Quest for the "perfect" all-in-one game

I don't believe there is a single perfect system for every style I want to play but Ubiquity (Desolation & Hollowed Earth Expedition) comes close for me. It needs a few tweaks but I could see All for One or some other upcoming Ubiquity game having those tweaks.
 

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Traveller Main Rulebook, Vampire, Rogue Trader, Treasure if electronic counts


If it requires more than 300 pages there's too much to carry around and too many rules for my taste.


That's not to say add-ons aren't good but the core can surely fit in a few hundred pages. If I then decide to take High Guard or a module (yeah right) I still don't need a suitcase.
 

HERO is my #1 all time, do everything I ask it to do RPG system. I have yet to conceive of a character or campaign I couldn't use HERO for.

M&M is #2, edging out 3.X by a hair. There are certain design decisions that I simply feel HERO handled better (like Autofire).

3.X is my favorite dedicated FRPG system.
 


Yeah, the Mongoose Traveller core book would be my number one. For multiple genre's CORTEX does a pretty good job, but you would definitely have to be willing to do the work to add more, but it has decent basics for many genre's.

I would say Castles and Crusades, but I am in the camp that the PH would need more monsters and gear for it to be just a one book needed system.

The Rules Cyclopedia definitely achieved a nice balance.
 



Godlike or Wild Talents do that, and the system is so flexible you can do just about any genre with it (except, possibly, D&D-style low threat attrition combat).
 

Savage Worlds is the best one for me. I like the Revised Edition a little better than the Explorer's Edition because I like the big hardback, the fantasy races, and the d20 conversion guide. But, either one is great. It's a concise book that presents all the rules necessary for any game--in just about any genre. The plot point books are really just modules with a few optional rules, so I really dig it. I've run one campaign and have another (infrequently) meeting. We're playing it in our group now.

Star Wars revised Core Rulebook is another good one. Its d20 predecessor was good, too; but the Revised edition made it better. I'll never run it, but I really enjoyed reading it and (too rarely) playing it.

Rifts is another all-in-one book that I still have after all these years. Patchy as the rules are, I can't wait to run it again. If I could just get the group into it.

This next one is a little off-topic. But, I can't wait to run a game using the D&D Miniatures Handbook and some D&D minis as a mini-RPG skirmish campaign. There's just something about those rules being so concise and finite that appeals to me, especially advancement in the Warlord class and the random magic items. I'd like to do the same with Star Wars Miniatures, too.

It's too bad there wasn't a streamlined D&D 3e. I know some are trying it now with OGL books, but it isn't the same. Most OGL games have some variations that may be great but vary from the core game (by definition), which really cuts into my mastery over the system in unsatisfying ways. The promise of d20 was great, and it achieved modularity for me with many alternate games--my favorites being Omega World and Judge Dredd. Good as they are, they aren't really all-in-one books though.
 

Warhammer Roleplay 1e was the most perfect all in one -- everything you needed to play the game in one book. Next would be Call of Cthulhu

Box sets were another story, the Old Pace Setter games were fantastic, most notable, CHILL. Other noteable Box Sets (not Pace Setter), Ghostbusters and Paranoia.

Just yesterday I glanced at my Chill box and thought "I wish there was a Chill ruleset for Fantasy Grounds". I thought I was the only one that remembered Chill!

Right now I think Savage Worlds is my one stop shop book. I feel like I could run pretty much anything out of the EE. It leaves enough in my hands that it seems tremendously flexible and provides a nice rules foundation to build on.
 

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