Master_of_Oldskool said:
Thanks for the advice! I picked up the DriveThruRPG bundle earlier today, and I'm checking out FATE right now. Unfortunately, I think straight-up D&D is a bit heavy on the tables and charts for the group I've got in mind.
D&D is indeed the exact opposite of what you need. It's a system that I have a complex history with - it is what, sort of, got me into tabletop games. Well, I played some video games based on it which was my first brush with PnP games (as distant as it may be) - I loved how much math it had, for I really liked playing around with my builds and my characters. Later on, D&D was also the first PnP game I played as well (though I was already a WoD fan at that point, it's just that there were no WoD groups). And I must say, that D&D's system is quite bad, actually - the older incarnations are worse, while 4e is OK-ish by comparison but still bad. The trouble with it is that it's too complex - there are a lot of moving parts interweaved and relying on one another, and on top of that, some of those parts either don't mesh well or are actually broken. It requires some rather in-depth knowledge to start fixing the problems and even then, the best solution seems to be "Don't use it".
And not only do the mechanics work together in a complex way - they are also presented complexly to the players. One time it took a group I was playing about 90 minutes to go through character generation. We were all not new to the game and we knew what we wanted, it's just that the game is set up in such a way that it doesn't let you start until you've gone through 2 books and numerous charts (since we were playing an alternative setting for 3.5, the book often referenced the PHB).
So even though D&D led me towards PnP games, I don't really like it. I don't think it's a good system to use - everything is so slow with it. Yes, even though I like tinkering with options and numbers, I've found that the actual most fun games I've had were the ones where those things hardly mattered. Heck, probably my most enjoyable session didn't even HAVE any rolls or stats - it was an ad hoc adventure based in the Discworld where the "character sheet" was a piece of paper with few words describing your character scribbled on there. The less rules there are to worry about, the more fun it seems one can actually have.
Master_of_Oldskool said:
Generally, I like generic systems with no specific setting, although low-fantasy type settings are what I usually create, so games that take place in that sort of setting are also good.
Well, WoD is not bad at those. It gives a more gritty feeling to the game where characters feel less powerful. In particular nWoD is really good at being more generic - even though there are many, many supplements, you don't need them to run a game you'd want. Well, you'd probably want the splatbook if you want to play a particular major supernatural being (vampire/werewolf/whatever) but that would also step away from the low-fantasy territory - the default setting is where you play a mortal in a strange world with weird things out there, but which you never actually understand completely. It's a bit of like being in the Lovecraft universe, although normal people are a bit more useful. Luckily, with the DTRPG bundle, you now have the core rulebook, which is pretty much all you need to play. If you are interested, you can pick up
Mirrors - it's a supplement for WoD which delves into the system itself and describes better how to adapt it for other purposes - it is an interesting read, and has alternative rules and hacks about a lot of stuff. It is not really needed, mind you, for it's not like you can't do it by yourself but for a novice it would give good advice. Still, the best advice is often repeated in a lot of the rulebooks - play it your way, if a rule hinders you - remove it; if you need to change something - change it. The system is easily hackable anyway and hacking it is encouraged. Also, as I said, you don't really need most of the rules - the default Attribute + Ability (or + Attribute) roll is pretty much all you need.
But also FATE, again, is a good general setting. I really like the fact that it leaves a lot of the things in the hands of the players. And you can just do cool stuff. You can also start playing immediately, which is really cool - just start playing without going through a boring character generation - you can define your character in-game, so it's really cool to just
play.
And finally, for a general setting, there is always GURPS. There is a free version of it called GURPS Lite [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/] if you want to have a look. The good points about it are:
+ it's generic system for any game you can imagine.
+ it's not really THAT complicated
+ fairly balanced while it also gives a lot of options
however, it comes with some disadvantages
- it feels a bit generic. A space adventure, or dungeon crawling are both possible using the system but would play a bit similarly, too.
- while it's not THAT complicated, there is a really big book to go through. Most of it is just options, though, that's really it, but finding the right one can be a challange. Until you just say "fuck it" and make your own.
If you are going to run the games yourself, and don't mind doing your homework, then GURPS would be great - while it doesn't have the concept of "classes" or "levels" you can easily implement them as just packs of options - say, a wizard would have more Intelligence and be able to cast spells, while a fighter has more Strength and proficiency with a sword (and levels get them more of those plus side options) which would help out your players to not bother with tracking points and stuff. But I'd probably advise you to pick something else. Still - do give GURPS Lite a read - the core rules are essentially the same as the full product, but you only have more traits described there. For a low fantasy setting it might not even be a lot of work, as you can skip a lot of the things like "cast magic" or "shoot laser beams from your eyes".
