Reddit mentions: The best rpg books

Buy some dice.

Buy some books.

Honestly, it depends what kind of game you want to play. I think here you're going to get a lot of weird niche games suggested but for starters you're better off sticking with the a more 'traditional' experience. D&D is an excellent starting point if you want to play a fantasy game, you can even pick up one of their adventures if you don't want to write your own material.

If you're unsure about spending that much just to get started you can pick up this starter set that will include the basic rules, a set of dice, some pregenerated characters, and a short adventure. From there, if you like the game, you can pick up the full rulebooks and some more dice and whatever else you like. Alternatively you can try out the free basic rules by downloading them from the Wizards of the Coast website. All you'll need is a set of dice to get started.

If you don't like or don't want to play D&D you can check out a bunch of other systems that will let you play other games or settings. [Edge of the Empire] (https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Edge-Empire-Rulebook/dp/1616616571/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=edge+of+the+empire&qid=1563883870&s=gateway&sr=8-1) is a really cool Star Wars game, but it requires custom dice. My personal favourite sci-fi rpg is Traveller though, and it has the advantage of only requiring six sided dice.

A lot of people really like Savage Worlds, it's fun, it's cheap, and it's generic enough that you can run almost any setting you like with it. Unfortunately there's a new edition due out really soon so take that in to consideration. If you want a more in depth generic system then I can recommend GURPS, although you'll also need the Campaigns book. This system is absolutely not beginner friendly, it slaps you in the face with tables and rules for all sorts of scenarios, but I adore it and it's not really all that hard to figure out.

If you want an alternative to D&D Green Ronin has the "Age" series of games, starting with Fantasy Age, continuing with Modern Age, and the recently released The Expanse RPG covers Sci-Fi. I will admit that I've not actually had a chance to play any of these games, but I've read the rules and like the system.

Honestly you can find a game to cover practically any genre you want, whether it's Grimdark Fantasy, Martial Arts, Space Exploration, Lovecraftian Horror, Anime Cyberpunk Space Opera, or almost any other thing you can think of.

Don't fall in to the trap of playing a game because someone suggests it's 'easy', play something that really grabs your interest and inspires your imagination.

The following are great dark medieval games, but some might require you to remove their magic systems:

• Aquelarre, IMO the medieval RPG, but to play it now you have to read Spanish for the original version. An English version is coming this year.
  
• Cthulhu Dark Ages, where the players most likely wouldn’t have magic anyway
  
• Rolemaster Classic. You will need Character Law and Arms Law. There is a Spell Law book, but without it the world has no magic.
  
  Other than that I would recommend generic systems like GURPS, Hero System or Genesys.
  
  Some would recommend Fate also, but I generally think it is rules-light but adventure-crunchy, since you have to remember during play many contextual situational modifiers with the aspects' system. Instead, I would get its parent game, Fudge. You need special dice for this, and for Genesys also.
  
  Some of the editions I linked above are older than the most recent, and reflect personal preferences.
  
  Other systems, although great in itself, really work best when you have at least the effects of dark corruption like Zweihänder.

Which edition are you looking for? 3rd edition that came out only has one book.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/162759/Exalted-3rd-Edition?src=hottest_filtered&filters=1800_0_0_0_0

You can get it here. I'm a big fan of the system (most people are) compared to 3rd. The only negative is the lack of secondary books to flesh out NPCs and things.

2nd edition can also be bought on drivethrurpg here:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3671/Exalted-Second-Edition?src=hottest_filtered&it=1&filters=1820_0_0_0_0

This is the core book but should be easy enough to browse around and find supplements you like. Exalted 2e is also available used on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Exalted-Second-Alan-Alexander/dp/1588466841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499099241&sr=8-1&keywords=exalted

I figured I'd add, if you're playing 2e, I'd grab these books for a solid ability to run a game from start to finish
-Core (duh)

-Dragonblooded (Good way to stat up a large group of antagonists - Dragonblooded Exalted hunting the PCs down)

-Abyssals (Stronger opponents that are equal to the Solars in power)

-Scroll of Exalts (NPC Exalts galore, 5-10 for each and every kind of Exaltation)

-Scroll of the Monk (This is a book of Martial Arts. Great for PCs, but also great for slapping onto an NPC and saying "Ok don't need to go through 300 pages of charms for that one")

Personally, I think you're confusing your metaphors here, in the sense that you're trying to play the trope of "housed AI", i.e. a Data-like or Terminator-like entity as opposed to, say, an infomorph (an entity existing in a fully digital or virtual world).

