Okay, there's nothing wrong with either Pathfinder 2E or Dungeons & Dragons as rule systems....well, there may be issues,* obviously, but this is the year that I really want to do something different, other than play these two systems. Last year I enjoyed Call of Cthulhu (always a good staple), and Mothership reared its head. OSE was fun for a couple mini campaigns, and there are no doubt other games I ran in 2022 that I can't remember at the moment.
For 2023, I may wish to enjoy some fantasy gaming that's not the two top dogs. Here's the list I've compiled (akin to my SF list I posted a week or so back):
Forbidden Lands - first up, the Free League Year Zero Engine powered fantasy boxed set was once really hard to track down. I now have the core and all the supplements, as well as a couple sets of the lovely dice (you don't need special dice to run this, but I like having them anyway). I feel very comfortable with the system mechanically; it's got a nice reductionist approach to skills and talents with an elegant and distinct method of dice resolution. It's focus makes characters both pragmatic and effective but also fragile and always at risk. You are practically expected to engage with the world; building fortresses and settlements and finding mentors makes improvement through experience much easier, so there's an active mechanic for players to want to forge their own path in the world. The default setting is interesting enough for me to consider using it as-is, something that is honestly very hard for me to do with all of my own game worlds I like advancing in storyline.....but the good news is its written in a manner that lets me use it as I wish, with my own setting if I so desire. And it has a lot of fan support on Free League's page on Drivethrurpg.com.
Savage Worlds Using the Pathfinder Expansions or Fantasy Companion - The as yet soon-to-be-printed Fantasy Companion is a revision that takes a queue from the Pathfinder for Savage Worlds books. Its also compatible with those books, which means that you can run a lot of fantasy now with Savage Worlds, and itr finally can be said to have a lot of easy to use support for fantasy gaming. Savage Worlds' SWADE edition is a great mechanical update and restatement of an already fine game system, and I know my group is interesting in trying this all out....so I should probably prioritize this one.
Dragonbane (Drakar och Demoner) - This lovely kickstarter is a reimagining/revision to a classic era Swedish RPG that spawned out of a translated edition of the 1982 Magic World from Chaosium. Free League is in charge, and you can tell fom the design, but given I love their stuff so much its a small wonder I am keen on this. The print edition is not coming out until late in the year, but the working draft/playtest copy is quite functional and I definitely want to run this for a short test game soon. Plus, playable mallards that aren't from Glorantha!!!! I secretly hope this spawns more content and turns in to the spiritual Magic World successor we all deserve.
Those are the big three. I have contemplated to varying degrees the possibility of Mythras, but for various reasons I am stymied by the possibility, chiefly with the weird character sheet on Roll20. I then look to BRP's Magic World, but while I know we could have some fun with MW, it is am imperfect tome with a lot of errata (which did get in to the PDF, I think, but still).
There is a strong fourth contender, although I know the initial learning curve (mostly in PC generation) is steep: Dungeon Fantasy RPG (powered by GURPS)! I might indeed propose this last option, I have a deep and abiding love for GURPS and have gone far too long without running it. It is possible I might instead propose some GURPS historical gaming finally....I was working a lot on some GURPS Egypt campaign ideas last year, and those are still lurking in my files, waiting to be unleashd.
*Okay yeah I am playing in a Pathfinder 2E game right now that reminded me in a hard way of why I don't want to run it anymore again.
No comments:
Post a Comment