Is there one RPG to rule them all? What version?

[Thomas Shey]

Blargh, no offense.

I know its not everyone's cuppa; like I said, I don't use it myself anymore. But if I'm given a single tool, its one of the few I expect to get the job done.

 

[Fenris-77]

I know its not everyone's cuppa; like I said, I don't use it myself anymore. But if I'm given a single tool, its one of the few I expect to get the job done.

Char Gen makes me want to pull my hair out. So there's that. Just my two cents.

 

[jdrakeh]

For fantasy RPGs, I always come back to Rules Cyclopedia D&D. For sci-fi, I always come back to Classic Traveller (The Traveller Book, specifically). For horror I always come back Call of Cthulhu. But for an all-in-one solution? It was GURPS 3e Revised up until a few years ago. Now, it's Fate Accelerated Edition.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Blargh, no offense.

Yeah, but only 2nd edition Blargh. 1e Blargh had too many tables and charts, and 3e Blargh was clearly trying to appeal to the World of Warcraft kiddies.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Char Gen makes me want to pull my hair out. So there's that. Just my two cents.

Eh. Unless powers are involved, its not any more complicated than most point build, and any system that actually lets you do custom powers from the ground up with system is going to make that part pretty thick on the ground.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

HERO 4th, 5th, or possibly 6th,

The latter was one of the more controversial edition updates because they changed the math significantly for certain parts of character creation/improvements, which arguably made it harder to game the system.

 

[Rogerd1]

Mythras is well liked by many.

Modern Age I really liked, and need to re-read in the hopes of putting a game together.

Lords of Gossamer for a narrative run game, and super easy to hack.

 

[Dr Magister]

For high fantasy there's, 5e D&D. For everything else, there's Everywhen.

 

[Blue]

A couple of different takes:

1. There can't be one RPG to rule them all. You need to be able to cover all possible tastes, including the taste of "I want to run it right out of the box" so toolboxes aren't the answer.

2. If you look at market share and games being played on virtual tables, D&D 5e is the only possible RPG that is ruling the others, as it has more than any others, and orders of magnitudes more than some.

3. If you look at number of RPGs created from the ruleset, one of d20, Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) or Fate are clearly the only RPG concepts to rule them all, because they have the most offspring and therefore show they have "the best genes" for evolving and continuing. (If you count the Forged in the Dark games as ancestors of PbtA is up to you.)

4. All RPGs have come at least conceptually from Chainmail, the first pre-D&D ancestor. Without it, the concept as-we-know-it-in-this-timeline would be very different if it even existed in this format. So it is the one RPG to rule them.

5, LARPing involves the most immersion by bringing the physical in as well, so it's the one RPG to rule them all.

 

[Rogerd1]

I will add Savage Worlds to the list too.
Mutants and Masterminds 2e or 3e
Ultimate Prowlers and Paragons
Omni system
Everway
Mythic d6