Hell if I've got a favorite. When I turn my head and scan my game shelves, what do I see and have fond memories of?
D&D 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 (haven't really played 4th yet), plus assorted supplements and setting books. Serenity RPG -- mostly for the fluff and the autographs I got at Dragon*Con that year. An assortment of World of Darkness stuff, the older edition, mostly Werewolf and Vampire but with a smattering of Mage and Changeling for flavor. Fat stacks of Warmachine and Hordes books, naturally, along with every No Quarter (and doubles or triples of a few that hold sentimental value
), a reasonable horde of old WEG Star Wars d6 games -- which I'm playing in a couple on-line games right now, and having a blast -- and I got the first few d20 rules books for Star Wars but it just didn't sit well. Right now I'm in a few HERO/Champions tabletop games, too, and while I've only got the core books for the new edition, I've got stacks and stacks of sourcebooks from the last edition, just enjoying reading over 'em and seeing how fleshed out their comic book universe is. I was hardcore into Warhammer 40k for a couple years, buying up every Codex to keep up with the Jones's, and I still have my fair share of 40k wargame
and Dark Heresy RPG books. I've gotten lots of fun out of all of 'em, as fun as GW is to pick on sometimes.
Right this second, if I had to pick a "Rookie of the Year" game? It'd be
Dresden Files RPG, hands down, and that's coming from someone who's not even familiar with the novels. My wife is a huge fan of the series, so I got her the books for her birthday -- which happened to come with the pdf copies for free, which meant I had a few weeks to read over 'em and fall in love. Once the hardcopies arrived I liked them even more; they're just fantastically put-together books, beautiful artwork, characterful notes in the margins, plain-speaking throughout the rulebook and with a
very interesting character and setting creation mechanic. As they say, "Character creation
is play," and they're not kidding. Our group spent hours and hours creating a small Oklahoma town to be our stomping ground/protectorate, just as long weaving our characters together and fleshing them out, and only
then finally turned the character sheets over to write down any numbers, skills, or magical abilities. It's a really cool way to kick-off a campaign. Well made books, an interesting mechanic/system, and very story driven creation. I'm diggin' it, so far.
And, uh, all that is ignoring the fact that fully 1/3 of my total shelf space -- counting graphic novels, mind you, not just all my assorted gaming and wargaming books -- is taken up by my beloved Shadowrun.
