20+ TTRPGs that Aren't Dungeons & Dragons || Dael Kingsmill
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Welcome to MonarchsFactory! On this channel you can find videos covering D&D, mythology, games, ridiculous fun with friends; all kinds of stuff. Today's video is
Kids on Bikes - www.huntersentertainment.com/...
Candela Obscura - darringtonpress.com/candela/
Pathfinder (1e) - paizo.com/products/btpy88yj?P...
Iron Kingdoms - preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/p...
City of Mist - cityofmist.co/pages/shop
Dragon AGE - greenroninstore.com/collectio...
Five Torches Deep - www.fivetorchesdeep.com/
Alice is Missing - www.huntersentertainment.com/...
Blowback - elizabethsampat.itch.io/blowback
Bubblegumshoe - evilhat.com/product/bubblegum...
Call of Cthulhu - www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthu...
Fate Accelerated - evilhat.com/product/fate-acce...
Fiasco - bullypulpitgames.com/products...
Fight With Spirit - storybrewersroleplaying.com/s...
Mall Kids - mr-matthew.itch.io/mall-kids
Monster of the Week - evilhat.com/monster-of-the-week/
Monsterhearts 2 - buriedwithoutceremony.com/mon...
Vampire the Masquerade - renegadegamestudios.com/vampi...
Mothership - www.mothershiprpg.com/
Icons (apparently you can get it again??) - preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/p...
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (there are second hand copies floating around) - bit.ly/buyMHR
Power Rangers RPG - renegadegamestudios.com/power...
Flicker and the Fade - nyessa.itch.io/the-flicker-an...
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Kids on Bikes
02:08 - Candela Obscura
02:46 - Pathfinder (1e)
04:39 - Iron Kingdoms RPG
05:47 - City of Mist
07:16 - Dragon AGE
09:18 - Five Torches Deep
10:47 - Alice in Missing
12:37 - Blowback
13:34 - Bubblegumshoe
14:22 - Call of Cthulhu
16:05 - Fate Accelerated
17:27 - Fiasco
19:10 - Fight With Spirit
20:13 - Mall Kids
20:50 - Monster of the Week
22:06 - Monsterhearts 2
22:44 - Vampire the Masquerade (5e)
23:20 - Mothership
24:42 - Icons Superpowered Roleplaying
25:22 - Marvel heroic Roleplaying
27:42 - Power Rangers Roleplaying Game
30:07 - The Flicker and The Fade
31:47 - Outro
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Edited by Jack MacColl: www.jackmaccoll.com/ - Hry
Ah yes... that one game produced by Mages of the Beach. Thaumaturges of the Seaboard. Arcanists of the Shore.
Sorcerers of the litoral
Wizards of the Coast.....damn 😅
Sea flanked spellcasters ah yes we know them well.
Brujas of the Waterfront
Spellslingers of the Seafront. Warlocks of the Cape.
"Easy to read as a swarm of bees" is 100% entering my vocabulary
“Sorcerers By The Sea” sounds like a very a fun, magical, slice-of-life game
Ironically my favorite system right now is Wolves Upon the Coast. The name was supposed to be a little joke about WotC by making the game WUtC.
Magic users casting 9th level spells while on vacation in the Caribbean drinking mojitos. Yeah, I’m down for that.
Yeah it does!
Looking over to your companion, you see that the blue flame of your drinks extinguishes as they drain the last of their glass through the swirling straw. The resulting burp sends flames in a two foot cone.
I was typing that exact variant until I saw your comment. Good brain you got there.
It was super cool to see you mention Five Tourches Deep! I did the cover art and illustrations for 2 of the expansion books (Homesteads, and the Vault) so I got real excited when I heard you say the title!
I highly recommend Brindlewood Bay. There is nothing that gets my group out of the box by cracking a bottle of wine, watching an episode of Golden Girls. Then starting a game that is a mix of Cthulu meets Murder She Wrote. Such a blast playing a bunch of old New England ladies.
That sounds FANTASTIC
And if Brindlewood Bay doesn't hit the right vibes for you Public Access (found footage, analog horror, twenty-somethings dealing with things beyond their comprehension) is another game with the same system. There is also The Between, same system, plus playbooks, set in a Penny Dreadful kind of Victorian England.
