Sunday, August 31, 2014

RPGaDAY - Day 31 - Favorite RPG of all time

This one is a little difficult because I don't really think of RPG's like this, ranked or favored or in some kind of order. They're more like a cloud, with the ones I am running and the ones I am reading more prominent in my mind at that time but still floating against a backdrop of hundreds if not thousands of systems, settings, adventures, and campaign possibilities.  There are memories of what I have played and done in the past, thoughts about what I am playing or running now, and speculation on what I might do in the future.



Then again, it's fairly easy because there is one game I have run or played pretty much continuously for 35 years and that pretty much says everything that needs to be said. It's not an accident that we're circling back around to the first couple of days of this event.


I don't think there's been a time longer than 3-4 months where I wasn't running or playing some kind of D&D game. Now I've done plenty of things with plenty of other games in and around the D&D stuff but it's been the constant. Even those times when I have grown tired of something about the current edition I've kept with it for my friends who were still excited and enthusiastic about the game. Even then there is usually some shiny new or overlooked old article or supplement that brings a new angle to the game, or even a new edition.


Honorable Mentions:

  • Gamma World - I've had so much fun with Gamma World over the years that it deserves a mention even if it has been a long time. The most post-apocalyptic game of all!
  • Star Trek - One I have talked about more but still haven't played much recently, I think I like the potential I see here for long-term interconnected campaigns  more than anything else.
  • Champions - I expect we will reconcile one of these days. I need to run or play more supers
  • Mutants & Masterminds - the most likely of all of these alternates to turn into some kind of regular thing, I hope it's around for a long time.
  • Savage Worlds - So much potential, I like everything about it and have to  find time for it. Of the "multigenre" systems I think it has the most built-in style and is the easiest to learn as a new player. 

So as I write this on Labor Day weekend 2014 I've handed the 5th Edition D&D PHB over to Apprentice Blaster and I'm reading through the 5E Starter Set adventure to see if I might want to run the boys through it while we're off. I also have some Pathfinder Iron Gods stuff to read through, and just to mix it up the Traveller 5 hardback (ridiculous!) arrived this week and awaits my attention too. Thinking about all this, I'm comfortable labeling D&D my "favorite of all time". I'm ready to roll with any edition and any offshoot, and I'd be perfectly happy playing any of them.

Have I told you about my 20th level ranger ...


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