If you’re looking for more narrative driven rp, try out the new Star Wars systems from fantasy flight. It’s entirely narrative based and very theatrical. There’s also another old Star Wars ttrpg from the fifties by west end publishing. It has an interesting dice system.
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Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I will also recommend the WoD setting. And my other personal favorite is Shadowrun. In my opinion, both games are actually better than D&D, just not as popular.
There’s also another old Star Wars ttrpg from the fifties by west end publishing. It has an interesting dice system.
Star Wars wasn’t released until the late seventies when A New Hope came out in ‘77. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, didn’t come out until 1980.
I will also recommend the WoD setting. And my other personal favorite is Shadowrun. In my opinion, both games are actually better than D&D, just not as popular.
There’s also another old Star Wars ttrpg from the fifties by west end publishing. It has an interesting dice system.
Star Wars wasn’t released until the late seventies when A New Hope came out in ‘77. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, didn’t come out until 1980.
Ha, my bad. I meant the eighties. I think this one was released before return of the Jedi.
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Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I will also recommend the WoD setting. And my other personal favorite is Shadowrun. In my opinion, both games are actually better than D&D, just not as popular.
There’s also another old Star Wars ttrpg from the fifties by west end publishing. It has an interesting dice system.
Star Wars wasn’t released until the late seventies when A New Hope came out in ‘77. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, didn’t come out until 1980.
Ha, my bad. I meant the eighties. I think this one was released before return of the Jedi.
'87 four years after Return of the Jedi. It's was pretty instrumental in laying out a lot of the lore for the Expanded Universe, Timothy Zahn actually consulted it when he worked on Heir to the Empire and that trilogy.
I'll save a deeper dive into that, FFG's and WotC's Star Wars games for a later post when I have time to list all the "what you should also be playing" games.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If you like superhero games Mutants and Masterminds is pretty good. So is Aberrant for Trinity Continuum. And for cyberpunk gamers Anima (also for Trinity Continuum) is a brilliant game that also combines elements of lit RPGs. It just came out on Kickstarter.
So Star Wars TTRPGs. There are actually three official rules sets out there and at least one unofficial one (not counting fan maintained iterations of the three official rule sets).
Late 80s through 99, I think. West End Games Star Wars powered by their d6 system (I think the same system governed their Ghostbusters game, which wasn't the same blockbuster but was a well acclaimed game at its time) utilizing a d6 dice pool against DCs or opposed pools. Two main editions, I preferred the second and plugging in some of the add-ons and plug ins from that editions "revised expanded updated editon" as well as fan hacks. I played this A LOT. It's fun, and fast and mechanically fairly simple. I like how outside of the Force being a giant "luck point" to spend, for Force Sensitive characters the Force was split up into basically three forms of magic Control (of one self) Sense (sort of obvious) Alter (using the Force to make alterations in natural law). I remember the Star ship crewing system was the sort where everyone in the party could be given a job to make things easier on the pilot. It also became a sort of "bible" for original trilogy so much that Zahn was given the game extent product line for research during his first Thrawn trilogy. Are Z-95 Headhunters in that trilogy? If so that's a a West End Games contribution. They even did a sourcebook on the Han Solo/Lando novels set in the Corporate Sector. It's a very easy to learn system, pretty fun, and has a very passionate community supporting it in both the old EU as well as new canon continuities. I think it was pre Knights of the Old Republic, but did I beleive some Tales of the Jedi sourcebooks. The Galaxy Guide on Tramp Freighters is an awesome primer on "trade" for folks with no background in business trade or economics and I think the knowledge it drops has informed a variety of games I've played outside the rule set when smuggling or more legit merchant work is invovled. A lot of the Dark Horse EU (Dark Empire, etc.) saw love in this run.
WotC also had two editions of Star Wars. I believe the first was more tied to D&D 3e and the the second and more popular Saga Edition was tied to 3.5. Haven't played this but the Saga Edition still has much love over a decade after it ceased publication. Particularly among Knights of the Old Republic fans, (I'm told the Force system there is very flexible and can be used pretty easily to adapt any Force power seen or new power yet to be seen). Because of when it was made, it provided a lot of support not just to the original trilogy but the prequels and a lot of Expanded Universe. They published a book to cover the Legacy Era (a few hundred years after RoTJ) as was as the Starkiller Forced Unleashed video games. Also update or adapted a lot of the lore established by West End Games. If you like watching live play or the comedy group Mann Shorts, they were do a live play that was either Saga Edition or a honebrew adaptation of SW to 3.5 ... then they stopped, not sure why, it was a good run and totally both broke both canons.
