That is true. I do feel like whenever there's a general RPG group, it usually breaks down quickly into every post either being related to 5E, or complaining about 5E.

I stopped visiting RPG on Reddit because it felt like half the posts were just complaining about 5E, and while I don't disagree with those posts, I would rather talk about the things I DO enjoy.

Oh yeah, CWN is absolutely playable already. I've been GMing a campaign since version 0.9 of the beta - well, we already agreed to start playing with 0.7 but didn't play our first session until the day after 0.9 came out. And it's been going very well. Much better than any other beta game I've ever played before. I do run it in a very Shadowrun style way too. Never was a fan of CyberpunkRed (too crunchy) or Shadowrun (just an absolute mess).

It's one thing if you're playing a duet RPG with a GM and solo player (or GM-less duet ttrpg, not sure of that exists?). But the last thing i'm interested in is 'exploring sex and romance' while I'm sitting around a dinner table with my sister, my brother in law, and three friends I have zero interest in. All while half the table is munching on Cheetos.

A few years ago some kind of manager or director of tabletop gaming projects at Kickstarter lost his job because he greenlit a project that Koebel was working on, so yeah, anyone trying to print something the guy's name is on is playing Russian Roulette.

(that guy losing his job is also what resulted in Zine Quest being canceled the year after btw, because that guy was running it as a pet project)

NSR/Rules Light

Mausritter: I've run this one in various one shots for probably around 50 different players already, and so far every single one has enjoyed it. The inventory system is great, the setting is great, the hackability is great. Like most rules lights I don't like running campaigns in it, but for pickup games in my FLGS it's my nr 1 favourite.

Black Sword Hack: If you want to get the feel and vibe of old school pulp action sword & sorcery fantasy in a rules light way, this is THE system. After Mausritter this is my other go-to for pickup games and other one-shots.

Pirate Borg: Pirates are awesome. The Mork Borg ruleset is decent. This game combines them into a really sweet blend. Also, for my tastes, Pirate Borg adds just enough meat to the bare-bones rules-light games that this is actually the only NSR game I enjoy running actual campaigns rather than just one shots in.

OSR

OSE Advanced Fantasy: As far as OSR goes this is the holy grail for me personally. B/X is right where the sweet spot between complexity and rules-light fits in my personal experience, and OSE is the best possible reference material to use in the modern day for B/X. B/X also has 40 years of homebrewing history, and so anything you don't like about the system should be trivial to change.

Hyperborea: Where Black Sword Hack is THE system for rules-light old school pulp action sword & sorcery fantasy, this is THE system for slightly deeper old school pulp action sword & sorcery fantasy. For me personally it has some unneeded complexity as it leans more to AD&D than B/X, but I still enjoy it for all the flavour it has.

ACKS: Way too simulationist for me when you go all the way to the nitty gritty, and there's some weird choices made in how saving throws and attack rolls are handled, but the classes are just chef's kiss and they are 100% compatible with B/X or OSE. If you want to run a race-as-class kind of game you owe it to yourself and your players to have a look at how ACKS handles these classes.

Stars/Worlds/Cities Without Number: Beside B/X this is my most played OSR system. I don't put them higher on this list because I personally don't like skill lists and feats, which are both very important to SWN/WWN/CWN, but my players love these systems, and if you're one of those GMs who has players that come from 3rd/4th/5th edition D&D and you wanna convince them to play OSR games, this is in my experience the best way to go. It has all the customisation options that modern players (and min-maxers) love, but still with sufficient OSR sensibilities. Also, even if you don't run this game as is, I recommend checking out the Game Master chapters on how to run a sandbox campaign, how to manage factions, etcetera. That material is absolute gold.

Other Old-School Inspired

Forbidden Lands: It's got some flaws like every other system, but I like the dice pools, I like the way defenses work in this game, it's got some amazing random tables and survival mechanisms. I've recently finished a 2 year long campaign in this system and I don't regret it at all. If you wanna lean really heavily into the hexcrawling part of Old Shool Gaming this one definitely is a great choice.

Adam Koebel who became infamous when

spoiler

he decided to enact a robot sa scene during a live stream with one of his players as a victim

. Any new project he works on in the TTRPG sphere ends up quickly canceled so a reprint of Mellified Mage might not be worth the fuss to Free League.

Honestly, mostly personal preference.

Black Sword Hack is a pretty narrative rules-light system, and while those are great to bring to the table when I'm just running a game at my FLGS or RPG Club, for a long term campaign I'd rather have a few more campaign tools and deeper systems. So for my long campaigns I use systems like Forbidden Lands, ACKS, WWN, or at minimum OSE with something like Into the Wild bolted on.

Ran it twice already and really enjoying it. Not my favourite game for a long campaign, but it's a good option for my biweekly one shots.

I will constantly take parts from modules, but I've never run a module verbatim; not an old module and not a new module.

Cities is still in beta (version 0.24 currently) as the Kickstarter was so recent, but I believe it's planned to be finished by end of the month. I've been GMing it since version 0.07 though, and found it very playable already from day 1 :)

When I finish my homebrew I'll post some more about it. :)

I've been running Worlds Without Number and Cities WIthout Number campaigns. I'm also putting the final touches to my homebrew game based on blending ACKS, WWN and classic B/X.

Glad to see this community. I left Reddit some time ago already, long before the blackout, but didn't realise there was a federated alternative until now. Curious to see how/if this can supplement my Mastodon usage.