What are some of your favorite tabletop RPG systems and settings, and what do you love about them?

I think my favorite system is the mashup our DM created, we've been running it for about 3 years.

We started by doing a real-time session over discord where he explained the basic rules of the Microscope system, and we each took a turn. We then spent the next 6 months or so adding to a google doc asynchronously as we built out our world. This was an really excellent way for all of the players to become truly invested in the world and to know the lore really well.

At a fairly arbitrary point, we decided we were "done" and ready for the "real" game. We then picked a point in our Microscope timeline that we wanted to adventure in. We then each created characters using the Blades in the Dark system, but adapting all the flavor text to suit our created universe. Our DM then pulled together all the lore we had written and started us out having adventures.

Blades is pretty non-crunchy, which suits our group's preferred play style of collective storytelling over battle mechanics. We often find ourselves describing what is happening by using cinema terms like "the camera fades to black as my character howls in anguish". It's been incredibly fun to play in this universe, and the tangled web of plots grows ever thicker and more interesting as we keep going.

I've just started running a new LANCER campaign, and it's basically the perfect game for me - loose, easy to mould roleplay mechanics and ultra-crunchy (but pretty streamlined) combat coupled with a wonderful, moderately hard sci-fi setting that puts human conflict front and center, with enough Spooky Space Shit to provide good story hooks and cosmic horror themes. Plus it's written by the Kill Six Billion Demons guy.

I don't have nearly as much TTRPG experience as the rest of my usual playgroup, and I'm definitely not as talented with the improv/storytelling aspects. That being said, I've really fallen for Exalted 3rd Edition. It's most definitely not a system for everyone - it's very crunchy (the base rulebook runs nearly 700 pages, and there are now multiple expansions for other character types), and character-building and combat get quite complex. The things that have made me like it:

1. The over-the-top drama without relying on silliness: A starting-level Exalt is already vastly more powerful than most mortals, and things only go up from there. A long-running Exalted chronicle will probably end up on the "divine" or "cosmic" scale of conflicts. There's also the "stunts" system, akin to D&D's "inspiration". It's a small reward (dice bonuses or partial auto-success) given when you give extra flavorful description to the actions you're taking, instead of just listing off skills. You're able to stunt nearly every single roll you make, and you're actually encouraged to do so. My favorite example of the power-level of Exalted is the skill "Graceful Crane Technique". As-described, it allows your character to treat any solid object they stand on as if it were flat, level ground. Simple examples include things like walking a tightrope or maintaining balance on a rocky hillside. The book explains that this escalates all the way up to "running across the spear-points of a large mortal army, doing battle with another Exalt" - and this is a skill you can take right away during character creation.

2. The social combat system. For someone who isn't naturally good at free-flowing roleplay character interactions, I love the structure that Exalted provides here. When you create a character, you give them Intimacies - strong positive or negative feelings towards either something or someone (a Tie) or a more abstract concept (a Principle). When you get into a social situation that you want to get something out of, you can use your skills to determine what Intimacies the other characters have, and then if you want to persuade them to do something out of the ordinary, you have to lean on one or more of their Intimacies to get them to do so.

3. Honestly, the crunchiness. Exalted uses 9 attributes and 26 abilities to build your character's stats. You then get to select from dozens upon dozens of Charms, which are activated or triggered spell-like effects, but for any ability. The Charms are arranged basically into video-game-like skill trees, so you can really customize the flavor of your character by selecting which charms they take. My last character was heavily invested in the Resistance ability, and I specifically chose the portion of the Charm tree that dealt with berserker-style combat - once I got going, I was nearly unstoppable in battle. However, if I was stopped, Very Bad Things happened very quickly. Even though another character in the party also had a significant amount of Resistance, because he had a different set of Charms, we played our characters very differently.

My all-time favourite setting is 2300AD. It is a "hard scifi" setting -- think authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Michael Crichton, or films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Contact, rather than space fantasies like Star Wars or Star Trek. There is no "force" or magic or "mass effect" or even artificial gravity. Space stations need to spin, getting a rocket off a planet is still risky and costly, and things are in general based on real physics and fairly realistic geopolitical models.