Thank you for this recommendation kind stranger
Your joke followed by all the jokes in the comments reminded me that if I ever make a TTRPG I plan to make it focus on giving "martials" all the cool stuff to do, and calling the company Warriors of the Mountain
I love the idea of reading a swarm of bees, like, you could have that as a druid or similar skill. Apimancy, telling fortune by observing bees, but the swarm is actually communicating, its hive mind reaching out to tell you what it needs you to know.
Very Granny Weatherwax.
There are hundreds if not thousands of great TTRPGs out there. Limiting oneself to only one system is like only ever eating at McDonalds. Thanks for helping to spread awareness of some alternatives.
To be fair, when McDonald's is good, it's pretty good. There's just, unfortunately, a lot of chasing the dragon. But eating only McDonald's does sound so much worse.
@@theincrediblepurp sounds like someone saying they don't have time to cook and there's enough options on the McMenu to not get sick of them. Just my take though. Keep doing whatever works best for you.
there are literally a million thing I COULD do for fun. I choose to play D and D. (and do a lot of other things for fun that aren't rpg's) i have time to cook. but not time to cook a thousand meals for dinner. and really the mcdonalds analogy is not correct. just playing d and d is NOT like just eating mcdonalds. it's very different. and i just have no desire to play other rpg's. also, the work i put into my campaign takes up way too much time as it is. i have no time to learn a new game. and there is no need to . i have a ball playing the game i play. it's really fun!@@frankb3347
Your artwork for kids on bikes locations is wonderful.
Thank you! 😊
Yeah, I want to know more about these cards! @MonarchsFactory
Motion seconded. I love that look for a regional game supplement.
Monster of the Week has grown into my absolute favorite game. I’ve never been so emotionally invested in my characters before, and I adore the narrative focus and emphasis on collaborative storytelling. I wish it was more popular.
"Dark academia... rituals that come back to bite you... ordinary people who suddenly have to deal with something that is beyond them..." -- YES. This is the good stuff. I caught that vibe from playing the board game Mansions of Madness, and have always stuck these elements in my games in one place or another.
YES
I feel the need to mention Lancer as a really fun RPG I've been playing recently. It's a far future sci-fi focusing on mech combat, the setting is *really* cool, and the combat is incredibly fun and cool. And all of the player-facing material for both the core rules and the official campaign books is entirely free. There's also a really handy online tool called comp/con that's great for keeping track of combat and building characters, though it's not necessary to play the game (comp/con is also entirely free).
Lancer is amazing.
Lancer is so much fun
Ran a campaign of it. Super fun! They have a fantasy game in the works, too. ICON
For City of Mist - Son of Oak has a Kickstarter coming up on Tuesday I believe for Legends of Mist. Using an updated engine from City of Mist in a Fantasy setting!
I would love to see your take on the Cypher System/Numenera. Very narrative oriented, simple rules, crazy setting.
I second FATE Accelerated. I have run a prank heist set in a summer camp for undead kids, a murder mystery as a prequel to Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, and once a post-Empire outer rim game about scarce food and reestablishing supply lines. My one player that game was a vending machine, so it turned into a fight to survive as everyone tried to break the droid open.
it's more open to creative thinking than any other game I've played.
This is an intriguing sample… :) Definitely speaks to the variety of possibilities that could work with the system. Good pitch! 😊
My favourite game to play is Call of Cluthlu, but my favourite to GM, is The One Ring/Tales from the Loop
Pathfinder 2's race and class changes are great and have been sort of added into 5e variants, but pf2 implementation of it is great. Also the kolbolds are cute. I recommend reading it's system even if not running. also looking at the art of the kobolds. they're little guys.
Don't forget the goblins! Pathfinder's goblins are very different from the DnD ones and are basically a mascot of the game at this point. Crazy little pyromaniacs descending from the first barghests, their "hero gods". Their 2e ancestry feats are pure comedy gold and definitely worth a read!
Props to the editor for choosing each music for each game lol
I know! Great touch from Jack
One of the cool things about the Power Rangers RPG is that it's designed to be fully compatible with the GI Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony games. It feels a lot like playing with your childhood toybox in that regard, and also allows for some truly wild character concepts. You could be a horse sharpshooter that changes into the head for a Megazord, for instance.
