Games you like but no one else plays?

Through the years I have encountered more systems than you can shake a stick at. And like everyone else, I would find some I thought to be real gems that no one else ever touched. So, I became curious.

What are your favorite table top roleplaying games that no one else ever seems to play? To take it further, what is it about the games in question that you like so much?

Great question.

1. Role Master and Space Master. These games have a reputation for being way too crunchy. However, once you have your character made, they're really easy to run and play. They're also extremely flexible.

2. Feng Shui. I was introduced to this in the late 90s and have brought it to multiple subsequent gaming troupes with excellent reception. The high octane adventures are simple to play yet produce the over the top styles popularized by action movies. I have no idea why this game isn't more highly utilized, but I suspect that the time-traveling, Chi-War they added to give the game, to paraphrase, "a reason for sorcerers to have kung fu battles with cyborgs" simply fails to win hearts.

3. Usagi Yojimbo. The best samurai game I've played, it is faithful to the deadly nature of combat, and reproduces the romantic-yet-oppressive atmosphere of the popularization of that era of Japanese history. It isn't taken seriously I suspect because the titular character is literally a bunny; anthropomorphized animals seem contrary to the subject matter.

I loved RM and SM. Ran a 3 year once a week (normally 4 hour sessions) campaign using RM. Great system, I was one of the playtesters for the HARP system.

I somehow always manage to play the systems I want, even if it takes some time. From the RPG club I started at the organism I frequent/work at, to the various games I started here.

One day Undiscovered... one day...

Feng Shui! I've run that game exactly one time, back in the mid-90s, and it remains one of the most memorable and fun sessions I've ever been part of. Loved it, and so did everyone who played. The system is a little heavy for me these days, though, and I haven't gone to the trouble of picking up the 2nd edition...

Other favorites of mine that no one plays: Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, a whole bunch of Simon Washbourne's Beyond Belief Games stuff: Return of the Woodland Warriors, Supers!, Barbarians of Lemuria. There's a lot of other stuff I'd like to get to play, but I know people are playing it out there somewhere.

One issue is getting uncommon rulesets into player hands. Out of curiosity, I went over to the Iron Crown site to see how Role Master was doing. The product page was a scrambled mess and I couldn't locate introductory .pdfs needed to help introduce new players to it online. This left me doubting their future. Sad.

However, I noted several OSR systems were offering their entire player books for free rather than just introductory material. For example, the current edition of the Castles & Crusades PHB from Troll Lord Games is being offered for free right now in .pdf (normally $20) through their website store.

In France, Barbarians of Lemuria has a good reputation. A supplement was the like the 15th best selling item on the biggest webselling platform.

Iron Kingdoms and Mythender. IK is a little too wargame-y for my tastes in person, since miniatures and battle maps/terrain are required, as are rulers for measuring distance and heights for cover. But it would be amazing for VTTs since computers are perfect at handling complex combat mechanics and minis/terrain/maps/etc. since I don't have to cart all that around. I am hoping one day someone makes a VTT module for that game.

Mythender is my favorite convention one-shot system as it's so over the top, can be learned in 10 minutes, and everyone gets to be a badass.

I see Barbarians of Lemuria mentioned fairly often online. I've never looked into it myself but I wouldn't count it as 'no one else plays' :p

Not exactly in the spirit of the question, but here's a game I'm curious about but I've not seen people play.

I'm a fan of reading hard sci-fi, so I have to confess to being curious about the Expanse RPG. I play only D&D 5e now, but maybe one day I could be tempted to look at this.

I'd love to try it. I read the books and playing in that setting would be pretty cool. I've played some other AGE system game before but don't remember much about the system, though.

I've been part of two or three brief exposures to Expanse RPG, including one I ran, and all of them died in infancy for unusual reasons. Left me wanting more, too.

Feel pretty lucky that I've had a very flexible and open IRL group (not to mention PbP ;D) over the past 11 years that is not only willing, but enjoys, trying new and random systems.

I've never sought to play anything too obscure or niche, but some systems that I feel like you see a lot of ppl site as unicorns that they never get to play (Burning Wheel) or fringe systems that never got much community-wide traction (like the End of the World series), I've gotten to play. Even if not as much as I might like...

That sounds ominous 😆

Didn't Privateer Press recently announce they'd be making a D&d 5e compatible version of Iron Kingdoms?