In other words, 2300AD is a vision of what human society might look like a couple of hundred years from now. Humanity has developed the technology for interstellar travel and colonised a couple of dozen star systems. Travel times are long, spaceships are rare and expensive, and it takes you weeks or even months to get from one star system to another, so these colonies have to be largely self-sufficient and are quite isolated from one another. Most of human population lives on Earth. In many ways, this is analogous to how and why colonisation happened on Earth in the 1700s and 1800s.

As it was originally published in the mid-1980s, this is also in many ways the 80s vision of the future. While newer editions have updated the world somewhat and brought in elements that we now think of as the future, the world of 2300AD is still very much grounded on ideas derived from 70s and early 80s science fiction. In our game group, we also largely stick to the original 80s tech vision: in our games, personal computers are similar to Commodore 64s, big tech companies run huge mainframe computers, and the internet is similar to the BBSs of the 1980s.

But wait a minute, why hasn't tech evolved more, I hear you ask. Well, some tech advancements simply never happened, and humanity also underwent a nuclear war in the early 2000s, which was just as traumatic and catastrophic as you might think. In fact, if you've ever played Twilight 2000, it's the same event. The two exist in the same universe.

While the war didn't ultimately destroy humanity or even most nation states, it did set things back quite a bit. It was only in the 2080s that things started to normalise again, with France emerging as the new global power and the country spearheading the new era of human exploration of space. Fast forward to 2300, and France still leads the world, with Manchuria, re-unified Germany and a newly emerging America the other major geopolitical players both on Earth and the colonies.

2300AD uses a real star map, or at least what we knew of the 100 light year bubble around Sol in the early 80s. Planets in those solar systems are, of course, made up. As human spaceships can only travel a maximum of 7.7 light years in one go before needing to stop near a gravity well, this limits where ships can travel and creates a really interesting galactic map.

In its exploration of the nearby galactic space, humanity has also met with a handful of alien races, each more different from humans than the other. Aliens in 2300AD are truly alien, and something that a regular person only hears of, never sees or interacts with. Except if you happen to live in the furthest French colonies. A war has just broken between humanity and a strange, until now unknown alien species that doesn't seem to want to communicate with us. Why they attacked, who they are, and what's going to happen is uncertain.

Many build their campaigns around that war, but our group has never really bothered with the conflict that much as anything else than a backdrop. Instead, we have explored more typical hard scifi questions like what type of societies would evolve in this type of a world, their socio-political realities, where technology could take us (in both good and bad), what type of planets can really exist and how do they affect the flora and fauna that lives there, what it really is to be human, and so on. As there is almost 40 years worth of materials created for 2300AD, there is a lot to explore in this incredibly rich universe.

If this gets you interested, the good news is that there is a beautiful new edition from Mongoose Publishing that came out just last year. They are also in the process of updating many source books.

The bad news is that the current 2300AD runs on top of Traveller, so in theory you also need that core rulebook. And personally, I am not a huge fan of the Traveller rule system. But then again, in the games that I run, rules are only guidelines anyway, and the act of collaborative storytelling between me and my players is the reason we play.

The ugly news is that because of its long history, and Mongoose's fairly poor quality control, there are also more issues with the new 2300AD books than there frankly should be: contradictory information, references to things that a veteran player knows but that aren't mentioned anywhere in the current books, and lots and lots of little mistakes. But if the idea of the world interests you, don't let those stop you. The new books are still pretty great and they give you a good enough introduction on top of which you can build your version of 2300AD.

If you ever decide ttrpg are close but not quite what you are looking for, come give war games a try :) I enjoy playing both types (though I lean towards war games) and am always happy to chat about them.

I really enjoyed plaing Unknown Armies (haven't tried the latest installment). It has a great setting. Modern world, but people can derrive power from Carl Jung like archetypes or various strange schools of magic. Like dipcomancy where you get magical energy from being drunk. The "spells" are also highly thematic "Just another harmless drunk" for becoming effectively invisible.

I remember the system in itself is fairly easy to play. The mechanics around noble, rage, and fear stimulus (IIRC) is kind of nice cause it makes you think about the drives of your character.

The game is definately not for everyone as you essentially play a character that becomes more and more derranged as it progresses and gets more deeply involved in the mystical workings of the world. But, I have had some highly memorable game sessions!

I'm playing In Nomine Satanis / Magnas Veritas (INS/MV for short), a French urban fantasy RPG. I heard there was an English adaptation, but it was not as good.

