this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
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mine is delta green

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[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

GURPS fan here. yeah, the core game is really not that complicated, it's only once you get into the supplements that- HOW DO YOU KNOW I'M BRAZILIAN

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

As another GURPS fan - do people really get into the settings? I always saw them more as cool worked examples. I guess Traveller took off

[–] maub@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago

Very hard decision, I mean the one I played most and still play with a few friends is in fact "Shadowrun" (2e - 6e), but I have to confess, I never joked about Cyberpunk players, I even played Cyberpunk, sometimes both on the same weekend (weird, right).

Here are the three that I remember having the most fun with:

  1. "Magna Veritas" and "In Nomine Satanis" (originally from France, iirc), where you played Angels vs Daemons (think "Good Omens" just even more absurd).

  2. There was one called "Plüsch, Power und Plunder" where you played living plushies, and had to hide the fact that you're alive from humans.

  3. "Paranoia", a game where just surviving was the adventure in a dystopian social credit system, that executed you immediately with killer drones, when you got demoted to the lowest level "Infrared", but you could just use a new clone and start again.

The most rounded rule system I ever expierienced is ERPS, no levels, no experience, just using the skills/attributes give you a change of increasing that particular attribute or skill (this is also free, but only available in German iirc).

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

My favorite TTRPG is the homebrew system I made myself!

But besides that I've played D&D 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 5.5, Pathfinder 1 and 2, CoC, GURPS, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Traveler, Star Wars 5e, and Mini Six. I'm familiar with a lot of others through podcasts, like Paranoia, Toon, VtM, Fate Core, Fiasco, and Over The Edge.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Pathfinder is awesome, haters gonna hate

I'm considering becoming a professional GM, some of the more interesting games I've come across while planning out my game options include Knave, Ironsworn, Twilight 2000, and Dungeons & Kittens

[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Let's not forget

...just to name a few legends adjacent to your listed gems. 🤘🏼

p.s. Pathfinder was, in its early days, a welcome alternative to D&D —for those that accepted a simple streamlining of the TSR/WotC SoP... Though millions of us OGs saw what it was aiming for: D&D in a LBD, but the underlying cray's just better dressed. 🥲

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[–] Ooops@feddit.org 31 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You dare talking about this in public????

[–] GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Hah! Like anyone goes to jail in Paranoia. You'll be shot dead by your fellow troubleshooters before you ever see the inside of a cell.

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[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

How could they not include EotW series?

[–] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just to note, "indie company" and "2nd biggest game on the market" aren't mutually exclusive. This isn't a big market, and most of it is D&D.

[–] Mandarbmax@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ya, they are an order of magnitude smaller than D&D but also an order of magnitude larger than the #3

[–] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Agreed. But they're still indie. This whole genre is a niche.

TTRPG systems may be well-known and famous to us nerds, so it's easy to forget that the average person has probably only heard of D&D and a few WoDs. And Pathfinder, of course.

[–] Pelicanen@fedia.io 7 points 4 days ago
[–] Gryphon@ttrpg.network 3 points 3 days ago

Other than my various flavors of homebrew over the years, it was probably Empire of the Petal Throne.

Second to that would be the Albedo TTRPG.

[–] cardborbox@ttrpg.network 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

LANCER is absolutely a vibe and I enjoy very much.

I think my favorite system to run is LUMEN especially with groups that want the freedom to do the coolest thing. I mostly end up running D&D 5e and I’m very tired of being the rules lawyer/ loremaster/ combat manager/ etc.

Rules-light systems like LUMEN actually give my players a chance to get what they want while still paying the cost in resources, with a touch of tactical combat that made a memorable game.

Also a fan of Kids on Bikes, and the exploding dice mechanic from games like Savage Worlds!

[–] Ragallos@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

Holy crap I have spent so many deep nights/mornings diving into a homebrew world my buddy ran via Savage Worlds. That shit was so legendary

[–] Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

Star Wars 3.5 was my favorite campaign by far. I played an Ewok engineer that fixed things by banging on them with his rusty wrench. I can do a damned good Ewok voice. It was a riot. He also found and fixed a hoverdisc and just sat on it, floating behind the party wherever they went.

[–] MonkeBizNES@lemmy.cafe 25 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Daggerheart: "Theatre Kid (derogatory)" lmao

This list is actually hilarious

[–] grue@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago

Not to be confused with "theater kid (extremely derogatory)" for Vampire The Masquerade.

[–] Ragallos@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago

I was very happy to see both my faves on this list! Lancer and Delta Green! Ive only ran them (one of the Forever GM's in my group) but the systems are so cool and rich for my kind of storytelling!

[–] Metostopholes@midwest.social 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Nobody's mentioned Dungeon Crawl Classics (and variants), which is a shame.

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[–] BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

I'm just happy to see Lancer get more attention. I don't really understand why the goblin is apparently transfem coded but I'm happy for those who celebrate anyway

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 5 days ago

Damn somebody knows a Pathfinder player they don't like huh

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Shadowrun.

But nobody wants to play with me (we played one campaign of 4E and nobody else in my group liked it, even tho it's the one we end up talking about the most) 😩

[–] Dvixen@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Shadowrun for me as well. Never got to play 4E, I moved continents and lost my group. :(

(And yes we made fun of Cyberpunk players every chance we got. They hated us for it. Good fun!)

