Roleplaying Game Preferences: What is Your's?

[celtois]

What do you look for in an RPG you want to play? What are you things you need to really enjoy a session, and what are you ambivalent about? (To try and keep the discussion positive lets try and focus on what we like, or could go either way on, rather than things we don't like.)

I realize this is a sort of personal topic, so if I may make a request, discussing preferences back and form is all well and good, but please, PLEASE, lets stay polite about it. Even if you don't mean to be criticizing anyone by it, statements like "Anyone who plays ... way, is weird/stupid/not having fun" are not helpful, please don't bring them here.

Thanks!

For me personally, I'm a huge fan of games what build contiguity into the rule set, I can enjoy other games, but nothing really does it for me like a game were the opponents I meet at the beginning are still a threat all the way to the end of the game, without changing massively. (Flat Math) The other thing that I find super enjoyable are games were it's really easy to do cool stuff, and where everyone's on about the same power level, so they're all doing equivalently cool stuff. It really gets me into the swing of things, and gets me more and more in character.

So, what about you?

[scurv]

Systems I enjoy the most is second edition (do not laugh) White wolf and rifts.

Anything were I have many options for how the Char grows and develops is a system I would enjoy. But that is as much dependent on the system as what the DM's permit.

I am the type of player that will take a char concept and use the system to build that. A recent one that I build is a halfling rogue/psionist assassin that uses toxins via blow-dart and throwing knifes.

As long as the system has the flexibility to let me do something like that, then I am happy.

[Half-Orc Rage]

I am really enjoying our Pathfinder/3.5 hybrid game I have been playing lately. To me, I am realizing more and more it matters what people you play with over any other factors. I used to think I was all hack and slash, but now I realize I want some story and reasons for things to be there rather than a random dungeon filled with monsters. More and more I want characters that have other skills outside of combat and can socialize at least somewhat.

[Water_Bear]

I like systems which are complete, even at the cost of being consistent. The reason I play RPGs rather than video games is because RPGs give you actual choice in your problem-solving; scaling 3ft walls, cracking those flimsy wooden doors off their hinges instead of searching for keycards, suggesting the obvious solution in a conversation with a quest-giver, etc, etc. The more situations your rules cover, the more creative I can be when using those rules to interact with the game world.

That's one of the reasons it puzzles me when people say that when a game has too many rules for doing things it reduces creativity. Either you're using the rules, and thus fine, or you're hand-waving the answer, and thus need a good GM and good players with solid memories to get the same result.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I like games that are vibrant. Say what you will about D&D 4e, but I love it, if only for the great artwork (I'm disappointed whenever a Paragon Path or Epic Destiny doesn't have a picture to go with it) and the flashy abilities. It's like XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Actually... that analogy works pretty well. AD&D/2e is X-COM (old game, real popular, still good, but outdated and needs fixing), 4e is XCOM (looks great, tactical, not so deep when it comes to non-combat strategy, but 4e is a TTRPG while XCOM is Strategy & Tactics, so 4e's story depth really depends on the people playing), Hackmaster is Xenonauts (which isn't actually out yet, but looks like it's going to be much closer to the original than XCOM, while still learning from its predecessors on what works and what doesn't. Not perfect, of course, and not as well-known as the original or the new one). I don't know how 3.X fits in, might be one of the spinoffs.

I also like point-buy games. FATE 3e is my favorite, Cortex is simple, but I'm not really sure how much I like it, and White Wolf games have a decent enough system with really awesome fluff.

[Anderlith]

Lots of crunch & enthralling fluff

[oxybe]

1) it needs to fit the conventions of the genre i want to run. just because i'm more familiar with a certain system, doesn't mean i want to hack it for all occasions. i pick a system that already closely fits the game i want to run, then tweak things to preference from there.

2) it needs to have a solid rules foundation, both in the actions you can do and how to adjudicate actions not covered by the rules. that means the general conventions of the genre i'm running should be covered but still have enough information for me to adjudicate players doing actions outside the base rules.

3) rules need to be clear and concise. the most solid ruleset is pointless if you can't work it. i want rules that are transparent and easy to reference if needed, rather then have them hidden and scattered in the book, be it in sidebars or prose.

4) balance between characters. i want a game that allows for all characters to be equals in their options. how each character attempts to overcome a particular obstacle is up to the PC, but i don't want to have to write my adventures around dealing with one PC in particular who's too strong/too many options or too weak/too little options.

that's it really, off the top of my head. i really don't have a preference between things like point-buy, level-based or whatnot, as long as the system works.

now, i do have my preferences for genres and whatnot, which will affect my purchasing habits, but for the most part, those are the things i'm looking for in most games.

to note though, at this point with my group i'm willing to make some concessions. i love this bunch of fellows so much that i've spent the last 7 years gaming with them weekly (for the most part, real life and whatnot) and even if i dislike a game they choose to run, i'm pretty much willing to give it the "Mario Party" treatment: i might find the system... lacking... but it gives me an excuse to hang out with them and get out of the house once a week, so i treat it as such.

the group very much makes a difference though. if it weren't them, i wouldn't even be looking at Mario Party.