What game is the best simulationist game?

[Morrus]

Not that I’m after one or anything, just curious.

By best, I mean which TTRPG models reality most accurately (whether that’s fun or not is another discussion).

 

[Darth Solo]

GURPS. Ridiculously so.

 

[Mezuka]

The HERO system seems very simulationist from what I've read.

 

[jdrakeh]

The HERO system seems very simulationist from what I've read.

It definitely simulates comic book reality better than any system I'm aware of. Not so much actual reality. For that, I'm going to go with HarnMaster Gold (HarnMaster 3e has some issues in this regard that keep me from nominating it).

 

[Bluenose]

What do you want to simulate and how detailed a simulation do you want? A game that's good at blow-by-blow melee combat might not be so great at political intrigue and backbiting at royal court; and even games which try to do both almost always give one far more attention than the other. And a game which concentrates primarily on the physical aspects of a situation while neglecting the psychological ones - the Rules as Physics concept - are actually going to be pretty bad at giving results which match the "reality" of whatever genre/setting is being simulated.
I could make an argument that with a referee who knows a subject really well then you'll get a better result letting them decide how to resolve situations on the spot with dice to introduce a random factor than almost any set of rules can deliver.

 

[niklinna]

I've heard that for melee combat, The Riddle of Steel was particularly simulationist. It did also have magic. That game seems to be long out of print but there is a "licensed successor" on drivethrurpg, Blade of the Iron Throne (link is to the black & white edition). Haven't actually looked at it, myself.

 

[Lyandelill]

.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Any universal system is not going to do well at modeling reality well, since by definition it has to cover a lot of ground and therefore the details will get subsumed into general approaches. In particular, I’ve never found GURPS or HERO realistic; they do manage quite well at being believable, but it’s too easy to find specifics that just don’t match reality well.

I’d probably nominate ACES AND EIGHTS for it’s realistic portrayal of a very narrow niche: gun fighting in the ”Wild West”. Having played it twice, I am pretty convinced that the 3 hours it takes to resolve a 30 second conflict are very high in realism. As an example, whereas many games give a cover bonus, in this game you determine the physical location of each shot relative to one of several possible silhouettes you present to the attacker, and if that physical location is hidden behind a silhouette representing the cover, the bullet hits that cover. if not, it specifies precisely which part of you it hits. Thus, you can take cover behind a pillar and have a choice of what that pillar protects; but different shooters at you will see it protect a different part of your body.

 

[uzirath]

One of the reasons I have enjoyed GURPS for the past 25 years is that its basic rules model reality pretty well. I like it that I can just ask new players what they want to do, and the system usually has a way of handling it without lots of hand waving. Despite its reputation for complexity (and math!), I’ve always found GURPS easier for new players than, for example, most iterations of D&D.

With all of that said, “realism” isn’t high on my priority list. I typically turn up the cinematic dials pretty far, as suits whatever genre we’re playing.

 

[Blue]

It definitely simulates comic book reality better than any system I'm aware of. Not so much actual reality. For that, I'm going to go with HarnMaster Gold (HarnMaster 3e has some issues in this regard that keep me from nominating it).

To be more-than-slightly pedantic, Champions/HERO System does a lousy job of simulating comic book reality. Marvel Heroic Roleplay does a great job of it, working on different types of beats and panels and such. Masks: A New Generation isn't too bad at it either, more emergent from the types of scenes where you mark and unmark conditions, but some of the principles for running it directly tie into framing it like a comic book.

Champions is a really good superheroic physics+ simulator, and I've played a great deal of it, but it doesn't really attempt to mimic comic books except that comics books also contain supers.