In my twenty-five something years of gaming I’ve read, run and played in a fair few number of fantasy RPGs,  so trying to decide my favourite is a bit tricky.  In the end I think I can boil into down into two distinct types; favourite system and favourite background.

How many times have you cracked open a game to find that it is indeed just another western style D&D clone or Middle Earth facsimile? I think when it boils down to it, most of the times it’s someone’s house-rules masquerading as The Next Big Thing TM.

Favourite Background:

Legend of the Five Rings wins for me here, this game just oozes style and atmosphere especially since the whole background draws upon a number of Eastern mythologies to give you something that is very different to what you may be used to.

Runner up:

King Arthur Pendragon.  A classic retelling of the Arthurian legend, where the players can partake in a campaign that spans three or so generations of play.

Favourite System:

Dungeon Quest.  I haven’t had a chance to play this yet but I love the whole idea of how it works, the simplified combat adds another dimension to it and the character bonds are a really good way of connecting the group together.

Runner up:

Runequest.  Another one of those games I looked at when I was getting in to gaming, the Games Workshop editions were released as a set of hardbacks and owing to licensing rights Glorantha couldn’t be used so a fantasy Europe was used instead.  I loved the percentile mechanics but not the really deadly combat, later on the system would be used in a modified form for King Arthur Pendragon.

Favourite overall:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.  I bet you didn’t see that coming 😛 .  This for me was a real alternative to xD&D.  You had career based progression, deadly combat, some really odd creatures to battle and a wonderfully dark humorously horrific background; in short is was everything that xD&D wasn’t at the time.  Oh and it was completely British so it had some really oddities.

Runner up:

I have to tip my hat to the often forgotten Middle Earth Roleplaying Game.  While the system was a bit overwhelming and there could have been more in the way of examples it did justice to Middle Earth and the background was very well presented.