One System To Rule Them All!

Which Generic System Would You Choose?

  • GURPS 4th Edition

    Votes: 36 27.7%
  • Hero 5th Edition Revised

    Votes: 23 17.7%
  • End All Be All (EABA)

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • CORPS

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Fudge

    Votes: 10 7.7%
  • FATE

    Votes: 4 3.1%
  • The Window

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Something Else

    Votes: 53 40.8%

  • Poll closed .
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jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock
Okay, it's that time of the decade again - I'm pretty burned out on learning a new game system from the ground up every few months, and have decided to dump all of my current games (save for C&C, because it's just that good) and pick up a generic system that can cover all of my bases.

If you had to choose one generic system (and I do mean a truly generic system, complete with a totally generic core book), what would it be? GURPS 4e, Hero 5th Edition, EABA, CORPS, Fudge, FATE, The Window or something else? If 'something else', please take a few minutes to explain.
 
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Hey,

I've been using d20 Modern + Grim Tales + genre- and game-specific house rules to run the following (some pre-date GT):

Fantasy: Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, two home brews
Historic: 1066, 1492, 1776
Sci-Fi: Star*Drive, home brew post-apocalypse
Other: Planescape-esque

The FR campaign was magic-heavy (just tweaked the rules a bit), as was the Planescape setting. Others were lower magic, just using the advanced careers to delay magic use to 3rd level+, and others still were no magic (Star*Drive, 1776, and a home brew). I find this really is THE tool box rule set, so long as the DM is willing to tweak.

Thanks,
-Matt
 

Argus Decimus Mokira said:
Hey,

I've been using d20 Modern + Grim Tales + genre- and game-specific house rules to run the following (some pre-date GT):

I've taken that approach in the past, but two + core books and a set of house rules doesn't constitute a truly generic system by any means, so it falls outside of the criteria that I've established in my intial post. Thanks for the response though. What I'm looking for is a single, codified, generic system presented in a single book (such as those systems listed as poll options).
 

I'm using GURPS 4e. It can cover pretty much any genre, including a couple that are hardly ever dreamed of in d20-land, and in my experience, the new edition lends itself equally well to gritty and cinematic game styles. All in all, I am pretty happy with it.

Of the others, I only know FUDGE. I think it is an interesting intellectual exercise, but the task resolution system is too "grainy" for my tastes, and it has too little detail for many genres for my tastes.
 


Something else: d20 modern. But the only other system that I've played, among those mentioned, is GURPS. From what I've heard of Hero and Fudge, I wouldn't like them, but I could be wrong. I haven't even heard about the others.
 

diaglo said:
Od&d(1974)

That's pretty genre-specific by design, thus, it falls outside of the criteria established in my first post.

[Note: Incidentally, I already own it.]
 

Jürgen Hubert said:
I'm using GURPS 4e. It can cover pretty much any genre, including a couple that are hardly ever dreamed of in d20-land, and in my experience, the new edition lends itself equally well to gritty and cinematic game styles. All in all, I am pretty happy with it.

Yeah, I'm leaning heavily towards GURPS 4e, as I'm currently playing in a game based in Half-Life's post-incident Earth that uses GURPS Lite 4e. Out of curiosity, how playable 'out of the box' is the Character book? What kind of genres could I easily cover with it, as is? Also, is the Campaigns book a necessity (like the old Compendiums eventually came to be), or is it purely optional? Thanks in adavance for any clarification that you can provide, Jurgen.

[Note: Incidentally, I've been meanign to ask - is there an Urbis PDF or other print-friendly file?]
 


Zappo said:
Something else: d20 modern.

Again, not really a generic system. Although there are several supplements that add genre-appropriate rules, it's focused completely on modern settings by default. I'm looking for something contained in a single book that is totally generic by deafult. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
 

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