RPGs - What's in a system?

All the talk over on Thoughts on 4e has really got me thinking: How important is system when it comes to roleplaying games?

We're currently mid-way through games in FantasyCraft, Savage Worlds/Deadlands, GURPS, PDQ, HarnMaster, Castle Falkenstein, Warhammer Fantasy, and THOGS/VIRUS, I guess... and it's bloody frustrating! The only campaign that ever came to any kind of conclusion was in DnD 4e, and that only happened because players refused to help each other out and/or got bored - it was a TPK, by the way.

I'm fed up with starting again. We need something that everyone will love, but I really don't know what. I thought Deadlands would be great, but reception has been a bit damp. Warhammer was fun, but the DM gave up after one session. I loved Harn, but it didn't play like other people wanted it to - or rather they weren't happy rolling with what was dealt them in character generation, and went for fighters anyway. Falkenstein was a mistake, GURPS is the wrong system for the game, and you know our thoughts on 4e...

In the midst of all this, I'm trying to write a system that does what I want it to do - but if it isn't what the players want, then it seems the setting is going to be irrelevant.

Maybe I just need a setting that I can run with - the Adventure Path I got for 4e was a blast to run and let me splice a lot of my own ideas in, the sample adventure for GURPS (Caravan to Ein Arras) was really good fun to run - until everyone gave up at a cliffhanger moment.

I seems like things are unravelling at the moment, and we may end up getting Descent out every week unless we can get together and get behind somehing we can all have fun playing - but what??

Dresden files RPG

...very excited!

FATE was already drawing me in, and this sounds like the perfect world to play it in!

Getting it (back) together

It's been a while - sorry, but not much to report back on.

Plenty to be reading though - Tourq's got me thinking about modifying DnD to make it more like the epic fantasy we know and love, great ideas for zombies in Savage Worlds in Wrath Of Zombie by... um... WrathOfZombie, and this has got me all fired up for more Deadlands - when anyone turns up, that is...

Fleet's almost assembled, ready to play Starmada - just need to get some ships statted up.

Full Thrust vs Starmada vs Firestorm...

We had the opportunity to sit down and work out what we wanted to play, spacewise, this week, and it looks like we have a winner...

Firestorm: Armada is out because a) we're not keen on the ships, b) there're no quick start rules, and c) there seems to be no customisation.

Still put off by Full Thrust's relative unfriendliness, it looks like we're now going to be playing Starmada: Admiralty Edition. Hex-based movement should make things easier, custom fleets - and custom weapons - seem to be a doddle too. Still planning on using Full Thrust ships though...

15mm Infinity, and space warfare!

Just a quick projects update:

First, I'm still planning on going ahead with 15mm scale Infinity for sci-fi skirmish goodness. I'll probably be getting some minis from Ground Zero Games, as I'm UK based, so it's just a case of working out what to use for what!

The only 15mm terrain we've got is for WW2, so I'll have to get building; I'm currently thinking of something between Matakishi's amazing SF city, and this awesome modular Necromunda table - check out the concept for a better idea of what's going on!


I'd also like to play some space combat games. Full Thrust is good fun (and free) but clunky, so we may end up buying the Firestorm: Armada rules and using FT ships 'cos I think the NSL ones are about as cool as it gets...

Filler games

We've had two weeks without a full complement of players, so we've been digging out the filler games!

A couple of weeks ago it was Dominion (actually, Dominion: Intrigue) which we're still getting the hang of. We played a few games, trying to get a strategy together - I'm still on the fence about this one; one of our group likes it, one seems disinterested, I get into it at the time but don't really get that much out of it...

This week, however, was regular filler game Descent! Taking into account what was said last time, we decided to take one hero each - and the balance seems to be restored. We lost.

I drew Varikas the Dead (yay!) and some interesting skills - I regained (another) fatigue point when Advancing, got +1 armour and a free Guard action when Battling, and exploded killing everything in 3 squares if I died. Dave got Steelhorns the minotaur, the ability to Cleave into another opponent if he killed someone in melee, and invigorating battle cry and something else...

We were kicking ass and taking names right up until the final battle, when our lack of decent magic items meant we really couldn't touch Nat's dragon, and we went down. We play that if all the heroes are dead at the end of a turn then it's Game Over Man, so the evil Overlord finally won!

To his credit, Nat had an interesting strategy going; burning - rather than playing - spawns and traps to get get Doom, Hordes of The Things, Brilliant Commander and something else all in play - meaning the most effective way for us to clear a room in the endgame was for me to die, and take as many with me as possible!

Your help needed!

I'm getting a few hits now, so I'd appreciate your input - regular reader or not - into the blog...

It's starting to feel a bit messy to me, with RPGs, boardgames and wargaming starting to creep in too - should I split the site? Are the filtered feeds actually any use?

Do people actually care about session reports? Not many other blogs have 'em, you see.

I'm considering starting up a blog list/aggregator as I generally come here to read my favourite blogs (see sidebar) so I thought hey, what the hell: why not set up some kind of community for all these niches I seem to be trying to squeeze into one blog? Is that all one sentence? Wow.

Please tell me what you think!!