Best and worst RPG systems to be isekai’d to

[Aeson]

Oh there are worse fates then death in DCC. Your occupation could be the guy who empties latrines when they fill up....

Spell casting can leave you maimed for life.

"You identify the magic item but your toenails are forcibly removed forever and take d25 points of damage."

 

[MarkB]

I would like Star Wars Saga Edition if I could be a Force user.

I don't know I have the mental discipline to be a wizard.

Umm...

 

[Willie the Duck]

You’re right that I didn’t make it clear. I said medieval fantasy but then blew that up by mentioning RIFTS (I guess you could run medieval fantasy using RIFTS rather than Palladium Fantasy but that would be kind of terrible).

I think therefore that there are two options for responses:

• A generic medieval fantasy setting where your character is generated using the ruleset you define, which may have implications for the setting based on the ruleset.
• The setting best suited for your ruleset, whatever that might be.

And the other questions I asked?

 

[Aeson]

Umm...

I don't see the problem. I didn't say Jedi or anything. A Force user doesn't need as much study as a wizard would.

 

[jian]

I left out Mutants and Masterminds. That's a great choice.

Major Mosquito? You're determined to become my nemesis aren't you?

I must say I’d have concerns about M&M or any other superhero setting, because while they’re reasonably recognisable and may even have some cool tech, your options are either being a super or being a civilian, and both options are kind of awful in terms of dealing with alien invasions and other supernatural disasters.

 

[Nutation]

Not even close. The best by a mile. Toon.

A clever answer, but Toon characters are all insane. Are you still you if you no longer believe in objective reality?

 

[jian]

And the other questions I asked?

Hmm, I think that’s up to the individual poster. An important point of the original conceit is that you have incomplete information - you have the character creation rules, and you’re told that you’re either going into a medieval fantasy world or into a world that suits the RPG system (your choice) but you don’t know anything else about it.

I don’t see why you’d be forced to be an adventurer if you didn’t want to be, but you have to eat and have somewhere to live, so you’ll need to make money (unless you bought Wealth or Social Rank or whatever) or otherwise provide for yourself. You could choose to be very paranoid about the parameters of the world you’re entering (“full medieval, no toilets, and it’s Game of Thrones”) but you don’t actually know.

 

[Aeson]

I must say I’d have concerns about M&M or any other superhero setting, because while they’re reasonably recognisable and may even have some cool tech, your options are either being a super or being a civilian, and both options are kind of awful in terms of dealing with alien invasions and other supernatural disasters.

Supers use their powers to deal with alien invasion and disasters on the daily. Why would it be awful? Well, I can see the power to talk to squirrels probably wouldn't be very useful in those situations.

 

[MarkB]

Supers use their powers to deal with alien invasion and disasters on the daily. Why would it be awful?

Presumably because you don't have superheroic plot armour in this situation. Or worse still, you have Spider-Man level plot armour.

 

[jian]

Presumably because you don't have superheroic plot armour in this situation. Or worse still, you have Spider-Man level plot armour.

And it’s just enormously stressful. One mistake from you and someone dies, every day (while the same is technically true of a neurosurgeon, it’s a much more controlled situation and the patient should know and have accepted the risks). It’s constant chaos and there’s no work-life balance. Also, fighting Galactus doesn’t pay the rent.

If you’re a civilian, it’s even worse. Even someone living as far from NYC as possible has a non zero chance of being turned into a statue or zombie or something every day. Insurance is basically impossible. Even if you never run foul of the Joker or Annihilus or whoever, you know that there’s an extra level of terrifying in your life that you can do nothing about.