But where do I even start?
What's YOUR favorite medieval fantasy system /tg/?
Zweihander? Pathfinder? Warhammer fantasy? Shadow of the demon lord? Symbaroum? GURPS? Torchbearer?
Who has the most fun melee combat? The most fun magic? Who does social interactions better? WHY is YOUR favorite system better than 5e?
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It's all just taste my dude.
I run GURPS because it's easy to do so and the combat pleases me.
What do I need to read to get fugging with GURPS? Just the basic rules + the fantasy ones?
Even just the basic rules really.
When I started running it, I was using basic set, martial arts, and low tech. And ritual path magic but I came to dislike that in relatively short order.
If there's one single official thing I'd recommend beyond the basic set as being non-negotiable to my enjoyment of the game, it's the replacement grappling rules in pyramid issue 3/34. Which are so much easier to use and more flexible than the base set/martial arts ones that it's embarrassing.
You can get started with just the dungeon fantasy books. You don't even need the basic set as it overwrites a lot of rules in the basic set anyhow.
I'd recommend starting out with Basic + a tech book; Dungeon Fantasy works fine if you just want to play D&D but GURPS. Then, when you want expanded combat, start using Martial Arts. A different magic system, Thaumatology (I recommend using Sorcery and just stealing a bunch of stuff off of EnragedEggplant's blog). Better social rules, the Social Engineering line. Just plug and play new rulesets from books as you feel the need to expand the rules that you're using.
I've seen plenty of people start off with running all the rulesets and bounce off because it's a bit too much for them to handle all at once.
The current edition of gurps is built so that the basic set is the only product you will ever need. Of course some of the catalog-style supplements like low-tech and high-tech give you more flavor but they’re not needed. Many supplememts are mostly just worked examples using the basic set to do different things.
I like cypher system.
I didn't even know it had all this complicated history with D&D. I just liked it cause out of all the new stuff I've tired in the last 3 years, this is the one I liked best.
Cypher is really easy to make shit for as well. I love making monsters because i just make abilities, some damage and then make a difficulty between 1 and 10. very hackable since its so simple.
My biggest problem with D&D is that it comes with lots of baggage and player expectations. It isn't setting agnostic no matter how much some people or the book itself might pretend it is, and I like to run my own setting. I'm happy with any system as long as it allows me to do my own thing.
if you want a recommendation, play gurps I guess.
White box
Adventurer Conqueror King System aka ACKS
>non-moronic economy
The baseline price of items and junk is based on the productivity of a 5-man peasant family.
>good crafting system
The fact that the economy isn't modeled moronic means that crafting is also not broken. Crafting magic items is not without difficulty, but manages to not break the economy.
>decent character classes
You've got a good variety, the Companion has more as well as rules to make your own.
>monsters
Standard stuff
>OSR-adjacent
I say adjacent, because fortunately it doesn't use a lot of the OSR garbage that the Gen X scum holds on to like a bunch of sacred cows. I would say that it does lip service and you CAN play it in the OSR way, but it can do so much more, and better.
>seamless integration with wargaming
It goes from being a single scrub adventurer to someone who commands armies.
>domain level play
Again, based on the principles of the good economy engine, owning land and taxing people and doing merchant trade routes is doable and doesn't break the game.
ACKS is made by a literal neo-nazi though.
Who cares?
No it isn't.
Sold.
Didn't Varg make an RPG?
Has anyone played it? How is it?
>Has anyone played it?
Yeah
>How is it?
AD&D with more racism.
Gygax would be proud
Brb, buying it now.
Nice
My favorite system is D&D 3.5
are u ok moron
No, not really
Sword World 2.5.
Simple 2d6 system, incredibly deep despite the simplicity. Does basically everything 5e set out to do and better.
Anime Tiddies.
Flexible class system build around multi classing.
Small but immensely dedicated fan community.
Free because Fan Translation.
