I own a lot of systems. The above isn't even a comprehensive list, as I own a myriad of physical-only products that I never bothered to find PDFs for. I often stare at my library shelves and go 'Fading Memory, when are you going to have the time to play all of these? How on earth are you going to make the time to do all of this?'

And, well, I'm pretty sure I never will. Oh well. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try. I've got a lot of energy these days. A lot. I'm positively overflowing with Guild Refreshes and jittery fingers and a desire to smash buttons and make stories.

I'm going to highlight a few of these systems that I'm personally quite interested in, despite a lack of overt familiarity with them, and willing to attempt to put things together with a crew of folks who may be even less familiar than I am with these systems. Below you will find the systems I am most interested in, for various reasons, in no particular order.

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition
I do not know if this game will mesh well with the Forum style. I am willing to smash my head against it anyway. I've never played nor run it before. I've given it cursory readthroughs over the last few years just out of sheer curiosity. I do not consider myself 'knowledgeable' nor 'proficient' with the system, but am keen on trying it out.

It's chock full of hard grid definitions and game-ist terminology that doesn't quite translate into a theatre of the mind comprehension, but I'm willing to flub a lot to make scenes work and keep the fantasy moving. This system is geared for Big Damn Heroes, Big Damn Fights, and being the 'Heroic Adventurer'.

This is D20 based, with multiple layers of additive modifiers and situational bonuses/maluses, and a potential for tracking many turn-based effects and 'over time' triggers. Potentially quite clunky for folks who have only ever played 5e.

Household
This system is simple. The setting is charming. I liken it to 'The Secret World of Arriety' by Studio Ghibli; it's about Little People in a Big House. It fits snugly into a later renaissance aesthetic, with faeries living in the chandelier of the kitchen and Boggarts claiming the hearth and fireplace as home, etcetera and so forth. Keyskets, cogpeshes, half-scissor blades, bumble-bee mounts, vicious hordes of rats, spider cultists, high society intrigues, and grand adventures through the garden are all potential angles in this setting and world. The Master has been away for too long, and now the Littles must keep order in the Home.

I believe that is sufficient to paint a broad picture of what Household entails. The mechanics operate off of a 'roll a pool of D6's, look for multiples-of-a-kind. Potentially have rerolls' system. It's just that simple. A very narrative first system, focusing on the roleplay elements of the Period Drama and being very light on mechanics in my humble opinion. This is the one if folks are of a like mind to myself where the system may end up being secondary to the actual gameplay/roleplay experience of the world itself.

While I've never run this setting or system explicitly, I've run Two Little Mice's other system 'Outgunned' and it uses a nearly identical core mechanic.

Vampire the Masquerade 5e
It's VTM. I think most people broadly have an idea what this is in today's roleplaying game climate. I've dabbled in the myriad video games a smidge, and consumed a few podcasts and youtube series of this one, but have never played it or run it personally. This means that if people are interested in this one, I will make mistakes and break canon and ruin lore or any other horrible things I could probably mess up- but hey, I'll be honest, I don't care if you guys don't.

The World of Darkness is not for the faint of heart. Set 'tonight', 'this year', 'our world', 'right now', the World of Darkness is a dark and macabre reflection of our own city streets and world situations. Vampires roam the night in secret, concealed by a rigid Masquerade upheld by old blood and tyrannical hierarchy. Other factions vie for control of the night, and mortal kine are pawns in their games. This is a game about wrestling with humanity, a lack thereof, and ambition. Vampires are infinitely more powerful than individual mortals, but are outnumbered by their livestock millionfold and must be careful in their hunting and plotting lest the sheep rise against the shepherds.

Bad things happen in the world of darkness. It's a game for mature audiences to put it as clearly as possible; that's not to say that a table cannot be made comfortable for all, but it is the nature of this game that you are playing a monster who may or may not realize it yet as they choose whether or not their humanity is really all that important in the Machiavellian schemes of the night.

Just the way I've described this will probably clue veteran players of the setting in to the fact I really am new to it, but I have an interest and a general understanding of the vibe. Mechanically it uses D10's in pools, trying to roll 6+'s with some nuances to this. Activating vampiric powers can potentially lead to greater Hunger, which in turn can lead to messy situations as it affects your dice pools. 'Clans' represent groupings of shared banes and benefits, functionally mirroring 'classes'+'races' of other systems into one neat bundle. As an example, the Nosferatu; their clan bane is an apparent and unmistakable hideousness, whilst they get the benefits of physical prowess, stealth, and animal familiarity.

I don't anticipate a strong response to this, but it's one I'm willing to run and am interested in myself.

