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21:37, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Best Generic Gaming System?

Posted by allworth
allworth
member, 36 posts
Tue 15 Aug 2017
at 10:50
  • msg #1

Best Generic Gaming System?

All,

I am looking for a Generic gaming system that lends itself well to multiple genres.
Anyone out there have a recommendation?
Thanks in advance.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 14:04, Tue 15 Aug 2017.
Mrrshann618
member, 120 posts
Tue 15 Aug 2017
at 12:45
  • msg #2

Best Generic Gaming System?

In reply to allworth (msg # 1):

There are several out there depending on your flavor of dice rolling. Personally I'm a fan of basic roleplaying (BRP). It is the system that most people associate with call of cthulhu. The BRP system is a single book framework that gives you several options, you get to choose what you want to include.

There are several supplements if you want to expand on specific genera.
swordchucks
member, 1420 posts
Tue 15 Aug 2017
at 14:33
  • msg #3

Best Generic Gaming System?

How generic and how "crunchy"?  Which genres do you want the best emulation of?  Different systems do different things well, but some of them do some things better than others.
GamerHandle
member, 950 posts
Umm.. yep.
So, there's this door...
Tue 15 Aug 2017
at 14:37
  • msg #4

Best Generic Gaming System?

As swordchucks insinuates, this comes down to a number of preferences:


Fluffy vs Crunchy,
Completely Genre Agnostic vs Genre Adaptive (some systems build the rules to be for ALL genres, you just flavor the skills/abilities, whilst some have source books which COVER all genres.)
Strongly built-in Flavor vs Completely Story Agnostic,
Class/Archetype-driven vs Classless,
Dice vs Diceless,
etc.


You'll want to identify those preferences for yourself, and that will either answer the question for you, or narrow-down the answer.
Isida KepTukari
member, 160 posts
Elegant! Arrogant! Smart!
Tue 15 Aug 2017
at 15:11
  • msg #5

Best Generic Gaming System?

I like the Cypher System for most of your gaming needs.  You can do modern, futuristic, fantasy, psychic, aliens, comic-book superheroes, pretty much anything.  It's a very flexible system, not bogged down by too many rules, and its easy to put together a character or a monster very quickly.
allworth
member, 37 posts
Wed 16 Aug 2017
at 00:56
  • msg #6

Best Generic Gaming System?

In reply to GamerHandle (msg # 4):

First, thanks to all for the replies.

I lean towards rules built to be for ALL genres, Story Agnostic, Classless, and Dice.

Thanks again.
drewalt
member, 80 posts
Wed 16 Aug 2017
at 01:33
  • msg #7

Best Generic Gaming System?

The core *world/PbtA engine (the core moves without playbooks that is), Fate and Savage Worlds all come to mind

I don't think a truly generic system exists, just systems that lend themselves well to a variety of kinds of games.
WhiteComic
member, 348 posts
In omnia Paratus
Momento Mori
Wed 16 Aug 2017
at 03:00
  • msg #8

Best Generic Gaming System?

How complex or noncomplex is Basic Roleplaying (BRP) and Cypher System? I've been wanting to learn some new and easy systems so I can widen my range of running games outside of just free-form.
locojedi
member, 146 posts
Wed 16 Aug 2017
at 06:40
  • msg #9

Best Generic Gaming System?

WyRM engine has variants for every genre, very simple 1d6 + modifier vs target difficulty. My favorite flavors are Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Resolute, Adventurer, Genius. I don't recall what the Sci-Fi one is called, but there's a sort of Shadowrun version called WyRed.

I cut my teeth on GURPS, and though it gets flack sometimes, it really is a great system, and even has a Lite version.
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