this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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I'm split down the middle between fairly crunchy trad games and games that are effectively improv with dice (or in their solo incarnations, writing with dice).
For the first variety, the golden king of all my games remains Chivalry & Sorcery (currently in its fifth edition; I primarily played second). I was also a big fan of a game called Rolemaster, though a later spin-off of it called HARP was more my speed later on (and, in fact, is one of the few games that I brought with me when moving to China).
For the second variety, I love Spark and its offshoots, especially Sig: Manual of the Primes. And I adore FATE, but specifically the Accelerated Edition.
I guess that finding people to play either sort of game with is tricky in China, with the rules all being in English? Do you play any of them online?
I can't say I'd know what a crunchy trade game is like ... I only ever did the one session of Pathfinder, and watched Stranger Things, lol
I love the idea of doing improv-style games, and I want to use them to try and make new friends. It seems like a repeating pattern that every time I make a friend they have to move away for some external reason, and we drift apart :-/
"Crunchy" just means "lots of rules" and Pathfinder is pretty much a crunchy trad game. Crunchy games can be insanely complex (like Powers & Perils) by having completely different systems for each and every thing (old school AD&D was this way too, as was Chivalry & Sorcery in its first and second editions) or they can have unified game systems where one or two simple core mechanisms are used in different ways for the rules (C&S from the third edition onward qualifies, as does D&D form the third edition onward, and its offshoots like Pathfinder).
I do occasionally find people to play with (including SO, obviously) but yes, my RPG playing is at an all-time low since I first encountered them in '78. I don't play online because I despise computers enough that I really don't want them in my hobbies.
You can get the rules to Spark and FATE (in several editions: Core, Accelerated Edition, and Condensed) for free if you want to see what the flavours are like.
Ah ok ... yeah, playing Pathfinder was, to me, like having homework, lol. My brain just doesn't work in the right way for it. It didn't help that the group was all guys, and while they were friendly enough I wasn't completely at ease.
I'm sorry that you're stuck without an outlet for something you obviously love :-( I can sympathise, with one of my core hobbies ... which I don't really want to talk about in public, for fear of doxxing myself.
Are there any annual English-language RPG events / festivals near where you live? (Sorry, I don't really know about this stuff!)
Nothing local, no. Just a few people I can get together with sporadically.
Like RPG methodone?