I've never read either game...so I have no preference. My decision would be based on talking to the GM. He or she would tell me about both, I'd ask about the system, I'd ask about the genre, I'd ask about the campaign frame...and decide which one sounded most interesting at the time.

I think you missed our points. :)

It's not enough to know which rulebook we're using. Is the a|state game about families, territory, exploration? What are the influences for the specific game? Firefly, The Godfather, or Mad Men? Etc.

On the first poll, I didn't see a difference between the two options. They sound like different ways of saying the same thing - you could have used "steampunk horror" or "Cthulhu-esque" and I'd've had the same impression.

This time, well... I've never heard of either of them. Are they really THAT different from each other?

Thank you for the quick description of themes and feel of each. Having read that, I'd have to say that while I'd still be leery of playing either (due to my low tolerance for angst, which both of these games sound prone to), if I had to choose between them I'd strongly lean towards a|state.

I would note, by the by, that I had to look up "Dickensian" to note the difference between that and gothic. I'll confess to being not as well-read as some gamers (I've eschewed the classics, for the most part - and that includes LotR), but I always assumed that the two were strongly conflated.

If you were my GM, and I trusted you, I'd go with whichever one you wanted to run most. And I'd want to know how *you* would run the games.

For example, many people think of Call of Cthulhu as being about a game where everyone goes mad right away, everybody dies...blah, blah, blah. I was fortunate to take part in a game that ran over 25 years, with a player base of over 20 players...with few people dying or going mad. And I felt that the game was very much a Cthulhu game...and all of us players were continuously creeped out in real life. It was great. A Delta Green inspired game would be yet another thing altogether.

As a player, my relationship is a human relationship with my GM and my fellow players. That is central. You want to GM a|slate? Then I'll do that. Unhallowed Metropolis? I'll do that. And in return, I'd expect you to play in the GURPS French Resistance game that I'd run when you were finished with your campaign. And if a 3rd GM in our circle really wanted to run D&D4e, then I'd do that too.

Yet another wandered from roleplayers here.

AFAIK, these are two reasonably obscure games (though I have glanced at a|State). Maybe you should have had a fifth option: "I don't know enough about these to have an opinion."

May I ask your reasoning behind this poll?

I've heard of a|slate...I remember a positive review of it somewhere...but I'd never heard of UnMet.

Yes, I'm with trooper6; I've not read either, although I'd tend towards a|state for no other reason than its under the Collective Endeavour umbrella.

Though to be fair, I've never played either but I know the guy who wrote UnMet