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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thomas Shey" data-source="post: 9663419" data-attributes="member: 7026617">This is a difficult question to answer on a couple grounds.First, "need" is doing some loadbearing in the question.  There are a number of things I want a game system to do for me but can live without.  For example, I really prefer that a system have a lot of character definition toggles, including many things outside of just attributes and skills, and would rather not be constrained by class structures.  But that said, I ran RuneQuest based games for years, and most of those lacked anything but skills and attributes, and was able to play Pathfinder 2e and Shadow of the Demon Lord even though they have (somewhat flexible) class systems.Second, to some extent it depends on the focus of the game.  Chill 3e lacked a lot of support I'd generally want in a game, but it was a game sharply focused on investigative horror.  To some extent some of the things I normally would want would have taken up mindspace without serving the game any better.Generally, I want about three things in a game:1. The core system to be coherent, pretty easy to cover uncommon ground without playing a lot of guessing games about the right way to do it, and minimize the amount of one-off exception based mechanics (I've heard the counter argument for the latter over the years, and honestly, I don't care; they're look-and-feel arguments and I don't find being coherent in such things harms my look-and-feel so its irrelevant to me).2.  Character generation to be design based as a basic structure (though there's no harm having an archetype based overlay for convenience) and provide the tools to define elements of the character both good and bad outside the basics with actual teeth.  This includes physical, mental and social capabilities and problems.3. Game mechanics that provide some serious mechanical game engagement.  Ideally this should cover a lot of ground, but honestly getting decent ones that cover just combat and maybe some other area specifically significant to the game/setting is about all you can get.  Ideally it'll support quality teamwork but not demand it, but that's a hard line to thread sometimes.In the past I'd have used the Hero System for an example here, but its a little busy for my group these days.  The game I've read most recently that hits most of the points is Eclipse Phase.</blockquote>

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