That’s awesome! 😂
Fascinating idea! The idea of a GI Joe machine gunner, a spell casting pegasus, and a Power Ranger all existing in the same scene is a real design challenge.
With Pathfinder 2e, I’d wait until after Archives of Nethys updates to the Remaster mechanics before you go looking into it. If only so you don’t end up with two different terms for the same thing bouncing around in your head (there was a lot of renaming in the Remaster to separate it from the OGL stuff).
Looking forward to MCDM's new "unnamed" ttrpg.
Yeah. No one knows what it will be called. 👀
So great to know the World of Darkness interests you! Aside from Vampire, I hope you get the chance to try out Werewolf and Hunter, because they all have very different vibes and themes that might also resonate with you.
For those interested in Call of Cthulu, I suggest checking out Seth Skorkowsky here on CZcams. He's done in depth videos about the rules, character creation, as well as critiques on a lot of the modules written for the system.
(He does a lot of other RPG based videos as well)
Second that!
Great creator! Adding the link since I know YT won't let you do it: www.youtube.com/@SSkorkowsky/featured
Thank you so much, Dael! It's lovely to see The Flicker and the Fade mentioned alongside so many fantastic games.
I JUST LIKE IT A LOT
I'm glad it was! I had to pick this up. I never know how to create interesting bits of the night sky in my games and stories. This is a fun process to flow through!
This made me go and grab it too!! Such a fun concept that can also add some incredibly rich lore to a game setting
The Witches of the Shore?
The Sorcerers of the Littoral?
The Mages of the Bank?
The spellcasters of the seaside?
Pyromancers of the cliffs?
Mages of the Bank seems appropriate, given the focus on profit over play
There’s a series of CoC books called “Blood Brothers” that contain adventures that are all unrelated to the Mythos and lean into classic horror movie tropes instead
I think one of these was an Agatha Christie -esque murder mystery where a bunch of shitty relatives are summoned to an isolated mansion for a will reading. My friends and I played that at a con back in university, we had a tonne of fun.
@@digitaljanus if you mean Uncle Timothy’s Will, that’s the only Blood Brothers adventure I know any specifics about, and my understanding was that it was more of a haunt house story once it got going
Call of Cthulhu: I ran some sessions of that game without getting into or using the Mythos. That felt pretty optional to me. Just did detective stories with some kind of supernatural horror in the background.
First time my friends and I played that game, we were gangsters in 1920s Chicago.
I can explain Dragon Age book why it’s that way, it was first released in 3 boxes, with various class level caps and race each box increasing the level cap and adding more, and the book of Dragon Age pretty much just smashed the books together. Like the first box had the base classes human dwarf, and elves only and level 1 to 5, box 2 added quanari and added level 6 to 10, and each box added more possible background too
I thought the way you described the Iron Kingdoms RPG was particularly interesting. The concept of combining two classes into a single concept sounds a lot like Fabula Ultima. In that game, multiclassing is mandatory. Players start off with 5 levels spread across two or three classes, and the book comes with recommendations for how to combine them to make certain archetypes. I really like the possibilities offered by a system like that myself.
Kids on Bikes is my favorite game to run of all time. It’s also so easy to hack, that it’s easy to change or remove any unwanted rules.
8:00 I'm playing a Dragon Age D&D 5e homebrew campaign with friends, even though two of us own the DA tabletop book. Our DM did base some sessions off of quests in the DA book. We started in the DAO timeframe, did some DA2 and DAI, and now we're post-Inquisition, fighting our way through Minrathous to reach Solas before he completes the ritual - but, also, our Dalish blood mage has learned from Flemeth how to let him succeed long enough to kill the old ones, then force him to put the veil back up again. So, our next session is going to have some intense RP!
Oh wow, someone else who owns the Iron Kingdoms RPG! I fell in love with their setting and aesthetic back with their first 3e book, and crowdfunded their own system when they were developing it, but never had the chance to actually play it. This has prompted me to take a look back.
Sorcerers on the Seashore maybe?
Great video, Dael!
