Favorite game system independent of setting / genre

[Jhaelen]

If I'm divorcing the setting from the game system, the original Runequest is my favorite.

I'm also a big fan of both Ars Magica and the oWoD Mage systems, but this is at least in part because of their implied settings.

 

[Xyxox]

Never played this one. What was good about it? What did it use, percentile system]?

When speaking in terms of just systems without talking genre, Alternity was the bridge between the 2E system and the d20 system

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And it plays pretty nicely, too...very fun. Its just not in my top tier of games.

 

[Starglim]

double post

 

[Starglim]

Never played this one. What was good about it? What did it use, percentile system]?

d20 plus or minus another die to roll under your skill score. Half or a quarter of your skill score gives higher degrees of success (Good Success or Amazing Success). Combat, talking and technical abilities are all skills with the same mechanics, which any profession can take (at varying cost). Alternity has non-escalating hit points and some decent world-building and space combat systems. It has much in common with other SF and modern games of the 1980s and 1990s. TSR published the system for space opera and modern games, but fans (link below) have adapted it for fantasy and other genres.

While I can't agree that there is one best rule system without regard for the genre assumptions for each campaign, Alternity supports a series of assumptions that I enjoy.

 

[Starglim]

When speaking in terms of just systems without talking genre, Alternity was the bridge between the 2E system and the d20 system

Sort of. This is about right in simple time sequence. It's a separate system, not a d20 precursor except that it happens to roll the same die with different mechanics, but many ideas from Alternity carried through to 3e development and more to 4e (3e didn't have anything like complex skill checks/skill challenges, for example).

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Well I'm spending some time today refreshing my HERO system skills. I think it'sthe best Universal system. Although GURPS is good too. ALways loved the simplicity and fast play of the old FASERIP Marvel. Lots of fun, no waiting around.

In terms of systems NOT divorced from their settings (sorry but some systems are really good only because of the way they model a given setting) are Ars Magica and Legend of the 5 Rings.

 

[RFisher]

So, having thought about it some, I’m tempted to say: None. I guess that’s why I can’t keep myself from tinkering with homebrew systems that I never finish.

Taking another tack at it: My favorite systems right now are classic D&D and classic Traveller. (Tho’ I borrow the nd6 ≤ ability score bit from TFT for cD&D. & something vaguely similar for cT as well.)

There are several games that i like on paper, but I haven’t played enough to say in practice: Risus, Prince Valiant, Dungeon Squad, the Pool, Pendragon, Wushu.

And a few that I think have at least one very good idea that I’ve love to incorporate in my “perfect system” (if I still believed I could create it): the Window, Dying Earth, Lejendary Adventures.

 

[Ariosto]

I reckon I've gotten the most mileage from Chaosium's "Basic Role Playing" mechanics, starting with RuneQuest.

I'm of the old-fashioned sort to whom it's obvious that adding a lot of rules does not "allow flexibility"; the purpose of rules is just the opposite: to limit options. That's in itself neither good nor bad; it just depends on what you're trying to do. Neither are rules necessarily synonymous with number-crunching and dice-rolling; an old-style D&D game is (like real life) governed by a great many rules of the sort that don't require formal definition.

The BRP approach gives me simple, convenient tools to express the rules I come up with for a game-world, rather than imposing a complex set of rules. Games in some respects its heirs such as Hero System, GURPS, and 3E/4E D&D, draw attention to the intricacy of their "systems." Again, that can be very good indeed when manipulating such systems is where I want my attention to focus. Different strokes even for the same folks on different days!

 

[Maggan]

Well, for me it's Basic Roleplaying, which powers such luminaries as Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Runequest and the scandinavian Drakar och Demoner.

Second place is d6, as found for example in Star Wars d6.

Third place goes to Cyberpunk 2020, whatever powered that game. Loved the system.

Although I love WFRP, I can't really see how to seperate the system from the setting and still have me interested in the system, so it won't cut it.

/M