mach1.9pants
Hero
In what way do you not consider FC complete without Spellbound? Seems as complete as the DnD PHBs for magic types, if not more options.
Quest for the "perfect" all-in-one game
- Thread starter dm4hire
- Start date
In what way do you not consider FC complete without Spellbound? Seems as complete as the DnD PHBs for magic types, if not more options.
I've heard great things about both GURPS and Hero as far as "create any character, play any genre" goes but sadly have played neither and would not be comfortable GMing either without having a grounding in what it's like to play the game.
I'm confused by the OP as to me, "all-in-one game" means you have a system that will work for any genre you care to run from high fantasy to strictly historical to contemporary crime/espionage to gothic horror to space opera to hard science fiction to utopias and dystopias, post-apocalyptic wastelands or the Zombie Apocalypse.
Needless to say, if all that were contained in one book, it'd be a bloody big book - just a few thousand years worth of weapons (normal and magical) from stone adze to Plasma Gun Man-Portable TL 21 is going to take up more than a few pages and we haven't even gotten into "how do you create non-humans using this system?", magical items, equipment, technology levels, settings, world building etc etc.
If the OP is talking about an all-in-one game wherein you have a single book that describes setting, all the races/things you can encounter, all the stuff you can find/buy, how to generate characters etc in one convenient book that enables you to play without having to go out and buy dozens of additional resources, player's guides, bestiaries, monster manuals etc, then one must ask "which genre?"
What would be an engaging game ("perfect") for someone interested in playing characters in 18th Century Europe may well be "boring" and no use to someone who wants to be in some sort of space opera setting.
I'm confused by the OP as to me, "all-in-one game" means you have a system that will work for any genre you care to run from high fantasy to strictly historical to contemporary crime/espionage to gothic horror to space opera to hard science fiction to utopias and dystopias, post-apocalyptic wastelands or the Zombie Apocalypse.
Needless to say, if all that were contained in one book, it'd be a bloody big book - just a few thousand years worth of weapons (normal and magical) from stone adze to Plasma Gun Man-Portable TL 21 is going to take up more than a few pages and we haven't even gotten into "how do you create non-humans using this system?", magical items, equipment, technology levels, settings, world building etc etc.
If the OP is talking about an all-in-one game wherein you have a single book that describes setting, all the races/things you can encounter, all the stuff you can find/buy, how to generate characters etc in one convenient book that enables you to play without having to go out and buy dozens of additional resources, player's guides, bestiaries, monster manuals etc, then one must ask "which genre?"
What would be an engaging game ("perfect") for someone interested in playing characters in 18th Century Europe may well be "boring" and no use to someone who wants to be in some sort of space opera setting.
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Argyle King
Legend
I'm not sure about Hero, but I know that you can try GURPS for free by looking up GURPS Lite which is found here: GURPS Lite
From that you could probably create a few characters just to run through a mock battle or something to get the hang of what the full game might be like. There's actually enough there to run through a quick quest of sorts. It's just stripped of all of the nice shiny options and some of the nice things included in the full game.
I don't know about free, but as this review of HERO Sidekick points out, there is a stripped-down version of the 5Ed ruleset.
Given that 6Ed was released this year- and HERO revisions are more along the line of tweeks and not wholesale changes- you may be able to get Sidekick for a steal of a price.
Given that 6Ed was released this year- and HERO revisions are more along the line of tweeks and not wholesale changes- you may be able to get Sidekick for a steal of a price.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
I concur, their recent edition is great.
jmucchiello
Hero
No you won't. I ran Hero Fantasy for many years without using the official Fantasy Hero supplement at all. Statting a horse, when it came up, took me a couple minutes. Of course, my familiarity with Hero is high enough that I could probably run a game without opening the book, but still, the whole point of HERO is you only need the one book. All the other supplements are there to save time and give you ideas. So if you devoted yourself to Hero as your one true system, you could easily play forever with just the main rulebook (whether it was 4th, 5th or 6th edition).
So all of these have rules for horses in them? Really?
I don't know about the rest but this is truly not a complete book. There are no monsters nor even rules for how to make monsters. There are no magic items nor any rules for how to make magic items. AU/AE presumes you have a 3.0 DMG.
Well, the changes from 5e to 6e are far more wide-ranging than the changed from 4e to 5e. But most of the changes are only in chargen. Game play is largely exactly the same in all 3 editions. But chargen in 6e removed figured characteristics and that is a big change in terms of rebalancing the powers.
It is a big change, to be sure, but someone familiar with only Hero 1st would recognize the game and be up to speed within minutes.
coyote6
Adventurer
So all of these have rules for horses in them? Really?
I don't know about most of them (though I'm fairly certain there are horse stats in WH 1e), but M&M 2e has horse stats on p. 230.
