Ahzad
Explorer
another vote for Spycraft 2.0, it can handle almost any genre thrown at it, and as mentioned there's a very active community at their website www.crafty-games.com
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Solid RPG system for modern/future campaigns?
- Thread starter whokan
- Start date
doghead
thotd
general - modern/future
Traveller has been mentioned. I would look at the re-release of Classic Traveller rather than T20. I thought that the T20 character system was a bit clunky.
I like Precis Intermedia Games's stuff. The rules are fairly simple but reasonably comprehensive. There are three systems - Impressa, Genre Diversion and Active Exploits. They all use the same basic elements, so are fairly interchangeable. But they are quite different from d20, and so require a little adaptation time. Especially AE, which is diceless.
doghead
aka thotd
Traveller has been mentioned. I would look at the re-release of Classic Traveller rather than T20. I thought that the T20 character system was a bit clunky.
I like Precis Intermedia Games's stuff. The rules are fairly simple but reasonably comprehensive. There are three systems - Impressa, Genre Diversion and Active Exploits. They all use the same basic elements, so are fairly interchangeable. But they are quite different from d20, and so require a little adaptation time. Especially AE, which is diceless.
doghead
aka thotd
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
whokan said:
Really, the system you choose should support the basic power level and degree of unreality that you wish to accommodate. GURPS is good for low power and low unreality, with problems tending to manifest more frequently at higher power and unreality levels. The various d20 games mentioned seem to strike a balance between low/high power and low/high levels of unreality (except, perhaps, for Spycraft which is pretty firmly 1980s James Bond Wahoo Cinematic), while stuff like Fate 3.0 (the system that Spirit of the Century uses) is pretty much off the hook in terms of cinematic unreality.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Grim Tales. ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Darrin Drader
Explorer
True20, without a doubt. It has built in support for exactly the range of swords to laser beams and the rules are much more streamlined that your baseline D20.
Wow! This community is amazing and the spontaneous feedback is impressive. This is just what I needed. Now I can look into your recommended systems to figure out what might work best for our group of old school dice chuckers.
The first order of business is to become a paid member in good standing.
Thank you for this great feedback.
The first order of business is to become a paid member in good standing.
Thank you for this great feedback.
HeavenShallBurn
First Post
GURPS, well it has issues. It does a low-powered mundane sort of game well within limits. But it breaks and breaks fast as the power scales upward. By the time D&D PCs reach 10th level they've essentially blown the top off the GURPS power scale. Just the racial traits of Demons alone come in at a bit over 700 points.
Risus or Spirit of the Century are good at what they do but they take cinematic play to nosebleed inducing heights.
So I'd recommend sticking to d20, it's the most flexible easily modified system I've ever used. You can tweak into entirely different genres with a few house rules. I've done everything from prehistoric caveman games to mecha/powered armor/and starships. I've had space rangers fighting classic D&D heroes to recover a lost Panacea Machine being used as a Holy Relic.
Right now I've got a planescape game running where the PCs consist of
1.) Downed fighter pilot who came through a portal, plays a cleric (searching for his god on the planes) dressed in chainmail over his old uniform wielding a shield and a holy Thompson submachinegun.
2.) Orc barbarian/wizard from a primitive stone-age tribe who worships Odin, wears hide armor and carries a giant's greatclub.
3.) Archetypal D&D sword+board fighter except he's an anthropomorphic dinoneichus(sp?) who follows a variant of the Bushido code and views kobolds as holy emissaries of the Heavenly Dragons
4.) Autonomous Exploration Robot from a star empire that looks sort of like a cross between a centaur and a crayfish. With heavy armor plating, big metal claws and a turreted laser carbine. Uses a 3rd party technologist class.
5.) Very Young Rust Dragon, no class advancement yet. But wears snazzy bronzewood claw extenders and tailmace.
Risus or Spirit of the Century are good at what they do but they take cinematic play to nosebleed inducing heights.
So I'd recommend sticking to d20, it's the most flexible easily modified system I've ever used. You can tweak into entirely different genres with a few house rules. I've done everything from prehistoric caveman games to mecha/powered armor/and starships. I've had space rangers fighting classic D&D heroes to recover a lost Panacea Machine being used as a Holy Relic.
Right now I've got a planescape game running where the PCs consist of
1.) Downed fighter pilot who came through a portal, plays a cleric (searching for his god on the planes) dressed in chainmail over his old uniform wielding a shield and a holy Thompson submachinegun.
2.) Orc barbarian/wizard from a primitive stone-age tribe who worships Odin, wears hide armor and carries a giant's greatclub.
3.) Archetypal D&D sword+board fighter except he's an anthropomorphic dinoneichus(sp?) who follows a variant of the Bushido code and views kobolds as holy emissaries of the Heavenly Dragons
4.) Autonomous Exploration Robot from a star empire that looks sort of like a cross between a centaur and a crayfish. With heavy armor plating, big metal claws and a turreted laser carbine. Uses a 3rd party technologist class.
5.) Very Young Rust Dragon, no class advancement yet. But wears snazzy bronzewood claw extenders and tailmace.
GURPS is my go-to system for modern or Sci-Fi gaming. The 4th edition has fixed a lot of the issues in higher level/point value play. Check out GURPS Banestorm and GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. You could also try the D6 system, Savage Worlds, BRP (when is that coming out?), or d20Modern/Future.
HeavenShallBurn
First Post
In my experience at least 4e fixed few of the problems at high power levels. About the only thing it took care of was the outrageous escalation of high-tech damage and DR as seen in 3e settings like OGRE. It still breaks down at roughly the same spot.GAAAHHH said:
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