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Never played the TTRPG but I get the feeling they would kinda end up being more or less the same except SR has the magic and monsters. IIRC, Shadowrun started as a blatant rip off of Cyberpunk and they actually share quite a bit of items and ideas. But obviously adding magic and mythical monsters to it is vastly superior. 😁

[–] Dvixen@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

They came out only a year apart, (Cyberpunk in 88, Shadowrun in 89) Not so much ripoff as convergent evolution of ideas, and one group was a bit slower out of the gate.

[–] wet_bones@lemmy.4d2.org 5 points 4 days ago

In addition to the other AD&D 1e fans, I did not see Gamma World on the list. Shout out to the other Sci Fi ttrpg!

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

AD&D 1e/2e. And contrary to what the meme says, I've also played later editions, Call of Cthulhu, Weird Frontiers, Traveller, Mothership, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mutant Crawl Classics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Symbaroum, Dolmenwood, Troika, Don't Tell Mom & Dad, and Toon. I'm probably leaving some out. Old-school AD&D is still my favorite.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Not sure what the clichés about Fate are. I think it's a fun light system.

Also there are dozens of us who prefer vampire: the requiem over masquerade. Dozens! I recently started a game of it. So far they killed 3 CEOs and blew up a data center (in the game).

It's been fun seeing the DND player adapt to "wait I can just do my cool thing as much as I want?". Like he was going to punch a dude and I was like "are you sure you don't want to just Mesmerize him? It's free and more likely to work, given your stats"

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[–] trslim@pawb.social 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

hey, Im not japanese! i just like the rules for Call of Cthulhu. makes for good x-files and SCP style campaigns.

[–] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Then you should check out Delta Green. A bit nihilistic and grimmer than CoC

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 18 points 5 days ago

I chuckled at a lot of this, but have qualms with a fair few others. Some don't say anything about the player at all, entirely dodging the premise of the meme. For example, Pathfinder "their game is just D&D without commitment" says nothing about the player, it's just a direct critique of the game. Starfinder "just pathfinder in space" also does not comment on the player at all. GURPS sounding like a disease has nothing to do with the player. There's examples like this in most of the games.

[–] SoulKaribou@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Here you go, the French flavor: Nephilim

Prophecy

Magna veritas/in nomine satanis

Berlin XVIII (OK I think this one's German)

Mega 3

Polaris

[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 4 points 4 days ago

I guess D&D, but we never went beyond 2.5e. No critical role (or youtube) at that point.

We also played VtM and I think ran a couple other campaigns in the WoD (Mage and Changeling maybe? It's been 25 years at this point). I was a theater kid, but didn't really call into the rest.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Numenera/Cypher System by MCG, but mostly Numenera the far future setting. Solved the problems I had with D&D. It's Earth 1,000,000,000 years in the future, and it has one of the best bestiaries to read through

[–] Afelia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 5 days ago (2 children)

GURPS. The "Overcomplicated" part stems from 4channers deciding an optional rule that the majority of people will never actually encounter in a game means you have to do calculus all the time. The actual majority of the game is roll 3 dice, try to get under the number next to your skill plus modifiers.

[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

As someone who's played countless hours of GURPS, back in the 90s, I will point out that the general saltiness at its unrepentant chonk was always a thing, and long before "4channers" existed. (even before most of those backbirths were even zygotes)

Also, your perspective seems to ignore the unconscionable levels of inelegant bullshit that every GM had to slog through just to run a damn session, let alone a campaign.

Oh, "campaigns"...The original geek addiction that makes MtG/WH/etc. look like amateurs. That sweet, timeless, fantasy of an ongoing, regularly-attended group weave of arcs that's hooked deep each NIB "forever-DM" right in their inner kid... le sigh. 🥲

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[–] _spiffy@piefed.ca 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)
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[–] frozen@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Been playing Wildsea lately. It's been really fun, although the travel system can be a bit clunky with a smaller group.

[–] Mandarbmax@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

I'm excited to try wildsea some time in the near future!

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Let me add my bundle:
Mausritter, Mothership, BrindlewoodBay, FIST, Kids on Bikes, Breathless, Escape Dinossaur Island, Spire: The City Must Fall, Ironsworn, Fiasco, The Job and all the Mork Borg hacks (Pirateborg, Maizeborg, etc.).

Plus some mentioned here like Paranoia or Cairn.

And yes, I'm learning Paizo's Thirteen Omens.

I might have a problem.

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[–] yakko@feddit.uk 8 points 4 days ago

Fair enough there's no entry for Reign, because there isn't anyone else who plays it 🥲

[–] azrendelmare@ttrpg.network 2 points 3 days ago

I'm hard pressed to say what my personal favorite system is, but currently I'm saying Fabula Ultima.

Cortex Prime, Savage Worlds, Fate, Eat the Reich, Thirsty Sword Lesbians.....

[–] phase@lemmy.8th.world 5 points 4 days ago

Currently playing in Eclipse Phase setting with Ironsworn Starforged (because Eclipse Phase is so massive, I play solo ttrpg)

[–] Pencilnoob@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

FATE CORE

FATE CORE

FATE CORE

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