Jane Austen is my favorite author and an incredible human, and I didn’t know that there is an Austenian TTRPG! 🙌🏻
Oh, HIGHLY recommend Good Society - their epistolary mechanic made a major appearance in Dimension20's "A Court of Fey and Flowers" as well
my defence of the playbook system and the reason i like it so much: playbooks get the mechanical part of character creation out of the way a lot faster then a lot of bigger games, allowing you to get right to the juice of "why are you now a cutter/hound/whisper/spider/ect?" (using the playbooks from blades in the dark cause i really want to play that game but the group i was gonna play with fell threw)
Only familiar with a few of these, started out with Pathfinder like you, though I don't hold it quite as fondly tbh. I have tried 2nd edition and, it runs well and very clearly knows what it wants to do...and what it wants to do is not what I want from my rpg experience lol. Thanks for showing all these off!
I value that review
To elaborate a bit on PF2e, I think it does two things really well: Combat as sport and character customization.
By combat as sport I mean that you get to make interesting choices in the moment that have a clear impact on the outcome of the battle. The game is very well balanced, so you don't "win in character creation" but by using advantageous actions on your turn. You get three actions, so you get to do more than just run in and attack, but you usually have more things you want to do than actions to do so.
By character customization I don't just mean that there are many options, I've heard that was already true in PF1e. What makes PF2e special is that the numerical power ups usually come from your class chassis - you always want to be better at the things you do, so things like "hit harder and be harder to hit" happens automatically as you level up. The choices you get to make are always about giving you more options on what you can do in the form of different types of feats and you get to pick at least one every level. Due to the system's emphasis on balance, there are basically no "wrong choices" (no trap options), and thus you're free to choose what fits your fantasy without being punished with an incompetent character as a result.
So, would it be a good fit for you? Is it "vague and evocative"? Well, it's the opposite of vague, very clear and streamlined, but it can be evocative - on one hand in terms of character options, on the other hand in the well written, complex setting, the world of Golarion (you may know it from 1e), that you don't have to use, but that informs character options from the "Lost Omens" line of books.
TLDR: I love this game, and while it's probably not the perfect fit for you, you'll probably have fun trying it out!
P.S.: The 2e Beginner Box is great, that seems to be a theme at Paizo.
Things that Dael will regret saying: "I like a little bit of constriction"
1:49 Really weird seeing a location I went on regular school field trips being shown off as a "broad section" of New England from the perspective of an Australian. Love the Nubble Lighthouse, tho.
😂 Well, if you recognised it then at least my art must be alright!
If you want cthulhu without Eldritch try vaesen investigating fairytale like creatures (the one I'd say candela took inspiration for) uses the mutant year zero system. Arts amazing and it's crafting a mystery section felt as useful as a Alexandrian post.
So glad I'm not the only person who buys RPGs and doesn't play them for various reasons. My shelves / hard drive are pull of interesting-sounding games -- Amber Diceless, FATE, GURPS, Coty of Mist, and so on. ONE DAY!!! I swear by Hogoth's Hoary Host!
Yay! You use 'Homebrew' correctly! For some reason, people have been using that term for creating their own worlds... which I feel is kind of the default for most... at least eventually.
Regarding the Power Rangers rpg change where you discover your color/zord instead of choosing - My friend made a super hero rpg where the GM reveals powers to the players during the campaign rather letting them choose. I really loved that aspect of the system. I think it's a lot of fun to learn things about your character and run with it, rather than just decide everything before the game starts. I feel the same about magic items in D&D - I prefer to uncover something in an adventure and find a use for it rather than pick an item out of an rpg source book and ask if I can buy/craft it.
That sounds genuinely, deeply, like SO much fun
This reminds me of an idea I have had ages ago, with GURPS, I was going to slowly introduce magic into the game, and have some player characters learn what their aptitude with magic is as they attempt to do battle against the various creatures that spawn from it.
The mystery unveiling sounds so exciting and it has to be great for roleplaying
Holy Cow, I was just thinking about how I haven't seen anything from you in awhile. Nice to see you again.
We're BACK, baybeeee!!
New mic sounds good! The audio is more intimate, I think you could talk softer if you wanted. Or maybe it was the excitement coming through!
I'm going to be coming back to this video for inspiration so much.
As one of those asking to hear about your other TTRPGs ... that was really engaging, interesting and fun to watch ... and scarily wide-ranging 😁 Thanks for following up on the request 😉
Oh, also, if Vampire: TM is a goer, then consider Changeling, as it's probably a lot more in line with your mythological and historical interests. Then again, I'm the sort who enjoys reading rule books for the snippets of lore 🙃
Me, after.... Eeeh... Years.