Lots of supplements and stuff, a lot of which is translated (and really good).
Playable with one book, also very much playable with all the supplements.
Balanced, fan from Start to Max Level.
Cool Setting, neat lore.
Good shit.
It also has really fun combat, with the best big monster fights of any game I have played.
Basically, big monsters are broken up into multiple sections, each of which has their own health, abilities, etc. Most have a main section, if that dies the whole monster dies. But a lot also have abilities on their other sections that make attacking the main section more difficult. So you have a lot of strategy that goes into these big fights, which is really fun.
Sword World also has three different rulesets for combat, simple, standard and advanced. You can switch between then from encounter to encounter, depending on what you want. It's a weird way of doing it, but it's really fun. Also nothing stopping you to just stick with one, I basically only ever play Advanced. It's my favorite of the three and probably my favorite way to do combat on a map with minis.
So you listed off all those systems. Why are you asking us about our favorites instead of actually checking them out for yourself? Maybe form an opinion on your own?
And I suggest Symbaroum. A personal fav. Easy to learn, easy on the gm, and close enough to dnd to make the jump smoother into new games.
>just read 47 different core rulebooks so you can choose what to play next
Or maybe I can just ask and try first the ones that are pitched to me in the most convincing way, which saves me thousands of pages of systems I may never end up using
If you don't like reading game rulebooks, the hobby isn't for you. Go play BG3 like the rest of your kind.
I hope this is bait and you are not actually as stupid as you sound
I sincerely and unironically believe what I wrote. If you're not excited by the idea of reading and trying out new games then you are not actually interested in the hobby. You are just a trend chaser.
If you are unable to differentiate from reading a couple I'm intrested in based on suggestions to randomly reading 20 different systems directionless one after the other, you are fricking moronic and I fear there is no cure.
At no poin I expressed any problem in reading and trying out a new system, this is why this thread exists, you are just unironically too dumb to function properly
OP has a list of 7 good choices, which is hardly a high number of books to go after.
Why say you don’t want to play D&D and bring up Pathfinder?
If you're looking for a much larger scale long term campaign then Pendragon is probably a good choice. It's fundamentally different from a lot of RPGs because it's not a wargame or exploration simulator as much as it is about chivalric romance and continuing your bloodline while also being a part of Arthurian legend. It's been around long enough with an active fanbase that if you want a different setting or want to emphasize/deemphasize certain aspects then you have a lot of different resources to draw from. Obviously if it doesn't sound interesting to you then don't play it, but it's worth at least considering if you're not satisfied with D&D or just want to experiment with what TT can be.
Wait for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, SotDL is a good system and SotWW is that without the grimderp baggage.
The only thing about WW over DL is DL has a TON of supplementary classes, gear and spells that you can't necessarily just import over to WW without a little elbow grease to accommodate the rules changes.
I like Old School Hack because you can teach people to play it in about ten minutes, the characters have clearly defined abilities, and don't have pages and pages of shit to learn. The game also clearly has a relatively short campaign in mind, so that's useful for most people instead of becoming a meandering slog waiting to get to something better.
I also like the Iron Kingdoms RPG (the Full Metal Fantasy one) but it's an acquired taste. If you want something crunchy that works well with miniatures, this one is great but it has many valid critiques. I just happen to love the setting and the character design system.
Hey anon, good for you. You've taken the first step. I like streets of peril, they have a generic version called perilous d6 that I think is free. It's 16th century fantasy, kind of warhammerish with less grim and its a d6 coloured dice pool system.
>Hey anon, good for you. You've taken the first step.
Into being a living cancer.
There's nothing sadder than when a person does something that could have been good, but did it with all the wrong motivations and reasons.
Instead of having a genuine desire to learn, to experiment, OP has simply fallen for the shitposts of some of the dumbest trolls on this website. Rather than being able to look at systems that interest him, he's fallen into doing nothing but having a desire to simply "Not play 'DnD'". Hell, look at him. Not even botjhering to do the most basic research before creating a shitpost thread, one of inevitable many as he slides further and further into becoming yet another moronic troll.
