So I’ve been in the mood lately to run an honest to god dungeon-crawl-focused campaign. But I’ve been on the fence about what to use.My #1 go-to system is Genesys and I will sing its praises any day of the week. But even I have to admit one of the things Genesys doesn’t do very well is dungeon crawls. So rather than try to jam a square peg into a round-hole, I’m going to just shelve it and pick up a different system. So now I have to pick an alternative system with mechanics that gel better with the theme. So now I got to find a system that’s correctly balanced: too much crunch makes it hard to flip between narration and gameplay, and more advanced mechanics become intimidating and thus underutilized, not enough crunch and there’s just not going to be enough to do to keep things from feeling repetitive and dull.So I’m trying to pick between the following:> D&D 5.0 editionLook, coming in as someone who’s learning 5e as his… 6th? 7th? System, the game is, fine. it’s way more restrictive than you’d think, but the system is somewhat fluid and quick-ish to learn, and there’s like… 2-3 3rd party publications I genuinely like. So I’m humoring it enough to make an honest attempt to learn and consider > 3.75 edition (aka: Pathfinder 1e)I already own a lot of the physical books for this, and piazo did make the system more open to tinkering so GMs are more invited to make custom content for their games. But it is crunchy… not the crunchiest system I’ve ever read but it is crunchy and I wonder if it will become too much and bog the game down to the point of disengagement.> Fallout 2d20This is admittedly the weakest contender simply because it is ultimately tied to a specific IP, so anyone not familiar with it, or not a fan, Isn’t going to get much out of it. Plus this game feels pretty rough and unpolished, making the GMs job that much harder.
>>97578694ACKS or Gygaxian D&D aka the OSR
I’ll probably do some testing and trial runs at my LGS if nothing else, to see what I feel jives with me. But I thought I would ask here anyway
>>97578711ACKS has the best dungeon crawling mechanics out of all available games
>>97578694Oh, I will say that I did consider 6th edition Call of Cthulhu because there’s still a dungeon crawl-esque aspect to it and it has a slew of exotic monsters to play around with….But the PCs are so goddamn squishy! Every time I entertain using that system, I’m worried a particularly strong wind will tear a PC in half. Or a mild jump scare will send one to the asylum.
>>97578700>>97578742Okay, something to think about, and look into.But if you were forced to choose between those three and only those three, which would you choose?
>>97578786Those are all bad systems for dungeon crawling focused campaigns. I would highly advice checking out OSR games (AD&D 1e) or ACKS, but if I had to, I suppose 3.75
>>97578786You got trolled by the resident clique that searches for keywords in your OP.Go with Pathfinder.
>>97582463> You got trolled by the resident cliqueDid I? Or did I get them to actually give an endorsement of a system other than their precious OSR systems?The OP is a genuine question. But if the only people that will engage with the question are trolls… well, one must find ways to convince the trolls to engage the question on your terms.But that’s 2 for Pathfinder regardless so… probably should consider dusting off my old books and reviewing them.
>>97578694GURPS Dungeon Fantasy>too crunchyJust use only the parts you want to use.
>>97583669Ah! So you’re saying GURPS is a terrible choice for what I’m looking for, good to know, I’ll make sure to avoid it.
>>97583669>>97583948DF isn't great anyway, it's a bit too ironic. There are some very decent settings for GURPS like Reign of Steel and Transhuman Space, but they didn't have the guts to do an unironic dungeon crawling setting so it's this smarmy pastiche
>>97578694Pathfinder gives the most satisfying play experience but it's probably best to just go with 5e.
>>97578694What are you actually interested in? Do you see the dungeon as a space to explore, a theater of operations, or a series of set piece fights? Because """"dungeon crawling""""" can mean several different things.
>>97578700>>97578742>>97578809I looked into ACKS and it looks awful. There's so many steps to do anything and everything is bland and generic. It's like the exact kind of game I'd want to avoid as much as possible.
>>97584405ACKS got banned out of a bunch of sites because of shilling so we just ended up with those shills here.
>>975841505e is probably worth trying at least once even just to find out what the hype was all about. Really wish the 2024 version didn't shit the bed with its art direction though.>>97584432It might be the first time I looked at a game and felt a little sick.
So, this was just a troll thread, then?
>>97583619>Did I?You did. Helping you is far from their first priority.>probably should consider dusting off my old books and reviewing them.You might want to check out the 3.5 Expedition to Undermountain. It offers a megadungeon framework to build off of and then just loads of encounters. It's not all hits, but it's not the worst tool to have in your back pocket when planning a pure dungeon crawl campaign.
>>97584541> 5e is probably worth trying at least once even just to find out what the hype was all about. Really wish the 2024 version didn't shit the bed with its art direction though.As I’ve said, I’ve been using a 2014 copy to teach myself 5e so I can make a genuine attempt to learn the system. It’s… fine… just fine, it’s not my first choice, honestly I wouldn’t even say it’s normally my 3rd choice. But I will say that the game did do a lot to streamline the game to make it more player-friendly -at the cost of making it less GM-friendly But, as I said, there’s a couple really cool settings that were written for 5e, so I’m giving it serious consideration
>>97578694Of the three? I'd probably do Fallout. I like 2d20 as a system overall and have had a good time with Conan 2d20. While I prefer my dungeon crawls to be fantasy flavoured Shadow of the Weird Wizard has entirely supplanted games like D&D for me and I find it a little hard to go back. So SotWW would be my actual first choice.
>>97584405Yeah jusy use ad&d 1e
