Just trying to start a conversation and see what people are interested in. Nothing special about the categories - add anything you want to talk about.
Favorites limited to ones I’ve played.
Overall: Fallen by Perplexing Ruins. Love the setting, atmosphere and mechanics. I have some quibbles about healing in the default rules but want the Fear mechanic in everything. It’s great for both groups and solo.
Combat: Lancer by Massif Pres
Solo: Broken Shores by BlackOath Entertainment. I haven’t managed to keep a PC alive for longer than an in-game week, but it’s awesome. Runner-up is Riftbreakers, also by BlackOath. Much less deadly and more heroic. Also the best run-a-group-solo that I’ve seen.
Magic system: Path of the Aram Thyr by BlackOath, again. Another solo, and I’m not a fan of the game-play loop, as written, but that is easily fixed by making your own narrative/PC goals. And the magic system is so cool.
Supplement: Lots here, but from what I’ve used in games is a tie between Into the Cess & Citadel and Into the Wyrd and Wild, both by Feral Indie.
I’ve got a large TBR/TBP pile, so a couple of things I’m very excited about: Across a Thousand Dead Worlds (BlackOath), Salvage Union (Leyline) and Goblinville (Narrative Dynamics). The current top of the TBP is Pirate Borg, Runecairn and WWN.
Oh I didn’t expect to see Fallen here when I opened this! I feel like it’s really underrated. I’ve only played it solo, but I use the Fallen oracle cards for everything.
Overall: Maybe I’ll cheat and say ItO systems in general. I like how hackable they are; you learn one and you can play a lot in different settings.
Combat: 13th Age. I was always a big fan of 4E, except for some issues like combat length: 13th Age really solves those.
PbtA: The original Apocalypse world is still my favourite.
PbtA alternative: Heart: the City Beneath. In some ways it’s a classic dungeon crawler, except it really isn’t. Every part of it is so evocative and unique and cool. I love that everyone is doomed.
Along those lines, Corvid Court is based on the same system as Heart and it seems like nobody has heard of it but I’ve had a wide range of different groups of people love it.
GMless: I haven’t played a lot of GMless games, but of the ones I’ve played, I really liked The Price of Coal.
Overall writing: Book of Gaub. This could basically be a set of short stories and be equally great.