The original Star Wars RPG system is now West Coast Games' D6 system.
www.westendgames.com/html/plyd6.html

Of course Star Wars itself is now a frelling D20 game.

I'm with you on the 2nd Ed AD&D, though I'm partial to Planescape and Darksun. In the past couple of years, though, I've really enjoyed the d10 system behind All Flesh Must Be Eaten, partly because it forced my players to focus on character development rather than powergaming.

I think my favorite system is probably the WoD system; I've always thought that White Wolf struck a really nice balance between elegant simplicity and realism. I've seen some people say that the WoD system was easy to get bogged down in and became really numbers-intensive, but I've never experienced that. Of course, I play primarily with 2nd Edition core books and use almost no supplements. I also have a nasty habit of ignoring any rule I dislike (bad rule! go back in your closet!).

My favorite setting is Shadowrun, hands down. What a wonderful blend of science fiction elements and fantasy, magic and technology. And I always found the history compelling. But in general, dragons with cybernetics = hot.

A close second is Rifts. An absolutely wonderful setting with a horrific, flawed system. What an unfortunate pairing. What I like about the Rifts setting is that while it has a distinctive flavor, it's also theoretically possible to incorporate almost any creature or element from fantasy, science fiction, or mythology that you fancy.

I'm also a big fan of Hollow World, which I think was an original D&D setting (I honestly don't remember now; it may been 2nd Edition). There's just something about a thriving ecology in the interior of a world that I like. Also, throw Red Steel in there, cause swashbuckling is fuuuuunnnnnn. Oh, and speaking of swashbuckling, I nearly forgot Spelljammer. A little light and not terribly well designed, but flying naval ships through space is great fun (and who can resist the allure of a nice Mind Flayer Nautiloid?).

-a

Love the Black Company books. I've read them all.

Beth said:

I actually hadn't read any of the books before starting on the campaign. I started on them a few weeks later and found we had captured the feel of them very well.

My Reply:

Neat. That's one of the reasons I listed "Inner Hand Wars" as my favorite setting. It was set in Corwainer Smith's "Instramentality Of Mankind" Timeline, and when we had played it, I had never read the stories. Once the game had ended, I read all the Short Stories and the Novel; and It was so rewarding! It was like I had all this insider information... and it was information only a handful of people in the world shared! I finished the Short Stories on a hillside overlooking a Canyon that went out to sea in San Diego. Very rewarding.

Sytems: GURPS and Savage Worlds.
GURPS for the incredible number of genre books and flexibility, resources statted for it, and the realism allowed. It also helps that I've been playing/running it for over seven years.
Savage Worlds for sheer speed and Over-the-Top capacity allowed for with the Action Deck, Adventure Deck and the "Bennies".
I have friends that run d20 and I'm not a big fan of that system. I like a system that natively uses dice that allow for a curve.
I ran SW and SAS/TriStat at last year's Norwescon here in Seattle and people loved them both. I don't count SAS/TriStat as a favorite as I've recently had a part of the rules broken off in my ass. Admittedly it's my fault as I allowed players to over-use the "Dynamic Powers" power. I suppose that barring stupidity and ignorance on the part of the GM it's a great system as well.
Settings/Genres: Star Trek (post "Undiscovered Country"), WWII, Modern Horror/Fantasy, E.E.Knight's Vampire Earth, Supers, and Fringeworthy (based on an RPG originally pub. about 23-25 yrs ago), in no particular order.

> I just picked up an old copy of Ars Magica today - another great game that nobody plays -
> in the hopes that when I've finished organizing TempleCon for this year I can make some time to run a campaign.

Hey! *I* play Ars Magica!
Have you hit the AG forums, or the "Berzerklist"?

Also, the "Open Games" forum of RPG.net seems good...


Best o' luck putting together a troupe!


- Steve