Kingsmill. Monarchs Factory.
🤔😮🤯
Ooooooooooooooooohhhh. Damn. That's good.
LOL
But you got there in the end.
Risus (fastfast, humorous), Quest Worlds (/very/ narrative focussed), GURPS. haven't found anything better than that set.
However, I do run D&D4 cos I was asked to.
It was fun to review some RPGs with you. There is a lot of genius on display among small indie creators right now.
hell yes, i love how many videos have come out by larger “dnd youtube channels” talking about other ttrpgs. i’ve been a huge fan of indie ttrpgs for a few years and am always happy to hear people talk about games i havent played yet
FINALLYYYYY!!! DAELS 20+ DIFFERENT TTRPG! IT SHALL MAKE A FINE ADDITION TO MY COLLECTION
I've been desperate to play the Alien TTRPG for years and it looks like Mothership would scratch that same itch. It looks so fuckin cool! Right now I'm reading through Heart: The City Beneath in the hopes of running it some day.
Yesssss
Our local TTRPG Alliance runs a con a couple times a year. People step up to run a wide variety of one-shots that other players can sign up for which has been an amazing way to explore and sample new systems without having to commit to a long campaign or find a group of players equally invested in the long-term commitment. Games are run both in meat space and online - making it accessible to many across our wider geographic area. It’s usually run as a charity fundraiser, and is a ton of fun. We are lucky to have so many dedicated folks who make this happen time and time again.
All this to say, I actually tried Mothership through the last con I played. We of course didn’t have time to fully explore the mysteries of the universe 😊, but were able to at least begin to explore a mysterious happening. I think a smaller scale campaign (like 4-6 sessions) would be a lower commitment way of drawing in a potential play group. If everyone is jazzed and wants to continue, this could serve as a prequel of sorts to the larger story. It’s an interesting game and one of love to explore more in the future.
Thanx muchly!
I own City of Mist and backed their last Kickstarter. Our group was going to be down a member for several sessions, so the GM had us choose pregens to play the scenario in the book. Then it fell through, but not before I was hooked!
Your list contains several games I want to play, and your reviews have added a couple of others. 😊
What do you think of the "Powered by the Apocalypse" and their 2d6 system? IMO, weighted rolls mean the PC's are more likely to succeed, which thematically explains them being legendary/infamous, and the PC's rolling to see if they dodge their opponent's attack is beautiful.
I love Burning Wheel. One day I'll convince my group to play it.
YAY POWER RANGERS!!!! Also, ImpInMyHead and I have started a movement whose sole purpose is to convince Colvile to let you name his new RPG...
Great summaries of a wide range of games - awesomely informative, well done - thanks!
+1 For mentioning the Iron Kingdoms!
I've always said that game deserves a second edition - the character creation is so good, but Privateer Press didn't do a great job with creating tools to help GMs actually run games unless they were already Warmachine fans and had the minis and whatnot. I was a little disappointed when they made a 5e setting a few years ago instead of revamping their in-house game, but ah well. Still a game with a lot of positives.
I agree on all counts!
Man. I wish Dael had any ttrpg that is like disco elysium, in her catalog. Either way, alot of cool ideas and mechanics, that I can mess around with!
Couple RPGs I HIGHLY recommend:
- Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946
Super awesome WW2 superhero game, where you can build your own superheroes.
It uses what is called the ORE system (One Roll Engine), which is a fascinatingly clean, simple, detailed game mechanic system that determines damage, hit location, and everything all with one roll. It's just REALLY satisfying.
And the actually setting premise is really neat. Basically, people traumatized by war or various other things sort of.....go insane? and their minds break reality.
The powers they get are related to whatever delusions they manifest. Kinda.
And like the Russians captured one guy and purposefully tortured him nonstop to FORCE him to develop powers, and he COMPLETELY lost his shit and reality broke down for him entirely, and his grip on reality like regressed into Russian folktales, and he BECAME Baba Yaga's hut, and now he's an invincible demonic witch's hunt that wanders the countryside eating people and devastating everything it encounters, and mysteriously vanishing into the mists.
- Everyone Is John
All the players are playing a single character named John.
You're all different personalities in John's head vying for control of John.
There's like a betting system to gamble for control over John.
