Trying out new systems

[Fetfreak]

You can hyperspecialize, certainly, and it's something of a problem with mages, but in practice, a hyperspecialized character is easy to defeat. For example, one fighter might invest all of his points into Broadsword-40, but at that point, if he's ever without a broadsword, he's a wasted character, and he's also something of a one-trick pony. If my fighter instead invests points in strength, combat reflexes, Intimidation, Armoury (Blades), Connoisseur (Swords) and learns a few additional weapons (like, say, two-handed sword and flail) and master the Feint technique, then when we go toe-to-toe, I have quite a few options that I can use against you, like a switch of weapons to best defeat yours, the ability to bypass your defenses with clever tricks, better maintained blade and the ability to pick out that really good sword from that merchant's stand, and the strength to inflict superior damage and carry superior armor.

I've been running a 300-450 point samurai campaign, and while people could invest deeply, they never seem to. They're always branching out and broadening their abilities and exploring powers and other elements of the game.

You can run into some abuses, particularly with the disadvanteges: If I take -50 points in an enemy and you never bring him into the game, that's free points, and in previous editions there was definitely some "point crock" as GURPSers would call potential system abuses, but GURPS is in its 4th edition and it's pretty tight.

A bigger problem than seeing players break the game by becoming "too good" at something is that they'll forget something that's very important, or not realize that a skill might come up in a game. The classic example of the former is "Swimming," and a good example of the latter might be "Poetry," which actually comes up a lot, specifically, in the game I'm running. Templates can help overcome this by reminding players what they should take, which is one reason I recommend using them on your first few GURPS outings.

Well I might check it out at one point, if nothing else to see how it all works and what are the options. Might improve my d20 game in the end

 

[Piratecat]

I absolutely love trying new systems. In the past year I've played or ran:

- Night's Black Agents
- Ashen Stars
- Durance
- Fiasco
- Vesna Thaw
- Lady Blackbird
- Marvel Superheroes
- 2e Mutants & Masterminds
- 3e Mutants & Masterminds
- Outbreak: Undead
- Fantasy Heroes
- Firefly
- 13th Age
- Monsterhearts
- Epoch
- Dread
- Call of Cthulhu
- D&D Next
- 4e D&D
- Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island (True 20)
- Savage Worlds
- Deadlands Reloaded
- Leverage
- Psi-Run
- Paranoia 2e
- Paranoia XP
- Shadowrun 4e
- Kobolds Ate My Baby

And a few others I'm forgetting. I'm a huge D&D fan, but I love checking out other systems. It makes me a better gamer overall and definitely improves my regular game. I play these at game-days and in a group that solely gets together now and then to try out indie games.

 

[Fetfreak]

Awesome,
I'll have to talk my friends into trying new system. Like someone suggested before, everyone prepares a different game so we can tryout new things.

 

[Smoss]

I used to try new systems all the time. After I finished my own RPG system though, I find myself having difficulty using any other. I want to pick apart each system's flaws... Guess Ive gotten old and set in my ways now with the system I love.
Smoss
---------------------
Check out my fantasy novel or serial fiction collections based on my RPG world and system!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm going to second GURPS as required reading for exploring role-playing systems. If you are coming from a background of a single system and you want to see what's out there, you really owe it to yourself to try out the big names in different styles, and GURPS is a major player and strong representative of its style. While its not personally to my tastes it is a really good game that has to be a part of your RPG studies curriculum.

Which is an interesting thought. Can anyone come up with a distilled "Top 10 RPGS of all time" list to give people a representative jumping point? Must of us know our little odd-ball favorites, but for someone coming from nothing but d20, they really need a full-range perpective that includes all the major mainstream players to get an idea of the different ways RPGS have traditionally been done.

 

[Fetfreak]

I'm going to second GURPS as required reading for exploring role-playing systems. If you are coming from a background of a single system and you want to see what's out there, you really owe it to yourself to try out the big names in different styles, and GURPS is a major player and strong representative of its style. While its not personally to my tastes it is a really good game that has to be a part of your RPG studies curriculum.

Which is an interesting thought. Can anyone come up with a distilled "Top 10 RPGS of all time" list to give people a representative jumping point? Must of us know our little odd-ball favorites, but for someone coming from nothing but d20, they really need a full-range perpective that includes all the major mainstream players to get an idea of the different ways RPGS have traditionally been done.

I support this!
What's the other major player next to GURPS?

 

[Campbell]

In the past year I've played:

• Legend (MRQ) as GM
• AD&D 2e
• D&D 4e as DM
• GURPS
• World of Darkness (Mortals)
• Exalted 2e
• Legend of the Five Rings 4e

I run one biweekly game, and play in two weekly games and one biweekly game. Personally I really hope to play or run some 13th Age, Burning Wheel and FATE powered games in the next year. Also Exalted 3e if the Kickstarter ever comes.

 

[Fetfreak]

In the past year I've played:

• Legend (MRQ) as GM
• AD&D 2e
• D&D 4e as DM
• GURPS
• World of Darkness (Mortals)
• Exalted 2e
• Legend of the Five Rings 4e

I run one biweekly game, and play in two weekly games and one biweekly game. Personally I really hope to play or run some 13th Age, Burning Wheel and FATE powered games in the next year. Also Exalted 3e if the Kickstarter ever comes.

What's world of darkness like? I read some of their free rules for the Vampire game and it looks to me like they are open for improvisation. That actions are not set in stone by the rules and that you can easily set DCs and modifiers (or however are they called in WoD) based on what the player wants to accomplish.

 

[Campbell]

What's world of darkness like? I read some of their free rules for the Vampire game and it looks to me like they are open for improvisation. That actions are not set in stone by the rules and that you can easily set DCs and modifiers (or however are they called in WoD) based on what the player wants to accomplish.

I've been liking it so far. We're playing some fairly normal mortals so dice pools are still fairly low. I really like that it's mostly structured so a success actually means you succeeded at something. Mortals seem to be surprisingly resilient. I like that Attributes and Abilities are decoupled and they provide several examples of different uses of abilities. I like that combat seems to resolve fairly quick though we've not had too many scuffles. My reference point on combat is probably a little off kilter though.

I don't like the fact that everyone goes crazy, and I really don't like how White Wolf style character creation provides incentives for one trick puppies. God Machine Chronicle looks like it will address both concerns though.

 

[Piratecat]

Which is an interesting thought. Can anyone come up with a distilled "Top 10 RPGS of all time" list to give people a representative jumping point? Must of us know our little odd-ball favorites, but for someone coming from nothing but d20, they really need a full-range perpective that includes all the major mainstream players to get an idea of the different ways RPGS have traditionally been done.

GURPS (which, embarrassingly, I've never played)
Any GUMSHOE game (Trail of Cthulhu, Night's Black Agents, Esoterrorists)
d20
Ubiquity (Hollow Earth Expedition, FUDGE)
Savage Worlds
Fate (Spirit of the Century, upcoming new Dresden Files game)
World of Darkness
Cortex Plus (Leverage, Marvel Heroic RPG)
Shadowrun
Call of Cthulhu's BRP

There's a few others I'd like to add (Paranoia's "dramatic tactical combat system" is an eye-opener, for instance), but I think that's a pretty good sampling of major influential systems. Not all of them are great. BRP (the classic Call of Cthulhu system) in particular makes me crazy.

Other really important systems include Dread's Jenga tower and Marvel SAGA's really elegant card-based play.