Yeah, there's a 5e version of IK in the works. Their in-house version didn't do so hot, and the PF version that was the original was okay-ish, supposedly.

BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) is one I haven't seen around here. BESM 3e was my jam for a very long time, and my longest running PbP game was run using it. But I can only assume that most people have found more particular systems to use, rather than a generic system.

I also haven't seen Rhapsody of Blood, but given it's very combat and exploration driven PbtA, and how everyone seems to believe that combat kills pbp games (psst, it doesn't), it's not terribly surprising. Which is a shame, because it's a cool mix of Castlevania and Bloodborne, and handles megadungeon exploration in a very interesting, narrative way that doesn't involve maps (unless you insist on it - they have optional rules for that now, apparently).

They did, but sadly I don't like 5e and don't have any interest in that version. The custom system they made is really good, outside of the tactical wargame aspect. If they had just revised that one aspect it would be amazing.

I think BoL was a lot more popular in the UK and Europe than it ever was in the US; I know the game isn't unknown here, but I've never, ever seen anyone running it other than me, live or PbP. It's a shame, because it's a gem.

Speaking of games I like that I do not see here is Battletech.

Or Star Fleet Battles.

Most people who play Star Fleet Battles online play at the SFB Online website as it is designed to support the game with all the needed materials, SSDs, rules, and maps handy to do so. It would be far more difficult, and likely fun sapping, to play elsewhere.

legend of the 5 rings is a favorite of mine, but online groups, while they exist, are few and far betwen.

High pitched squee
There are some dedicated fans here. A number of games have played, but none recently (other than a duet I'm running).

It always seems like the Cypher System and GURPS get bad PR from a lot of people

I'm running two games of Numenera on here now, which is Cypher. I have only seen one game of GURPS on here though I think.

I have always been enamored with Fading Suns. I have run a few short games, but it also seems a little overwhelming considering the setting is quite expansive. Earthdawn is also a great setting I've only been able to run a few shorts in. Also I would like to see more Mythras games being played as well as more AGE based games like Fantasy Age, Expanse, Titan's Grave and the new Lazarus and Three Fold - all AGE based settings.

Fading Suns
Earthdawn
Mythras
AGE

I'm in a Cyper game (The Strange) but our GM does not have as much time as he wish he had.

I would love to crack open my Dresden FATE accelerated book, as I think Fate would lend itself well to pbp, but I don't feel FATE-skilled enough to run a game.

Fate runs wonderfully in PbP play, in my experience. Big fan.

Plus GP supports FATE dice

Isn't all the meta discussion and back and forth a bit taxing for the momentum of the game ?

There is no perfect system. After analysis, FATE it is a decent choice for narrative focused players who like to write in play by post and want to feel like they are making a collaborative story. But those who like to game and see action results will be disappointed.

Fate can bog down a little if people are messing with Fate Points on every roll, yes, but there are ways to mitigate that, including stating up front what you’re willing to spend, the GM setting clear stakes and difficulties before the roll, etc. For me, the back and forth can be minimized and is worth it for the rich narrative results you get from the mechanics. Having said that, I’ve been porting some of my favorite DNA from Fate and various PbtA games to some lighter platforms with success. I very much dig minimalist systems these days, and while my love for Fate runs deep (and all the way back to Fudge), I -do- find myself preferring lighter mechanics for PbP play lately.

Love FATE. I've run quite a few games on another platform. Works well whether you're into heavy role-play, heavy-action, or something in between. The thing about FATE is you can set the dials where you want them and get the results you want. Admittedly it takes a little experience like any game, but it works for all things.

Where I see problems is when a GM doesn't have enough experience with the system and it starts to break down where the expectations were either high, but needed additional planning, or different than what they had in mind when they started.

Dresden Fate is a wonderful experience when done right. Again, I would mention the amount of work a GM has to put into it is not so simple a thing - at least that's my experience; however, I am not, by any means, an authority on the game.

I agree Harrigan, there are different approaches to running FATE points. I recommend System Toolkit and FATE Codex to anyone invested in FATE as your mainstay. They illustrate different ways of manipulating the system that make sense, are usually fairly easy to use and allow you the freedom to create the games you like most. Just saying. They've helped me see things differently, it might help someone else.

