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Today I’m going to answer 4 questions, which will bring me up to the question with a number that matches the current date. I’m then going to fall behind immediately by not posting on the weekend, but at least I’ll be completely on schedule for the meme for 24 hours. For 18-20, I’m going to pretend that stuff published by Hex isn’t my real answer.
18. Favorite SF RPG
If you count anything that falls into the broad definition of science fiction, I played a lot of Shadowrun in college and while I’ve only played it a few times, I’ve always enjoyed Gamma World, particularly the edition (3rd, I think) where they played up the humor of the “everyday items as ancient mystical artifacts” idea without crossing the line into slapstick. If you mean spaceships and lasers, you’ll never convince me that Star Wars shouldn’t involve rolling d6s.
19. Favorite Supers RPG
Leighton’s supers game, which I’ve talked about before, went through a lot of systems including Marvel Super Heroes, GURPS, and probably some others I’m not remembering. The ones that always worked best in my opinion were the minimalist ones like system from Over the Edge, the game where everything was resolved using a Magic 8 Ball and, eventually, QAGS. The truth is, I’ve never actually played a game written specifically for super-hero games that worked for me. Most of them are so obsessed with satisfying the myth of game balance that they turn into a mess of unplayable crunch (with Champions being the worst offender). I remember reading the Marvel Saga System when it came out and thinking it would work well, but I never got around to testing it.
20. Favorite Horror RPG
I talked about my love of It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show here a couple weeks ago, and it would probably be my top choice if I could only pick one horror game. I’ve also played some fun games of Lost Souls (a game where you play a ghost) and Ghostbusters. For “serious” horror, it’s hard to beat Call of Cthulhu, though the original Vampire RPG would be a great horror game if anyone played the game that Rein-Hagen actually wrote instead of House of Cards with fangs.
21. Favorite RPG Setting
I’m not exempting Hex products here because there’s just no pretending that Hobomancer isn’t my favorite RPG setting. Usually when we release a game, I need to take a break from it for a few months. Two days after Hobomancer came out, I made up a character for regular campaign. If I had to pick something I didn’t co-write, I’d probably go with either Lankhmar or whatever they called Burroughs Island in Over the Edge.
