My mind boggles that Shadowrun has shaky enough rules that it’s required 6 editions so far. That’s like a new edition every six or seven years. Meanwhile GURPS has been on 4th edition for almost two decades. I get why D&D does their edition reset (and why a new edition should be coming soon) but not why Shadowrun needs to get revised so often.
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Gurps hasn’t gotten a new edition because it doesn’t sell and SJ games is run by bottom-line focused libertarians, and Shadowrun is on like, it’s fourth publisher and makes it’s money by doing the splatbook cycle over and over again.
Editions exist because of market concerns, not quality in most cases.
There is a Gurps 5e around the corner though (according to heavy hints from the Steve Jackson Games’ tiktok. Yeah, they have a zoomer on staff who does tiktoks for them. It’s weird), because I think the RPG market is more robust than it used to be (at least at the moment) and also I think the gravy train of Munchkin has been running out of steam enough that they need to chase more niche audiences.
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Yeah, after the 2nd edition I find it rare that new editions of games are actually better. At best they are usually a lateral move. D&D is kind of unique in that most of its editions are entirely different games.
Of the games I know something about, here are the editions I prefer:
- D&D: AD&D first edition. This is basically the 2nd edition of the game. Good arguments can be made for preferring the original though.
- Rolemaster: 2nd edition. Every edition after this over complicates the game by over systematizing it or trying to add realism.
- Runequest: I actually kind of like the 3rd edition by Avalon Hill, but this is probably a dumb opinion. I don’t have a ton of experience with this game though and 2nd edition is probably just as good.
- Champions: I don’t have all that much experience but I’m mentioning it here because 4th edition is the first to include the universal HERO System. This may be a case where 4th is the best edition.
I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’m interested in GURPS and was thinking I should probably get 2nd or maybe 3rd edition. Is there a good reason to get 4th instead? I’m more interested in the older supplements. I think Cyberpunk was only released for 2nd. If so, I’m leaning towards that edition.
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Gurps hasn’t changed wildly between editions, I don’t really see a reason not to do 4e, there’s very little difference between them other than fixing some math issues in earlier editions. 4e is fine. You kinda don’t need the rules from earlier editions because they incorporated a lot of the supplements into the core books.
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I have the vibe that the various editions of Call of Cthulhu are a matter of rights for artwork and assorted other very minor things since they are all almost identical after the third edition included the Cthulhu Companion books as written in an appendix.
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3rd edition is fine if you don’t mind giving up the excellent setting but it is really no good if you want to keep playing in glorantha
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It isn’t the default setting but they did release some Glorantha material for 3rd. I have a Gods of Glorantha boxed set that I think repackages material from Cults of Prax from 2nd. But they also did stuff like release classic modules de-Glorantha’d, like Griffin Island instead of Griffin Mountain.
I have the vibe that the various editions of Call of Cthulhu are a matter of rights for artwork and assorted other very minor things since they are all almost identical after the third edition included the Cthulhu Companion books as written in an appendix.
CoC is a great example of why you don’t need the latest edition. But at least it sounds like the newer ones are compatible with the old editions.
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i gmed a session of call of cthulhu earlier tonight!
it was my first time gming this game, and it sems to have gone pretty well? i enjoyed myself, and the players also said they enjoyed it.
we’d originally planned to play an hour of coc folowed by an hour of dnd (dmed by one of the players in coc), but we just played coc for both hours.
i’m pleased by this, as even though i enjoy dnd, coc is maybe my favourite rpg of the few i’ve played.
this is the story we started, if anyone is interested.
also, the newest versions of the coc character sheets have a character pronoun field, which is the first time i’ve seen that on a non-indie game i think.
in other news, my saturday group recently finished princes of the apocalypse. the ending was incredibly dramatic, through a nice bit of emergent narrative. my character was the only one left against the final boss. she was on fire, and no matter what, would die at the end of my turn, and on top of that, the boss had enough hp left that only a critical hit would kill it. i rolled that crit, killed the boss, saved the world, and then immediately burned to death. what an ending!
we’ve since switched to playing vamprie: the requiem! my secret plan to manipulate everyone with whom i play to gradually dump dnd and play stuff that’s mechanically and thematically more interesting is going well 
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Ive had to play a lot of GURPS lately and it crushes the soul. what a joyless game. except when you get limbs blown up or crush a skull or something. weird meat mecha game.
