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<blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 3781143" data-attributes="member: 8447">Best one-volume game, eh?&nbsp; Difficult parameters, to be certain.&nbsp; Take for example Pendragon -- I love this game!&nbsp; The core book contains everything you need to run a campaign ... but it is not a campaign to many people's tastes and is very constrained in what it can do.&nbsp; Same is true for Call of Cthulhu; unless people are really into the setting (and a very specific take on the setting), the game is of little use.Paranoia XP is a little better in that regard, but still a single setting.Oddly, one game with a single rulebook that seems to fall into that category but doesn't (at least for me) is Over The Edge -- yes, the setting is Al Amarja, but the core rules are so simple, so transparent that you can adapt them to a host of settings.&nbsp; I have used OTE for the base setting, for superheroes, pulp adventures, Cthulhu-esque, fantasy, and about six-eight variants on the above.&nbsp; This probably earns my &quot;one volume&quot; spot.&nbsp; It is also the game that I have used to introduce more non-gamers to gaming than any other books, which strikes me as a selling point.The old RuneQuest (2nd ed) was also pretty decent that way, though a bit oddly constrained.&nbsp; Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for it.Ars Magica would probably also fall in this category, either 4th or 5th edition -- different takes on the same base theme.&nbsp; While all the supplements are certainly nice, the core rules are all that you need for a good game; I have also worked up variant games (not using Mythic Europe as a base) from this material to rather surprising ends.World of Darkness (the current core-book version) has been mentioned and I think deserves some serious thought.&nbsp; The system itself is elegant and simple, easy to move to a variety of gaming situations without the need for angst or even vampires.&nbsp; That, to my mind, is the hallmark of an intersting one volume game.So, a few disparate notions...&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wombat, post: 3781143, member: 8447"] Best one-volume game, eh? Difficult parameters, to be certain. Take for example [I]Pendragon [/I]-- I love this game! The core book contains everything you need to run a campaign ... but it is not a campaign to many people's tastes and is very constrained in what it can do. Same is true for [I]Call of Cthulhu[/I]; unless people are really into the setting (and a very specific take on the setting), the game is of little use. [I]Paranoia XP [/I]is a little better in that regard, but still a single setting. Oddly, one game with a single rulebook that seems to fall into that category but doesn't (at least for me) is [I]Over The Edge[/I] -- yes, the setting is Al Amarja, but the core rules are so simple, so transparent that you can adapt them to a host of settings. I have used OTE for the base setting, for superheroes, pulp adventures, Cthulhu-esque, fantasy, and about six-eight variants on the above. This probably earns my "one volume" spot. It is also the game that I have used to introduce more non-gamers to gaming than any other books, which strikes me as a selling point. The old RuneQuest (2nd ed) was also pretty decent that way, though a bit oddly constrained. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for it. [I]Ars Magica[/I] would probably also fall in this category, either 4th or 5th edition -- different takes on the same base theme. While all the supplements are certainly nice, the core rules are all that you need for a good game; I have also worked up variant games (not using Mythic Europe as a base) from this material to rather surprising ends. [I]World of Darkness[/I] (the current core-book version) has been mentioned and I think deserves some serious thought. The system itself is elegant and simple, easy to move to a variety of gaming situations without the need for angst or even vampires. That, to my mind, is the hallmark of an intersting one volume game. So, a few disparate notions... ;) [/QUOTE]

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