Each personality has different traits and skills and motivations and objectives and win conditions.
You're basically battling John's other personalities to achieve YOUR objectives, and maybe you're trying to keep John flying under the radar so that people DON'T notice that he's basically insane. Or maybe you don't care and the other personalities do.
It's got like ONE page of rules, it SUPER easy, and it's an absolute blast.
So damn fun and funny.
- Microscope
Fuck....how do I explain this one? It's basically a collaborative universe-building game.
Like brainstorming turned into a game.
Start with taking turns listing out the concepts you HAVE TO have and concepts that are banned.
And then like you each propose huge universe-building events.
And then you propose smaller events that happen between those events.
And than more and more specific, til you're inventing character and specific moment to moment events.
It's like.....collaborative DMing, almost?
It's honestly SUPER neat.
The Yogscast has episodes for both Everyone Is John AND Microscope.
Highly recommend checking them out.
Heyo, good mic and great list! I might snatch some of those games. Even though nothing gets me as much as medieval fantasy (can’t wait for MCDM RPG!), I love learning about all those different kinds of TTRPGs that are out there. Truly a golden age for games!
I like all your videos, but I always come for your mythology tales and I’m really hoping for more of those :)
I'll toss in a recommendation for Spellbound Kingdoms - at least conceptually, since I haven't gotten to run it yet. It's a gridless tactkcal rpg where things like fashion and attachments to the world and other people directly contribute to your vulnerability in combat. I'm not sure I can do it justice in a comment. It’s just really cool and I want to run it sometime soon.
I want to be one of your players!
This is a great selection of games. I have played some like the Dragon Age (its actually my first TTRPG) and a good friend of mine actually worked on developing the Rogue Trader Game. I'm really interested in Iron Kingdoms, Fiasco, Monster Hearts 2, and The Flicker and the Fade.
If you want to know other games that you might be interested in a similar vein.
Hero System: This is my Rogue Trader friends favorite game. Its suppose to be for Super Heroes but its so flexible you can make absolutely anything. The game is very difficult to get a grip on but once you do its pretty much a one game for everything.
Ryuutama: This is if Studio Ghibli and Oregon Trail had a love child and it turned into an ttrpg. Its very wholesome and focuses more on exploration. A lot can be adapted to a DnD game with some tweaking. If you want exploration and survival but not be brutally harsh this is it.
Exalted: I've never played this game myself but my friends love it. Its basically Asian mythology where you play the gods and immortals of the mythology. Very epic fantasy style.
Hill Folk: This is more of a roleplay game than an actual ttrpg. Everyone at the table is more focus on making a story within a scenario rather than beating monsters and getting xp. Lindybeige did a good video on it.
Cthulhu Live: Not actually a TTRPG but a Larp rule book. Its inspired by the Call of Cthulhu game but for live action. Think of it like an escape room but things are trying to kill your or make you go mad. But the combat system is turn base so you don't have to worry about getting hurt. It also has a lot of great stage craft and costuming ideas too.
Eyyyy! Rogue Trader was technically my first experience of TTRPGs!
@@MonarchsFactory Oh one thing I want to ask. Since you like Power Rangers and you like Irish Mythology. Do you know the show Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog? It is Celtic Irish Power Rangers. The entire series is on CZcams and it is pretty campy and low budget but I like it.
So I started DMing in the Dragon Age system and we moved over to 5e pretty quick, but recently one of your videos inspired me to bring Stunts back in as crit options for my game! So when a PC rolls a critical, they can do the extra damage, or they can do some other fun stuff, knock the target prone, disengage, give someone the help action, etc. The idea was to encourage moments like "you spot the weakness is the dragon's wing, leaping forward, you slice your blade through the thin membrane just as the dragon goes to take off, and its massive weight comes crashing down back to earth as you tumble down and roll to your feet." Etc
City of Mist... how did I miss this? It sounds like Underworld (pretty much Gaiman's Neverwhere) but more noir than punk? Gods and monsters, yoink.
Really have to recommend any Forged In The Dark spinoff game (which Blades In The Dark spawned) for sheer mutually creative fun. They are many.
YES, that's a great way of describing City of Mist! And thanks for the rec :)
Most CZcamsrs who gives these lists of alternative games to play don't gives their criticisms at the same time. Kudos to you for sharing your full opinions on each of these RPGs.
