#RPGaDay2022 - Day 19 - Why Has Your Favorite Game Stayed With You?

Day 19 of #RPGaDay2022 brings up a poignant question, "Why Has Your Favorite Game Stayed With You?"

A better question first is, "What Exactly is Your Favorite Game?"

For me, It can't be D&D, or my specific flavor, Hackmaster.  I haven't played or GM'ed it enough in the last decade to justify things.  Lord knows I have a gigabyte-plus of old modules just waiting to be played, and bringing that back online is my dream game.  I simply know I don't have time for that at this moment.  

Star Wars d6 is the current game I'm running.  After  2 1/2 years, I'm not as intuitive with the rules as I'd like, plus the 20-year gap of playing requires a few more sessions before I could even consider it (and that's even after I used it as "my favorite" for Day 17.  

Which leaves Call of Cthulhu as my favorite game.  It may have been one-off during the first half of my gaming life, but thus far it's been a dominant part of my second half.

The reason CoC has stayed strong is the same reason I enjoyed AD&D as much as I did in the 90s.  Through trial and usage, I've memorized almost everything I'll need to run a pre-7th Edition game off the top of my head. 

Spells aside, and maybe some love for random insanity generation, I rarely need to reference the books (and that includes the allegedly "insufferable" Resistance Table)

My 1920's game was pretty by the book, rules and tropes-wise, but I've also been able to expand CoC into more modern concepts of gaming.  Heck I've been able to take this picture:

And turn it into an entire session in my 1990's Canadian College Cthulhu Campaign.

Outside of some Arkansas Fried Rock B-Movie Cthulhu, we've been on a hiatus for a little while, but I'd love nothing go back to Canada, circa 1994,  or move the 1920's Cthulhu game past Masks of Nylarathotep about 6-9 months, even if we need new characters to cover the new stories evolving out of Arkham and New York City.