Hey umbral! Fancy seeing you here. =]

Agree that the System Toolkit is a great book, the Codices are cool... and I think the Book of Hanz is actually being kickstarted right about... meow. It's a great resource for people new to the system for sure. But enough about Fate! This is games we like that on one plays, so let's add a new one to the list: Operation White Box, the WWII commandos game based on S&W White Box.

One game, I regret never getting to play with is an RPG called HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone. It was basically Greek style mythic fantasy turned into sci fi and played out across the stars.

Yeah. Hellas seemed hella cool. Never got around to playing it either. But the book was dope and I like the company who put it out.

I still plan to fire up a L5R 5e game on here again at some point but I'm still busy juggling a lot of real life stuff at the moment.

I might be tempted to run one of the pre-written scenarios FFG put out at some point if there's enough interest.

I really enjoyed the L5R game you ran on here a long time ago. That was pretty neat. Plus, I got to win the tournament or something

I would confirm interest. I am not well versed in the differences between FFG L5R and FFG Star Wars but I have heard they are similar in terms of how rolling works?

I've been running 4e L5R game (as a high school with swords pre-gempukku style) as a duet, and it really reminds me of what is so great about the setting. Would love to get the band together.

The FFG L5R dice are unique once again, and not the same or compatible with their Star Wars or Genesys dice. We have had to use standard dice rollers here and convert each roll on the fly. It's not a hardship but is an extra step.

Anyone want to play Zork?

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

North

You better have a glove if you open a door.

I don't know about nobody playing but I recently bought the handbook for Zweihander (as a birthday present to myself) and I'd love to play it.

Someone ran a game of it here once. Due to RL circumstances, they had to leave the site, but it was a cool system for sure

I love the setting in 7th Sea but the 2nd Edition rule set just isn't my cup of tea.

Of course not. It's a book

Lol that joke is illegal unless you are a dad.

I've got a list of "While Whale" games that I always have the itch for, but I'm either the Forever GM or games fall through IRL/Online before they ever really get going.

L5R 4e. I just love everything about L5R in general, but the ruleset by FFG -- like their other products -- just don't grok with me for some reason. I've been in a few online Winter Court-esque games, but they're always so abundantly overcrowded I find it's hard for anyone except the vets who've been there since Day 1 to really get a chance to shine.

Shadow of the Demon Lord. I just recently finished a long campaign of this with a pretty bitter-sweet ending, and I'd love to actually get to play it for a chance. The grim darkness of this distant fantasy world, however, doesn't seem terribly popular. Sad face.

Ryuutama & Golden Sky Stories. These two are technically unrelated, but they're similar thematically in many ways and also the two I've probably had my eye on for the longest time. I've been dying to really get into a game for Ryuutama in particular. I'm a huge Dragon Quest/Studio Ghibli nerd, and both of these games tick all the boxes for me. I've run a one-shot of Ryuutama, but the curse of Forever GM knows no bounds, haha.

The Final Girl. Admittedly, I get to play this one once or twice a year. It's a game I thought I'd hate, but fell in love with. Big groups, small groups, doesn't matter; it's so light weight you can barrel through an entire "campaign"/film in the span of a few hours. It's fast and visceral, and being the B-Grade horror fan that I am, I love everything about the stereotypical slasher flick scenario in RPG format. Also helps that all you need is some imagination, some index cards and a deck of playing cards.

Masks. I backed this game way back when. I've yet to even play it, try as I might to convince my regular group to give it a shot. Makes me sad every time I see the book on my shelf collecting dust, but hey, it sure is nice to flip through from time to time :D

Urban Shadows!!

I loved the original ruleset of L5R with the rings for attributes and you couldn't make me play L5R in a more generic later ruleset.

Same holds through for the O.G. Deadlands rules, so cool and so rich and then that gave birth to SWADE is more generic than DND 5e edition level 1 level one fighter.

Another shout out for Feng Shui I/II. Cool game.

somebody mentioned Top Secret the other day. (a TSR spy game from the 80's)

I've always played D&D and dabbled in other systems. I'd forgotten about Top Secret, but it might be my 2nd favourite. It was very high-tech at the time, but I bet playing it today would be fun corny, and sentimental.

I wish I still had the books.

Kickball.

Seriously though, when I first started playing D&D at 14, I also got with a friend who was running Star Frontiers. It was TSR's attempt to create their own version of a Star Wars RPG. It was pretty fun, actually.