That only leads down one road. Into becoming one of the homosexual contrarians who just hates games. Hates games because they remind him of D&D, hates games because no one wants to play any with him, hates games because he spends all his time shitposting about them rather than playing them.
It's great to want to play a variety of games. It's terrible to do so because you've fallen for the shitposts of cancerous trolls who do their best to prey upon the weak-minded and gullible. It's like seeing someone volunteering at a homeless shelter, only to discover they started doing so upon orders from some insane cult that will inevitably lead to their own life falling apart.
Get a life, you zero self-awareness homosexual
>"No, There are no trolls on Ganker!" the troll said, "And they certainly wouldn't target popular things!"
How dumb do you actually expect people to be? I have a really hard time genuinely believing OP is as moronic as he's pretending to be, when the more obvious conclusion (he's just one of lamest kind of trolls you find on every board) is far more likely.
But, do go on. Go on and tell me more about how there's no trolls on Ganker.
I’m talking to a troll.
You deserve that picture of Chad giving you a crown, but I'm too lazy to look for it, so I'll just say, "preach, brother!"
What a moronic screed. It's normal human behavior to ask for recommendations when you are preparing to give something new a go. Hell, figuring out why people like one over another is research, you dumb Black person.
>It's normal human behavior to ask for recommendations when you are preparing to give something new a go.
You didn't understand his post.
He's (rightfully) calling out OP's moronic motivation behind it. If some morons' opinion online matters so much to you that you want to change systems you deserve to be shat on.
Have you considered that OP has played D&D and doesn't like it?
You dumb homosexual. OP didn't even do the most basic of google searches before making this thread, and you're trying to defend the moron.
Neither you nor OP play games, so neither of you know how easy it is to learn about them or play them. Probably the reason you waste your life raging at people who do play and getting mad at popular games as if you're not the reason no one wants to play with you.
>the reason you waste your life raging at people who do play and getting mad at popular games as if you're not the reason no one wants to play with you.
Is this what it's like to have a sacred cow of a system you need to suck off? Anyone into anything else clearly has no friends and plays no games because they don't play the one true game?
Imagine thinking just because you're not "into" something means you need to constantly shitpost about it.
No one cares that you don't like a game, all that matters is you shitposting about it and even trying to defend brainless shitposting.
Calm down.
D&D is the first TTRPG for many people out there, but it can pretty much only simulate heroic high-fantasy dungeon crawlers. I, for myself, are not the kind of person who shits on other people's taste, but I just find many other forms of roleplaying more interesting. Thus arises the need for alternative roleplaying games, what the OP is implying. When you've tried out D&D, it is healthy to check out other TTRPGs as well. Since, as a wise man once said: "We could all use a little change."
Stop being a queer. The main reason OP doesn't want to play D&D is because he fell for trollspam, not any logical, purposeful reason. Instead of having something he's actually looking for, he's just looking for "Not-D&D D&D" and included several "D&D, but worse" in his potential new games.
If OP wasn't likely just a troll, he'd be too moronic to post on the internet without a handler.
Not really, I just have played it for 2 years and want to dm something else
Though this thread is hilarious, everyone is making fanfiction about my life and experiences for some reason
Don’t worry the yaoi mpreg OP x Sephiroth fic is dropping soon
>it's impossible for people to dislike d&d
How can a human being be this much a corpo bootlicker?
Why do trolls always try to conflate anyone who dislikes something with themselves?
You can dislike something and not feel compelled to shitpost. It's called being human. Try it sometime, homosexual.
>trollspam
Shouldn't you be banned right now, Trollhunter, or do you think seething about people disliking D&D is on-topic and constructive, and totally not disruptive shitposting and trolling bJ2vxjy definition?
Amen, brother.