Currently not in print, but belonging to the cvurrent license holder is FFG Star Wars. Ownership is a little weird. FFG was first granted the license and was doing it after their success with the various Star Wars miniature games they produced. FFG was then bought by Asmodee, which let it run on its own for a while, then Asmodee divided up FFGs properties putting the miniature games with one company and putting the TTRPG with Edge Entertainment. Edge recently confirmed that their retention of the Star Wars TTRPG license has Lucasfilms/Disney's blessing and will be putting out new stuff and (possibly) reprints as well. It's unclear whether they're going to keep the system FFG created or do a 2nd edition of that system or their own entirely new system (though it looks like the FFG designers are on board). The FFG system splits Star Wars into three overlapping games Force and Destiny (Force Users, there aren't really rules for Dark Siders, which is similar to West End's rules, but in WotC's you could play Sith and they did some cool stuff with Sith via Dark Horse lore), Age of Rebellion (playing as members of the REbel Alliance military, again playing as imperials isn't supported but not that hard to reskin, all the tech is laid out) and Edge of the Empire (for playing fringers, smugglers, bounty hunters, etc.). The games use the same mechanics and it's a little annoying because the books are impressive in page count but a lot of it is printed material so if you buy all three rule books you're going to have a lot of reprinted material. Still the game is cool, the mechanics I'd say are closer to what d6 was trying to do but goes further by not doing arithmetic but counting symbols tied to plot elements like victories, setbacks, catastrophes and triumphs. I really like the Force books, in that they give multiple different ways of playing Jedi, plus multiple lightsaber fighting styles (at least six). There's some neat equipment customization options. It focuses largely on the age of the Rebellion original trilogy era (though incorporates stuff from both Rebels and Rogue One nicely, not sure whether Solo got any love). There's one beginner game set during the Force Awakens period, but the the last trilogy otherwise isn't well supported. The Clone Wars got a pair of books (that really could have been one, but the split isn't totally pointless ... Jedi Starfighters change over the Wars as do the Clones themselves) that gives you character options for playing Clone Troopers and Jedi at the End of the Republic.
I would love to see this game get further support from Edge, either as a reprint line with additional work to bring in Mando and Book of Boba Fett or a consolidated possibly cleaned up 2nd edition that puts the core rules in one book and then branching out from there.
Lastly, Star Wars 5e is out there. It's not a licensed game, but it's a very popular game that took the base mechanics of 5e and adapted it to Star Wars.
Anyway, everyone should play a Star Wars game at some point, I know folks who love these games who actually could care less about Star Wars otherwise.
I'll drop another post about other games to play, but obviously I had a lot to say about the Star Wars games.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So this is a little niche game that I absolutely adore. It's called "Blue Rose" and its from Green Ronin. It's a bit more... flowery than D&D, I would say, since it's based in romantic fantasy rather than standard high fantasy. It's original edition was a True20 system, but the 2e (the one that I have and adore) is AGE. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's any harder to pick up than D&D. Though, for anyone interested in the world and the lore, but wanting to keep to the 5e system, Green Ronin did release a 5e compatible rule set.
Another game that I have, but haven't yet played, is Mouse Guard. I also believe this is in its 2e, but I haven't looked too closely at it. When I have a bit more free time, however... Basically, it's a game where you play as a mouse ranger. It's based off the Mouse Guard comics and plays using a simplified Burning Wheel system.
I am happy to talk about either game, but between the two, I have more experience with Blue Rose.
So this is a little niche game that I absolutely adore. It's called "Blue Rose" and its from Green Ronin. It's a bit more... flowery than D&D, I would say, since it's based in romantic fantasy rather than standard high fantasy. It's original edition was a True20 system, but the 2e (the one that I have and adore) is AGE. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's any harder to pick up than D&D. Though, for anyone interested in the world and the lore, but wanting to keep to the 5e system, Green Ronin did release a 5e compatible rule set.
Another game that I have, but haven't yet played, is Mouse Guard. I also believe this is in its 2e, but I haven't looked too closely at it. When I have a bit more free time, however... Basically, it's a game where you play as a mouse ranger. It's based off the Mouse Guard comics and plays using a simplified Burning Wheel system.
I am happy to talk about either game, but between the two, I have more experience with Blue Rose.
So this is a little niche game that I absolutely adore. It's called "Blue Rose" and its from Green Ronin. It's a bit more... flowery than D&D, I would say, since it's based in romantic fantasy rather than standard high fantasy. It's original edition was a True20 system, but the 2e (the one that I have and adore) is AGE. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's any harder to pick up than D&D. Though, for anyone interested in the world and the lore, but wanting to keep to the 5e system, Green Ronin did release a 5e compatible rule set.
Another game that I have, but haven't yet played, is Mouse Guard. I also believe this is in its 2e, but I haven't looked too closely at it. When I have a bit more free time, however... Basically, it's a game where you play as a mouse ranger. It's based off the Mouse Guard comics and plays using a simplified Burning Wheel system.
I am happy to talk about either game, but between the two, I have more experience with Blue Rose.