A Song of Ice and Fire
In my opinion, this game system is a bit of a mess. I've played two games in it, run 0, never fully read the books, only watched the show once, but think that there's a fascinating potential to the system and setting for a game that is built on the idea of 'politics and warfare go hand in hand' rather than having one as an afterthought. I could not explain the system off of memory save that it is about amassing pools of D6's which are occasionally modified with a +Number, or by gaining bonus dice which only replace lowest numbers rolled, and trying to beat target numbers. The greater the extent you beat the target numbers, the greater the degree of success.

I don't have much to say about this one other than 'If you like the idea of politicking and lethal combat and dealing with the world of Game of Thrones, this game is quite literally built for that'. The House generation aspect is prime, in my opinion, and greatly solidifies the party's cohesion as a unit in the employ or service of a particular house.

D&D 5e
Hey, people like it. It's easy. It runs clean. It's easy to use. I know it like the back of my hand. I've made mistakes in running it in the past, but I've been running it for a long time. Last time I tried to run it, I ended up dumping nearly 70 pages of homebrewed setting, races, lore, deities, songs, naming conventions, legends, languages, and locations on my players. _{Y'all know who you are, I'm sorry for that.}

This time I'm keeping it simple. If folks want to just play some more 5e, I'll be going back to basics and...well...not doing all of that again. As a worst case scenario, if people want something of substance beyond 'adventuring fantasy game', I alternatively do have Strixhaven and am willing to run it. I've never run a premade module or adventure before, and this thing is a little silly in its layout, but hey- it's a forum, it's through text, what could go wrong if people wanted that route?

I also have various clones/kickstarters/third party productions for 5e, ranging from Bloodpunk (a vampire-centric, blood-currency, techno-punk, setting book) to Carbon 2185 (a cyberpunk flavored futuristic variant a-la Cyberpunk and Shadowrun) and Genefunk (another futuristic setting defined by genetic modification and insane mutations on genome, I've touched this very little) and Steinhardt's Guide (Bloodborne, 5e, 3rd party.). If people had a strong interest in 'the same, but different' I could elaborate on these as well.

If I had a gun to my head, I'd pick 4e as the one I'm most interested in personally, but I'm also looking to explore these other systems with people and not just my own interest. As such, I'm happy with any of the above if interest is present.

Honorable mentions for my willingness to run are Twilight 2k (the modern variant by Free League, not the older editions) and Vaesen (the first Free League game I ever purchased, but never played). T2K is about the world in ruin after world war 3 and the soldiers trying to pick up the pieces as infrastructure, command, and the world itself have collapsed after nuclear war. Old orders still stand, but survival is uncertain and the world is in chaos. This system is complex for what it is, and may be difficult to represent on a forum. Vaesen is about a society of people who were born on Thursdays. To elaborate, they can see supernatural creatures and it's a mystery-intrigue system about the world changing during industrialization in Scandinavia and the old mysteries fighting back in a changing world. Strange things happen that are inexplicable, but you can see the truth of things where others just see chaos.

The only reason Shadowrun isn’t on this list already is because I’m already in two ongoing games of it. I run a session-based table of it on Fridays and am Co-GMing a pure-roleplay game here on the Guild already. I love Shadowrun. My favorite game setting and system for sure. I just have other obligations for that at the moment, so unless a bunch of people show up and want that specifically I’d prefer other options at the moment.

If you're up for running D&D 5e, I'd be interested in playing. ^_^

Household, Vampire, D&D 5e, and Vaesen are the games I'd be interested in.

I own a lot of systems. The above isn't even a comprehensive list, as I own a myriad of physical-only products that I never bothered to find PDFs for. I often stare at my library shelves and go 'Fading Memory, when are you going to have the time to play all of these? How on earth are you going to make the time to do all of this?'

Mood.

Last time I tried to run it, I ended up dumping nearly 70 pages of homebrewed setting, races, lore, deities, songs, naming conventions, legends, languages, and locations on my players. _{Y'all know who you are, I'm sorry for that.}

If you're talking about Aesithas, you have nothing to apologise for. I love homebrewed settings with a lot of thought put into them, even if it diverges from a lot of pre-established DnD lore.

But yeah, I'll say Household is the one I have the most interest in just from your description of it, because it's very much my vibe. Of course, I'd be willing to go the 5e route, especially either Strixhaven or (because I also own it, and it seems very interesting) Genefunk.

So far that’s three votes for 5e or a derivative, 2 votes for Household, and a vote for Shadowrun, Vaesen, Vampire 5e. Got it.

I know if nobody else got me, the usual suspects got me lol.

I've been thinking of getting back into tabletop, so if I did swing around for a game again myself, I'd vote for Household, DnD 5e or ASOIAF.

I’m honestly fairly surprised at the variance I’m receiving in people’s interests. I’ve a few Discord messages from folks weighing in as well. Household and 5e are tied-ish at the top of my notes, with Vaesen, Vampire, and ASOIAF all roughly equal in second place at the moment. I’m happy to see so many different interests.

