What is the thing you envy most about a game you don't play

[Thagdal]

I like the critical/fumble system in Role Master.
I like the styles of humankind in MERPS.
I like the 1st edition Bard.
I like star wars saga force points usage.
I like the 2nd edition darksun character stable.

 

[scourger]

I liked card-based initiative from Savage Worlds so much that I've used it in a D&D Minis skirmish campaign and in Gamma World. I plan to use it in more games in the future.

Bennies are another great device for Savage Worlds heroes. I still love rolling them for bonus xp at the end of the session.

I like aces (exploding dice) too, but I haven't tried that in other games, yet. Perhaps for my Sons of Conan d20 as it does make the damage more lethal.

Luck of Grud from Judge Dredd d20 was a neat feat that gave a judge a re-roll on a d20. One player took it at least twice for his character. I'd like to port that over to other d20 games--similar to action points I think.

 

[Bluenose]

Passions from Pendragon. When things you really care about are at stake, it makes you fight harder; or causes you to break down, sometimes.

 

[AeroDm]

I am surprised at how many of the things people envy are specific rules. By specific rules, I mean rules that applied in a limited set of scenarios such as a particular class or a particular feat or a particular subset of the game. Why do you feel that these elements could not be ported directly (or at least in spirit) into your preferred game? I get why a fundamental change to the resolution mechanic (i.e. Weapon of the Gods) or even a shift in play methodology (i.e. troupe style play) are challenging to port, but specific rules seem very doable.

 

[Celebrim]

I am surprised at how many of the things people envy are specific rules. By specific rules, I mean rules that applied in a limited set of scenarios such as a particular class or a particular feat or a particular subset of the game. Why do you feel that these elements could not be ported directly (or at least in spirit) into your preferred game? I get why a fundamental change to the resolution mechanic (i.e. Weapon of the Gods) or even a shift in play methodology (i.e. troupe style play) are challenging to port, but specific rules seem very doable.

One of the things I learned when I strayed from D&D and began to explore other models of gaming (technically of course, I'd done this long before and for many systems, but never for the fantasy gaming) was that there was only so many details and complexities that a system could stand. Once you closed in on complexity saturation, you could no longer add things without the cost in slowing down and confusing play being greater than the reward of greater depth or fewer unintuitive results. Therefore, if you wanted to add new complexities to an already complex system, at some point you'd have to choose and toss out something else.

So, for example, while I dearly miss 'weapon vs. to hit' modifiers from 1e because of the fact that they gave weapons roles that they don't have in a simplier weapons model, the complexity of that is such that it can only be added to a system with (usually) fairly simple combat. If this was a CRPG, I probably could model weapons in greater detail, but in a PnP game any extra calculation has a cost. My current preferred rules are stuffed; I havn't room for anything more.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

I could see this quickly turning into a "What would be my perfect game?"

My basis is 3.5 edition

Runequest: Size as a statistic and limited hit points and distinctive features (okay that is more BRP, but...)
White Wolf/Shadowrun: Dice pools, everything doesn't hinge on a single die.
4e: Tying AC and Ref together like they should be; armor that isn't useless at higher level; healing surges; clerics with actual class features; static defenses that allow everyone (including spellcasters) to have an attack roll; nonspell casting classes aren't useless.
Champions/GURPS: Universal Toolkit that allows you to play anything you want out of the box (er...book...s)
Torg: The epic feel of the game and the cards.
Modern d20: The wealth system (though I don't think it should be Universal), action points, and Allegiances
Traveller: The ease of making a science fiction game.
Alternity: A game that felt clunky but ran incredibly smoothly in play. I liked the triple tier damage system.
Star Wars Saga: The condition track.

 

[DragonLancer]

The old red box 1980's basic D&D. Why? Because it was just so simple and uncomplicated. You turned up, opened the box and had fun. I miss that level of simplicity in roleplaying games these days.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I'm of a mind to pull in stunts from Exalted.

Brad

 

[Jared Rascher]

I love how the skills in Call of Cthulhu manage to do a really good job of explaining that the skills exist to let you have a way to figure out if the character can do something or not, and doesn't get too bogged down with how long it takes to do X or Y or introduce too much extraneous information about what the feat can do other than a basic description of what the skill is about.

 

[Jhaelen]

Good downtime systems. E.g. both Runequest and Ars Magica have them.
Imho, it's a good sign if you don't want to spend all of your time adventuring.

It also eliminates the really odd D&D effect of getting from level 1 to 30 in a month of game time.