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I play 2 different campaigns, each twice a month. Was running a game of 5e that morphed into a new system I was working on but that ended at the first of the year due to work and I haven't started it back up yet.

I've always thought Call of Cthulu looked interesting but haven't had a chance to play it.
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Can I ask what system you're running now? I'm always looking for new ideas (I'm also the guy that played RIFTS as a teenager, so I'm used to rules and structure basically being all over the place)

I played a Quick Start one-shot of Call of Cthulu that they put publicly available with some friends, and really like the departure it is from 5e.

https://www.chaosium.com/content/Fre...rt%20Rules.pdf

I'd thoroughly recommend taking a look if it intrigues you at all. I will say, it's very different than anything I've played. The whole game dynamic is changed from most RPGs I've played with everyone being a weak human in comparison to the eldritch horrors and monsters encountered.

Not to mention, like real life, a few good hits or one gunshot can end a character's life (Unlike most systems)
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It's not a published system. Essentially its a conglomeration of mechanics and rules that my brother and I like. Basically stripped down 5e supplemented with stuff from other systems like EZd6, Deathbringer... maybe some ICRPG (honestly can't remember since I haven't touched it in like 6 months LOL) Still very much in the trial phase.
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I GM a D&D 3.5 game set in Faerun, using an amalgamation of current Forgotten Realms lore. It's a mix of 3.5 timeline and 5 timeline. We pretend the 4e stuff just didn't happen (though the Raven Queen IS a new god in my game).

We've never been able to transition full-time to 5 from 3.5. It feels like the Diet Coke of game systems.
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That is some great stuff. I have an off and on game I'm running, 5e is the base rules, but HEAVILY edited because we decided we wanted to run a survival game, so about half of my work is 'What makes sense here'.

5e is actually my first experience with D&D, but I've talked with several who think it's overlysimplified and prefer 3.5; and in all fairness, I don't have the best base of functional rpg rulesets (Rifts RPG Ruleset is unorganized at best)

I made my own world for the games I'm currently running, as there is just SO. MUCH. LORE. And I have trouble remembering it honestly. Kudos to you sir that you can remember so much of that.
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3.5 is perhaps TOO crunchy, but the 5e simplification of classes (subclasses don’t cover for everything that’s missing) is a problem for me.

Death saves/the dead-dead system is too forgiving for me. I DO like the implication of some of the Skills/.checks, though.
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I've heard Pathfinder 2e is a solid balance between 5e and 3.5 from a guy at my local shop, but some of his recommendations to me have been utter garbage... so I don't know what to think of that.

See, with 5e, the thing that sticks out the most to me as annoying is that I feel like so many weapons and armor are different in name only (unless magic items are involved, but I shouldn't have to rely on magic items for a simple concept like variety. The system is oversimplified for me. That being said, it has proven effective in pulling in people who haven't played a TTRPG before at my table. So good and bad lol
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I just started playing D&D in the last couple years. The one campaign I'm in is the Eberron world. 5e rules.

I've DMed a couple one shots just to get my feet wet. I'm considering running the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist as my first actual campaign.

As far as actual board games if you haven't played secret Hitler I highly recommend it.
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Everything I've heard and read about Pathfinder 2e is that it is more like D&D 4e, which I played and thought sucked.
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Secret Hitler is a fun Party Game. It's a better version of The Resistance, it always makes me want to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf though. Its a great game though nonetheless, even if for some reason I seemingly end up being the werewolf or Hitler like... 60% of the time on those social deduction games somehow.

I started running a Waterdeep Dragon Heist Game... and it somehow just turned into "Running a Medieval Tavern Simulator" for my group. It was fun, but I think they honestly were enjoying owning and running a tavern with a ghost in it more than anything else. Unfortunately, a few people had to back out of the game, so we never got to finish it. I ended up having to even make rules for expenditures for upgrades, additional property purchases, and etcetera.

One thing I'll warn you about on Dragon Heist: In regards to the faction 'side-quests'... You'll have to do a lot of the heavy lifting as the DM I found in my group at least, because almost all of them are written in a manner that it just expects the players to follow along with the exact plan that they thought of when writing them out.

One Side Quest is essentially: Fights are breaking out between gangs in the poorer part of town. The book only provides information on randomly running into and ending fights.

My players decided to go deep undercover essentially incite a gang war and take out multiple gangs at once, not to mention the many other solutions that one could reasonably come up with rather than "Walk around that part of town and wait for a fight to break out and break it up."

And see, I'm glad you told me this, because all I've heard about 4e is constant horror stories. I might have to look into 3.5 a bit more.
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Do you have recommendations for a fairly noob DM to run?
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Do we also want to take any bets on who will be the first poster to show up and say

"GrOwN mEn PlAyInG bOaRd GaMeS!??"
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3.5 has a ton-ton-ton of options.

If you look into it, some suggestions:

1. ThePathGuy has a nice online character builder tool that helps get through some of the complexity of all the character class choices. It doesn't include ALL of the feats but is a good place to get started with a new character. At the end, you can get a character sheet that you can copy to a paper sheet or print and play from, whatever the preference is.
2. One thing you'll see a lot of are notes about which "splat books" (Complete X, etc) to include. I highly recommend including the following: Complete Arcane, Complete Divine, Complete Mage, Complete Adventurer, Complete Scoundrel, Tome of Battle. Tome of Battle, particularly, has the best MARTIAL fighting characters in the game.
3. There are still a lot of online resources for 3.5 to help the DM (generators, databases, etc). The-eye.eu has a great repository of basically every 3.5 resource that has existed. DonJon has some great generators (treasure, experience, dungeon).
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