Fun or a Headache? You tell me!

[PCD]

I've always had this very unorthodox idea of truly mixing things together. My threads (and other people's threads) about comparing Game Systems has really got me to thinking even more about doing it. Would it Fun or a Headache?

Everyone is allowed to play the character they want to play, using whatever Game Mechanics/Rules/Setting Influence et al they wish to use. This may mean that the "adventuring party" has a D20 Character, a GURPS Character, a HERO Character, Storyteller Character, a TriStat Character etc in it. There might even be some clever mixes. God forbid that would ever happen...

So, how would it work?

The Character must use their Game Mechanics. This may mean that they face a challenge/foe etc that uses different Game Mechanics. Of course, that little initiative roll may decide just who gets to do their style first. Some differences are glaring. Just how would a HERO hit a D20 opponent whose Armor Class is 35? Some are not so bad: Presence from HERO is equal to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidation...essentially. And so on.

Would it be fun to try to figure it out...or am I working my way towards a brain tumor?

 

[TracerBullet42]

Well, if it's any indication...I'm already thoroughly confused after reading your idea...

Sounds crazy to me, but more power to ya if you want to go for it!

 

[Liquidsabre]

Brain hemorrage more likely. Heh, you could term the whole ordeal "Battle of the Game Systems"... Last PC/game system standing!

 

[PCD]

Yeah...I know. It is profoundly...weird.

Surely, I am not the *only* that has thought about this...

 

[coyote6]

Closest I've been was in cross-dimensional adventures -- the heroes went to a particular universe, and we used a different rules system. But all characters were using the same system at any particular time.

(Specifically, I wanted to try Mayfair's DC comics game*, so some Champions characters went on a trip. And just a few weeks ago, a parachronic GURPS character found herself in Freedom City, using M&M rules.)

*DC Universe? DC Heroes? DC Something? I don't remember.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

The concept's original, albeit bizarre. What point exactly does this achieve? I mean, true, it would end the dozens of posts that have been popping up comparing Tristat, d20, and HERO, but I don't see how it could work.

 

[Michael Tree]

I played a convention game like this once, though the GM didn't really use all the game mechanics. (It was an Amber Diceless convention, so everyone was used to the GM winging it). What we did use were the 'genre-conventions'. The D&D characters could fall from great heights with only some bruising, and never diminished their fighting abilities until they dropped unconscious from wounds and started to die.

It was tons of fun. We had a few D&D characters, one In Nomine angel, a cyberpunk decker, one time-traveller from a game I wasn't familiar with, and I think a super hero or two.

Just to be completely weird, I played Colonel Mustard. You know, from Clue. (The GM said "from any game" not "from any RPG" after all). I could only move in straight lines, if someone stood in front of a door I couldn't get past them, I periodically found secret passageways, and automatically knew the name of the room I entered into.

 

[the Jester]

I'm guessing fun AND a headache...

If you try it out, let us know how it goes!

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

Just to be completely weird, I played Colonel Mustard. You know, from Clue. (The GM said "from any game" not "from any RPG" after all). I could only move in straight lines, if someone stood in front of a door I couldn't get past them, I periodically found secret passageways, and automatically knew the name of the room I entered into.

Don't forget that if you're accused of a crime, you're instantly teleported to the room the accuser is. It's like a Teleport without Error spell built in.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm using Synnibarr.