Addressing your questions:

1: False - All robots are not essentially computers. They're essentially computers with peripherals. Important distinction. Let's look at various problems that would arise if and when you did something like what's you're outlining in the really real world of now.

A macintosh computer runs the same basic hardware as most Windows-based computers - it's an Intel x64 implementation of the IA-64 instruction set. Their operating systems are fundamentally different, however (Windows is quite different from OS X, while OS X shares some lineage with nix, and can be argued to be a form of nix, while the old PowerPC and OS 9 and earlier is yet another beast).

In this example, the other robot is running on the same hardware as you are, but they're not running on the same software as you are.

You cannot just blindly copy ("image") the entire drive of a mac to a Windows computer, and think you can do something with it right off the bat. You'd need to run it inside a virtual host, such as something like VMWare, in order to let it run on its own - and even then you wouldn't necessarily have access to the same information as the other entity, due to all sorts of data protection shenanigans.

2: Note that d20 Modern states brain. It'll be a factor for what I'll discuss at the end. Yes, you can do that - it would be fairly easy to have you as the broadcasting node in a network, and remotely control other armatures - other 'bodies', for all intents and purposes. It would be similar to guiding a drone through telepresence - or playing a game of CoD as compared to actually have feet on the ground in a conflict zone.

So, you're essentially fine with someone disabling you by putting you into a bag with an aluminium foil lining? RF signals can't penetrate through a Faraday cage. Electrical discharges in the atmosphere (lightning, basically) can change any and all broadcast conditions. A nuclear explosion can knock out RF broadcasts for days. And any time you're beyond LOS (line of sight), your signal is guaranteed to degrade. Your mates trundle down into a mine or something - but you can't follow, because LOS.

Basically, think of your 'brain' node as a cellphone tower - and your 'body' or armature as a cellphone. You're not guaranteed reception even in a house or basement, let alone throughout an entire city.

Also, modern warfare is already on the problem of RF signals, targeting, and whatever. AMRAAM missiles already home in on sources rich in the RF spectrum. With the need and a little bit of development time, you can have autonomous kill bots suspended from balloons, just waiting for you to start controlling your 'bodies' through RF signals, and then taking out the central processing node. I.e., you. Which is the reason why tightbeams and fiberoptics are often used in near future and future settings - you don't want to make too much noise in the RF spectrum, because it is easy to triangulate... and make go boom.

3: A swarm bot (which is already statted in d20 Modern, I believe) is a hive mind of sorts. And if you have enough cognitive capacity, you should be able to do this. Shadowrun has the drone controller role, where you can stay in an 'overwatch' of sorts, basically just keeping an eye on your semi-autonomous drones that crawl around doing stuff. However look to the answer of 2 for problems with relying on 'wifi'.

4: Of course. However, you're not a 'human' cognitive intelligence at this point. You're arguably even far beyond GladOS, and perhaps SHODAN. You'd be more akin to a vampire fleet in Traveller. Or perhaps the Computer from Paranoia, if played for giggles.

Consider the following:

It seems that there's a good possibility for digital uploading of personalities is never going to work - it seems that we may be unable to differentiate the substrate a human's personality is running on (that'd be our meat bodies) from the personality itself. Or, to use a different metaphor - it's not necessarily possible to separate the human hardware from the human software at all, we might be running on human firmware.

Much the same may be true for a true AI. In the same way that any given person is shaped by their potential, their experiences, and random occurrences, a true AI may be as incomprehensible to another AI as two humans are to each other. Yes, we may have technological telepathy, and we may have fMRI capable of resolving (to a certain resolution) the images in our mind. Yet, it seems that we may not be able to duplicate ourselves without also duplicating our substrate.

Which means that our minds and our brains are unseparable - and by extension, an AI's brain and its mind is unseparable.

Ok, but what does it mean for your game? Well, basically, your AI may be able to invade and dominate a new body. This is a more active version of the 'move the brain over to a new robot body'. And, your AI may be able to start driving that body with some modicum of proficiency (that being your skills, levels, and so on). But you may not be able to aggressively copy skills and so on, because the format of those data is incomprehensible for you. Basically, each AI runs its own OS shaped by whatever made it an AI. It'd be like copying an application from Windows to a mac - it just won't run.