Omg I love Blue Rose!!!
:o !!! Looks like I know who to reach out to when I get the chance to run a game! :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The almost-socialite of Wildewitch RP. | any/all | lover of stories and dice “There is only one plot – things are not what they seem.” — Jim Thompson
So this is a little niche game that I absolutely adore. It's called "Blue Rose" and its from Green Ronin. It's a bit more... flowery than D&D, I would say, since it's based in romantic fantasy rather than standard high fantasy. It's original edition was a True20 system, but the 2e (the one that I have and adore) is AGE. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's any harder to pick up than D&D. Though, for anyone interested in the world and the lore, but wanting to keep to the 5e system, Green Ronin did release a 5e compatible rule set.
Another game that I have, but haven't yet played, is Mouse Guard. I also believe this is in its 2e, but I haven't looked too closely at it. When I have a bit more free time, however... Basically, it's a game where you play as a mouse ranger. It's based off the Mouse Guard comics and plays using a simplified Burning Wheel system.
I am happy to talk about either game, but between the two, I have more experience with Blue Rose.
Omg I love Blue Rose!!!
:o !!! Looks like I know who to reach out to when I get the chance to run a game! :)
😊😊😊
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As the title says, what other TTRPGs would you recommend and how does the game fare compared to Dungeons & Dragons.
1 shot dungeon master
If you’re looking for more narrative driven rp, try out the new Star Wars systems from fantasy flight. It’s entirely narrative based and very theatrical. There’s also another old Star Wars ttrpg from the fifties by west end publishing. It has an interesting dice system.
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
World of Darkness by White Wolf and Trinity Continuum by Onyx Path. Both are amazing and if you really try hard you can fuse the settings together.
@itsnotachest Nineties 😊. Not Fifties.
I will also recommend the WoD setting. And my other personal favorite is Shadowrun. In my opinion, both games are actually better than D&D, just not as popular.
Star Wars wasn’t released until the late seventies when A New Hope came out in ‘77. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, didn’t come out until 1980.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Other TTRPGs?
Alien Roleplaying Game
Star Trek Adventures
Pathfinder
Starfinder
And I can't rank them as I'm still checking them out myself. Haha
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
Ha, my bad. I meant the eighties. I think this one was released before return of the Jedi.
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
Ok my mistake
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
You’re right. The old Star Wars RPG ran from the mid eighties thru the mid nineties.
Was that the one where a vibrosword could block a lightsaber?
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I don’t remember
Hi, I am not a chest. I deny with 100% certainty that I am a chest. I can neither confirm nor deny what I am beyond that.
I used to portray Krathian, Q'ilbrith, Jim, Tara, Turin, Nathan, Tench, Finn, Alvin, and other characters in various taverns.
I also do homebrew, check out my Spells and Magic Items
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may die"
Not sure. Never actually played it.
'87 four years after Return of the Jedi. It's was pretty instrumental in laying out a lot of the lore for the Expanded Universe, Timothy Zahn actually consulted it when he worked on Heir to the Empire and that trilogy.
I'll save a deeper dive into that, FFG's and WotC's Star Wars games for a later post when I have time to list all the "what you should also be playing" games.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Champions/Fantasy HERO
Shadowrun
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
If you like superhero games Mutants and Masterminds is pretty good. So is Aberrant for Trinity Continuum. And for cyberpunk gamers Anima (also for Trinity Continuum) is a brilliant game that also combines elements of lit RPGs. It just came out on Kickstarter.
So Star Wars TTRPGs. There are actually three official rules sets out there and at least one unofficial one (not counting fan maintained iterations of the three official rule sets).
Late 80s through 99, I think. West End Games Star Wars powered by their d6 system (I think the same system governed their Ghostbusters game, which wasn't the same blockbuster but was a well acclaimed game at its time) utilizing a d6 dice pool against DCs or opposed pools. Two main editions, I preferred the second and plugging in some of the add-ons and plug ins from that editions "revised expanded updated editon" as well as fan hacks. I played this A LOT. It's fun, and fast and mechanically fairly simple. I like how outside of the Force being a giant "luck point" to spend, for Force Sensitive characters the Force was split up into basically three forms of magic Control (of one self) Sense (sort of obvious) Alter (using the Force to make alterations in natural law). I remember the Star ship crewing system was the sort where everyone in the party could be given a job to make things easier on the pilot. It also became a sort of "bible" for original trilogy so much that Zahn was given the game extent product line for research during his first Thrawn trilogy. Are Z-95 Headhunters in that trilogy? If so that's a a West End Games contribution. They even did a sourcebook on the Han Solo/Lando novels set in the Corporate Sector. It's a very easy to learn system, pretty fun, and has a very passionate community supporting it in both the old EU as well as new canon continuities. I think it was pre Knights of the Old Republic, but did I beleive some Tales of the Jedi sourcebooks. The Galaxy Guide on Tramp Freighters is an awesome primer on "trade" for folks with no background in business trade or economics and I think the knowledge it drops has informed a variety of games I've played outside the rule set when smuggling or more legit merchant work is invovled. A lot of the Dark Horse EU (Dark Empire, etc.) saw love in this run.
