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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Looking For a Lighter Than GURPS Universal System

I have GURPS 1e, 2e and 3e revised. The FAQ for 4e has 24 pages of changes. I'm tapping out before I even think of moving up to 4e.

I like Savage Worlds, but I'm not thrilled with how it handles fantasy. Dare I say I want something a bit realistic? Silly, I know, when we are talking games ;)

Basic Role Playing is a possibility, but I'm not sold on it. Between BRP, MRQ 1+2, Legend and the upcoming RQ6, I figured I'll steer clear and wait to see how it all shakes out.

Any thoughts on other universal sytems?
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13 comments:

  1. Sean RobsonFebruary 22, 2012 at 1:14 PM

    I've always been fairly taken with West End Games' D6 system, which now has its own OGL, so there is lots of fan-create support material for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KaijuFebruary 22, 2012 at 1:18 PM

    Have you looked at just using GURPS Lite?

    I'm checking out BRP/Legend/OpenQuest at the moment too...

    ReplyDelete
  3. DavidFebruary 22, 2012 at 1:30 PM

    How much crunch do you want? Also, what genres are you most interested in? Do you really need a system that can handle anything, or does it just need to do 2 or 3?

    I thought MiniSix was interesting, for something on the lighter side. Have you ever taken a look at FUDGE? It's not new anymore, but it is pretty wide open.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BlUsKrEEmFebruary 22, 2012 at 2:22 PM

    While I do think GURPS4 is vastly superior to 3rd, I can agree that GURPS gets to be a bit much at times. My Personal gotos are Big Eyes Small Mouth, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but I'm not sure either will fit your bill. BESM is anything but more realistic, while AFMBE is much better in that department the only reason it qualifies as a universal is due to it's amazing catalog of Genera specific source books. (http://www.edenstudios.net/allflesh.html) If your a fan boy like me All Flesh can cover just about any genera, but if your just starting out it could be expensive to call it a "universal"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Erik TenkarFebruary 22, 2012 at 2:49 PM

    I'm looking for somethng that can cover low and high fantasy and sci-fi (space opera more than hard sci-fi).

    Fudge is more like a build your own engine for RPGs. Don't think i have that energy ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Erik TenkarFebruary 22, 2012 at 3:03 PM

    d6 is an option... might have to look a bit closer at my PDFs

    ReplyDelete
  7. KilsernFebruary 22, 2012 at 3:49 PM

    Don't count Fudge out. It can be daunting; however, if you use 5-point Fudge, it is just a matter of selecting attributes that make sense to you, then plugging it all in. Of course I am a bit skewed as I just picked up a copy of the 10th Anniversary of Fudge and I'm liking it enough, for the first time I am seriously considering taking the the seas of Fudge (sounds kinda gross when I put it that way).

    ReplyDelete
  8. anarchistFebruary 22, 2012 at 4:15 PM

    Have you seen Mini-Six? It's a simplified version of the d6 system.

    ReplyDelete
  9. nothingFebruary 22, 2012 at 4:23 PM

    Look into EABA.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Erik TenkarFebruary 22, 2012 at 4:54 PM

    EABA looks very interesting.

    Price isnt bad either.

    @nothing - any experience with it?

    ReplyDelete
  11. zeroheroFebruary 22, 2012 at 5:23 PM

    Are you speculating that you don't like Savage Worlds fantasy?

    I ran a fantasy campaign that lasted about a year, Savage Worlds handles fantasy quite beautifully in my opinion.

    My only struggle was getting the players to jump the mental hurdle of not having a character class.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 賈尼February 23, 2012 at 10:39 AM

    BRP-- don't be set back by the recent proliferation; the systems are 95% compatible with each other.

    BRP Quick-Start or Renaissance are free to download.

    ReplyDelete
  13. anarchistFebruary 24, 2012 at 2:13 AM

    @zerohero:

    "My only struggle was getting the players to jump the mental hurdle of not having a character class."

    Some of the 'Professional Edges' seem to be basically D&D character classes.

    ReplyDelete

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