My group is looking to try a new game. We have played Dnd 5e, Call of Cthulhu & Pulp Cthulhu, and the old 1st edition Star Wars from the 80s. Almost all the players have GMed before. We will pick who wants to run it after we pick a game.
We are looking for something in the western or scifi genres that allows alot of character development in the story. Supernatural/magicl elements are fine as long as there is a believable world.
We looked into Traveler but 1 player wasn't interested in the progression system. If you like this game, please give me perspectives that might explain it better to people who have never played.
TIA!
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Down darker trails if they like CoC Frontier Scum-acid washed western punk Scum and villainy might be worth checking out. Orbital blues if you want harder human only sci-fi ala cowboy bepop- captialist retro futurism Stars without numbers for sci-fi that can be customized to a lot of different things.
Thanks! I'll check them out. I haven't heard of Orbital blues and like the soy d of Frontier Scum's vibe.
Frontier Scum is my western RPG of choice, though it may be lacking in longer campaigns (little in the way of character improvement - most of what you get amounts to slightly better stats and gear). Luckily I never do those, so its a moot point for me. For SciFi, I like Death in Space. It sadly lost out against Mothership in the greater public, but I prefer its more coherent artstyle and clean rules. I also don't love d100s, d20 is a bit more satisfying to read.
Thanks for the feedback. Death in Space sounds interesting.
I'm surprised no one has recommended Deadlands yet. The 20th Anniversary version of Deadlands Classic is wonderful if a tad clunky.
Your best bet is probably to look into the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) version of Deadlands. It plays a lot faster, still has a lot of that Weird West vibes and even has some fun premade adventures/campaigns to riff off of. I'm a big fan of Horror at Headstone Hill which is about investigating the disappearance of someone but also includes a lot of points of light style exploration.
For some secondary recommends I'll put out there are Weird Frontiers, a massive tome of a book based on Dungeon Crawl Classic that is set in a gonzo weird west. And if you want to go classic western then Aces & Eights Reloaded is probably the closest you'll get, and it includes one of the most interesting mechanics for resolving gunfights accurately, the Shot Clock.
For Sci-Fi, in my opinion you can't go wrong with either Mothership or Dark Heresy 2e.
Mothership is a Nu-SR game set in a cassette futurism sci-fi setting with a mix of horror sprinkled in throughout. Though with splat books like Wages of Sin you can run a mercenary game, there are adventures for playing documentary film crews and all manner of strangeness. The system is very tight and clean with some fun mechanics like the death cup.
Dark Heresy 2e sees your group play a ragtag mix of Inquisitorial Acolytes brought about from various planets and ways of life to serve the Imperium of Man by being troubleshooters against the Enemies Within (Heretics), Enemies Without (Aliens), and Enemies Beyond (Daemons). The 2nd edition is a lot cleaner rules wise but the 1e books are also worth it just for it's compatible equipment lists and some of the richest, densest settings in Sci-Fi RPGs, the Calixis Sector.
For some secondary recommends I'll parrot kelboman and say Scum and Villainy and Stars Without Number are both great options. SWN has the advantage of being available for free, sans a few extra bonus rules/mechanics to incentivize the paid edition, on DriveThruRPG.
IME, the shot clock looks amazing but is a cumbersome gimmick in play.
Wow! Thanks for all the details. I will look into them.
If you are looking for a straight historical old west game, take a look at *Tales of the Old West* from Effekt. It is a well put together historical game based on the Year Zero Engine created by Modiphius. It includes a nice campaign creation kit for making your own campaigns including town creation and downtime rules for the players (including managing their own businesses). Also includes a premade campaign frame and starting adventure.
Our players would definitely be down for the business aspect. They started a shipping company while playing Ghosts of Saltmarsh.
I gave my two cents about "Orbital Blues" in another thread (tl:dr - I love the artwork and the world but could not make the system work perfectly) and altough I have my gripes with it I believe it could be stellar if your are looking for character developement. The central mechanic is "blues & trouble" i.e. something from their past is haunting the players. and your job as GM is more or less to tie back to it as often as possbile so they can confront and overcome it. Since there are no real "classes" in the game choosing a blues and developing everything from there is a good way to go. As I said: it's not perfect but I think it could fit your bill. and some of the published adventures and scenarios are really evocative.
That sounds fantastic. I like the hook.
Imperium Maledictum if you want some Warhammer 40k sci-fi craziness. Eclipse Phase if you want some transhumanist sci-fi craziness. Mothership if you want a rules light horror sci-fi system where PC death isn't a big deal cause it takes all of 2 minutes to make a new PC. Cyberpunk RED if you want chooms and chrome.
Almost exactly what i came here to say. My group didn’t care for Mothership, but they are Traveller fans - so it may work for you.
Adding Mothership to the list!!
Shadows of Brimstone is pretty cool if very very pulp
Thanks!
Haunted West has a huge amount of setting with a special eye towards the traditionally underrepresented - black people, women, Jews, Chinese immigrants, native Americans, etc. and 3 systems - a crunchy d100, light d100, and PbtA, IIRC. Not sure what you want from sci-fi, which covers a huge amount of territory, but Metro: Otherscape is mythic cyberpunk using the same engine as the Ennie-winning Legend in the Mist.
For westerns, I'll add Tales of the Old West, which uses Free League's year zero engine. Tales of the Old West is set, like Aces and Eights, in the actual, historical old west. You can of course add supernatural elements to it (e.g., by stealing magic from other free league games or what have you). Speaking of Free League, any of the Coriolis games are good scifi adventuring fun. GURPS is excellent for gritty westerns, but requires some upfront setup since it's a toolbox. GURPS is also good for scifi (generally grittier, more realistic scifi). If you like universal systems but prefer something lighter, Everywhen can work and has a weird west supplement (called Blood Sundown, I think). Everywhen can also handle scifi. It is relatively pulpier and simpler than GURPS. Ashen Stars uses the gumshoe engine and is quite solid for scifi. Fragged Empire 2e has lots of character options for scifi, so it supports character development mechanically as characters gain traits more or less every level. Frontier Space is good for a classic scifi vibe. It also uses a d00 for rolls, so it'll be familiar to CoC players (though there is a wrinkle in that the dice go from 0 to 99 rather than 1 to 100). Aces and Eights Reloaded, Weird Frontiers, and Deadlands are all great for westerns so I'll second them. Any of these systems will support character development in the story (tbh, I can't think of a TTRPG that doesn't support story driven character development). Most also have mechanical character development tied to character advancement.