Sure, you may have common formats and exchange some data - for instance, you can copy pictures from one drive to another and make sense of it - but you cannot look into the mind of the other AI without some special powers to allow you to do so. That would be the equivalent of copying the installation directory of some application from a mac to a Windows-based computer and assume that it'll work. (Top tip: It won't.)

If your AI is built for it - i.e., with the right feats and attributes - you might pull off what is essentially a 'hive mind'. You'll likely exponentially increase your vulnerability as well - and limit your usefulness to the range of your wifi signal. Do you get cellphone reception everywhere? No? Well, then your AI's 'body' can't be able to go there and do anything useful either, unless your AI is physically present to drive the body properly.

What Skynet did / does / have done / will do in the Terminator franchise, is that Skynet makes a 'personality' of sorts - a limited construct, if you will - and installs that software into otherwise identical bodies. Essentially, barring manufacture defects, one Ah-nold T-800 is indistinguishable from another as they're manufactured, and are functionally clones.

Over time, if their read-only switch is toggled, their individual experiences will change their decision algorithms - they will 'learn' and may formulate different plans. Barring a quantum-level discussion, a 'default' setting Terminator will always do the same thing in the same situation - one T-800 will do the same as the next.

And that's you. You're functionally much the same as a T-800 with its read-only switch toggled. Though you may have started out identical to an infinity of other AIs, you're no longer the same because of different experiences. You're running a custom software on a jailbroken iPhone, your AI siblings may be running iOS 7 on the same model iPhone - but with vastly different capabilities.

And that has its advantages - you can level up, you can learn, you can formulate novel strategies - but it has its disadvantages as well - you can't go Agent Smith on the world and start 'eating' the personalities of other AI. Unless you're specifically built with that capability.

TL;DR - You're a Terminator with its read-only switch toggled, not Agent Smith.

http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Adventures-Time-Space/dp/1907204113/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372567571&sr=1-4&keywords=adventures+in+time+and+space

This is the edition of the book I am using (my pal picked it up at a con last year), although it would seem that a new version with updated monsters/villains/aliens from the Matt Smith era was released last year.

Here is a free flash version of the character creator for the version I am using (has automatic music, sorry): http://dwcg.eu5.org/

This system is pretty simple, so it shouldn't be too hard to learn, but I would advise you finding an experienced GM to run it, since you have never played a tabletop before. Tabletop is its own world of gaming, with a lot of quirks and special terminology and such. Once you start playing, you catch on pretty quickly, but it can be intimidating at first. Also, it might be easier to see if you can join a local D&D game to get a hang of things first, before trying to get together a group to do a DW game. It's a lot of fun!

Good luck!

Here's the amazon link for the d20 Lone Wolf. It's out of print, so it's kind of expensive. If you search around, you might be able to find it for a better price. The also did a Darklords book and a magic book, but I think those might be even trickier to find and much more pricy. The books are fun for background information, but given the prices that are being charged, you might just want to read up on Magnamund on Project Aon and use the system of your choice to replicate the Lone Wolf experience. Any system that can do high fantasy would do the trick.

Grey Star was an AWESOME four book series published as World of Lone Wolf. In it you play Grey Star (or Greystar), a human raised by the Shianti. You're a wizard on a quest to recover the Moonstone and stop Agarash the Damned before he can use it to bring Naar into the world. It takes place in Magnamund in areas not typically covered in the main Lone Wolf books. The magic powers you get are awesome, and the books are really fun. The battle of wills with the Shadow Demon is something I remember to this day. Here's more info on the series.

The World of Lone Wolf series is also available here, on Project Aon.. That list also includes the post Magnakai gamebooks, the Grand Master Series, the New Order series and some really awesome, handy tools. It doesn't contain the prose books or the new multi-player gamebooks from Mongoose. You can find the first three prose novels in a single omnibus here and the first of the new multi-player game books here.

I'm sure there's more info on Mongoose's site and Project Aon. Happy hunting.

The old DC Heroes system (published by Mayfair at the time) has held up great. Look for a book called Blood of Heroes. It's the DCH system with improved magic, but with DC's trademarked material removed. Completely compatible with old DCH modules. The art in the book is butt ugly, but it's a great system. It's easy to use, but still capable of handling any power or power level you throw at it. And it has a thriving online community.

Blood of Heroes on Amazon

Writeup.org: Biggest DCH community online. Very active, updated at least once every week or so, with THOUSANDS of character write ups and tons of updated, tweaked, or optional game material.