I recommend WFRP as babby's second RPG.
The rules are still pretty straightforward, and the setting is different but familiar.
Zweihander is just shitty WFRP homebrew developed by a giant scintillating butthole.
Try B/X.
I can recommend you wfrp but it's personal bias as i like the world. It's more of late renaissance than medieval but i think it's still close enough so you may enjoy it. It's great if you enjoy social aspects, as that's big part of the world. Also i enjoy amount of skills you have and concept of careers which are more of your profesions than classical classes. All of that gives big diversity in building your char. Recently started to gm it and there are a lot of cool scenarios if you want to try running a game. For me the biggest downside is that there are some optional rules that make game much more enjoyable and they are spread between different suplements.
I play 5e and 3.5e, which I vastly prefer, but I'd love to try some GURPS, one of these days.
Also Hackmaster and Burning wheel.
I'd play pretty much anything at least once, actually.
Also,
>pic related
>cover image is from battletech
>no mecha in the entire fricking book aside from like 3 references to "vehicle or mecha"
I like GURPS personally. It's super flexible and has really fun chargen. It can also be played super simple or super autistic. Check Chris Normand on YouTube for good tutorials. Combat is pretty lethal and can have a lot of depth if you want, it has several cool magic systems and it has a lot of skills and good rules for social interactions.
I prefer Delta Green, but that's not a medieval fantasy system.
WFRP or 3.5e/Pathfinder 1e are pretty good choices. Go for the former if you want something a bit grittier, the latter if you want a more D&D power level.
>WHY is YOUR favorite system better than 5e?
Because I wrote it 🙂
The Dark Eye but I'm German so it makes sense.
Just use FATE
SotDL, Cypher, Fantasy Age, Worlds Without Number, Symbaroum, Forbidden Lands, GURPS, Trudvang
All will have pros and cons and it depends on the level of complexity you want.
I already ordered those by my personal perceived complexity. Here's other differences:
Player facing dice - Cypher, Symbaroum
Lots of content - GURPS, SotDL
Unique dice mechanics - Fantasy Age, Forbidden Lands
Interesting magic - Trudvang, Symbaroum
Universal system - GURPS, Cypher
If you wanted to jump in one quick and play an RPG I'd say SotDL. If you want to play an interesting premade world maybe Symbaroum. If you want to custom build mechanics to fit your game go with GURPS. If you want to learn a ruleset that you can quickly switch to a different genre go with Cypher. If you like dice rolls to be a focal point of play then go Fantasy Age.
Symbaroum, best setting imho.
SotDL for me. Just the right balance of simplicity and complexity, good level of lethality, tons of options and customization, really meaningful player choices, easily modded.
I find most other systems lean too hard into full simulationism and become clunky messes as a result, are unbalanced as shit, or (especially d100 games) have fundamentally bad math.
>(especially d100 games) have fundamentally bad math.
Please elaborate.
The d100 thing? d100s have an extremely high variance that makes games that use it extremely swingy if ranges aren't really well thought out. It's why games like WHFB are notorious for ridiculously unexpected party wipes where a bunch of rando skaven manage to kill off a pretty experienced party just because the dice swung that way. d10 pool games tend to have a real hard time getting a good curve going too.
>Shadow of the demon lord
that's the one. it's a great next step away from DnD. also it has the infamous poop spell
I'd go with GURPS. Just by being a classless, level-less system means it avoids the annoying pitfalls that D&D's character progression has like pidgeonholing a concept into specific things or having "levels" that don't actually give anything. Combat's fun and has a lot of options. Even a basic "I hit things with my sword" type can start adding techniques and such in to start spicing up their repertoire. As an added bonus, if it does click, you can use it for other things.
Pathfinder is just dnd but you have more mechanical options. It doesnt change the feel though.
Try Warhammer. You will love the vibes, at least rpg 2.0 was good in that moron. Mechanicaly not the beat tho