i learned to love 5e over the course of maybe 6 sessions thus far. at first i was weirdly opposed to it because i really like bfrpg/ose and stuff. turns out its a pretty sweet game.
i joined the campaign a little late so my character just finished his first quest. everyone else is on their second (but we’re all equal level for now). this was the first time doing serious roleplaying and im finally attached to the character… i guess this is because he had been my avatar for action but now he has experienced consequences for the first time and it ties into his backstory nicely and its real good.
roleplaying is weirdly vulnerable like theres the gamist an element of what needs to be done as well as the element of what would be done by the character in question. the session had a bittersweet vibe because my guy got a lot of cool new kit and learned valuable skills but it was kind of heartbreak seeing/making him respond to his situation the way he did.
all our party members now have goals shifted a little bit. one thing im excited for is my character’s upcoming multiclass. ive been conspiring with the gm for a little while about putting this guy on the backburner for a minute while he gets a multiclass and will be playing someone else during the interim. its partially an excuse for variety but its also just cos itll be cool when my guy comes back at a clutch moment and he has taken up the barbarian class and chosen path of the giants and now he can go huge mode and then i can leave the other guy in the background for the time being.
the campaign is clearly inspired by suikoden and ffiv. we’re collecting brave heroes for a rebellion. and there’s a mount ordeal type place called mirror mountain.
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Session report from the campaign Im in. I play Gene Erikson.
the one thing ref forgot to mention in the AAR is how we got past the living statues… by greasing up our buns and sliding down the stairs xD
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Yo this sounds like an awesome old school dungeon crawl!
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There are dungeons, indeed but the campaign overall is more than that. Nathan’s refereeing is flavoured by his experience with both Fate and OSR, and the way he runs 5e blends that experience really well. Our next sessions will be a small hex-crawl and concern a political negotiation with debaucherous wood elves. I look forward to sharing more of the session reports!
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I will be playing the OD&D hack Wolves Upon The Coast by Luke Gearing via Discord shortly. Its a giant hex crawl. Open table. Here is my character
RUDA
Ruda is a towering woman of fair hair and fair skin with a reddish complexion. Long limbed, athletic. Large hands. She has shirked a boring life and wishes to distinguish herself as a mighty woman.
CHARACTERISTICS
Strength 17
Agility 16
Constitution 11
SAVES
Dodging 14
Physique 13
Warding 17
MISC
HD 1d6
HP 4
Attack Bonus 3
Language slots .5
Equipment: 90 silver worth.
Polearm (15 silver)
Short bow (15s silver)
Leather armor (15 silver)
Bandages (10 silver)
Backpack (5 silver)
Rations, dry day × 3 (15 silver)
Water skin (15 silver)
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Ive been thinking about the naming of games for roleplaying and how important it is. The D&D campaign I am taking part in is called Daemonium - Brave Survivers. So while we are playing D&D 5e, it is our own 5e adjusted for the tastes of the table and it could be replaced entirely without changing the game we are playing. Its important to name your games, Daemonium in this case, because it lets the game have its own identity and not get lost in ambiguity. Setting is adventure and informs the characters and aesthetics and politics of a game so I think having a setting and understanding the system is simply a physics engine are good ways of getting the most out of your game.
And session report for the last session of DAEMONIUM Brave Survivers: Daemonium: Brave Surviver!! Session 15: North Ambern Hexcrawl Part 1
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This reminds me of Matt Colville talking about how after adventuring for a little while a team should give itself a name, both because it helps to establish tone and also in-world it allows other political actors to consider your group as a unit and fit it into their worldviews,
and also how no group I’ve ever played with has really gotten around to choosing a name for itself lol
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We’re called the 64 Braves in Daemonium. This creates a kind of Suikoden gimmick where we can find sixty-four individuals to join our cause and ties into the base mechanics our referee borrowed from Whitehack.
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hey I suggested System of a Clown in our bg3 game
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We literally did this in game, when Warg Blither, elf journalist, asked you what you called yourselves. I believe your official group name at this point is the Bozos
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your actual play team name wasn’t The No Rangers Allowed ??
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My recollection is that we talked around it for an hour and never actually came up with anything. The bozos is a @Rudie coinage and I’m pretty sure has never been said in-character by anybody
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