Well there's actually some hints..

Quirks: unique traits of said character: what food does it like? does it have certain recurrent habits? He adheres to certain faith and/or ideology? Look for the ones that can be roleplayed. Ex: The character Son Goku in the japanese dub talks in a unique Japanese accent (a mix of Tohoku and Nagoya dialect put together).

Motivations: Why the character does what it does? It acts out of vengeance, wants to uphold the law or is on the trade just for kicks/money? Blood of heroes has this well mapped for the Supers genre.

Research about the Myers-Briggs types and think on a short questionnaire that could help identify how the character behaves.

And last but not least, what I as GM always requested from my players was to write a little backstory of their characters up to the point of the game's timeline. In that they said how/where they were raised, how they met their love interests/enemies, how they acquired their skills/powers, etc.. It works like charm.

edit:

There's also a business tool called 5W1H that could be tweaked to suit the TTRPG:

[Who] is your character? (name/race/gender/age, etc..)

[Where] you come from? Where do you want to go? (backstory and goals)

[What] the character does? Is he a cop or a fortune teller? (occupation/job/trope)

[When] you accquired your skills and powers? When you met your rival/ S.O. (the idea is to establish a timeline for the character itsefl)

[Why] the character does what he does? What are the stakes? What's in it for him? (motivations)

[How] the character does things? He rushes head in or is a careful strategist? How he interacts with people? ( the the MBTI types).

So the good news is: yes there's a rulebook with classes, rules, etc and you can play as Sith and Jedi. The bad news is: all of the editions of the game are currently out of print. The further good news: you may still be able to find the books new at gaming stores and you can definitely find them used on eBay and Amazon.

There's been three versions of the game as Gunnulf mentioned. Those most recent of which and the one you'll most likely find unused copies of the books would be the Saga Edition. The books are easy to recognize as they're 9"x9" rather than a more traditional 8.5"x11". To play the game you'll need at least the Core Rulebook which has the basic rules of the game and a decent list of vehicles and starships.

The additional books are not necessary to play and really contain supplementary information for their subjects. For instance if you want to play an Old Republic era game the [Knights of the Old Republic Era](http://amzn.com 0786949236) book would be pretty useful. It has setting information as well as game stats for things seen in the games and comics. However if you didn't want to buy the book it isn't that difficult to wing it and just write stuff up from Wookipedia. It's worth the money if you don't have the time or experience to write the stuff up yourself.

I don't really recommend the D20 version of the game as a lot of "Star Wars" feeling gets lost in the rules. It takes a really good GM to make the game feel like you're playing a Star Wars game. My favorite is the D6 version West End Games used to publish but it's long out of print and the books are getting harder to find. It's also a very different system than what you're currently playing with D&D. It might be tough to learn the whole new way of playing if you're still just learning to play tabletop RPGs. Come join us in /r/rpg if you want to learn more about tabletop games.

Cortex Plus - You roll what you say, or can, different incarnations have different "Skill" names. In Smallville if you want to punch a dude you pick up your Justice, Love of Lois Lane, Kent Farm (where you are at), add in your Insecurity, and Super Strength plus your opponents Distracted by a Cute Girl condition. Roll them, take the highest, and compare, if successful pick a large die from your pool and narrate what it represents.

(you roll standard dice, also have special abilities, and most rolls are not this complicated)

The game system comes in a lot different flavors now...

Firefly (Space Drama Adventure)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/128012/Firefly-RolePlaying-Game-Corebook?src=hottest_filtered&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

Marvel Heroic (comic book super hero action)

https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplaying-Civil-Premium/dp/1936685175/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483024737&sr=8-2&keywords=marvel+heroic

Smallville (soap opera with super heroes)

https://www.amazon.com/Smallville-Roleplaying-Game-Cam-Banks/dp/1931567891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483024847&sr=8-1&keywords=smallville+rpg

Leverage (espionage caper action)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/85727/Leverage-Roleplaying-Game?src=hottest_filtered&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

Fantasy (generic'ish)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149178/Fantasy-Roleplaying-A-Registry-of-Rules?src=newest&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

SciFi (generic'ish)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/186453/Worlds-of-Fantasy-Chronicles-of-the-Solar-Empire?sorttest=true&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

Hackers Guide (actually a core rule book, but kinda hard to use without prior knowledge)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/117419/Cortex-Plus-Hackers-Guide?sorttest=true&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

Zombie Apocalypse

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/185660/Head-Shot-Zombie-Apocalypse-Action-Roleplaying?sorttest=true&filters=0_0_45522_0_0

There's just one core rulebook. The bestiary isn't essential, but it's useful.

