I wanted it to be intellectual, so I've used lots of commas.

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 7th - Most "intellectual" RPG owned

I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out which RPG on my shelf could own up to the lofty appellative of intellectual. Initially I was drawn to Ars Magica, as I see many others were today, but my thoughts drifted from complicated, towards hard to grasp, as my basis for intellectual in this case.

Mr. Chapman's own choice for this topic, Nobilis, deeply intrigues me, and seems to follow suit with what I'm leaning towards, with intellectual, meaning difficult to wrap your head around.

For this reason, I've chosen Satyros Phil Brucato's, Deleria: Faerie Tales for a New Millennium, from the now defunct, Laughing Pan Productions.

While the system is easy to use, easy to learn, and Compact (see what I did there). The setting, it appears, is a really tough nugget to crack. So much so, that a, if not the, primary complaint I read on forums and review sites, is that people can't find the game, withing the book. I'll be the first to admit, it isn't easy, but if you look, it's there. It's there, and it's amazing.

Betwixt a compelling faerie tale about the Dream Stag, and an absolute wealth of setting information, lay the heart of the game, people, normal, everyday people. Everyday Hero’s, if you will. They form the backbone of the game, and their trips, purposeful, or more often not, into the land of faerie, flesh out the rest.

Addendum: If anyone out there has either of these two Deleria supplements, and wants to part with them ... eh, it was worth a shot.