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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8745582" data-attributes="member: 6779310"><p>TSR did for a bit... GW, MSH/AMSH, Conan, and Star Frontiers all had versions of the color table engine.</p><p>TSR also did Amazing Engine... often noted for being amazingly bad... which was included standalone core + setting book packages.</p><p></p><p>poly-setting engines of note include Chaosium/BRP, Amazing Engine, Palladium, GURPS, Hero System, d6 System, Masterbook, D20, D20M, Tri-Stat, and more recently, D&D 4e, D&D 5E, Zweihander, 2d20, and YZE.</p><p></p><p>They fall into four basic clades:</p><p>Engine Only: The engine is the same, but the cores aren't labeled as compatible, and major changes are present.</p><p>Adapted Core: the rules are mostly the same, but adapted to the setting.</p><p>Co-packaged Core+Setting Book: a non-adapted corebook</p><p>Core sold separately</p><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong><u>Engine Only</u></strong></td><td><strong><u>Adapted Cores</u></strong></td><td><strong><u>Core & Setting in Package</u></strong></td><td><strong><u>Separate Core</u></strong></td></tr><tr><td>AD&D 2E & Buck Rogers & Gamma World 4e</td><td>Chaosium's BRP³</td><td>"Powered By GURPS"</td><td>GURPS</td></tr><tr><td>AD&D 1E & Gamma World¹</td><td>Hero System (before 4E)⁵⁹</td><td>Masterbook⁶</td><td>Hero System (4/5/6E cores)</td></tr><tr><td>TSR Color Table games²</td><td>⁹RTG Interlock</td><td>Amazing Engine</td><td>Chaosium's BRP⁴</td></tr><tr><td>TORG, Shatterzone⁶</td><td>d6 system⁷</td><td>BRP: Worlds of Wonder³</td><td>d6 system⁷</td></tr><tr><td>Palladium⁸</td><td>Palladium Multiverse⁸</td><td></td><td>Plainlable RPG</td></tr><tr><td>Fuzion⁹</td><td>2d20 System¹⁰</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>AWE/PBTA</td><td>Year Zero Engine¹¹</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>TSR Saga¹²</td><td>GURPS Dungeon Fantasy</td><td></td><td></td></tr></table><p>¹: GWEditions 1 & 2 used the AD&D 1E core mechanics with variations. Compatibility not listed, but crossover rules</p><p>²: Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Marvel Super Heroes, Conan, one edition of Gamma World, added to Star Frontiers in a supplement. Retrocloned as ZeFRS and 4-Color</p><p>³: RuneQuest, ElfQuest, Ringworld, Call of Cthulhu, Worlds Beyond. Worlds of Wonder has a very short core, plus 3 sourcebooks, in one box</p><p>⁴: Many newer settings use the generic core</p><p><strong>⁵</strong>: Champions 1-3e, Fantasy Hero, Robot Warriors, Justice Inc, Star Hero - most of which get 4e/5e/6e sourcebooks instead</p><p>⁶: Same engine; compatibility not noted until the Masterbook line. Note that TORG uses 1d20 rather than 2d10, and Shatterzone has two extra cards; otherwise, they're all the same engine. Masterbook titles include Indianna Jones, Tank Girl, Bloodshadows, Species, Necroscope,</p><p>⁷: all commercial releases I'm aware of before 1996 used adapted cores save the genericized "d6 System"; 4 genericized core rulebooks released (d6 System, D6 Space, D6 Fantasy, D6 Adventure), and the latter 3 genericized were released by WEG as "all text open content" just before WEG was sold off in pieces. Titles of the WEG lines include Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Hercules & Xena, MIB, Indianna Jones.</p><p>⁸: Palladium's Mechanoids and 1st Edition Palladium Fantasy RPG have some minor differences, and weren't indicated as cross compatible; only after Robotech was the cross-compatibility noted...</p><p>⁹ Fuzion is the superset of the open subset of Interlock and open subset of Hero System 4. It's technically open licensed, but not OGL, not CC, not GNU FDL.</p><p>RTG Interlock includes all editions of Cyberpunk, Mekton, and the severely adapted Teenagers from Outer Space & its sequel, Star Riders.</p><p>Most Fuzion games are heavily Interlock, but some are almost purely Hero System, and a few are in the middle.</p><p>¹⁰: Mutant Chronicles 3, Conan, John Carter of Mars, Star Trek Adventures, Dune, Fallout, and several others. While mechanically close, there ARE several gotcha-level differences... MC3 and Conan seem the closest to each other, with STA & Dune being closer to each other than to JCOM, Conan, or MC3.</p><p>¹¹: Coriolis, Mutant Year Zero, Alien, Forbidden Land, Vaesen, Tales from the Loop, Twilight 2000, Blade Runner.