The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (the Marvel RPG from 2003) was really interesting because it got rid of dice completely. It was also a poorly balanced mess, but I have found it works amazingly well if you replace the "stones" for action with Fate/Fudge dice. If you wanna spend a bunch of time on a dead game for some reason and have a group of friends with a similar brain disease, it can be a really good time.
The game is not dead so long as one group still plays. (3.5 for life)
@@trikepilot101 I'm actually running a 3.5 game for a bunch of people who had only ever played 5th edition before and they are constantly excited about something new they found in a rulebook or forum post. Feels good.
always nice to find a new video from you...also a big fan of burn notice, maybe need to check out blowback...I could see you showing up with a white ranger cosplay for live play
I feel compelled to list all the systems I have played over the years. Original D&D, Advanced D&D, Dragonlance (more a setting than a system, really), Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, TMNT and similar GURPS systems, Mechwarrior, Cthulhu, Deadlands (best game ever), Vampire, Werewolf, [whatever the WOD ghost setting is called], freeform/systemless, D&D 5E, Fiasco. Damn, that's a lot...
Wow -- what a marathon! I also 'read' a lot of systems that I don't have to play (so little time) -- and you've sparked my interest with your comments on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (which is their 2nd or 3rd system?). I just picked up a copy recently, and have not dug into it yet. Excited to now, after hearing about the clever subsystems. Anyway, thanks for all that great insight packed into one video!
Nice video over all, saw a few titles I have not heard of yet (thanks). Liked seeing the Iron Kingdoms title (had not heard of it and it looks interesting).
I confirm that Mothership is super fun when the party splits up! I recently finished running a one-shot adventure, our first experience with this system. We're going to play Another Bug Hunt next (official adventure included in the Kickstarter) and im really looking forward to it.
Also, this game has one of the best manuals for Game Master I've ever seen.
YESSSSS
Warlocks of the Wetlands. Conjurors of the Cove. Illusionists of the Isthmus.
THANK YOU for bringing attention to games other than the one the backstabbing sorcerers from the edge of the nation are driving into the ground!
Mall Kids was so fun when I played it!! I’ve been wanting to run it for a group since I tried it in 2019! Definitely hit on vibes of the show 6teen as a modern example of (Canadiana lol) mall teens living their lives!
To add on: I’ve played a few games of Dread and really enjoyed it! I haven’t come across a satisfying way to make it work while playing remotely, though - the Jenga pull tension seems it would be tough to emulate. It also benefits a lot from ambiance when playing in the same room.
Pathfinder was definitely not because they didnt like the changing editions. It was because Paizo was essentially fired when they were told they couldn't make content for 4e. Basically, what the OGL scandal last year was trying to repeat.
I got to play Dragon Age for the first time at GenCon last year and I wanted to love the RPG as much as I loved the video games (I'm currently in the process of a move and I have a box labeled "Dragon Age" which is a very healthy thing that a normal adult would name a box), but I think the stunts mechanic was so punishing, especially if you were suffering a serious case of dice grits. I got to practice my Puss n' Boots accent when the only prerolled character at the table was an Antivan Thief, and ended the session apologizing to the continent of Europe, after the game ran long it was nearly 4 and a half hours and I had never once rolled a double. I think there's something to be said for when you're designing a game, _always make sure people who are playing it get an opportunity to do something awesome, even if the dice aren't their friends that session._ If I had just once been able to pull off a sick assassination move, I probably would have come away with better feelings toward the game than I did.
I backed Good Society and cannot for the life of me find enough people to play a game of it. Despite people loving Court of Fey and Flowers, most people go into stun lock when you mention "Epistolary Phase."
As someone who just started a Cthulhu campaign but doesn't like Lovecraft's actual stories, you should try playing it. You're obviously creative enough to just make your own monsters, and the game system is great for the "normal people vs things that shouldn't exist" kind of games.
Luck is maybe my favorite mechanic. It's an "optional" rule, but the idea that you can spend luck on improving rolls, but now your luck rolls to determine other aspects of the world are actually worse is such a neat idea.
Edit: I simplified the skill list down, combining different ones that were similar and nobody missed the eliminated skills. Since you mentioned simplifying things in other RPGs, skills might be worth tweaking for Cthulhu.
