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Inq. of the Week: RPG System Showdown?

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Considering the number of good friends I’ve met simply by being a part of Critical Hits, last week’s poll by Joshx0rfz (a local friend of ours and not met through the internet) was very intriguing. He asked, “How many people have you met online who then became friends in real life?” and the biggest group of you (37%) answered that you’ve met 1-5 people, clearly most of you are not “playas” as Josh put it. 34% of you are definitely the touchy-feely types, preferring to keep friendships real and away from the internets. 14% have a small posse of 6-10 internet friends and any number higher than that filled out the remainder with 5% of you saying you have more than 21 friends you’ve met through the internet.

Today I’d like to touch on a subject that we’ve never directly asked before, as far as I can remember, and that subject is specifically which RPGs you are gathering around the table to play. Back in October I asked about genres and settings for RPGs, with Fantasy coming out in a massive lead with Sci-fi in second, then Modern and Horror close behind. With that in mind, today I’m asking:

[poll id=”158″]

This is really a tough question to get exactly right, so I apologize if your favorite system or current game’s system is not listed. I strongly encourage you to share in the comments so that we can get a clear idea of which games all of you are playing. I also encourage you to vote for any games you’ve played in the last few months even if it’s not still going on at the moment because getting a long running game can be difficult and I’d love to see the variety of games that people are playing!

Comments

  1. I am playing mostly Cthulhutech nowadays, though I joined a D&D 4e campaign a friend’s setting up. But I’ve been on a massive Cthulhutech binge. Also trying to set up a game of my homebrew NAA D6 system over Google Wave or something, maybe.
    .-= Wyatt Salazar´s last blog ..RELEASE: NAA D6 V1.3 =-.

  3. Currently running one and playing in two 4e games.

    Playing in a d20 modern that’s on hold as well.

  5. D&D 4E, Mutants and Masterminds, some Star Wars Saga (not as often as I would like), an occasional Shadowrun and Supernatural the rpg

  6. Well, I’ve played 4E in the past, but not now. I’m gonna be starting a Mouse Guard game real soon, and I’m playing in a game of Hunter: The Vigil (my character is a crossover from Changeling: The Lost). I’ve also been on a Diplomacy binge of sorts, but that’s not quite RPG. 😉
    .-= Andy´s last blog ..Take Two: Interview with the Revenant =-.

  7. I currently play mostly D&D4, but I’m also in games running Pathfinder and WoD Mage the Awakening. I will play almost anything with a good group, but D&D is my current fave.

  10. Currently running Wheel of Time RPG and Monte Cook’s World of Darkness. I am surprised about the number of people playing 4e.

  11. We started playing Pathfinder after new years although we have converted several base and prestige classes from 3.5 supplements.

  12. adamjford: Sorry about missing WH40k RPG, but as I said in the post I knew no matter what I’d end up missing several systems and couldn’t spend ALL day putting the poll together. 🙂

    Cliff: Okay, that’s weird, I swear GURPS was in the poll when I wrote it. I ended up copying and pasting many of the answers around so it must have gotten lost in that process. Sorry!

    I’ll add in these two options, though if you’ve already voted you won’t be able to vote for them I’ll go ahead and put 1 vote for each one.

  14. Burning Wheel for the most part, with MG, D&D 4e LfR, and the occasional OD&D one off with Jager, beer ans pretzels 😀

  18. Playing in Deadlands rules w/ Steampunk setting

    Running D&D 3.x

    Also beginning to run playtests for a game of my own design that I hope to publish by 2013.
    .-= Trevor´s last blog ..F-R-Y-Day =-.

  19. My regular game is running a house ruled 3.5e game, though we have a set of 4e Eberron characters (and the intentions to start a Star Wars Saga campaign).

    I’m also playing in a 4e play-by-post, and a teleconferenced Saga game. So 3.5, 4e, and Saga are my systems.

    But tonight we’re playing a game of Fiasco, so I figured I’d list “other” :p

  20. I’m currently playing a 4e campaign (Gears of Ruin), a Kotor Era Star Wars Sega Edition game (as a player) and we’re starting a Mouseguard campaign where we’ll play one game per actual season (i.e. 4 games for the next year).

  21. Playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition at home, also playing World of Darkness games from time to time.
    We also play In Nomine by Steve Jackson Games as it is easily our favorite RPG, even with all its many flaws.

  22. I’m currently playing in a 3.5 campaign set in Ravenloft and another set in the Forgotten Realms. I’m playing in a Call of Cthulhu campaign (orignal/percentile). I’m DMing a 4e Forgotten Realms game and a Dark Heresy game.

    I’m really interested in playing/running Savage Worlds, Mutants & Masterminds, and an Retro-clone D&D game, but I really don’t have the time right now.

  23. Playing D&D 4E, Call of Cthulhu, and Mouse Guard.
    Wanna play some 2nd edition or OD&D. I was playing in a 3.5 game for a bit and get into some different stuff at our local meet up. Cortex, Savage Worlds, Rogue Trader are all games I’d love to play too. Man. So many games, so little time.

