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Old 07-31-2020, 08:11 AM   #31
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
While GURPS is the best generic system hands down, Pathfinder 1e did push the borders of fantasy, as oWoD did with horror (especially when it came to Werewolf). In general though, other RPGs tend to specialize to a certain degree, though simpler systems can fake it until they make it, though they require fixes. For example, the new Trinity RPG system forgot to include rules for Detection outside of the wilderness, meaning that no one is capable of detecting people sneaking up on them in an urban setting or even detecting an 18-wheeler coming at them as they cross the street (they lack a Perception trait).
Oh, I don't agree with that. Both Big Eyes Small Mouth and FUDGE are fully generic as far as genre is concerned. Of course BESM is anime-inspired, but anime is a style more than a genre; and I've used BESM to run campaigns set in Middle-Earth and on Barrayar, so its applicability goes beyond anime source material.
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Old 07-31-2020, 09:08 AM   #32
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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Pathfinder 1e did push the borders of fantasy
How so? I like Pathfinder, but there's a reason it was known as "D&D 3.75". Not exactly groundbreaking, but some nice adjustments to D&D 3.0, along with their own setting. (Which also is nice enough, but again hardly "groundbreaking" when it comes to fantasy settings.)

PF 2e has what may be the first non-broken multiclass rules in the D&D family. It's not true multiclassing (that is, slap together any collection of bits you like to make arbitrary characters, even if quantized and grouped into levels -- that's what GURPS is good at). It's more a way to add flavor to a base class, bending it a bit in one direction or another to suit a concept. So that would be a innovative feat (no pun intended). Too bad they completely broke wizards and likely most other non-cleric spellcasters.
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Old 07-31-2020, 10:23 AM   #33
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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In general though, other RPGs tend to specialize to a certain degree.
GURPS has particular build types it favors too; any system that has a reasonably complete power construction system can manage just about any genre. It's pretty straightforward with BESM, Hero, M&M because they're built around superheroic genres that tend to already be a kitchen sink, or with systems that have a robust expansion design such as FATE or FUDGE, and for other systems it's mostly a question of how much work you want to go to.
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Old 07-31-2020, 06:23 PM   #34
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Oh, I don't agree with that. Both Big Eyes Small Mouth and FUDGE are fully generic as far as genre is concerned.
I never played BESM but I did get a copy of TriStat dX, which I understand BESM was powered by.

TriStat dX struck me as even more universal than GURPS.
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Old 08-02-2020, 09:43 PM   #35
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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I never played BESM but I did get a copy of TriStat dX, which I understand BESM was powered by.
Sort of.
  • There was BESM, which was d6 based.
  • Then they released several stand alone games based on licensed anime properties powered by the Tri-Stat System (the core of BESM tailored to each title).
  • Then there was Silver Aged Sentinels, which used the same system but was d10 based.
  • Tri-Stat dX was then released by taking the basic BESM rules, making them a bit more generic, and adding in selection of dice base as campaign power scaling.

So it's more like Tri-Stat dX was extracted from BESM.
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Old 08-03-2020, 06:35 AM   #36
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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So it's more like Tri-Stat dX was extracted from BESM.
That's usually the case. GURPS is one of the few I can think of that was designed rules-first, rather than game-first, with rules extracted later. (Unless you want to count GURPS as having been extracted from TFT. There's certainly some shared design thoughts there, but they're different enough that I don't really think of TFT as "GURPS 0e".)

You might also include FUDGE and hence FATE, indirectly -- though that's really coming at the question completely from the other end. FUDGE never struck me as a set of game rules; it's a set of suggestions on how to go about constructing a rule set. ("Pick some attributes that suit differences you want to reflect in your game, then pick some levels for those attributes, then maybe throw in some skills that player characters would need....") There's not even a rules system there to extract until after you build one. The 4dF roll is all that you start with. FATE's a few steps down that path already, having defined certain numbers of and names/uses for traits, so it better counts as a generic core system.

There's also the "One Roll Engine" that you could count as having been extracted from an existing game to make generic. (If nothing else, GURPS made that notion trendy.) But like FUDGE, that's really more just a core dice mechanic and a few themes, as it seems to change a lot from game to game.

Champions -> HERO is probably the most successful extraction-to-generalization.
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Old 08-04-2020, 05:43 AM   #37
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

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Champions -> HERO is probably the most successful extraction-to-generalization.
If you include it, probably D20. Though I don't know if it is quite what you mean, since it is more a core around which to build a game rather than a game in its own right.
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Old 08-14-2020, 02:02 PM   #38
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Default Re: Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

I just want to pop back into my own thread and thank you all again for the awesome discussion. I went a few weeks without reliable internet, which made playing tabletop RPGs even harder, and it helped me further detach from my stuck mindset (as opposed to me ripping myself away from it).

This weekend, I'll be playing Everyone Is John for some drinking fun.

However, my sights are set on my copy of Mörk Borg. If you like dark fantasy and don't mind an artsy-fartsy rule book, it looks like a really simple and fun game to run. I know my group is already excited.

I feel like there should be a term (if there isn't already one) for tabletop RPGs that can be easily picked up and put down—like a board game. Mörk Borg seems to fit that description, and it could go to other games like Fiasco, Everyone Is John, etc. Games like GURPS, D&D, etc. feel like they ask for deeper investment and are set up for longer campaigns.
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