...and what games do you hope to see next decade?

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
They are my second favourite series of game books after Lone Wolf.
I'm not familiar with either Way of the Tiger or Lone Wolf. By "game books" do you mean books based on a game world, or do you mean that the books themselves are "which way" style books that play like a game? Or am I totally confused here?
 
  • Blue Planet: Recontact
  • The Troubleshooters
 
I don't find myself wanting for a new game... but I'll be happy to see new stuff coming for Mythras, DCC, and LotFP... and hopefully The Nightmares Underneath.
Also, hopefully, I'll get back to running more games than I have the past few years.
 
I'm not familiar with either Way of the Tiger or Lone Wolf. By "game books" do you mean ... that the books themselves are "which way" style books that play like a game? Or am I totally confused here?

Exactly like that. A "Which Way" or "Choose Your Own Adventure" style book but with a game system attached. You make decisions about what you do in the book, but you also have stats/scores that deterine whether you succeed. Some only have a combat system to determine if you win the fights you get in, while others have attributes and skills similar to a real RPG.
 
The Way of the Tiger RPG that was announced years ago that never materialized. Or at least an Orb setting book.
Sadly that is unlikely to happen due to publisher issues. (There's a beta version floating round the net though.
 
Ooh, ooh, or 5e Historic books, like the old TSR ones. Dumb as they may be, I have a soft spot for what they were trying to do.

WFiIWIC.jpg

I didn't find them dumb, several are excellent actually.
 
I mean... what's another year in the previous 6? :smile: It was planned at least since before Mythras was Mythras, and before AiG was ended :smile:
Yeah I have been watching for it, and Nocturnal's (Now Chaosium's) Beyond Iron, since 2015. Still if the book just shares the slightest amount of glory with the Rome book I will be happy.
 
Yeah I have been watching for it, and Nocturnal's (Now Chaosium's) Beyond Iron, since 2015. Still if the book just shares the slightest amount of glory with the Rome book I will be happy.

with you on that. I have a friend who really loves Anabasis, and I would like him to run it. I suspect this would help, though I think it is supposed to be Mycenean era, and a bit before Anabasis.
 
with you on that. I have a friend who really loves Anabasis, and I would like him to run it. I suspect this would help, though I think it is supposed to be Mycenean era, and a bit before Anabasis.
So I googled Anabasis and that is apparently a Greek book from 370AD. Is it a RPG also? Because if it is I might have to get that...
 
So I googled Anabasis and that is apparently a Greek book from 370AD. Is it a RPG also? Because if it is I might have to get that...

it is not. He just wants to run an Anabasis campaign. I think he could do it with core mythras easily, but I want some pretty pictures and dedicated history stuff to push him over the edge :smile:
 
I have been playing with an idea for a RPG setting where the players are adventures in Hellenitic Greece but at a time wherre the old Gods are coming back (and are upset at the Greeks for falling away from them). I envision Mycenean adventure in a mor modern Greek setting (maybe between wars).
 
Not a fan. It’s too focussed on the hardware and combat options, as are most trad RPGs in this genre, and not enough on the story and conventions of the genre.

Yeah I heard he had received that feedback from his playtesters and was going back to the drawing board to try and capture that. Quite the challenge to include both in one game, that seems to be the intention of Lancer.
 
Yeah I heard he had received that feedback from his playtesters and was going back to the drawing board to try and capture that. Quite the challenge to include both in one game, that seems to be the intention of Lancer.

Yeah. As said, I struggled for ages with traditional RPG approach to the genres of supers, wuxia, and urban fantasy as well. This is because the genres are more about the story and conventions than the physics. So, it wasn't until I found RPGs that lifted the mechanics away from combat and mechanical options for super powers, martial arts, and mecha builds, that I had success with them.

The mecha genre is the last genre left that doesn't have a comparable PbtA RPG as Masks, Hearts of Wulin and Urban Shadows. So that's what I want.
 
The mecha genre is the last genre left that doesn't have a comparable PbtA RPG as Masks, Hearts of Wulin and Urban Shadows. So that's what I want.

I'd like to note that there is a BIG difference between having no rules for something (Masks), and having trope compatible mechanics (Hearts & Souls.) Masks is a neat game, it focuses on a singular set of tropes "teen emotional baggage in supers" and leaves out the numerous other tropes and elements that support the varied palette of supers.

Even then its own set of paints is limited.