Fair warning: My biggest complaint with the system is the book is a bit of a hot mess. It's fine if you're familiar with RPGs, and r/13thage will be able to help you with questions, but it was written with the assumption you know what you're doing (which is a huge shame since otherwise it's a great system for starters). For example, it doesn't explain how to deal with a friendly NPC (basically just stat out an enemy) and only mentions what the six core stats (the same ones as Pathfinder and D&D) actually mean in the index, not in the section about stating out characters. Which, as I said, is fine if you're familiar with D&D, but there are some things that could be better explained.

While I never touched the old West End Games RPG (which gets a lot of love from old-timers), I have played both the Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) versions (e.g. Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny) & Star Wars SAGA Edition from Wizards of the Coast.

The difference between those two is that FFG is it's own system that takes getting used to, and has a much stronger narrative focus than SAGA, with the dice system sparking all kinds of creative twists, surprises, and complications. One great thing about the system is that it scales up to starship combats/chases pretty well. It took some learning, but I found it really enjoyable as DM once I got the swing of it. It does use its own non-standard dice. And if you want a game with Force users alongside Clone troopers alongside Rebel spies, you're looking at picking up 3 books. Oh! And they also put out The Force Awakens Beginner Game boxed set.

Whereas Star Wars SAGA you can get by with just the core book, or possibly the core book + an era book. It's much less narrative and more conventionally d20-based. Combat can be quite deadly, whereas falling is almost inconsequential - reflecting how it is in the movies. Learning curve is waaay easier than FFG for a D&D player. One downside is that the starship combat/chase rules require you learning a subsystem (and likely devising some of your own challenges/hazards/complications without much guidance). One SAGA book I highly recommend is Galaxy of Intrigue, which has the best treatment of skill challenges in any book, much better than 4e and most of the hacks I've seen online.

Wow. I'm going to run all this by my Dungeon Master and see what I can do about this. My character, Ha'vek, already practiced in Kormerek so the palm stunner really piques my interest. I've had the opportunity for cybernetic alterations but I've stayed away thus far because I haven't found a doctor that I trust that's willing to implement them into me. I like the idea of having a inconspicuous disassembled phaser on me although it rules out the element of immediate surprise. This is the RPG.

Ultimately, DH is less about big combat encounters and more about uncovering secret plots and solving mysteries. In my experience with the game, putting together all the pieces is just as fun (if not more so) than fighting a big, nasty baddy and coming out on top.

You might consider making the modules more challenging by tweaking the story, NPCs or puzzles that the Acolytes have to solve. In the RT book Into the Storm, for example, there are great rules for social interaction challenges where players will have to be observant and work on improving their relationship with NPCs in order to get info out of them.

If combat is where you want to add the challenge though, you can't go wrong with ShamelesslyPlugged's advice. Consider giving them small XP bumps in addition to limited use, yet powerful equipment.

Are you specifically talking about video games, or board games and TTRPGs as well?

​

I picked up 16 different books of the Doctor Who TTRPG published by Cubicle 7 on Humble Bundle a while back. While I haven't gotten a chance to play it with a group (yet) the ruleset looks pretty solid. And like with all TTRPGs, it's all about what you and your friends make it.

​

Edit to add a link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Who-Roleplaying-Game-Cubicle/dp/0857442627

My group prefers to play the West End Games d6 version, but I've read through the SAGA edition for d20 and like it quite a lot more than the first d20 Star Wars RPG.

The thing I like about SAGA is that it is all fairly balanced and is very easy for a D&D player to get into due to the core rules being d20. A great many of the subsystems have commonalities with 4e D&D for speed of use, which I also like.

d6, however, has potentially much more lethal combat and allows for Force-users to really shine. That said, it can be a struggle to integrate a full-fledged Jedi knight with a regular party and not have him outshine everyone else. Depends on the story, of course, but we manage.

They used to put out books like this back in the day. Box sets for the more popular ones. 5e doesn't really have any official ones except for the aforementioned Sword Coast one. There are third party ones for Middle Earth and Midgard etc.

Honestly I would just trawl through the various wikis for the different settings like Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Eberron, Dark Sun and the like. Or hit up Ebay for the older setting books.

