Thinking About Moving to FUDGE at Epic Level

[MoogleEmpMog]

The rules are just getting too complicated, and I just don't have any time for the amount of mechanics involved any more. Whaddya think?

Personally, if you're going ultralight with Epic characters, I would use Wushu rather than FUDGE. Wushu is even lighter, and it perfectly captures the 'cosmic badassitude' of Epic characters.

When I see people suggesting True20 or C&C as being viable alternatives to FUDGE, I can't help but wonder if they realize how vastly more complex True20 and C&C are...

 

[jcfiala]

The rules are just getting too complicated, and I just don't have any time for the amount of mechanics involved any more. Whaddya think?

Hmm. Well, for one thing, it sort of depends on how you plan to set up the campaign. FUDGE was originally generated for more or less human characters, so just swapping stats over is going to leave you with a lot of Superb+1 and Superb+2 type stuff, depending on what level you're swapping from. So you may want to set everyone down as 'Average Epic' folk, and give everyone a big chunk of what's called Scale, or even just say 'Everyone starts out at Fair automatically, but in comparison to joe new adventurer, they're about Terrible+2 or something like that' - ie, you're starting folks off in the middle, with the assumption that 'normal' is somewhere below that.

On the other hand, you could just give everyone really big stats and abilities to start with - the problem with deciding to use FUDGE is that it requires a lot of choices - how do you want to set things up, how do you want combat to work, how do you want the systems to work together... but on the other hand, I could really see how that could work, because you can make it work the way you want.

Suggested links:
FUDGE Guide Wiki - http://www.fudgerpg.info/guide/bin/view/Guide/WebHome
FUDGE Factor (And old webzine about fudge - not publishing, but lots of old articles) - http://www.fudgefactor.org/
Spirit of the Century SRD - an alternative FUDGE system that may work out quite well for you - http://www.crackmonkey.org/~nick/loyhargil/fate3/fate3.html

 

[Alcamtar]

I am running my D&D campaign in Fudge, specifically because of the complexity issue at higher levels. Only difference is that I started with Fudge instead of switching over later. At the moment we are about 6th-level equivalent ("Good") and it is working well.

When I say "D&D campaign" I mean that literally... we're using the D&D books for source material, spells, monsters, items, world, modules, everything -- including style of play -- but just converting it all to Fudge. Our game is mostly objective and fairly crunchy, and we've just completed two tactical dungeon crawls. The players come from D&D3.5, AD&D1e, and HERO system and are enjoying Fudge.

FWIW I have 12th level pegged as "Legendary" in Fudge terms. We have 20th level is a campaign goal, and possibly 36th level or beyond. (We're playing in Mystara so high level play is a given.) Our game is not a number-for-number translation, but an approximation into Fudge-equivalent mechanics. My goal is to nail the signature capabilities, capture the overall look and feel, provide plenty of support for tactical play, but handwave the nitpicky little details.

Anyway it's working for us, so it is possible.

 

[S'mon]

Personally, if you're going ultralight with Epic characters, I would use Wushu rather than FUDGE. Wushu is even lighter, and it perfectly captures the 'cosmic badassitude' of Epic characters.

When I see people suggesting True20 or C&C as being viable alternatives to FUDGE, I can't help but wonder if they realize how vastly more complex True20 and C&C are...

I do realise that, cheers. And I wouldn't try to dissuade the OP from going for FUDGE if that's what he wants. I can see the advantages. I like C&C because it's the right level of crunch for my tastes.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I do realise that, cheers. And I wouldn't try to dissuade the OP from going for FUDGE if that's what he wants. I can see the advantages. I like C&C because it's the right level of crunch for my tastes.

Fair enough.

I figure when someone talks about taking a D&D campaign the FUDGE route, and asks about it on a primarily d20 board, that they're after some very drastic changes.

With that said, Savage Worlds (and, for Epic play, Mutants & Masterminds) would be other middle-of-the-road options, crunch wise. Among those four, I'd say the best choice would depend on what the OP wants:

C&C: Strong archetypes and pre-3e D&D flavor
T20: Skill-oriented or less combative gameplay (generally)
M&M: High power level and narrative combat
SW: Fast, tactical combat

 

[Bynw]

The rules are just getting too complicated, and I just don't have any time for the amount of mechanics involved any more. Whaddya think?

Why wait? )

That is one of several reasons I switched my campaign to Fudge. My players took it rather well too and we are now 2 years in to gaming with Fudge and going just as strong as we did with d20.