</p><p>¹²: Not even compatible decks! Core mechanics related, players can cross easily between, but characters cannot. Games are Dragonlance 5th Age and Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game. I'd love to see MSHAG rereleased</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 8745582, member: 6779310"] TSR did for a bit... GW, MSH/AMSH, Conan, and Star Frontiers all had versions of the color table engine. TSR also did Amazing Engine... often noted for being amazingly bad... which was included standalone core + setting book packages. poly-setting engines of note include Chaosium/BRP, Amazing Engine, Palladium, GURPS, Hero System, d6 System, Masterbook, D20, D20M, Tri-Stat, and more recently, D&D 4e, D&D 5E, Zweihander, 2d20, and YZE. They fall into four basic clades: Engine Only: The engine is the same, but the cores aren't labeled as compatible, and major changes are present. Adapted Core: the rules are mostly the same, but adapted to the setting. Co-packaged Core+Setting Book: a non-adapted corebook Core sold separately [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B][U]Engine Only[/U][/B][/TD] [TD][B][U]Adapted Cores[/U][/B][/TD] [TD][B][U]Core & Setting in Package[/U][/B][/TD] [TD][B][U]Separate Core[/U][/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]AD&D 2E & Buck Rogers & Gamma World 4e[/TD] [TD]Chaosium's BRP³[/TD] [TD]"Powered By GURPS"[/TD] [TD]GURPS[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]AD&D 1E & Gamma World¹[/TD] [TD]Hero System (before 4E)⁵⁹[/TD] [TD]Masterbook⁶[/TD] [TD]Hero System (4/5/6E cores)[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TSR Color Table games²[/TD] [TD]⁹RTG Interlock[/TD] [TD]Amazing Engine[/TD] [TD]Chaosium's BRP⁴[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TORG, Shatterzone⁶[/TD] [TD]d6 system⁷[/TD] [TD]BRP: Worlds of Wonder³[/TD] [TD]d6 system⁷[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Palladium⁸[/TD] [TD]Palladium Multiverse⁸[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]Plainlable RPG[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Fuzion⁹[/TD] [TD]2d20 System¹⁰[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]AWE/PBTA[/TD] [TD]Year Zero Engine¹¹[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TSR Saga¹²[/TD] [TD]GURPS Dungeon Fantasy[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] ¹: GWEditions 1 & 2 used the AD&D 1E core mechanics with variations. Compatibility not listed, but crossover rules ²: Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Marvel Super Heroes, Conan, one edition of Gamma World, added to Star Frontiers in a supplement. Retrocloned as ZeFRS and 4-Color ³: RuneQuest, ElfQuest, Ringworld, Call of Cthulhu, Worlds Beyond. Worlds of Wonder has a very short core, plus 3 sourcebooks, in one box ⁴: Many newer settings use the generic core [B]⁵[/B]: Champions 1-3e, Fantasy Hero, Robot Warriors, Justice Inc, Star Hero - most of which get 4e/5e/6e sourcebooks instead ⁶: Same engine; compatibility not noted until the Masterbook line. Note that TORG uses 1d20 rather than 2d10, and Shatterzone has two extra cards; otherwise, they're all the same engine. Masterbook titles include Indianna Jones, Tank Girl, Bloodshadows, Species, Necroscope, ⁷: all commercial releases I'm aware of before 1996 used adapted cores save the genericized "d6 System"; 4 genericized core rulebooks released (d6 System, D6 Space, D6 Fantasy, D6 Adventure), and the latter 3 genericized were released by WEG as "all text open content" just before WEG was sold off in pieces. Titles of the WEG lines include Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Hercules & Xena, MIB, Indianna Jones. ⁸: Palladium's Mechanoids and 1st Edition Palladium Fantasy RPG have some minor differences, and weren't indicated as cross compatible; only after Robotech was the cross-compatibility noted... ⁹ Fuzion is the superset of the open subset of Interlock and open subset of Hero System 4. It's technically open licensed, but not OGL, not CC, not GNU FDL. RTG Interlock includes all editions of Cyberpunk, Mekton, and the severely adapted Teenagers from Outer Space & its sequel, Star Riders. Most Fuzion games are heavily Interlock, but some are almost purely Hero System, and a few are in the middle. ¹⁰: Mutant Chronicles 3, Conan, John Carter of Mars, Star Trek Adventures, Dune, Fallout, and several others. While mechanically close, there ARE several gotcha-level differences... MC3 and Conan seem the closest to each other, with STA & Dune being closer to each other than to JCOM, Conan, or MC3. ¹¹: Coriolis, Mutant Year Zero, Alien, Forbidden Land, Vaesen, Tales from the Loop, Twilight 2000, Blade Runner. ¹²: Not even compatible decks! Core mechanics related, players can cross easily between, but characters cannot. Games are Dragonlance 5th Age and Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game. I'd love to see MSHAG rereleased [/QUOTE]
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