What game is the best simulationist game?

[MGibster]

I'm going to go with GURPS because it's the most realistic game (potentially) that I've got experience playing. It's on a sliding scale, you can certainly tweak the rules for a more cinematic experience, but if you want to crank up the realism it's certainly possible. One of the simplier ways they do this is by dividing skills into different categories based on how easy they are to learn. Firing a gun might be a physically easy skill whereas nuclear physics is a mentally hard skill meaning it's going to cost you more points to get that physics skill to the same level as the gun skill in most cases.

 

[aia_2]

Hidden Kingdoms from what i heard... Never played but everyone i heard reported this.
Then C&S could also be mentioned... and even Powers&Perils... In a nutshell: the more wargaming-oriented and plenty of rules/tables/options is the game, the more simulationist it should be... In another topic here, it would have been called "heavy-rules" set (the opposite of light rules)

 

[Tonguez]

GURPs is good

Rolemaster has so many tables but seems to model everything

 

[dbm]

Without a doubt, GURPS. I submit for your consideration, an excerpt from Pyramid magazine about calculating bow damage:

This highly optional system (modeled on the engineering mechanics of beam bending) provides a way to generate variant GURPS game statistics for bows of most kinds. The design sequence is as follows:

• Choose the draw force, working length of the bow, and target draw length.
• Choose the bow components and materials.
• Select the cross section and shape of the bow staff; decide if you're building a compound bow or crossbow (or both!).
• Perform calculations to see if the bow can meet the design goals; adjust aspects if it's impossible to build. This may require some iteration!
• Select an arrow appropriate to the bow's desired use.
• Derive the game statistics.

 

[uzirath]

Without a doubt, GURPS. I submit for your consideration, an excerpt from Pyramid magazine about calculating bow damage:

That article came with a spreadsheet, too!

(Will I ever use it? No way. But I love that it exists and that it is fundamentally compatible with my Legolas-style of archery realism.)

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I never delved deep in Gurps. But of the game I've owned and played, it's probably Aftermath. Very crunchy in a try-hard simulationist way, while still being slightly playable. I guess it is still beaten by Phoenix Command and other math-crunch simulationist nightmares.

 

[Aldarc]

Possibly Hârnmaster, but I don't know if the reality of the game matches its reputation.

 

[Committed Hero]

If GURPS isn't the best, it certainly tries the hardest.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Aside from the obvious answer (GURPS) I'd say that the gun combat in the new Twilight 2000 is, despite being very streamlined, maybe the best simulationist approach to modern military/paramilitary gunfights I've ever seen. But much of the rest of the game is (mercifully) not all that simulationist.

 

[Cadence]

Has anyone ever played Phoenix Command? We almost finished creating characters once, but I had the impression it was supposed to be.