MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
Oh, sorry. Not intentionally.
Best universal rpg system?
Thomas Shey
Legend
Well, while the core of RQ (BRP) could be used somewhat universally, it was never really set up as a universal system--not even the Big Yellow Book. The others you list to one degree or another were (though LoGaS is a weird case where it kind of is and isn't at the same time).
Thomas Shey
Legend
Its kind of inherent in actually having a system. You can try to put on modules to change those experiences somewhat, but some of it comes with such core mechanics its hard to avoid. I'm not sold even Cortex Prime manages to avoid this, and it tries probably the hardest of any universal system I know of to avoid this.
aramis erak
Legend
Of the ones I've used.... tone and notes on fan player culture
GURPS: the tone is almost always somewhat gritty. There are issues with the fanbase's culture; GURPS fans have a tendency to warp settings to fit GURPS, rather than the other way round, and tend to be GURPS über alles in mentality. SJG has definitiely warped settings to fit GURPS, most notably, GURPS Ogre, GURPS Vampire, GURPS Mage, and GURPS Autoduel 2E. Players tend to favor attribute for point saving reasons, as raising a point of IQ or Dex often costs less than raising the 5-15 skills that will get a +1 would.
Palladium: the tone is always somewhat heroic, and the rules flat out explicitly do not have social skills. The player culture often is about who does the most damage, and/or who pulled the biggest social score, as that latter is always PvGM. The world building is really good. The system plays well enough, but combat is a lot of opposed rolls, and until recent printings, not always easily understood as to flow. Player culture tends towards the younger and poorer side, as the books are relatively inexpensive, durable, and often flow through used bookstores. All characters can be crossed to just about all other settings without issue.
CORPS: The tone is flatten your molars level gritty. Fights hurt. High skill matters. Given the constraints of the character gen, competent PCs are scarily effective in their fields. Optimized characters can do called shots without rolls once per second... I stop short of saying it's "realistic" - as it allows the .25ACP to be a real threat of a firearm. Note that attributes and skills are from different pools, so characters are literally forced to spend points in certain areas. Fan Culture tends towards tinkerers. Published settings are skill-heavy, and somewhat grim.
EABA: Tone is much like D6 system; can do light to heavy, but skill matters, and attributes provide a minimal competence in everything. I can't judge the player culture much, since it's so little known. I'll note that during the playtest, I used it for the Traveller OTU; I was able to do everything I needed with the core rules. The TN's are directly comparable to those in Traveller or 2300. Mechanics are attributes generate dice codes in the 0d+1 to 4d range; skills add 0 to 5 d, all dice d6's, roll the pool and keep best 3. Ironically, most of the official setting books are extremely grim.
BRP: tone is heroic, generally, but certain settings tweaks can make it grim heroic or even grim victims-on-adventure. Damage hurts; combat is unrealistically permanently disabling in some editions. Fan culture is more varied than the rest, IMO. Generally, BRP fans seem to play multiple settings using it, often bespoke standalone cores with minor adaptations. Best noted for Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, which have very different tones, but very similar rules.
Hero: lots of math in CGen; tone from mundane to super epic, by options and campaign limits, defaulting to lower end of 4-color supers; 75pt Fantasy Hero is definitely heroic in tone. Player culture is varied, but universally math tolerant. Rules are very flexible, with lots of options. Corporate culture twists game rules via setting rules to fit genre. I've yet to see a character concept than cannot be accurately portrayed using HSR 4/5/6, but many are well outside the realms of normal point totals. (Greek Gods in the low thousands of base points, for example. And that's official!) I'd not recommend it for film noir, tho' an adapted core did just that...
GURPS: the tone is almost always somewhat gritty. There are issues with the fanbase's culture; GURPS fans have a tendency to warp settings to fit GURPS, rather than the other way round, and tend to be GURPS über alles in mentality. SJG has definitiely warped settings to fit GURPS, most notably, GURPS Ogre, GURPS Vampire, GURPS Mage, and GURPS Autoduel 2E. Players tend to favor attribute for point saving reasons, as raising a point of IQ or Dex often costs less than raising the 5-15 skills that will get a +1 would.
Palladium: the tone is always somewhat heroic, and the rules flat out explicitly do not have social skills. The player culture often is about who does the most damage, and/or who pulled the biggest social score, as that latter is always PvGM. The world building is really good. The system plays well enough, but combat is a lot of opposed rolls, and until recent printings, not always easily understood as to flow. Player culture tends towards the younger and poorer side, as the books are relatively inexpensive, durable, and often flow through used bookstores. All characters can be crossed to just about all other settings without issue.
CORPS: The tone is flatten your molars level gritty. Fights hurt. High skill matters. Given the constraints of the character gen, competent PCs are scarily effective in their fields. Optimized characters can do called shots without rolls once per second... I stop short of saying it's "realistic" - as it allows the .25ACP to be a real threat of a firearm. Note that attributes and skills are from different pools, so characters are literally forced to spend points in certain areas. Fan Culture tends towards tinkerers. Published settings are skill-heavy, and somewhat grim.
