Looking For a New "Non-Fantasy" Ruleset

[Eosin the Red]

Can somebody update me on the state of HERO system? When I played Champions back in the day we found the combat to be fun but slow. All those dice and knockback and such I guess.

For a new Hero GM combat will always be slow. Once you've got the system down -- after a half dozen adventures -- it'll really fall to your characters to determine "slowness."

I don't have problems with the game being slow -- but I do have a few slow players who would rather talk about military tech than what they are going to do about the zombie horde.

A sci-fi game should not have a kaboodle of Knockback... In fact, it should have no knock back and rarely will the dice pool get larger than 8-9 dice.

I just ran a stargate mini-campaign and combat was quick -- zat guns speed things up.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I would suggest the True20 setting with possibly Reign of Discordia (has space combat and spaceship rules) - but the new revised book is really ALL you need. It even comes with a "Sci-Fi Genre" chapter with specific rules, ideas and themes.

 

[ValhallaGH]

About True 20. I'm not really familiar with OGL Vs. D20 differences. Is True 20 like playing D&D in a different skin, or is it simply the D20 resolution system? I'm looking on the GR site for a sneak peek version to get a feel for it tonight.

You're welcome.

True 20 is not much like D&D, at all. The main relationships are "roll a d20, add stuff, compare to a Difficulty" is the core mechanic (and danged near the only mechanic), and a few tropes carried along for people looking for certain mechanics. There are some familiar elements, but mostly it has a completely different style, tone, and game pace. The characters feel more heroic, are much more flexible and customizable in both creation and play, and the action just seems smoother.

Even better, it was designed generic, so it easily accommodates just about any setting or genre you want to run.

Mutants & Masterminds is even more flexible and has even better options, but it is a lot more complicated to build characters in. Despite, or because of, its superhero origins, the system actually covers every genre really, really well, making it one of my go-to systems. It does super-science better than any other system I'm aware of. However, at least one person needs to know the rules pretty well to get the characters and the campaign to feel right in play.

 

[synistar]

I have heard that GURPS has been streamlined a bit. Anybody familiar? I'm going to download the free lite rules tonight and look them over.

GURPS 4e basically took all of the material from 3e and boiled it down into two core books. The system also went through some mechanical changes to fix some of the rough spots in 3e (supers, ultra high strength, cost of psionics). Then they added a Power system similar to Hero where you can build new advantages by adding modifiers to existing ones and get "balanced" pricing on the result. Overall 4e is a smoother more capable system than 3e. And it is designed to not need expansion (you can play anything with only the core books everything else is optional). But of course the other source books are very high quality.

Also, if you would rather go with a superhero system to build up your game I would start with M&M. It is really a well designed system and has enough familiar elements that your players will probably find it easier to get into than Hero System. Hero is a good game and has pretty high quality supplements but it tends to be very crunchy and it can have a steep learning curve for new GMs.

I'm not really familiar with OGL Vs. D20 differences.

The difference between OGL and D20 are mostly specific to the licensing of WOTC's IP. However to most players this means that D20 games don't include their own character generation rules (you're supposed to use the PH). It also means that OGL games tend to stray further from the design of D&D than D20 games.

 

[beldar1215]

The Savage Worlds system is genre-less, and has bolt-on toolkits for sci-fi, supers, etc. If you're going for cinematic, you can't go wrong...

Let me second this. Savage Worlds is a great syatem and the core rule book is only 10 bucks. Can't go wrong for that price.

Beldar

 

[Lhorgrim]

OK. You folks have done your job too well.

I have looked over the free/lite rules of True20, Savage Worlds, Gurps, and Unisystem.

Now I really don't know which system to try.

I like the look of Savage Worlds, but I am fairly familiar with Mutants and Masterminds so True20 looks pretty good to me. Gurps and Hero Sytem seem a bit more crunchy than I'm looking for. I still don't have a good grasp on Unisystem. I sort of feel like I need a little "more" rules direction in a game than Unisystem seems to have.

Right now I'm close to choosing either True20 or Savage Worlds. I own M&M, and I like the game though I have only gotten to actually play it a couple of times. I know several people mentioned that M&M would make a good system for sci-fi type adventures, so I will have to go back over those rules with an eye toward using them in that genre. If it looks like what I need, I may just use those rules. It'll feel a little wierd using M&M for sci-fi, what with all that artwork of spandex clad superheroes. It does make it a little harder for me to get into the right frame of mind.

Anybody have anything to say about Mongoose's version of Traveller? I'm intrigued by it, but I know nothing at all about the ruleset.

 

[ValhallaGH]

The latest version of Traveller is well regarded by the Traveller fans I know.
This version apparently has a lot in common with Classic Traveller while it eliminates the crazy Calculus-based complexity that used to exist. Making planets, and random characters is a lot of fun, and the game mechanics are relatively simple. So, people who liked most of classic Traveller will probably enjoy Mongoose's newest Traveller.

Good Luck!

 

[ragboy]

Right now I'm close to choosing either True20 or Savage Worlds.

Either of those is a good bet. They both have the rules you need without getting overly complicated and both are extensible with plenty of bolt-on goodness out there. I have no experience with True20 outside of reading the core rules, but it seems to me that it's in the same vein as SW.

If you're looking at Savage Worlds, be sure to take a look at the toolkits that might suit your needs...specifically the Sci-Fi toolkits will give you that medium-to-hard sci-fi feel that you're going for. Though, with the core rules and a handful of campaign-specific build-outs, you probably don't even need the toolkits.

PEG's campaign settings tend to slant pulp and horror, so I don't know that any of them will suit the tone you're going for.

 

[ragboy]

Right now I'm close to choosing either True20 or Savage Worlds.

Either of those is a good bet. They both have the rules you need without getting overly complicated and both are extensible with plenty of bolt-on goodness out there. I have no experience with True20 outside of reading the core rules, but it seems to me that it's in the same vein as SW.

If you're looking at Savage Worlds, be sure to take a look at the toolkits that might suit your needs...specifically the Sci-Fi toolkits will give you that medium-to-hard sci-fi feel that you're going for. Though, with the core rules and a handful of campaign-specific build-outs, you probably don't even need the toolkits.

PEG's campaign settings tend to slant pulp and horror, so I don't know that any of them will suit the tone you're going for.