My RPG Bucket List

I know–it’s been over a month since a posted. Blame that on a computer that decided to completely up and die at the beginning of October, which took nearly three weeks to get fixed and rest of the time catching up from being off-line. But it did give me some time to think about games — the ones I’ve run and the one’s I still want to.

I think every GM has a “bucket list” — the games you want to play before you “kick the bucket”. I’ve had to chance to try many of the RPG systems out there, at least for a single game session, but there are still a wide number of games I’ve been wanting to try my hand at. In no particular order:

1. Call of Cthulhu: I’ve played a couple of sessions of this at conventions, but haven’t yet had the opportunity run it.
2. Werewolf: the Apocalypse (2nd ed.): I’ve run Vampire and Mage games and I’ve run garou in cross-over games, but I haven’t yet had a chance to run a pure Werewolf game.
3. Skyrealms of Jorune: An amazing game, with an incredibly rich game world, but one that requires a major time investment for the players as they learn an entirely new world from scratch–something neither I nor my players have been able to give right now. Oh, well, maybe after everyone retires…
4. Shadowrun: I have run this, briefly, but would really like to give it another go. I just haven’t had the time to make over the cumbersome mechanics. I don’t know if the newest edition is better, since I haven’t had a chance to pick it up. Hmm, I wonder how much time it would take to convert to Savage Worlds…..
5. Qin: This is also on my Amazon Wish List. I have an interest in ancient China and would love to get my hands on this one, I just haven’t felt like I could justify the cover price right now.
6. In Nomine: One of my absolutely favorite games. I’ve played it extensively at conventions and the occasional one-shot here and there, but have never had the opportunity to run an actual campaign of it.
7. Aberrent and Trinity: I did run a Trinity game for awhile, but I wasn’t at my GMing best during that time and would love to give it another go around with a campaign that ties both together.
8. Ars Magica: Another personal favorite. I really like the historical basis of this game, as well as the flexibility of its magic system. This is on the “to do soon” short-list.
9. Over the Edge: As you can probably guess from the rest of this list, I’ve got a thing for dark, occult conspiracy.
10. Mark Miller’s Traveller: While I would enjoy running it, this is one I’d rather play than GM. Liked the first, black box, version of the game and was impressed by this edition when I skimmed through it.

But I am getting to cross one game off my list. This coming Saturday I’m sitting down with my group to create characters for a Castle Falkenstein game. It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to actually run a game (I’ve been playing D&D 3.5) and I’m really excited. So unless you tell me stop, you’re likely to get regaled with game session reports.

How about you? What are the games you’ve always hoped to play or run? What’s been sitting on your shelf for months or years, enticing you, that you’ve never had a chance to actually play?

[Image courtesy of donjd2 via Flickr Creative Commons]