I like Masks, it is one of the few PbtA games I own in print. As a fan of supers, however, it mechanically ignores anything that doesn't fit its narrow set of genre elements and most of those are literally just taken from Teen Titans of a certain era and Young Justice and a specific time period of Spider-Man. It doesn't touch well on New Mutants. X-men, or other teen-driven comics at all. If you don't want to play SOLELY teen angst type super struggles, it becomes a bit of too tight a box.

While I can respect that, I want a little more substance in a game that has many and varied tropes like supers.

I'll add that of two and a half-game groups I have (some overlap or it would be 3), all of them have noped out of Masks. Despite my best efforts to get them to try it. Simply because they've no interest in teen angst as an overall trope.
 
Honestly I think the best narrative Supers game is Marvel Heroic. Unfortunately it is no longer buyable because of IP license stuff, but yeah.
 
I'd like to note that there is a BIG difference between having no rules for something (Masks), and having trope compatible mechanics (Hearts & Souls.)

There are many different types of RPGs and I wasn’t aiming to make any comment beyond wanting an RPG that approaches the mecha genre like Masks, Hearts of Wulin, and Urban Shadows approach their genres. If you want something different, great.
 
Yeah. As said, I struggled for ages with traditional RPG approach to the genres of supers, wuxia, and urban fantasy as well. This is because the genres are more about the story and conventions than the physics. So, it wasn't until I found RPGs that lifted the mechanics away from combat and mechanical options for super powers, martial arts, and mecha builds, that I had success with them.

The mecha genre is the last genre left that doesn't have a comparable PbtA RPG as Masks, Hearts of Wulin and Urban Shadows. So that's what I want.

One tricky thing is that mecha games have tended towards heavy crunch which is slow when most mecha combat in anime is very fast.
 
Honestly I think the best narrative Supers game is Marvel Heroic. Unfortunately it is no longer buyable because of IP license stuff, but yeah.
one of my very favorites. it's my go to for "lazy" gaming.
 
One tricky thing is that mecha games have tended towards heavy crunch which is slow when most mecha combat in anime is very fast.

Yeah. I think PbtA’s initiative-less combat would be a great fit, especially when intercutting non-mecha action as well. Add in moves that could give mecha and non-mecha actions equal weight like Masks does with superpower use and HoW does with kung fu would be perfect.
 
Not really looking for new games per se, but who knows? Wolves of God looks really cool.

What I would like to see come out is Secrets of the Nether City (ACKS) for non-backers, and Mythic Babylon and Lyonesse (Mythras).

It would be grand if the Trolls managed to whip the Marmoreal Tomb into shape but I ain’t holding my breath.

There’s bound to have good stuff coming out for Savage Worlds, WoD/CoD and Cepheus, but I’m less informed about these lines.
 
I'm cautiously optimistic for the Savage Worlds Martial Arts Companion. I guess that's technically a supplement, not a game, so I will hope for a martial-arts heavy game that uses Savage Worlds Adventure Edition for rules. :smile:
 
I'm cautiously optimistic for the Savage Worlds Martial Arts Companion. I guess that's technically a supplement, not a game, so I will hope for a martial-arts heavy game that uses Savage Worlds Adventure Edition for rules. :smile:

Didn’t even know this was a thing! Color me interested!
 
Yeah. I think PbtA’s initiative-less combat would be a great fit, especially when intercutting non-mecha action as well. Add in moves that could give mecha and non-mecha actions equal weight like Masks does with superpower use and HoW does with kung fu would be perfect.

So Wulin is good? I’ve been wondering about it.
 
Didn’t even know this was a thing! Color me interested!

Yep, they are coming out with new versions of the Science Fiction Companion, Fantasy Companion, and Horror Companion that will be compatible with Savage Worlds Adventure Edition [ETA: I forgot the Super Powers Companion], and making the brand-new Martial Arts Companion as well.
 
Last edited:
I would also welcome a RQ-lite book, that streamlines the rules down somewhat with a simplier character sheet, yet retaining the core RQ/BRP system. On the Chaosium FB page, this was something that John Wick said he would be interested in developing. However it was more of an off-hand comment than anything else. I'ld just like to see it happen.

I would like to a rule set for BRP (like MagicWorld, perhaps with a better name), one that has a old school dark classic fantasy setting. Think of Dungeon Crawl Classics-meets-Forbidden Lands. Now that would seriously kick some butt.