Argyle King
Legend
One of the main things that I remember that I didn't like about Hero (I can't remember which edition it was I tried,) was that everything required points. From what I remember of it, pretty much anything and everything you wanted your character to be able to do had to be bought as an ability. Flight, fireballs, and the like made perfect sense to be bought as special abilities, but it was a little odd to have even mundane skills such as firing a gun or driving a vehicle structured as special abilities. I appreciated the freedom of the system, and it has similarities to the universal system that I did eventually end up adopting, but there were a few specific aspects which threw me off of wanting to go further with the system.
In my experience with hobby games, a 'universal system' is not an ideal good. After 20 years of 'DBx', for instance, I think the only reason I can stomach another variation on the theme is because that has remained a change of pace for me. Risus can be handy shorthand for scenario ideas, but I have no interest in actually playing it. [There's a common thread running through Chaosium's games, but rules differences are also part of their various flavors.]
There have, however, been quite a few splendid all-in-one rpgs, including the early offerings such as D&D and Traveller that were in one box of several booklets.
FGU published very comprehensive works. They could be a bit imposing, though, and often were not aimed at the novice or casual player.
Brevity seems a critical distinction. A rule-book that stops bullets is no demonstration of great game design. Neither is tiny type, as in the first editions of Chivalry & Sorcery and Metamorphosis Alpha.
Among Chaosium's many insanely great releases, I will cast my vote for Worlds of Wonder. That kept the 'Basic' really first in BRP, and did a pretty good treatment of Superworld in less than 20 pages (with similarly concise workups of Magic World and Future World).
CoC is simply nonpareil, of course.
The trouble with Chaosium generally is that they put out such spiffy supplements that not 'needing' more than the core is probably not the issue. Then again, later editions of the basic set have tended to add in material.
Every edition of King Arthur Pendragon is beautiful, but I find it hard not to want at least the overall campaign supplement (e.g., The Boy King) in addition. Even harder would be to pick up Runequest and pass up Cults of Prax.
GDW's classic Traveller was similar in that regard, with fine additions also from the likes of FaSA and Digest Group. However, any of the versions of the basic set (including The Traveller Book) will provide for a galaxy of adventure. Part of that -- as with D&D -- depends on grooving on the literary sources of inspiration. Mongoose takes another approach with supplements specifically for, e.g., Strontium Dog or Babylon 5.
TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne introduced a world that has been documented at least as extensively as Middle Earth. The original game, I think, conveys a lot of flavor without bogging down in encyclopedic minutia. At the same time, it anticipated Holmes Basic in offering a clear explanation of how to play.
Gangbusters gave us the era of Prohibition, perhaps not from as many perspectives as the designers had hoped to include -- but still a great 'sandbox campaign' basis. The adventure modules maintain the high standard of quality, but it's not as if there's likely to be a shortage of plots afoot once players start playing.
Some supplements for FGU's Flashing Blades might be more intriguing, but the basic game is another rich milieu to explore.
Marvel Super Heroes is a blast -- but partly because of all the write-ups of people, places and things from the Marvel Universe of that time. Love those supplements too much!
There have, however, been quite a few splendid all-in-one rpgs, including the early offerings such as D&D and Traveller that were in one box of several booklets.
FGU published very comprehensive works. They could be a bit imposing, though, and often were not aimed at the novice or casual player.
Brevity seems a critical distinction. A rule-book that stops bullets is no demonstration of great game design. Neither is tiny type, as in the first editions of Chivalry & Sorcery and Metamorphosis Alpha.
Among Chaosium's many insanely great releases, I will cast my vote for Worlds of Wonder. That kept the 'Basic' really first in BRP, and did a pretty good treatment of Superworld in less than 20 pages (with similarly concise workups of Magic World and Future World).
CoC is simply nonpareil, of course.
The trouble with Chaosium generally is that they put out such spiffy supplements that not 'needing' more than the core is probably not the issue. Then again, later editions of the basic set have tended to add in material.
Every edition of King Arthur Pendragon is beautiful, but I find it hard not to want at least the overall campaign supplement (e.g., The Boy King) in addition. Even harder would be to pick up Runequest and pass up Cults of Prax.
GDW's classic Traveller was similar in that regard, with fine additions also from the likes of FaSA and Digest Group. However, any of the versions of the basic set (including The Traveller Book) will provide for a galaxy of adventure. Part of that -- as with D&D -- depends on grooving on the literary sources of inspiration. Mongoose takes another approach with supplements specifically for, e.g., Strontium Dog or Babylon 5.
TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne introduced a world that has been documented at least as extensively as Middle Earth. The original game, I think, conveys a lot of flavor without bogging down in encyclopedic minutia. At the same time, it anticipated Holmes Basic in offering a clear explanation of how to play.
Gangbusters gave us the era of Prohibition, perhaps not from as many perspectives as the designers had hoped to include -- but still a great 'sandbox campaign' basis. The adventure modules maintain the high standard of quality, but it's not as if there's likely to be a shortage of plots afoot once players start playing.
Some supplements for FGU's Flashing Blades might be more intriguing, but the basic game is another rich milieu to explore.
Marvel Super Heroes is a blast -- but partly because of all the write-ups of people, places and things from the Marvel Universe of that time. Love those supplements too much!
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