The setting is modern and urban, and like in Vampire the Masquerade there a great conspiracy that keeps the truth hidden from people. This time it's angel and demons: they are real along with everything that‘s the Bible (well, from a certain point of view). They have been playing the Great Game for a long, long time. And of course you are playing as one of them.

So, as an angel or demon, you are usually part of a small task force that solves various missions that usually mixes investigation and combat. You usually serve a particular Archangel or Demon Prince that embodies a particular aspect of the good or bad side (e.g. Dominique, Archangel of Justice, or Mammon, Demon Prince of Cupidity). So an Angel of Michel (War) is generally an uncultured brute while a Demon of Malthus (Disease) will generally by an evil doctor. A thing of note is that angels are generally better equipped and have more resources than Demon, who generally acts underground.

The overall tone of the setting is irreverent, satiric and often darkly humorous.

• Being good isn't being nice, and the angelic forces has its fair share of fascists and fanatics. And working for the Devil… well you’re supposed to corrupt humanity, but the last cardinal rule every demon learns specifically states that you shouldn’t forget to have a good time while spending time on Earth.
• There’s a Demon Prince of Hardcore Metal (surprisingly he's not chum with the Demon Prince of Artistic Talents)
• There’s no Archangel of Love (presumably because there’s a Demon Prince of Sex and that would be awkward/confusing), but the closest thing we have is to this in an Archangel of Flower. He is neatly a textbook hippie. His angel the “Pollen” power who instantly pacify any hostile characters and more or less sings have them sing peace and love songs.
• There’s tons of internal politics and bickering, both in the infernal and angelic court. You don’t want to mess with either Dominique or Andromalius servants, who expect nothing less than a perfect following of the Divine or Satanic commandments, and has the power to enforce them. But at the same time, it is rumored that their best elements are known to collaborate in a mysterious “Bureau” unit that tracks the remnant of the Third Forces (Fae, Vikings, Egyptians…)
• Sometimes, you really need to take a break. Every angel or demon. if they really want a break, can summon an entrance to “Regis’ bar”, a fine drinking establishment owned by Jesus (yes, this one). It’s a neutral ground (Archangels and Demon Prince are banned), being mostly outside of time were supernatural being can enjoy a beer or two after a long day of work.
• It’s a very French game and some of the humor really hits the spot if you’re French or are familiar with the country:
  • You don’t gain experience points, but rather Administrative Points that let you write an official request for a reward (better characteristics, power, etc.). Now, those points doesn’t reflect what actually happened during a mission, but how the bureaucracy perceives it. Unofficial or borderline behavior (not being discrete, unjustified failure, etc.) will net you 0 points by the end of the mission. Sadistic GM (or masochistic players) will let the player write the final report document themselves (most don’t).
  • In general, the Angelic and Demonic administration and management is a bureaucratic nightmare.
  • Of course the Headquarters of Angelic forces on Earth is under Notre Dame de Paris
  • Of course that famous news presenter is in reality a demon of Nybbas (Prince of Media).
  • Of course the more backward heavy-hitters of the angelic forces are fans of the PSG football team
  • Provoking a strike amongst human to solve a problem is always a valid option

Mechanically speaking, you play with a d666 (of course). The first two dices tells you if you have successfully accomplished your action (you must score under a threshold that depends on your characteristics), and the third dice tells you how well you have accomplished (or failed) and action (also modified by your characteristics). You can add bonus points to the result in exchange for a worse threshold.

Critical successes are handled by doing a double or triple number, and there’s a “super-critical” result if you manage to roll a 111 or 666. In those two cases, either God or Satan directly intervene, and generally the result is very spectacular.

The rules are a bit too fussy (especially in the 4th ed), but I really like the setting.

I followed the Avatar Kickstarter, and they use a modified version of the Powered By the Apocalypse engine. Lots of dice rolls are around how actions affect your character where as the attacks and power levels by the DM saying whether or not you can do a thing, and a die roll determining how successful you are. It's an all d6 system, and very easy to jump into.

I know everyone harps on Dungeons and Dragons, but I certainly have a lot of fun playing it with my friends on the weekend.

Our DM has been keeping the campaign running for about a year and a half. We've had lots of types of encounters in our various quests.

I'm eager to try things like Lancer and the games mentioned in the first reply, however.