Games To Run, Games to Play

So, being as we just got out of Origins, the ENnies are going on, and Gen Con is fast coming up I figured I'd take a look to the future and what I'd like to be doing game-wise 6-12 months from now. See, it's that marvelous time of the year when we get all the news about upcoming game releases, and games that were announced in previous months or years tend to come out right around now. People like releasing at Gen con, and for pretty good reason it seems.

Now, don't let me have all the fun here. If I don't mention a game that you want to run or play in, by all means mention it. I'm getting better informed about what all is out there, but I still don't know all the cool stuff going on. So, lets talk about games we want to run or play in.



#1 - Legend of the Five Rings (4th Edition)
This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, most of my experience in GMing bigger games, and most of the lessons I've learned that has made me the GM I am today, come from L5R. I'm also a bit of a fanboy for samurai, and I mean that in the worst possible way (seriously, like the concept don't know near anything about them. Need to fix that). I've been desperately trying to keep from just reading through my 4th ed book for fear of wanting to run that killing my drive to run my current games in fact, and so when one of them ends I think it'll be time I return to the world of Rokugan and try to run it in a Table Top fashion this time.


That being said, I'd also love to play in another L5R game. The setting is always fun to be in with the right group, and even online games such as Five Rings Online have their merits and draws to them.

#2 - Mecha
I absolutely love mecha and mech shows of all kinds. There is just something about the giant war machines that makes things seem just that much cooler. The stories being told, the upgrades the mechs get, the characters, generally speaking I love them all. So imagine how happy I was to see this little gem sitting in rpgnow?

I haven't fully read through the book yet, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun. The combat system seems like it'd be a blast, and does tactical maneuvering and play in a fun and fairly easily understood manner. I'm still not sure what kind of mech story I'd want to run with the system, but it's mecha so how can I say no?

#3 - Blood and Honor
My playgroup had some issues with Houses of the Blooded, getting caught up in just throwing everyone under the bus. I'm not sure if that is just a problem our play style our group has with the system or if it is just the new toy phenomenon. (You know, I can do this so I will do this). That being said, Blood and Honor does two things that make me think it'd be worth giving a shot with before Houses. #1) It is not a PvP based game, while PvP can happen the story in Blood and Honor is about the PCs' clan, not their individuals and so they should be working together. #2) It's samurai, and we love us some samurai.

Honestly, given another go at running either this or Houses I think I could probably make it work. The key seems to be just understanding the power split a bit better, and then controlling how things work with when you call for rolls. The players have to step up here as well, be willing to lose, and understand that it is a bit less of a game and a lot more of a group of people coming together to tell a Tragedy or Tragedies. That may not be for my normal group, but I'd like to find out.

#4 - Mutants and Masterminds (3rd Edition)
I've ran 2.5 (I say .5 because one of the games was a prequel to the main game ran later) in Mutants and Masterminds, and I've had an absolute blast running both of them. Honestly, I really like Super heroes. I like the concepts, the dramatic situations you get with them, the ways you can challenge them, and the fact that you not only can, but are encouraged, to trash cities and countries in the running of one.

M&M 3rd ed isn't out yet, but DC Adventures which does use the third ed rules should be out soon. I'm still debating throwing down for a copy of it. Running another Supers game could always be fun, and trying out the new rules for it could be a good way to see what twists and turns the mechanics themselves bring into the picture.

#5 - Masked Avengers | Caped Crusaders
No link for this one, as you're already at the only site with information on it. This is also tooting my own horn, but I'd like to believe that in 6 months this thing will be out there for sale and that people will be enjoying it. It's also another super heroes game, which is something I'd need to be aware of when running it or planning to run it. So far, things with this system are going well though, and I can see a lot of fun coming out of it in the future.

What about you?
As I said in the beginning of this, I don't know all the things that are out and the idea is for some discussion to be happening (I have been thoroughly enjoying the responses to other posts this week too, thank you). So what games do you want to play? What games do you want to run? What's got you all excited about the future of this hobby?