I'll once again be the lone voice for DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes. and www.writeups.org


The scaling is fantastic. Captain America can fight alongside Thor.

The system was originally made for DC's heroes, yes, and Writeups doesn't have many of their stats as they were published in copyrighted materials, but you can find them with searches.

Sorry. My love for this system is beyond all reason. It's my fave. I can't say I've played them all, but this is the best of the ones I have.

I understand now - sorry. I thought you were making a joke about the dice system because it is so free-flowing. I get it now. You did lay your complaints out clearly. I thought you were asking ironically. :)

I personally think that this system is so heavily narrative that it is not going to appeal to everyone. It just isn't. For me, it's breathed fresh air into a hobby that I really didn't care about anymore and caused me to discover a number of narrative-style systems and I find the complication of every single roll to be interesting and fun. I was so tired of just hitting or not and just playing math against terrain, conditions, and ultimately baddie hit points.

It sounds like you favor the "strategic" side of role-playing more than the creative nature of storytelling - and I've said this before on this sub, that's totally ok. There is no shame in playing the game the way you like it! I don't know that there's a way to address the complaints you have for the system without tearing out parts of the spirit of the game. For me, limiting how Advantage/Disadvantage and Triumph/Despair can affect every kind of roll is limiting the game potential both from a mechanical and a player perspective.

Have you played Star Wars d20 or Star Wars Saga before? It sounds like these systems would appeal to you far more than FFG's narrative dice system. They're d20 based and lend heavily to a grid map battle system and a simple "hit or not" system. They've got the Star Wars feel (especially Saga) with that tried and true "roll a d20 and add some stuff and simply hit or not" method of gaming.

Hope this helps - and sorry again for the confusion on your post. :)

Just describing this mods, not advertising I promise.

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Book-Battle-Mats/dp/1912803038

(Just read on the page that it's not even available right now. And I can't really see the price either, pretty sure I paid about $50 - $60)

I bought this and I absolutely love it. Really only works for 5 or less people in terms of party size imo, but I honestly prefer using this over my big battle mat because I have to role up my big one.

You might be able to find something similar, but instead of getting terrain, I use this instead. Very handy.

As others have mentioned in this post, dice, sourcebooks, and dice trays are also all excellent ideas.

The only thing I might say is to stay away from mini's if he's on the cheaper side. Wouldn't really want to tempt him into buying a bunch of minis, because they can get extremely expensive.

If you do see the book of battle mats available, I highly recommend getting it.

The various superhero RPGs are the way to go. Aberrant is my favorite, though there are good D20 options as well. Aberrant powers are science based (energy and quantum mechanics). Also, super hero stuff has been popular recently, so the students will probably like it. Depending on how out there your school is, they may have a problem with science being so powerful, though if that is the case, I'd get the hell out of there.

> I am currently playing a custom adventure under the 4th edition D&D ruleset.

The Star Wars Saga edition is pretty much 4.0 beta, but because it is out of print it can be a bit expensive. I am running it now, and enjoy it. There is also a campaign setting book for that era.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Roleplaying-Rulebook-Edition/dp/0786943564/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1

http://www.amazon.com/Rebellion-Campaign-Guide-Star-Roleplaying/dp/078694983X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_9

As for inspiration, I personally draw them right from the EU books. I am doing Legacy setting now, and took the campaign right out of issues 57+

You will face some issues with both 2e and 3e because they are similar to D&D but different enough that you won't have everything memorized.

3e has the better set of rules IMO so I suggest 3e, specifically the Deluxe Handbook because the rules are the easiest and there is a quick start character generator if you just want to roll up some characters and dive in.

GURPS Lite is strictly d6, and a nice generic system for most basic needs, and free for download. You can upgrade if they like it and it's on it's way to proving that it is infinitely extensible.

I'm also pretty pleased with the Hero System Basic Rules book as generic systems go that are d6 specific.

Traveller is also d6 only, and a really nice generic science fiction system. Totally playable from the core rules, but also infinitely extensible.

Numenera is a hot new RPG by Monte Cook (of 3.5 D&D fame) with a unique setting. Essentially it's a science-fantasy game set far enough in the future that civlization has returned to a medieval state, but high-tech ruins are still lying around. I can personally recommend it as being easy to learn and fun for all styles of play. It's also very very easy to run (GM never rolls dice, just sets difficulties for the players) and I'm having a blast running my current Numenera game.

