This is a pretty easy one to answer as it is the game that I have run one to two times a week for the past year. It may not be the game that I preferred to play in that time period. I run a business and so I run games that are on the shelves and that will sell. Not that this game is poor – it isn’t – it is just not my full cup of tea.
Pathfinder
That is the answer right there. Pathfinder is a good solid system that can be very complicated. I prefer games where the rules are easier to assume or work with. A game where you do not reach for the rule book (books in this case) to check effects and the like. One thing I have a massive love/hate relationship with Pathfinder is adventure paths. In my time I have run Serpent’s Skull, Skull and Shackles, Revenge of the Witch Queen. I am also currently nearly completed Wrath of the Righteous and just started Rise of the Runelords. These paths are great for continuity and grand story. Some of them even have brilliant modules. I despise many of them though as some of their presumptions are flimsy and poor when you consider player mortality.
That said, Pathfinder is popular. In store I have started a game that is all my own work and as I do this the game is wonderful. I have shaped it to what I hoped it could be. The game is not so combat heavy and sessions pass where a blade is not lifted in anger and a spell is not cast in malice. The flip side of that is that there are so many Sense Motive rolls that it is at times comical.
Pathfinder is a widely played system. Many say it has died since D&D 5E but not to me. It is still a much stronger system than 5E. In store I have seen people “wow” at 5E and then in time migrate to Pathfinder as it is more involved and offers so much more. That of course a personal opinion and this blogs most hit page is the one that offers the Tomb of the Ghast Queen free 5E adventure – so go figure. Either way, Pathfinder has been my most played game due to in store events for the past year!
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mine would come down to pathfinder or D&D 5th and have been playing them both most weeks