  24. Playing AD&D 2nd again and have to admit I love it. Yeah, I’m working on houserules for some stuff but they are easy to integrate and can be adjust during game. The chance of breaking the game with one is very small indeed.
    The 2nd system I currently play is Warhammer Fantasy. I love the gritty feel of the world and the tough combat rules. 2 hits and a typical player is out. So they have to think instead of wading into a group of goblins just because they allready gained some levels.
    .-= Cyric´s last blog ..D&D 4th Edition – Eine Wasserstandsmeldung =-.

  25. Just finishing a D&D 3.5 campaign, and just getting ready to start a Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies campaign ( http://www.7skies.net/ ), which uses the PDQ# system.

    Still running an incredibly long Spycraft campaign.

    And I have SO many games on the shelf that I want to run. I’m also planning to put together a Dresden Files game when it comes out.
    .-= Lugh´s last blog ..How fragile we are =-.

  28. We alternate between 4th ed D&D and a game called Imagine which is a both a skill and level based system with an emphasis on realism in combat and comprehensive rule set.

  31. I see 4e as an early leader, does that mean lots of people are playing it, or lots of Critical Hits readers play 4e?

    ~Rae~

  32. I ran a survey on my blog last August. Here are the results, for comparison:

    D&D 3E: 60%
    D&D 4E: 55%
    Non-D&D RPG (total): 37%
    Pathfinder RPG: 28%
    Other D20 (Star Wars, True20, etc): 27%
    Other D&D (AD&D, BECMI, etc): 19%
    Savage Worlds: 6%
    GURPS: 4%
    Shadowrun: 4%

    Does this mean a lot of people have quit 3E in the past six months, or that D20 Source simply has more of a 3E following than Critical Hits?
    .-= Jonathan Drain´s last blog ..Happy GM’s Day 2010! =-.

  33. In my Sunday group, we’re playing 4e. My Saturday group just finished a couple year stint of 3.5 with all the options, and will be creating characters for Aces and Eights on Saturday.

  35. A lot of people have commented about whether this poll means 4E is really the most popular or just the most popular amongst Critical Hits readers, and I’d say the answer should be obvious:

    All this poll means is that out of anyone who comes to this site and votes, 4E is the most popular. This doesn’t mean it’s gained popularity or that any other RPG has lost players, and considering our site in any given month fluctuates in readers (new ones come, old ones leave, Phil sorta hangs around awkwardly all the time…) it’s really not a good metric to go off of for the industry or RPGs as a whole.

    What it does tell me is that if we decided to feature some old-school D&D content, or 3.x stuff, that roughly 25% of you would be interested and that’s a pretty decent number. Same goes for Savage Worlds, or Star Wars, the number of votes is greater than zero and for some of them it’s actually a decent percentage so we know what people would like to read about.

    I’d say what I’m most interested in from this poll is all of the comments talking about what systems people are playing, the specifics of those games, and how many games each person is in. As RPG players it really doesn’t matter what we play, just that we are playing and enjoying ourselves!

  36. @Bartoneus: If by awkward you mean me with your mom, then yeah, it totally is. 😀

    Seriously though, I also take it that this means that a majority of readers are interested in D&D (across editions) and makes discussing it across editions can lead to interesting discussions. The kind of discussions I like to have with readers, away from the mucks and uselessness of the edition wars.

    I don’t deny our 4e slant, most of us here play it, but it’s great material to ponder and make our content more awesome.

  38. The poll seems to be broken for me. The Vote button doesn’t do anything and the View Results link doesn’t either.

    But my (little) group just started up a Saga Edition Star Wars campaign (last night was our first session)–ironic, considering the status of the system. We put a D&D 4e game on hiatus in favor of this, and so far we’re pretty happy with the decision. Last night was a blast, anyway.

    I’m also in the process of preparing a setting for us to run a homebrew fantasy campaign, using GURPS. This will be my second original fantasy campaign, and my fourth GMing gig (had a brief, abortive run of Vampire back in high school, and an almost equally brief stint as a D&D 4e GM before our current GM took up the reins instead). This new fantasy campaign is the latest in a string of choices for me to run. At first, it was going to be a modern-day psionics campaign (also in GURPS), then I got interested in running the new edition of Mage, and now I’m going back to my comfort zone with fantasy.

  39. Because the poll insisted I comment on what ‘other system’ I use – I shall. Apologies if this is the wrong place – I am an ubernoob here and am acting only out of ignorance not trollish malice or anything. I use an ‘other’ RPG system that I’ve been crafting myself. It’s called Hydra, and it’s a fusion system mashed out of old RPG’s that have long crumbled into dust – well, the versions I’ve used have anyway. Now I’ve mutated them pretty much to a point where they vaguely resemble their original selves and have added a smattering of fudge for good measure. You can check it out over at http://fusionrpg.wordpress.com/ if it interests you. Or not. Choice be yours – arrh! (Have no idea why I went a bit pirate there!).
    .-= DocFusion´s last blog ..Playing Other Species and Peppering your Role-playing with Humour =-.

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