ANyone played these

cyberwolf77

I found this list rather interesting but must object to the World of Darkness' place on it.*
http://listverse.com/2012/02/15/top-10-current-tabletop-role-playing-games/

I'm curious what others think of the rankings.











*I used to run a game for it.

Sarky

WoD is pretty solid in most respects. Simple rules, some interesting settings. I take issue with Vampire in particular though, I think it's incredibly boring. Mage has some sublime magic mechanics but a bloody awful story. The LARPing aspect gets far too petty and bogged down in personal crap or mechanics-breaking munchkins to be fun for long. I find it good for doing your own thing. I've run some pretty successful Mass Effect RPGs using WoD with some small variations.


Call of Cthulhu is essential playing for anyone interested in RPGs. It's a beautiful system (the only real changes Chaosium had to ever make was changing some of the skills to better reflect different time periods), with excellent rules for horror and insanity. Combat is quick and dangerous, and really emphasises that there are some things you're better off fleeing.


GURPS is excellent, if you have the time to get to grips with it. The fact that it can be used to create literally any setting at all is as much curse as blessing if you're not interested in (or just not good at) creating your own world. Character creation can take ages, as it's a bit complicated, but once you're up and running very little needs looking up. combat is generally very fast and dangerous. That makes it a great system for dangerous or realistic games. There are some excellent settings available like Transhuman Space. I've played some amazing games in GURPS, from Warhammer 40K to custom fantasy worlds to samurai bikers in a post apocalyptic Japan.

Pathfinder is D&D 3.5 with a few updates, which is really what players wanted, instead of the monstrous abomination that was 4th ed. It's quick, straightforward, over the top fun best suited for dungeon crawls and heroic fights. Not so hot on the social side of RPGs, but you can make do pretty well.


D&D 4th ed. is terrible, I think, exactly the wrong direction for an RPG to go. If I wanted to play Wow I'd buy an account and let the computer handle all the crap about cooldown times and hit points. It only deserves mention as the grand-daddy of RPGs, and has been overshadowed by far superior games systems and settings. Get Pathfinder instead.


There are a couple of games that really should be there. Exalted is a stunningly good game, if held back by complicated rules. Not terribly easy to run a game for newbies, but the richness of setting, the possibilities allowed and the flavour of the mechanics make for some truly epic games.

L5R is just a beautiful game in every respect and should easily be in the top three of anyone's list. It has the simplicity of WoD without the whiny angsty crap, it has the rich epic setting of Exalted without the clunky rules, it's got stunning artwork and all sorts of possibilities. It's a bit of a leap going form the sort of game where heroes can wander the land doing what they like to a setting where you are a samurai bound by duty to your lord and to centuries of social and traditional rules, but once you get used to it you can easily get what you want done by playing the system. There's sometimes a bit of a problem with those blasted weeaboo japanophile players getting in the way, but right now L5R is one of my favorite games in every respect.