Can't find a system I like for...

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I was asking if other people found that they really wanted to play a certain type of game and couldn't find the system for it, not because there were not systems out there for it but that none of the extant ones really satisfied what you had in mind.

Constantly. Every system I deal with has a flaw. I want a system that rewards descriptions (rather than mechanics) like Wushu but defines the characters' mechanical capabilities as much as M&M while still making NPCs as easy to create as PDQ. And just by reading that sentence you can see that I want contradictory things.

 

[Princesskeyblade]

If you like everything about MnM, except for the complex character creation, the folks over at Lone Wolf Studios are working on a Mutants and Masterminds data set for Hero Lab. They were hoping for a March release, but it sounds like its still probably a month or possibly two away.

If you haven't seen Hero Lab, I think its one of the best and most versatile d20 character creation tools available. There's still some work they need to do on it, and some campaign support components are on the way in their next update (hopefully in the next week or two).

http://www.wolflair.com/

Colen and Rob are both very helpful on the support forums, and they're working hard to make this one of the most versatile RPG tools that I've ever seen.

That looks like a great tool and is so going on my RPG wishlist!

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I've often wished there were a fantasy system that modeled Middle Earth better. I've run or played in Middle Earth with various systems, but never found one that satisfied. I have certain expectations about how magic should be presented and work, power curves, et cetera. To get everything I want, I would need to create my own, or heavily tweak and house-rule an existing system.

 

[Rhun]

It has been about a million years since I played it, but maybe an old copy of Heroes Unlimited by Palladium? I seem to remember it did a good job, but I know a lot of people don't like the Palladium rules set.

 

[jdrakeh]

It has been about a million years since I played it, but maybe an old copy of Heroes Unlimited by Palladium? I seem to remember it did a good job, but I know a lot of people don't like the Palladium rules set.

The OP wasn't asking for Supers RPG suggestions.

 

[Woas]

I always wanted to play a great WW2 game. Not a crazy one with nazi's in mechs or super-human genetic soldiers though. Just an honest to goodness, plain-Jane WW2 RPG.

 

[Psion]

The OP wasn't asking for Supers RPG suggestions.

Because it bears repeating.

So, I will likely never find the perfect a playable supers game for me and my group.

What is your long wished for perfect playable system for Genre X?

This will sound crazy, because I have done a whole lot of delictible sci-fi gaming in my day, but: Science fiction (specifically, space adventure type stuff.)

Classic Traveller is dated, with ad hoc skill system, table dependent combat, a bit too much randomness in chargen, and a bit too simplified world generation.

MegaTraveller improves it and ALMOST gets there with skills and combat, but it still is largely married to the traveller universe, still has 2d starmaps, an changen is still a bit too random.

Traveller D20 gets chargen better and the best starship combat system I have seen yet, but its complicated, could use some brushing up in feats and other rules... and still has 2d starmaps and problems with worldgen.

GURPS has an excellent space supplement, and First In for GURPS Traveller is exactly what I want out of worldgen... but I hate chargen, combat, and task resolution in the game.

Alternity isn't too bad, but I find the tech assumptions a bit fluffy and damage resolution is a it iffy to me.

Thousand Suns comes REAL close to what I want. It's light, has a good but not over-defined metasetting, and I like the way skills play out in most ways. I do have a little heartburn over the way attributes are handled.

Spirit of the Far Future - a kitbash between Traveller and Spirit of the Century - is looking real positive in the chargen department.


Overall, I could play MegaTraveller, T20, Thousand Suns, or Spirit of the Far Future happily, but no one game prevails for me.

 

[jdrakeh]

After some thinking on this, I'll have to go with Dark Future. I have yet to find a game that captures the desperate feel of Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or the gritty, dark, noir of the film adaptation (Blade Runner, folks).

Shadowrun has some dark -- but it's also littered with the highest of High Fantasy tropes, oozes magic in a way that would make Tolkien blush, and is hopelessly 1980s. The latest edition remedied some of this last bit, though not enough to make the setting a feasible future, IMHO. Regardless, it's still High Fantasy with magical technology at the end of the day and, while fun, that's not what I want out of a Dark Future RPG. I want a. . . uh. . dark RPG set, you know, in the future (not this fantasy world past as future stuff).

SLA Industries tries far too hard to be serious, to the point that it's more a satirical look at the genre than anything else. It basically took Neuromancer, updated it for the 1990s, and then cranked the Wahoo up until the knob broke off. It's much like Underground but with more Gothic imagery and less political commentary. Until you know about The Truth it isn't much more than that and, once you do, the game feels real incomplete as written.

Cyberspace. Honestly, if it weren't for the horrid system, this would probably be my Dark Future RPG of choice. But, again, that horrid system. For some reason, Rolemaster has never bothered me in a fantasy context but the rigid classes, levels, and critical hit charts all bugged the beejeesus out of me in a Cyberpunk sourcebook. And, later, when the sourcebooks started to veer into Mad Max territory, the line lost me entirely.

Cyberpunk 2020 is stupid fun and a game that I love but it's not Dick's dystopian future, instead it's Brian De Palma's 1980s Super Badassitude in Black and White. Big guns, lots of chrome, Samurai, Yakuza, and other assorted mobsters with cell phones the size of shoe boxes and suits that would make 1970s street pimps green with envy. And, man, it rocks for that. Hardcore. But it's not the deadly serious, dystopian future that I wish it were.

Cyberpunk 3.0 was a horrible, horrible, let down seeded with a wealth of truly bad humor (e.g, Disney-inspired mecha pilots and mechs) and stuff that wasn't remotely Cyberpunk as the genre is generally defined (errr. . . Disney-inspired mecha pilots and mechs). The asstastic Barbie photos as stand-ins for art pretty much cinched it for me along with the bad writing and pile of errors. Cyberpunk 3.0 is the Ultima IX of Cyberpunk RPGs.

 

[Derro]

After some thinking on this, I'll have to go with Dark Future. I have yet to find a game that captures the desperate feel of Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or the gritty, dark, noir of the film adaptation (Blade Runner, folks).

Have a look at SLA Industries. I haven't played it myself but one of my most respected gaming companions says it's the dystopian future cyber-punk game. It's available free at RPGnow (I think). If you can't find it there Google it cuz I know that it's out there.

 

[Treebore]

I always have the perfect system for what I want to play.

I find a core system that I like and then I house rule it until it does what I want.

Have I found a system perfect out of the box? No. Just rules sets close enough that a couple of pages of house rules gave me exactly what I wanted.

BTW, I actually answered the OP's question, for my fantasy. For "super powered" I like to use Synnibar or Mutants and Masterminds 2E as my base line rules set.

For Sci-Fi I use Mega Traveller as my base line. In a couple of weeks I get to try out my C&C ized version.

Shadowrun is another rules set I like to tinker with.

The one I run almost by the book is L5R 3E. I only have a couple of house rules for that one so far. I alter the world history far more than I do the rules set itself.

I would like to work HARP into a system I can like better.

I am playing Twilight 2000 for my first time ever. I would have to revamp its rules a lot to get it to play the way I would like.