Is there one RPG to rule them all? What version?

[Lord Mhoram]

One thing that helped me run HERO 4th back in the day was my Excel spreadsheet based character sheet. It automatically kept track of the figured characteristics, and all the power, skill and disadvantage point totals.

Yeah, I had something like that. Plus the official character creators that HERO released.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Cortex Prime is a minor evolution of the Cortex Plus engine which drove MWP's Smallville, Firefly, Marvel Heroic Roleplay, Leverage, and the unreleased Dragon Brigade (now probably never to see the light of day other than the preview version). A "generic"/"Build your own flavor" of Cortex Plus was the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide.

I like it, it's solid, and Prime is a build-your-setting like the Hacker's Guide was... Firefly was awesome for Firefly, MHRP was awesome for Marvel, but I prefer Sentinel Comics - Marvel got a full event (5 sessions) a couple years back from my player base.

Cortex is a solid system, even if I concluded it didn't have quite enough mechanical engagement to suit me.

 

[Mezuka]

Cortex is a solid system, even if I concluded it didn't have quite enough mechanical engagement to suit me.

Cortex is great if you like dice manipulation - upgrading, downgrading dice size - as you create the dice pool. Which I don't.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Cortex is great if you like dice manipulation - upgrading, downgrading dice size - as you create the dice pool. Which I don't.

I didn't object to that--in the end, its just a mechanic to represent some things and the fact its not one I was used to didn't make it bad--but that after running it a while in my port of Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, it really just did end up feeling most of the time like "build up as big and large dice a die pool as possible and pick out the best three". I think it was just too abstract for me.

(Notably, I didn't not feel nearly the same with Marvel Heroic, I suspect because the--damn, have forgotten the name, things you activate normally with plot points--were far more extensive and distinct. My attempt to do my hack relatively quick and dirty likely didn't do me any favors, but that also tells me that Cortex likely only works for a limited range of campaign types for me).

 

[pogre]

I'm a rules matter kind of guy, but if I were to choose one system I would go with BRP

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm a rules matter kind of guy, but if I were to choose one system I would go with BRP

It'd work. I'd want a lot of different incarnations of it to have all the tools I might need for a given job, though. Even the Big Gold Book didn't cover the ground adequately from my POV.

 

[John Desmarais]

My personal “one game to rule them all”, the game that I continue to fall back on whenever the latest ‘new shiny’ disappoints me, is Hero System. Robust, flexible, and I know it well enough that the system mostly just get out of way at the table.

 

[aramis erak]

I didn't object to that--in the end, its just a mechanic to represent some things and the fact its not one I was used to didn't make it bad--but that after running it a while in my port of Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, it really just did end up feeling most of the time like "build up as big and large dice a die pool as possible and pick out the best three". I think it was just too abstract for me.

(Notably, I didn't not feel nearly the same with Marvel Heroic, I suspect because the--damn, have forgotten the name, things you activate normally with plot points--were far more extensive and distinct. My attempt to do my hack relatively quick and dirty likely didn't do me any favors, but that also tells me that Cortex likely only works for a limited range of campaign types for me).

ALmost Everything gets activated with plot points...
For MHR, you get free:
1× Affiliation die
1× Distinction
1× Power die per power set (some have 1, some have 2 sets)
1× Specialty (if any apply)
1× Opponent Stress or Complication die
1× Asset (item)
1× SFX that doesn't require a PP

You cannot buy a second affiliation die.
Pretty much everything else, you can pay a PP to get a second of added.
Several SFX cost a PP to trigger, as well.
You can spend 1 PP to add a d6 once without explanation

You can also spend a PP to keep a third die, actually inflict effect with a successful reaction, trigger SFX that need a PP,

But you're supposed to make it clear how all those dice fit into an action which fits in a single panel, possibly with a second panel as the result.

So... Say Spidey is facing an angry hulk....
He's alone, so Affiliation Solo d8
He's trying to slow down Hulk to protect the neighborhood... Distinction "Friendly neighborhood hero" d8 and "with great power...." also d8, spending a PP for the second.
Superhuman Strength is needed... Spider Powers group: d10 Superhuman Strength.
Spidey plans to swing through, so that's swingline d8 from Web Slinging... and he plans to web the bleep out of Hulk, so weapon d8 (and a plot point) from Web-slinging.
Peter knows how angry hulk rages, so the player invokes Psych Expert d8. And since he's got a surfeit of of PP, he adds combat expert d8.


How I'd play that action,
"I'm alone with angry hulk" (point to solo and grab a d8)
"As your neighborhood hero, and kind of responsible for Hulk being here..." Point to both distinctions, pick up two dice, hand a stone representing the PP over.
Since I'm up a wall, I'm going to swing down" point to swingline and grab a d8 "and web him soundly in place" point, pass another stone, and grab another d8.
"It's going to take my strength to hang on to him..." point and grab a d10.
"Oh, boy, another rage, he won't expect this strike," Point to Combat, "which I can only do because of knowing his psychopathology" points to Psych and grabs both d8...
Rolls 1d10 + 7d8... d10=4 d8's 7,7,6,5,7,2,1
Sorting those d8's, 7,7,7,6,5,2,1... 14 basic total. Hulk's not likely to beat that... so keep it. The biggest dice (most faces) is the d10 showing a 4... it's the damage size. Putting that onto a "Stuck in the web" condition. Dropping another PP, pulls a d8... for a d8 for a "No leverage" condition....
The GM wryly hands back a PP and says, "Nice... as you bowl him over, the shock hurts your hand... sprained wrist d6."

That's two panels -
1: Spidey swinging and shooting... and thinking about hulk's blind rage...
2: Spidey on the swing past, with a webbed up hulk dangling, and motion lines for both, with pain jaggies near Spidey's wrist. "Whew, it worked" in Peter;s bubble, and "AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!" in Hulk's... with it clear that he's trying to break the binding.

MHR is wonderful if players grok it... and lame as hell if they don't.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It was the SFX associated with powers I was thinking of; since almost every MHR character will have 3-5 of those, it brings a lot more nuance to what they're doing than the, in the end, somewhat mechanistic elements of choosing your base die pool.

 

[GreyLord]

Broadway.

If you can even make it. The game is even getting there, much less being able to make a living there...

Also a stand-up Gargoyle.