Dael! Great to see you posting regularly again
Now I want to play Mothership, I already have so many other games I want to play, but it looks so cool!
We switched to GURPS a few years ago, found it to be the most flexible system and easily play any genre. I misheard one of our GM's say TL 2 (Stone Age) vs TL 12 (Super advanced) and created a mage for a space campaign. They were actually really useful even though they understood none of the tech.
You mentioned wanting to play more world of darkness, and I am now compelled to implore you to look into Changeling the Dreaming 20th anniversary edition. It's my favorite game setting of all time, and it's all about holding on to imagination and dreams, and fighting against the dull banality in the world that threatens to strip it all away, leaving you (a human with the soul of a fae creature) a husk of your full self. It calls to mind the way we all too often lose sight of the things that once meant the world to us, forgotten as the dreary responsibilities of life get in the way, losing touch with your best friends. And in light of that, remembering to hold on tight, lest we lose it all over again.
Cthulhu - I've played Cthulhu and it's okay, but for me, I prefer adding it to some other campaign: fantasy, superheros, or sci-fi where you have a bit more of a chance against the creatures but you still get the alien feel of it.
Percentiles - Percentile dice have always felt sci-fi to me. Part of it is probably from running Star Frontiers ages ago. But also it just feels scientific when you look at a skill as a base percentage of success (rather than calculating yourself).
AGE System - I'm playing in a game right now. I thought I would really love the stunt system. I like the idea that in the middle of a combat, it's not all about what you plan to do. Some of it is about random opportunities. In practice though, it feels like it slows the game down every time I roll a stunt. "Hold on, let me look at the combat table ... and also the completely separate grapple table for some reason." Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it.
Ars Magica again is getting overlooked and is such a great game. It does best for the long-running campaign vs a one-shot.
Hopefully one day I'll have a wide enough TTRPG circle to get a full table of people together who are excited by the idea of Ars Magica. So far it's just two of us, but I live in hope...
Loving all the regular content!
Since people will probably add some suggestions for ttrpgs they find interesting, I'll go ahead and contribute Vaesen and Through the Breach. You might like Vaesen if you want paranormal investigators in the context of folklore. Originally, it's written for Scandinavian mythology, has additional books for folklore of British Isles, but you could easily put any mythology you want. It's not combat oriented, doesn't have hit points, it's super intuitive in terms of who you are as a character, and it can give you would look in Cthulthu without Cthulthu itself. Through the Breach has very interesting ideas and it could be an interesting read for inspiration. You have a "prologue" at the start of each session, and then you choose which class you want to be. Overtime, you get residue perks and narrow down your character, but you're free to be an investigator one session and gunslinger another. It also has a very interesting theme with alternate worlds, worker unions, gremlins and Chinese mafia all bundled up in pretty damn interesting lore
Pathfinder 2e is amazing if, and only if, you want that classic 90s-00s DND experience. Tons of options, quite a lot of rules, most of which have to do with miniatures combat. It is some truly great miniatures combat - they've solved several longstanding problems with DND balance and playability. However it is definitely for a certain niche.
keep the content coming! great stuff!!
I'm gonna drop the Seattle Company for two systems: Shadowdark and MCDM RPG
Yes. The microphone worked. What a great list of games!!
Checkout Mythras/Runequest, BRP just like Call of Cthulhu but a bit more normal fantasy
Kids on Bikes/Brooms is my current favorite system. Thanks!
Pathfinder I: Telling people that a game turned you into a homebrewer really isn't an endorsement of that game.
The second addition of pathfinder is actually super fun to play. And i love it so much.
Great list of games. Thanks Dael!
I think the core dice mechanic in Dragon Age is very clever, I feel like there’s a lot of potential for the indie scene to riff on it in interesting ways without the stunt system attached.
You should try masks!!! My favorite game to do both superhero stuff and teenaged Americana in, it rules and seems directly up your alley.
Love the location card ideas!
My favorite system is "DM's Nightmare". All players and the DM at any time can use any rule from any system they have the book for a the table.
Ah, I do love consumer alternatives. Especially alternatives to the Sorcerers on the Edge of the Nation. (I'm using this now. It's canon.)
Please don't call games "alternatives".
Stardew valley is not a Call of Duty alternative, they're just different video games. It's the same for the TTRPG scene.