Amber Diceless and REMINES for sure. Amber is that game where 99% of players won't touch it and REMINES is a game no one has heard of that is based on old 80's video games to some degree.

The second RPG I ever played, after my mom learned I was playing D&D at school and told the teacher to make me stop. TMNT had plausible deniability from the Satanic Panic.

I've toyed with running a TMNT: After the Bomb game here, but it would likely use a different system. I loved the premise—post-apocalyptic earth with mutant animals the dominant lifeforms. I guess it's similar to Mutant Year Zero, but maybe several decades in the future, after the animals have established something akin to civilizations.

Might still happen. Or maybe just a straight-up TMNT martial-arts street-level supers game. :)

I'm sure Genesys with the Fight! rules could emulate TMNT!

I'm partial to the Crafty Games line of RPGs - Spycraft (particularly version 2.0) and most recently FantasyCraft. They both are incredible systems but definitely seem to be a niche.

What I like in particular is that you can pretty much make the 'exact' character you want and no character will be the same even within the same class(es) selected.

Seuss

Quite a few Amber communities out there if you know where to look. I've been in a play by email game of Amber that's been going on for years now and the Ambercons have all gone virtual during COVID so I've gotten to attend them for the first time in a long time.

For me, it is the Burning Wheel family of games. The fact that games of them sporadically show up here is what drew me here originally.

Always great to see other BW fans!
I know personally the name itself puts me off. The fact that it seems to be diceless makes me completely uninterested. Also never heard of REMINES so I think your assessment of that is accurate lol.

I'd still be interested in trying out a dice less/ no-randomizer game, but Amber lost me with its setting, I think.
I would like to try out Chuubo's at some point

@bowlofspinach, are you familiar with Avery Alder's Dream Askew / Dream Apart, and the follow-on Belonging Outside Belonging games? You might dig.

I have not. But I do think a shovel would be more useful for digging than even the dreamiest RPG book. (Will check them out, though)

Pardon my ancient slang, whipper-snapper. =]

I find that interesting as the setting is "literally any world you can imagine plus a medieval castle sometimes". Most people who play it have moved quite far away from the 70's mindset it was written in and the tone ranges widely from cuthroat infighting throne war to close family against the universe.

If it is the setting that bothers you but the general ruleset is OK, I suggest Lords of Gossamer and Shadow. It is Amber 2.0 with the serial numbers filed off. The game I play in is technically Amberway, which to say Amber setting, Everway rules. Everway is also a granddaddy diceless system worth taking a look at. It has some randomness in the form of picking a Tarot-like card to influence how your actions go.

I seem to be in be in the minority in that I enjoy both ends of the spectrum, diceless and super crunchy. Both are good depending on what it is you are trying to do.

Maybe I'm mixing up Amber and some other game then 🤔 I'll take another look at it

It is, indeed. When my gaming schedule opens again ...

How on earth did you... unearth... this thread?

Maybe he's a secret necromancer.

I think for forums, it's actually called a necrothreadcer

Not a threadomance? No, that is all of us, really: Reading signs and portents in the threads. :)

Funnily enough, I own BoL but haven't even read it yet lol.

Sounds like someone is running Feng Shui. :) I'm in. Haven't been in long enough to know what people avoid, but I've heard good things about it.

Does it seem like something that would work well on PbP?

I really liked the original, short version of BoL, before it got long and rather complicated. The original had many flaws, but I often wonder if others are also feeling nostalgic about it and transferring that to the Legendary or Mythic (can't remember which is latest) version.

The latest fixed most of the actual problems, but lost part of its soul in the process. :9

I really liked the way all versions handled 'Professions', and try to capture some of that ideology wherever I can, but the rest was... merely OK.

I do love Feng Shui (at least the first edition, which is the only one I ran), but I do worry about the initiative system in PbP play. Very structured. Lots of decisions to be made, lots of ability for people to monkey with their 'shots,' and lots of waiting by folks for those who are up next.

---

Generally disagree on BoL, VagueGM, but I know what you mean to a degree. My favorite version is Legendary (the game needs black and white art, I think), but Mythic really is pretty much the same game, just with one attribute change, a bunch more settings and art I don't dig as much. But we already know we differ on this game. =]

Ooh I want to see an edition fight that's not D&D or Shadowrun! Haha :P

I've thoroughly enjoyed Kamigakari for the nine session I ran it to my friends, but after that we switched systems and I never touched it again. Never saw anyone talking about it either, which is a shame, such a great system.