If the tie for first place needs breaking at any point, know that I lean more towards Household than D&D.

If the tie for first place needs breaking at any point, know that I lean more towards Household than D&D.

Same here

I'd love to try Household. :)

Since Household appears to be climbing rapidly in interest, I'll go ahead and do a more thorough explanation of its mechanics and situations so that people can confirm their interest.

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To begin, the system is simple and intended for an episodic style of adventure rather than a lengthy campaign like one would typically envision for a D&D game. Your progression as a character in Household is limited, and the system is narrative and character action driven rather than mechanically driven. In short, there's more than one way to skin a cat in Household and your particular choices will affect this more than anything else.



Trust a sprite if you pay them
A boggart if they give their word
A fairy if they sign their name
And a sluagh when they say
“you should never trust me”
Household Proverb

The core mechanic of the game is pairing 'Fields' with 'Skills' to amass a die pool, then rolling and searching for matching sets of results. This is where player agency shines, as you get to decide how your character is approaching a scene or obstacle and pitch it to the GM (There would rarely be a situation where I would feel the need to arbitrate these decisions).

There are four fields (Society, Academia, War, and Street), and twenty skills. On the character sheet they are grouped by typical associations, but this is not a restrictive grouping.



When an action carries a risk, or when it can lead to important Consequences that would influence the development of the story, then it’s time for you to roll the dice.
There are two kinds of dice rolls in this game:
Ӵ ACTION ROLLS: For these rolls, you are the one who states the Action, and you can freely choose the Field and Skill you’ll call into play.
Ӵ REACTION ROLLS: For these rolls, the Narrator asks you to React to a specific event, calling into play a specific Field and Skill

you could approach a situation by trying to be stealthy, warranting a Street+Caution to sneak and bypass hostile presences, or perhaps in a party you may be trying to fly under the radar whilst remaining present on the ballroom floor and that would fall under Society+Caution. A situation of a precarious alchemical laboratory in the midst of a firefight requiring you to juggle reagents and components? Could just as easily be Academia+Craft as it could Academia+Dexterity to avoid cataclysm. This is the primary interface with which the players interact with the world, by choosing a Field and Skill, justifying the choice, then rolling the dice and acting out the results.

The difficulty of these actions is decided by the GM, ranging from 'Basic' to 'Impossible' (one pair to five of a kind), but there are nuances to these rolls and your ability to interact with them, but that can be delved into later if folks are still interested in this game. 'Critical', AKA Three of a Kind, is the 'standard' difficulty to be expected for most tasks that are worth rolling for. If you somehow roll 6 of a kind, that's called a 'Jackpot' and it basically allows you to take over the narration of the scene as a whole and describe how you achieve your goal for the scene. Hey, it gives me a break as GM, I'm all for it.

Reaction rolls are similar to Action rolls, except that I, the mighty GM, would dictate what roll is appropriate for the declared action. This comes up in Combat, unexpected circumstances, emergencies, and otherwise dramatic moments. Enemies do not roll to hit you; you will be called on to React to them, as deemed appropriate by the GM, to avoid harm and embarassment.

The core mechanic of interaction with rolls is 'Rerolls' and 'Free Rerolls', which all I'll elaborate on for now is that you can risk what you currently have to try and improve the result- unless it's 'Free', in which case always take your reroll as it cannot harm you!

Characters will have access to specialized maneuvers called 'Moves' which give them unique abilities or access to 'Free Rerolls'; think of these like Feats in D&D.

Instead of tracking HP you have 'Stress', and it acts as plot armor, social graces, physical might, whatever you need to fluff it as to understand this system is an abstract and simple portrayal of the heroics and struggles of these little folk. Taking too much 'Stress' results in becoming Overstressed, and risking 'Bowing Out' of the scene- the game does not overtly risk death upon anyone without their consent outside of few remarkable circumstances. Situationally you may suffer 'Conditions', which modify die pools in relevant fashions. Becoming Hurt, for example, makes it harder to wield your War field and imposes maluses on your physical efforts.

There are some other nuances and mechanics, and a limited method of advancement, but this covers the 'mechanics' of Household to an extent that it should help you decide if this style of gameplay seems fun to y'all.

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If this doesn't scare people away or still seems fun to folks, I'll start nosing into the Household book more in depth. I'll let this sit up for another day or two as an active IntCheck just to see if any other folks show up and have other opinions that might influence things.

Alrighty it seems Household has taken a few steps up over 5e this time. Everyone is welcome to join in this adventure of learning and togetherness, naturally, but I also understand if folks don’t want to join in on something they didn’t personally vote for. I’ll get an OOC up shortly, and meander the appropriate character sheet files and player information into an accessible format for people.