I really don't understand the lack of support for a magic world like BRP-lite, Call of Cthulhu and the various Elric based games have done well for Chaosium (after all CoC seems to be the game that has kept them afloat all these years). Magic World was not a very inspiring name, but I like the game as it sits at a nice middle ground of difficulty.
 
One thing nobody mentioned: a more generic RPG using Spellbound Kingdom-style mechanics (at least in combat and in social arena), but without the setting. Frankly, I suspect the setting might get voted down due to being too soul-crushing...:shade:

I'll start here. I want a really good Romance of the Three Kingdoms game. Something no less crunchy than Cortex Prime. I would love Mythras, but there are other options here as well, but it's something I struggled with due to the volume of the material. I don't think it's really been done justice, and with too many fancy mechanics.
I just want a decent wuxia game that's at least close to Legends of the Wulin, but with half or less the crunch...:smile:

I have some big hopes for the new lines based on the Pendragon mechanics - the Magician one, the Greek warrior one and Samurai.

The Design Mechanisms' Casting The Runes and Chaosium's Rivers of London look interesting.
Also, this, plus the Lyonesse RPG by The Design Mechanism:wink:!

The Way of the Tiger RPG that was announced years ago that never materialized. Or at least an Orb setting book.
Same here!

I mean... what's another year in the previous 6? :smile: It was planned at least since before Mythras was Mythras, and before AiG was ended :smile:
I suspect the cancelling might have something to do with it, but that's just me.


So Wulin is good? I’ve been wondering about it.
You mean...Legends of the Wulin?
Because if that's what you mean: Hell Yes! Its only drawback is that it's heavy and battles are time-consuming...but unlike other time-consuming battles in other games, they're so fun I can forgive it! (And time-consuming battles are part of the genre:grin:).
 
There are many different types of RPGs and I wasn’t aiming to make any comment beyond wanting an RPG that approaches the mecha genre like Masks, Hearts of Wulin, and Urban Shadows approach their genres. If you want something different, great.

Cool, no worries. :smile: Just wanted to make note that there are games that do a bit more with genre tropes of comic book supers. What's Hearts of Wulin?
 
Cool, no worries. :smile: Just wanted to make note that there are games that do a bit more with genre tropes of comic book supers. What's Hearts of Wulin?
Oh...it seems to be a PbtA wuxia game.
Colour me cautiously interested. Depending on which kind of PbtA it emulates, it might be the answer to one of my 2020 wishes, or not:grin:!
 
I really don't understand the lack of support for a magic world like BRP-lite, Call of Cthulhu and the various Elric based games have done well for Chaosium (after all CoC seems to be the game that has kept them afloat all these years). Magic World was not a very inspiring name, but I like the game as it sits at a nice middle ground of difficulty.
For a simple BRP set of mechanics, I actually prefer OpenQuest, but Magic World is also quite reasonable. I liked how it was a mix of Elric Stormbringer & RQ3 mechanics. I really liked the quick character gen, it gets you in there playing quicker.

Having a smaller skill list is a good thing, if possible. I'm over huge clunky skill lists now, they just ŕeel fiddily and cumbersome, and often don't help all that much with visualising characters.

Having a evocative setting (like Forbidden Lands) with heaps of good quality old- school classic fantasy ŕ is the way to go, and would do a set of rules like Magic World justice.

But that name 'Magic World' would definately havè to go, and be replaces with some more inspiring and flavoursome.
 
This is part of my film nerd taste for obscure foreign genres but a recent conversation in another thread made me realize I’d really dig a Gumshoe game set in the noirish Japan of the 50s/60s films of Kurosawa, Suzuki and Shinoda.

8FE4AF82-EB0A-4158-B79E-A4947BC3280D.jpeg
 
So Wulin is good? I’ve been wondering about it.

I really like what I have seen and listened to a few actual plays of it. Seems very much in the vein of Masks but for wuxia, with a focus on the drama and story of the genre over the specific mechanics of martial arts and combat. RPGers who want such mechanics will want to look elsewhere, but that's something that has lots of RPGs catering for it already.
 
the latest TDM newsletter has a preview of Lyonesse for folks.
Based on what's revealed in those 40+ pages, It's exactly what I was hoping for: full of evocative spell names, potential for world shaking magic, with in-setting "soft" constraints (Murgen's Edict), lots of background detail on various minor and not so minor noble house, excellent illustrations, some nifty little tables for generating plots and towns. It looks like TDM has done it again, those magnificent bastards.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top