of it and always wanted to play it. Never got lucky with a group, though :[ 2. I'm not a Star Wars fanatic, but Star Wars FFG seems really cool to me. I like the original trilogy (New hope, etc) and know little of the canon beyond that.  3. Next is Mage the Ascension, which sounds cool but I think trends towards the same problem you had in M&M so we'd want a really RP-focused group.  4. Then Savage Worlds, which just sounds great for something pulpy. Kick in the door, big setpieces, that sort of thing.  5. I'm willing to play Dungeon World, though I worry about problems akin to M&M I've heard. 6. 13th Age sounds like someone trying to run a story-focused game in 3.5 D&D, so is the least appealing. Willing to try it though. The rest I don't know enough about or have little interest. 

I would totally be down for some Star Wars FFG,that game is awesome. the dice system is great  (though tricky for roll20 no?) apocalypse world is also great, wouldn't mind playing that, both are pretty easy to pick up as well

Daniel S. said: Thanks for the list Brian! That helps me give a better list of things that appeal to me. In Order: 1. Of all these, I think Fate Core and Traveller are at the top of my preference. Unless this is the crazy rules-heavy version of traveller (T5?). I don't own Traveller but I've loved the idea of it and always wanted to play it. Never got lucky with a group, though :[ 2. I'm not a Star Wars fanatic, but Star Wars FFG seems really cool to me. I like the original trilogy (New hope, etc) and know little of the canon beyond that.  3. Next is Mage the Ascension, which sounds cool but I think trends towards the same problem you had in M&M so we'd want a really RP-focused group.  4. Then Savage Worlds, which just sounds great for something pulpy. Kick in the door, big setpieces, that sort of thing.  5. I'm willing to play Dungeon World, though I worry about problems akin to M&M I've heard. 6. 13th Age sounds like someone trying to run a story-focused game in 3.5 D&D, so is the least appealing. Willing to try it though. The rest I don't know enough about or have little interest.  Traveller would be Traveller classic.  The rest, well, the rest I'm interested in trying. As an aside, I don't think DW is at all similar to my problems M&M. In DW, characters die pretty easily whereas in M&M, it's pretty easy to make your character impossible to hurt.

j/m said: I would totally be down for some Star Wars FFG,that game is awesome. the dice system is great  (though tricky for roll20 no?) apocalypse world is also great, wouldn't mind playing that, both are pretty easy to pick up as well I think the API takes care of the FFG dice issue but I'm not positive.  I'm not opposed to running a SW Star Wars game to be honest.

Atomic Robo is awesome; the Majestic 12 expansion lets you play a group you don't often get to play, which is Super-Authorized Government Enforcers.

Brian said: Since people are asking for it, here's the complete list of games that I own/would run: 13th Age, All for One, Barbarians of Lemuria, Blue Planet, Brave New World, Castles and Crusades, Champions, Covert Ops, Crimson Exodus, Demon the Descent, Desolation, Dungeon World, Fate Core (I have a number of settings for this so I'm not going to list them), Heroes, Hollow Earth, Leagues of Adventure, Legacy, Mage the Ascension, Mazes and minorous, Mutants and Masterminds (this I'm less fond of generally.  It'd have to be a VERY tight power build), Savage Worlds (not IZ 2.0 or Deadlands as I have a game that will probably run those soon enough), Shadowrun 4e, Star Wars FFG, Sword Noir, Traveller, Tavern Tales, Warhammer 40K (FFG), Werewolf the Apocalypse Wow ... that's a lot of games.  A lot of these I know very little about.  Some even less.  Which is to say the following set of things is somewhat based on ignorance.  There might be some awesome things on this list that I just don't know about.  Taking a few minutes out to google I think the following are of interest to me, personally.  All for One sounds neat based on the very short description, but I know nothing about it.   Champions I haven't played in years, and is pretty rules-heavy, but it might be interesting to see how the "other" bit superhero game handles things.  Although Brian's mmv.   Fate could be totally interesting, but it really depends entirely on the setting . I'm certainly not averse to the Atomic Robo one, though.  That's probably my favorite of the few I've seen (didn't love their implementation of the Dresden Files).   Sword Noir and a few other ones, like 13th Age are all very D&D-esque, so I'd pass on those given the present goals.   Mage the Ascension or Werewolf the Apocalypse could both be a lot of fun.  You've got to deal with a wonky ruleset, that it's best to take a light touch with and mess with a few things to make the games well ... actually fun.  They are both really neat games, though.   Warhammer 40k:  Deathwatch or Black Crusade.  Not a fan of the other aspects of the 40k universe that the games focus on.   Brian said: I think the API takes care of the FFG dice issue but I'm not positive.  I'm not opposed to running a SW Star Wars game to be honest. That'd be my preferred approach to Star Wars.  