Ha, it's on Amazon for $49! I love living in 2017!

I usually recommend the Cypher System by Monte Cook for new players (it comes in multiple flavors: generic, future-fantasy, dimension-hopping secret agents, and American Gods-ish). Like D&D 5e, it's a middle-of-the-road game which is open to a lot of different playstyles. It has straightforward rules (simpler than D&D 5e) that can be adapted to whatever setting your players are most interested in (space opera, fantasy, superheroes). Character creation is very easy to follow, and much quicker than D&D.

Fate is another option, although it might be a little confusing if it's your first RPG. Its rules are simple, but the complete lack of constraints on players and the DM might be a little overwhelming. Its rules are also fairly unorthodox, so it won't be so helpful if you're interested in eventually trying more mainstream games.

I don't know if I'd go Revised for a group like that, Revised is fairly similar to 3.5 in general IIRC. Personally, I prefer the Saga system, I feel like it flows a bit better overall.

Yes, it's based on Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu system: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Laundry-RPG-Gareth-Hanrahan/dp/1907204938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341231252&sr=8-1

And it's great, a very British rpg.

13th age

It's pretty fun!
https://www.amazon.com/13th-Age-RPG-Core-Book/dp/190898340X

here some reviews. Looks like some love it, some didn't

http://www.amazon.com/Numenera-Corebook-Monte-Cook/product-reviews/1939979005

Are you playing this version? Is it any good?

just going to leave this here

The core rulebook of the sg1 roleplaying game. We should definitely play this over skype

There's the d6 game by West End Games, the d20 game by WotC similiar to D&D 3rd edition, there's saga edition by WotC (which would have made a better basis for D&D 4th edition), and then there's the series of games by Fantasy Flight; Edge of Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny.

Thanks, /u/Kozlem!

Aberrant is available as a scanned PDF on DriveThruRPG, and it frequently shows up on Amazon at decent prices.

We're in early development on the second edition.

Let me know if you have any more questions about it.

I will be creating my own (because I love projects like this) but I have also considered getting this book for when my players go somewhere I am not prepared for. :)

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Book-Battle-Mats/dp/1912803038/

Exalted Core Book! Well, it's a little expensive. But cheaper (and x10 better) than any DnD books. Plus, there's always the pound of dice.

http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Adventures-Time-Space/dp/1907204113 - It does a great job of capturing the show in RPG form without the game becoming all about killing aliens, like so many RPGs.

Also, I reviewed it and the first expansion for it here -

http://trollitc.com/2010/08/doctor-who-adventures-in-time-and-space-review/
http://trollitc.com/2010/09/doctor-who-rpg-aliens-and-creatures-review/

If anyone is interested, this is from The Laundry RPG, by Gareth Hanrahan. It’s based off of the Laundry Files series of books about a British secret agency that keeps the world safe from Lovecraftian horrors.

In case you want one of your own it's this one: http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#XKCDcollegestyleshirt

And the RPG is here.

It has it's own book and wiki that is based off the D20 system, in case you are looking for more resources...

Exalted Second Edition Core Rulebook.

Or, updated, edited, etc. The Blood of Heroes

Really the only things you need to get started is the main book( Link ), dice, pencil and paper. Here is the Official Character sheet if you would rather use that.

Old Republic Campaign Guide

Basic Game

They did.

Might I suggest that you check out: Blood of Heroes

It's true

I actually purchased this at gencon and am planning on using it, plus I have my trusty brown grid mat.
https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Book-Battle-Mats/dp/1912803038/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/141-9624869-6105618?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1912803038&pd_rd_r=5980c30a-cecc-4651-87fa-84c442fd513d&pd_rd_w=zqnQk&pd_rd_wg=yGrDz&pf_rd_p=1c11b7ff-9ffb-4ba6-8036-be1b0afa79bb&pf_rd_r=KM5JJTRQ28HQE8D3ERR9&psc=1&refRID=KM5JJTRQ28HQE8D3ERR9


I've started fooling around with the Red maps and Gimp. I'm just lost as to how big the cropped bits will print out.. wil they be in scale still etc etc. my photo editing skills are a bit lacking. hurm...

Looking quickly over your document, it looks very similar to the D20 Star Wars RPG that Wizards of the Coast put out a while back.

You might want to use that instead of coming up with your own. I agree that the FF version is radically different than DnD players would be used to, but the D20 version is basically DnD 3.5 with a Star Wars veneer plastered over it.