WotC also had two editions of Star Wars. I believe the first was more tied to D&D 3e and the the second and more popular Saga Edition was tied to 3.5. Haven't played this but the Saga Edition still has much love over a decade after it ceased publication. Particularly among Knights of the Old Republic fans, (I'm told the Force system there is very flexible and can be used pretty easily to adapt any Force power seen or new power yet to be seen). Because of when it was made, it provided a lot of support not just to the original trilogy but the prequels and a lot of Expanded Universe. They published a book to cover the Legacy Era (a few hundred years after RoTJ) as was as the Starkiller Forced Unleashed video games. Also update or adapted a lot of the lore established by West End Games. If you like watching live play or the comedy group Mann Shorts, they were do a live play that was either Saga Edition or a honebrew adaptation of SW to 3.5 ... then they stopped, not sure why, it was a good run and totally both broke both canons.
Currently not in print, but belonging to the cvurrent license holder is FFG Star Wars. Ownership is a little weird. FFG was first granted the license and was doing it after their success with the various Star Wars miniature games they produced. FFG was then bought by Asmodee, which let it run on its own for a while, then Asmodee divided up FFGs properties putting the miniature games with one company and putting the TTRPG with Edge Entertainment. Edge recently confirmed that their retention of the Star Wars TTRPG license has Lucasfilms/Disney's blessing and will be putting out new stuff and (possibly) reprints as well. It's unclear whether they're going to keep the system FFG created or do a 2nd edition of that system or their own entirely new system (though it looks like the FFG designers are on board). The FFG system splits Star Wars into three overlapping games Force and Destiny (Force Users, there aren't really rules for Dark Siders, which is similar to West End's rules, but in WotC's you could play Sith and they did some cool stuff with Sith via Dark Horse lore), Age of Rebellion (playing as members of the REbel Alliance military, again playing as imperials isn't supported but not that hard to reskin, all the tech is laid out) and Edge of the Empire (for playing fringers, smugglers, bounty hunters, etc.). The games use the same mechanics and it's a little annoying because the books are impressive in page count but a lot of it is printed material so if you buy all three rule books you're going to have a lot of reprinted material. Still the game is cool, the mechanics I'd say are closer to what d6 was trying to do but goes further by not doing arithmetic but counting symbols tied to plot elements like victories, setbacks, catastrophes and triumphs. I really like the Force books, in that they give multiple different ways of playing Jedi, plus multiple lightsaber fighting styles (at least six). There's some neat equipment customization options. It focuses largely on the age of the Rebellion original trilogy era (though incorporates stuff from both Rebels and Rogue One nicely, not sure whether Solo got any love). There's one beginner game set during the Force Awakens period, but the the last trilogy otherwise isn't well supported. The Clone Wars got a pair of books (that really could have been one, but the split isn't totally pointless ... Jedi Starfighters change over the Wars as do the Clones themselves) that gives you character options for playing Clone Troopers and Jedi at the End of the Republic.
I would love to see this game get further support from Edge, either as a reprint line with additional work to bring in Mando and Book of Boba Fett or a consolidated possibly cleaned up 2nd edition that puts the core rules in one book and then branching out from there.
Lastly, Star Wars 5e is out there. It's not a licensed game, but it's a very popular game that took the base mechanics of 5e and adapted it to Star Wars.
Anyway, everyone should play a Star Wars game at some point, I know folks who love these games who actually could care less about Star Wars otherwise.
I'll drop another post about other games to play, but obviously I had a lot to say about the Star Wars games.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So this is a little niche game that I absolutely adore. It's called "Blue Rose" and its from Green Ronin. It's a bit more... flowery than D&D, I would say, since it's based in romantic fantasy rather than standard high fantasy. It's original edition was a True20 system, but the 2e (the one that I have and adore) is AGE. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's any harder to pick up than D&D. Though, for anyone interested in the world and the lore, but wanting to keep to the 5e system, Green Ronin did release a 5e compatible rule set.
Another game that I have, but haven't yet played, is Mouse Guard. I also believe this is in its 2e, but I haven't looked too closely at it. When I have a bit more free time, however... Basically, it's a game where you play as a mouse ranger. It's based off the Mouse Guard comics and plays using a simplified Burning Wheel system.
I am happy to talk about either game, but between the two, I have more experience with Blue Rose.
For teh Emprah
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Omg I love Blue Rose!!!
:o !!! Looks like I know who to reach out to when I get the chance to run a game! :)
😊😊😊