Never even heard of this game lol. What's the pitch?

I looked it up. Interesting.

Kamigakari: God Hunters on Kickstarter

Definitely not my style but thanks for the info!

I like the original Alternity game. The new one is okay, but I don't like that they dropped the unique mechanics that the original used. I also enjoy a rousing session of Gamma World (yeah, I know, I'm a grognard).

Until recently, I would have named Old School Hack ... thank you GamersPlane! :D

Another one is The Black Hack 1e SRD. Very simple, which I like a lot.

Castle Faulkenstein, one of the most beautiful rpg books I ever read.

Warrior Rogue and Mage

Adventure Conqueror King

Oh man, it's been a hot minute since I've heard that name mentioned! It was steampunk before it became big. I remember playing in a game ran by a German guy going to college nearby where I was living back in the 90's. It was a LOT of wacky, historical-ish fun.
Alternity was a good genre-spanning set of mechanics or was that Amazing Engine?? I really enjoyed the first edition of GammaWorld. It was so uniquely weird and surreal. Definitely a touchstone for super old school gaming of the late 80's.

Legacy life aming the ruin
love how they have family separate from character and zoomout mechanic

Haha I enjoy that too. As for anime fan but combat take too long for me (I'm more like rule lite type of people)

Two dream projects I have had in my head. First is a combination of De Profundis and Ars Magica- where sorcerers write about their trials and adventures to each other.

Another is a strange Star Trek Sim (don't look at me like that). As the GM, the captain writes a first person log and the other members of the crew spin off on that Captain's Log. It always irked me that Star Trek episodes start off with "Captain's Log..." and Sims are written in the third person.

So ST Sim in the first person via crew logs (IC?).

This sounds like my speed what is it?

Core mechanics wise I mean. I like really simple things that can support complex ideas.

I like WR&M when people exploit the warrior and rogue rules. And how magic is far more subtlety articulated. Combat becomes less about dropping the enemies HP to 0 and more about thinking about how to turn the advantage in your favor. When everyone has 10-25hp of armor on them and armor mitigates damage it makes combat more interesting.

Especially if the other guys also have magic.

This d20 Go I just got today has some promise, I must say. One Roll Engine mechanic sorta.

I don't know either ruleset but have heard of the games (and I was planning on getting to Ars Magica at some point in my long list of games to try). The idea sounds like loads of fun

I've been interested in trying out Spellbound Kingdoms ever since I discovered it, but my old group that tried multiple systems imploded and my new group is full of Critical Role disciples who tell me "you can run that in 5e" every time I mention trying a different system, so...

This system seems way too convoluted for my tastes, but definitely original and not something I'd ever run using 5e lol. Its so frustrating thinking one rules system can simulate every game experience.

I've forever have been a fan of the lore, the setting, and the general shenanigans that happens from any game of Exalted. I really love 3rd Edition's changes to combat and the restructuring of everything overall...but my group is just not one for reading big, thick books full of fluff and mechanics. I've even offered to run it but I refuse to handhold every player when I have to deal with the general insanity any usual Circle can bring to the group.

Palladium's Heroes Unlimited. I know Palladium Systems is just... absolutely loaded down with cruft, but it's got a certain nostalgia to it for me.

I am currently running for a friend an obscure 1990s game called Pandemonium! Adventures in Tabloid World, it is a total blast so far, with minimal rules.
PCs are reporters for a tabloid called Weekly Weird News.

Was in a brief game of that, I like the default setting and the rules seemed good.

The combat system was the one thing that kept me from trying to get my group to play it. The core of the game was far more interesting. Everyone has inspirations that motivate them, from a need for vengeance to love of diamonds, from a fear of aging to true love, and they have a mechanical impact of the game. You can use your inspiration as a boost to an action; your love, fear, madness, etc. drive you on to greater deeds. You can attack their mood just like you can attack their body, and once mood is at 0, you can do damage to their inspirations. If you eliminate all of their inspirations, they lose the will to go on, effectively ending an enemy through purely social combat.

That was the interesting part to me, and I really wanted to try out that mechanic.

That does sound neat

That sounds pretty cool actually lol

yeah but that combat system... :(

And ho, Kamigakari is a Deal of the Day on DTRPG today. Down from $25 to $5