EABA: Tone is much like D6 system; can do light to heavy, but skill matters, and attributes provide a minimal competence in everything. I can't judge the player culture much, since it's so little known. I'll note that during the playtest, I used it for the Traveller OTU; I was able to do everything I needed with the core rules. The TN's are directly comparable to those in Traveller or 2300. Mechanics are attributes generate dice codes in the 0d+1 to 4d range; skills add 0 to 5 d, all dice d6's, roll the pool and keep best 3. Ironically, most of the official setting books are extremely grim.
BRP: tone is heroic, generally, but certain settings tweaks can make it grim heroic or even grim victims-on-adventure. Damage hurts; combat is unrealistically permanently disabling in some editions. Fan culture is more varied than the rest, IMO. Generally, BRP fans seem to play multiple settings using it, often bespoke standalone cores with minor adaptations. Best noted for Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, which have very different tones, but very similar rules.
Hero: lots of math in CGen; tone from mundane to super epic, by options and campaign limits, defaulting to lower end of 4-color supers; 75pt Fantasy Hero is definitely heroic in tone. Player culture is varied, but universally math tolerant. Rules are very flexible, with lots of options. Corporate culture twists game rules via setting rules to fit genre. I've yet to see a character concept than cannot be accurately portrayed using HSR 4/5/6, but many are well outside the realms of normal point totals. (Greek Gods in the low thousands of base points, for example. And that's official!) I'd not recommend it for film noir, tho' an adapted core did just that...
kronovan
Adventurer
I don't have one, but 4 universal systems I use.
Savage Worlds is the universal ttrp that I've homebrewed and adapted other settings with the most. I'm not so big on using it for high fantasy (probably the same as what someone else called Classic Fantasy) or Cosmic/Lovecraftian Horror, but I've found it to be terrific for every other genre.
FATE Core and FAE I've used a number of times for adaptations and one homebrew. It's been good each time, but I definitely need to have the right audience of players.
Mythras I've just started to use and while I've found it crunchier than my other universal ttrpgs, it's been very good for certain genres. Historical Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery is where I've used it so far, but I also own the M-Space supplement which adds features and tools for SciFi. So I'm looking to brew some things with it.
I've just started using Cepheus Engine, mostly because I'm a big fan of Traveller and CE is based upon Mongoose Traveller 1e. I like how the handful of publishers who produce things for it, have released settings or supplements across a number of genre. It's probably best for SciFi, but I've seen some quality Modern and Fantasy settings for it.
Savage Worlds is the universal ttrp that I've homebrewed and adapted other settings with the most. I'm not so big on using it for high fantasy (probably the same as what someone else called Classic Fantasy) or Cosmic/Lovecraftian Horror, but I've found it to be terrific for every other genre.
FATE Core and FAE I've used a number of times for adaptations and one homebrew. It's been good each time, but I definitely need to have the right audience of players.
Mythras I've just started to use and while I've found it crunchier than my other universal ttrpgs, it's been very good for certain genres. Historical Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery is where I've used it so far, but I also own the M-Space supplement which adds features and tools for SciFi. So I'm looking to brew some things with it.
I've just started using Cepheus Engine, mostly because I'm a big fan of Traveller and CE is based upon Mongoose Traveller 1e. I like how the handful of publishers who produce things for it, have released settings or supplements across a number of genre. It's probably best for SciFi, but I've seen some quality Modern and Fantasy settings for it.
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TeutonicBerserker
Explorer
Mythras is the best universal system
FATE is garbage
PbtA is raw sewage
FATE is garbage
PbtA is raw sewage
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GreyLord
Legend
Of the modern systems mentioned here, and thinking about what has been suggested, I think I'm in favor that the Gensys system by FFG (no edge) is one of the better universal fits for various ideas. It's been used for Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and I could see it being used for many others.
A big strength of it is that it leans more narrative than many other systems which I think gives it a strength of adaptability that others lack. I think that systems that lean more towards a narrative experience could be stronger at being universal systems for various genre's than those that are not.
A big strength of it is that it leans more narrative than many other systems which I think gives it a strength of adaptability that others lack. I think that systems that lean more towards a narrative experience could be stronger at being universal systems for various genre's than those that are not.
If I were running film noir in HERO, I might start off by using the Dark HERO supplement and tone it down from there. Then it’s a case of emphasizing skills and being sure everyone’s on the same page with how weapons are handled. It would probably be worth the money to get the gear supplements to ensure nobody’s cooking up anything too exotic or take the time to write up a few things yourself, like a couple cars, a few revolvers, and a Tommy gun.
aramis erak
Legend
Justice Inc was a HSR 2E adapted core...
