Would you be satisifed with d20 as your only RPG? [Ties into RyanD's blog entry.]

Not really

I'd miss Ars Magica, Paranoia, Over the Edge and Call of Cthlhu right off the bat. I'd argue that none of these games could be converted to d20 and still maintain the right feel. Paranoia and Over the Edge especially - they're too loose and too "make stuff up as you go along" to really mesh well with the d20 mindset. There was a d20 CoC conversion (a very good one, actually) but it gives a different flavor to CoC than the BRP system does - d20 doesn't model lack of competence very well (this is probably why I don't think Paranoia would fit either - d20 characters are measured by what they're good at. Paranoia characters are mostly measured by what they suck at). And while Ars Magica might be rightly seen as "proto-d20" in a lot of ways, the use of a d10 versus a d20 makes a huge difference in the scaling of the game (as anyone who has tried to do a conversion of the spellcasting system to D&D might recognize).

d20 is a great system for running games that conform to d20 assumptions. And I don't mean things like "Vancian magic" or "hit points" or "armor class", but instead things like "characters will generally be competent in combat" or "random luck should count as heavily as competence in conflict resolution" or "character skills should progress at roughly the same rate for a character as he gains experience". Arguably, most RPGs are built with many of these assumptions anyway, and using a well-constructed d20 variant for them is likely a good a way to go as any. But its nice to have alternatives systems out there for games that don't fit with those assumptions.
 

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JVisgaitis said:
I think its reasonable to assume d20 = OGL since the mechanics are so close.

The vast majority of OGL games are d20-derived. But there's absolutely no requirement that an OGL game be d20-derived.
 

DragonLancer said:
Never. D20 is a good system but it doesn't cover all genres very well. For fantasy it's tops, but for horror or sci-fi, there are better systems out there.
I play d20 horror and sci-fi as often as I can. If I had my druthers, I'd do more of that than I do d20 fantasy.
 

Definately not. d20 Isn't even my primary system of choice, let along my only system.
I am too fond of Hero, BRP Call of Cthulhu, and Feng Shui.
 

Yes. D&D 3.5 is the one and only true game. Everything else was playtests. :D

Seriously, while I still own Alternity, LotR, Top Secret S/I, my group tired of playing alternate games back in the early 90's. We'd dabble in Shadowrun, or Warhammer, and even played Alternity certainly, but once D&D 3.X hit, my group's never looked back and playing anything else would'nt be as fun. Besides, we always tired of other systems and went back to D&D anyway.

-DM Jeff
 


I play and have played a variety of RPGs. I prefer D&D, but not when it's D20. CoC d20 was a major failure in my view. Star Wars d20 may be mechanically more sound, I haven't played, but it was a blast when I last played 12 years ago under the d6 system.
 

Lalato said:
Honestly, to those that like to pretend they're not playing d20 when they play d20 variants like True20, Iron Heroes, etc... come off it already. You're playing d20... it might be variant or rules-light, but the core of the system is d20. I don't mean to upset anyone by saying this, just one of those things I find annoying.

That falls into the range of sprawling underdefined mess, though. Is the core of the Palladium system D20?

This is one of the things I really hate about d20, though. It's the concept that you can change arbitrary number of rules in arbitrary ways and still be d20. At that point, it becomes more of an advertising thing than something actually useful to players. And why should everyone hack around d20 instead of designing a system that works?
 

DragonLancer said:
Never. D20 is a good system but it doesn't cover all genres very well. For fantasy it's tops, but for horror or sci-fi, there are better systems out there.

I'd call Horror offerings a dead heat (d20 CoC chargen sucks, but it's task system beats the tar out of BRP CoC AFAIAC), but can't think of any current SF offerings I feel outdo an equivalent d20 implementation.

Of course, I think the SF market is under served, and such a game COULD come to exist. But currently, it doesn't.
 


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