This is a hard one. We had a long running AD&D game in high school that plateaued when the characters fought our equivalent of Satan/Sauron/BigBadGuy™… I remember closing the books and thinking “Well…not going to top that” and adhering to the axiom it’s better to go out at the top of your game, I never played D&D or a fantasy setting again, until I played in a short-lived Shadowrun game (and I was in that more for the lone female player…)

I’ve looked over a bunch of the rules sets — from Numenera (which looks pretty, but the system didn’t thrill me), to The One Ring (which seemed to do Tolkein well, but I have OCD players that would really get into studying up on the world…I don’t have the time or will to slog through Tolkein again.) There’s the Victorian fantasy stylings of Victoriana — which I know well from writing for it, and is essentially Shadowrun mixed with Space: 1889 — to Castle Falkenstein, which I’ve used for playing Space: 1889 for a while, and there’s modern fantasy in the shape of Shadowrun. 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons has attracted my interest, more as a tool for recruiting gamers, more than wanting to play it.

I just find the idea of the traditional elves/dwarves/orc/and dragons games boring. Blue Rose looks interesting, but not enough for me to plunk down cash, sight unseen.

Right now, I think I’ll stick to my sci-fi and pulp settings.