Nicholas A. said: Brian said: Since people are asking for it, here's the complete list of games that I own/would run: 13th Age, All for One, Barbarians of Lemuria, Blue Planet, Brave New World, Castles and Crusades, Champions, Covert Ops, Crimson Exodus, Demon the Descent, Desolation, Dungeon World, Fate Core (I have a number of settings for this so I'm not going to list them), Heroes, Hollow Earth, Leagues of Adventure, Legacy, Mage the Ascension, Mazes and minorous, Mutants and Masterminds (this I'm less fond of generally.  It'd have to be a VERY tight power build), Savage Worlds (not IZ 2.0 or Deadlands as I have a game that will probably run those soon enough), Shadowrun 4e, Star Wars FFG, Sword Noir, Traveller, Tavern Tales, Warhammer 40K (FFG), Werewolf the Apocalypse Wow ... that's a lot of games.  A lot of these I know very little about.  Some even less.  Which is to say the following set of things is somewhat based on ignorance.  There might be some awesome things on this list that I just don't know about.  Taking a few minutes out to google I think the following are of interest to me, personally.  All for One sounds neat based on the very short description, but I know nothing about it.   Champions I haven't played in years, and is pretty rules-heavy, but it might be interesting to see how the "other" bit superhero game handles things.  Although Brian's mmv.   Fate could be totally interesting, but it really depends entirely on the setting . I'm certainly not averse to the Atomic Robo one, though.  That's probably my favorite of the few I've seen (didn't love their implementation of the Dresden Files).   Sword Noir and a few other ones, like 13th Age are all very D&D-esque, so I'd pass on those given the present goals.   Mage the Ascension or Werewolf the Apocalypse could both be a lot of fun.  You've got to deal with a wonky ruleset, that it's best to take a light touch with and mess with a few things to make the games well ... actually fun.  They are both really neat games, though.   Warhammer 40k:  Deathwatch or Black Crusade.  Not a fan of the other aspects of the 40k universe that the games focus on.   Brian said: I think the API takes care of the FFG dice issue but I'm not positive.  I'm not opposed to running a SW Star Wars game to be honest. That'd be my preferred approach to Star Wars.   I guess I need to be clear: I'm not familiar with all of these.  I just own them.  So running some of them will require 2 weeks of prep before getting into them.  And even then, the players would need to be willing/able to (gently) point out when I've made a mistake. Honestly, my biggest issue running Star Wars is that I've not been deeply invested in that canon for over a decade so I could easily contradict the movies, the former canon (the books), and whatever new canon has sprouted up.  And I know as a former BIG FAN how annoying that could be for people. I also want to say, my opposition isn't to Fantasy; it's just that I've played a lot of D&D and have this backlog of other systems I'd like to try.  It's not that I'm tired of fantasy; I just want to try something different.

All right. It looks like the leading candidates are fate core/atomic robo, call of Cthulhu, 13th age, and a savage world scifi game. First game to three interested people, I will run

Welp looks like interest waned a bit. I'll leave this open for anther 24 hours just to be sure though

It's not that interest waned, it's that we want to know what game and what time!

Time is in the first post (1-530pm ish EST on Sundays). As for which game, I guess I wasn't clear in my second to last one: First game of Call of Cthulhu, Fate/Atomic Robo, 13th Age or Scifi Savage Worlds to get three confirmations will be the one I run