Best universal rpg system?

[DrunkonDuty]

My favourite generic system is Hero. As others have mentioned above it's best suited to cinematic action.

I'm just starting an urban fantasy game using it. The system's flexibility has been great for character creation. We have a billy goat gruff, a wizard who suffers wild magic surges, someone who flips personalities when she flips the tape in her walkman (game is set in the 1980s), and a guy who's wearing the mantle of a knight of the Round Table (mantle in the sense of the fae mantles in the Dresden universe.)

Hero can be quite deadly if you use some optional rules but the standard is for super heroes who can live through almost anything. I'm not sure which route we're going to go with this campaign as yet as the players are all new to the system. I want them to get a handle of the basics before I bring in optional rules.

I've also played and enjoyed GURPS. I played GURPS before I played Hero but since trying Hero, many years ago now, I've preferred it to GURPS.

I've played a little FATE. I like the fate mechanic. A lot. And it's simple enough to port to any other system. Otherwise the lack of detail in FATE left me feeling a bit meh about it.

 

[AK81]

Generic systems are my 'thing'; I love the flexibility of being able to throw together a campaign based on my latest inspiration, be that a book, TV programme or movie of any kind. I've been a GURPS player and GM for over 30 years, and also have a solid couple of years of Savage Worlds under my belt.

The rest of my group are less sold on the concept and so I keep looking for alternative generic rule sets that might be more satisfying for my group as a whole. We played a chunk of Fate (3rd edition IIRC - the one before Core) but they really didn't get the concept of aspects and it wasn't as differentiated as they would like in terms of game effect for such things. Savage Worlds wasn't quite as 'broad and deep' in terms of character design to satisfy their gaming tastes. GURPS is baselined a bit less action than I prefer, which is why I have tended to move away from it despite owning pretty much all of 3rd edition and all of 4th edition.

I'm currently learning Hero 6th Edition and will be running my first campaign of that soon - it's a really solid system and I have high hopes that it will meet more of our needs.

In my experience there is no such thing as a 'best' universal system, only 'best for you'. Although all the games I like to play are based on generic systems they each have a different 'flavour' that infuses everything you do with them. Play the same campaign concept with Fate, Savage Worlds or GURPS and it will feel very differently in play. My current aim is to have a small stable of generic systems that my group are happy to play and I can pick the best fit for a specific context.

My 'hot take' would be that Fate works well with narrative concepts (e.g. story beats), Savage Worlds does action heroes and GURPS does high verisimilitude. Hero is also an action adventure style system, but has more 'stuff' in it than Savage Worlds. 'Action adventure' is the default baseline of all the campaigns I run so Savage Worlds was good from my perspective and I am hoping that Hero will be, too, whilst also having more differentiation than Savage Worlds provided which will keep my group happy.

My ultimate aim is to persuade someone else to run games in my generic system of choice, however to have a chance of that I first need to run a game or two so the other GMs in our group get comfortable with the system (I am lucky - our group of seven has four regular and one irregular GMs).

Thanks for a great answer. I'm not exactly sure what I am looking for in a generic system yet. But what I think I want is a system where I can play most popular genres, with tactical but faster combat than DnD 5e, and that is easy for the GM to run.

 

[AK81]

Big fan of Cortex Prime, though its more of a tool set based on core mechanics to build your own games in any genre.

I really like the look of Cortex Prime, but I have not been able to totally grok it yet.

I don't understand how combat works. Is it possible to run the combat like a more traditional system like DnD or Savage Worlds?

 

[dbm]

Thanks for a great answer. I'm not exactly sure what I am looking for in a generic system yet. But what I think I want is a system where I can play most popular genres, with tactical but faster combat than DnD 5e, and that is easy for the GM to run.

Savage Worlds probably is a good place to start. The rule set spun out from a Deadlands skirmish combat game, so it does well for tactical encounters with a fair number of combatants on each side.
The latest version is very full-featured in the core book but there is also of high-quality supplements that can make GM-prep much easier.

 

[AK81]

I'd like to throw OpenD6 onto this list.

Do you want to tell a bit more about Opend6? How does it run? What kind of gameplay does it support?

 

[AK81]

Well, D&D obviously!

Many here think it can be used to do all kinds of different types of campaigns if you put some work into it!

Well, I guess you can if you use all the different 3rd party rulesets

 

[John R Davis]

There is in fact a generic version of BoL called Everywhen. It's my favourite generic system, although I don't know how well it would handle, say, high-powered super heroes. I've used it to run fantasy, space opera, wild west, Dark Heresy-style 40k, historical (Roman Empire), swashbuckling and I'm currently using it to run a Necromunda game.

Really.
Will check it out.

 

[aramis erak]

I really like the look of Cortex Prime, but I have not been able to totally grok it yet.

I don't understand how combat works. Is it possible to run the combat like a more traditional system like DnD or Savage Worlds?

Yes.
Thing is Cortex Prime is a construction kit, not a ready to play.

In Firefly, any hit takes you out. Initiative is by handoff. A logical character starts, takes their turn, then hands off to someone who has not taken their turn this round. repeat while there are at least 2 sides willin' to keep throwing down... if you're hit and don't want to be down, spend a plot point, and the unkept die not showing a 1 haing the most sides is counted as the size of the impairment. (it may even be the lowest non-1 showing). If that's not bigger than another impairment already held, it can either be an additional impairment or it may be a step up to one of the existing. If anything gets stepped up past d12, you're done.

Marvel Heroic is similar
The most appropriate goes first. after acting, pass to a character who hasn't acted this round.
When you hit, you usually keep the best 2 non-1's. The size of the biggest (most sides) not kept is the damage value. That becomes a d__ whatever on the appropriate track (physical, mental, social) if bigger than the current step, or steps up that track once. Again, if stepped up past d12, nighty night. When attacking, you can choose to keep a lower die roll so the biggest (most sides) die isn't kept... trading accuracy for damage.
Once everyone is down or has taken their turn, new round, hand off from last player.

 

[John Desmarais]

I'm on the fence about PbtA being "universal." But I do think the transferability of the overall mindset of playing PbtA, regardless of differences in focus/playbooks, is quite strong.

I’m pretty much well off of that fence at this point - mostly because I don’t really consider PbtA to be a “system”. I view it more as a design philosophy

 

[Thomas Shey]

Its really heavily about what you're looking for, among other things the amount of crunch you want and/or will tolerate, how much tools you want to have to set things up, what tone you want and so on. My go-tos have generally been Fuzion or Hero, but there are things to say for things Cortex, WOIN, EABA or GURPS too.