Best Systems Thread

>>55251508
CoC, Harnmaster, WFRP/40KRP
Yeah, I'm a huge d100-roll-under fag.

>>55251508
GURPS.

Savage Worlds, Unisystem, Earthdawn.

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I can think of off hand.

All Outta Bubblegum
Lasers & Feelings

>>55252140
L&F is something I've looked at but I know of no gameplay stories. Got any?

This thread could be a lot better if everyone shares a story that demonstrates why their fave system is their fave.

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I like it because it decides what it wants to do and focuses on those things, nothing else, leaving me room to make my own rulings/systems if I want to.

It's very focused on one style of play (class based tactical skirmish combat with narrative/gamist skill system), but I enjoy that style of play, so it's perfect for me. The freedom in character building is great too.

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>>55251508
My favourite is MonsterHearts.

It's one of the best systems for doing social drama and the skins are all fantastically designed

>>55252914
AT least, until you start going into the fanmades.

>>55252951
well yeah, but what do you really expect?

>>55252914
is it better than hillfolk?

>>55252715
>narrative/gamist skill system
you have my attention

Lasers and feelings
Risus
Cypher system (I know)
Fate
Urban shadows

>>55253204
Don't, it's strikefag shilling his shitty game again

>>55251508
Based favorite OP. I can't wait for the 2nd edition to be finished. All that's left is AI, Mechs and Heroic PCs.

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>>55252715
>using GNS theory/Big model

Symbaroum, but I can see why a lot of people would be turned away from it

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Tenra Bansho Zero.

>>55253204
It's like a lightweight version of PbtA with a very little bit of FATE thrown in.

You got skills. When you do something risky or difficult, you roll a d6. Depending on if you have a skill relevant or not to what you are doing, you get some combination of Success/Bonus/Twist/Cost based on the result of the roll.

You also got Tricks (guaranteed success at certain actions for an Action Point) and Complications (you gain Action Points from inivoking them; say, if your greedy thief steals from someone he really shouldn't).

That's the core, there are a bunch of subsystems building on top of that that complicate things. Some are pretty good, some... well, lets say they need work.

>>55251508
So Stars Without Number, Revised is on Kickstarter. Would it be a recommended grab?

As for my favorite system, I really like FFG's Narrative Dice System, I'm pretty excited for Genesys (whenever it releases). Several things I like
>no matter what the challenge rating or your skill rating/abilities, there's always a chance at success or failure (however small)
>Destiny Points, cuts down petty squabbles tremendously. Want to use that gear you totally forgot to bring? GM flops out a bit of an asspull? Then spend this influx resource, making things not a gimme but a purchase
>Boost and setback dice are way easier to manage than +/-1's, just throw all the situational stuff into the dice pool
>It's not straight pass or fail, but this means things can and will go really sideways, so a disadvantage if you're not quick on your feet. But if you want Success with Disadvantage or Failure with Advantage, I haven't found a system that works better
>above system also provides a secondary outcome currency that can be spent on secondary effects and abilities

It's not a perfect system, and it isn't really ultra crunchy, but if you want cinematic flashy action it's a pretty great system.

>>55253378
They are useful terms to describe stuff, even if you don't find the theory itself very useful.

But if you have some sort of synonym I could use instead, I'm all ears.

>>55253424
The theory is not merely 'not useful', it's so trash that it spawns more trash around it.
Like the idea that things can be only "narrative" or "gamist." Every game simulates something. Simulation is internal consistency. A game without internal consistency is a bad game. An RPG that doesn't allow you to tell any kind of story doesn't really live up to the "role playing" part of the game, and of course if there's no game mechanics then it's not really a game is it? Every game should do everything, but even thinking in terms of "GNS" butchers the way people think about games.

Look at the games that have been produced under it. They're party games, very limited in scope, or really weird, like Poison'd. Which is all 3.

>>55253421
>Would it be a recommended grab?

Yes. Ship combat is better, the skill list has been reworked, characters now get Foci to represent their special skills and abilities, and psychic powers got a rework

>>55253560
being "prmarilyX2 or "primairly X and Y" doesn't preclude you from having elements of Z. As you describe, it would be impossible to make a game that is ONLY one of those elements, because it would not resemble an RPG as most people understand the term.

The one version of GNS I read (much later than encountering and understanding the terms themselves) explicitly goes into this, being more concerned with using these terms as different sort of lens to study games with than strict categorizations.

Of course, if throwing a tantrum any time someone says "X is gamist/narrativist" as a shorthand for "the system is mostly conserved with keeping the gameplay itself fun and flowing, and giving the characters tools to influence the narrative, and leaves making sure that the mechanics of the world remain consistent to the GM and the players", all the more power to you I guess.

>>55253591
Did they redo the faction game? Can't remember what the official title of it is, but it's where you play on the macro level to determine what the empires and megacorps are doing.

>>55253390
Are you the same strikefag who made up the RWBY characters? can you post them

>>55253704
Faction system is fundamentally the same as before, I haven't dug into it just yet, I was busy with helping my party convert their characters. In my skim of it however, the assets were all the same, so I don't think there were any major changes there.

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>>55253704
Here.

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>>55253837

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>>55253848

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>>55253858

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>>55253837
>>55253848
>>55253858
>>55253892
Thanks. I tried reading the Strike! book after that thread, but my eyes glazed over once I forgot how the 12 different subsystems worked together to make a character.

>>55253560
>The theory is not merely 'not useful', it's so trash that it spawns more trash around it.
It's certainly not more trash than your opinions.

For example:
>Simulation is internal consistency.
Pretty dumb desu. Simulation is the recreation of something. Either reality or a genre - or even spmething like a hypothetical world in which some laws of nature are reversed. So you have a basic idea and EXPLICITLY try to translate it into game mechanics AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE.

Just because you can reinterpret any game retroactively by claiming that simulates the world that it de facto creates ("D&D is a perfect simulation for a D&D-style world") doesn't make such a game simulationist.

Or:
>An RPG that doesn't allow you to tell any kind of story doesn't really live up to the "role playing" part of the game
Except story and game can clash. Which is for example why in FATE you have to expend a FP if you want something good happen to you and can be compelled to gain a FP for somethign bad happening to you. Narrative games deliver rules to tell specific type of stories in a balanced, gameable format.

Or:
>of course if there's no game mechanics then it's not really a game is it
A game isn't gamist just because it has rules. It is gamist if it throws simulationism or concern for emerging story out of the window for the sake of interesting mechanics.

>Every game should do everything, but even thinking in terms of "GNS" butchers the way people think about games.
A good game doesn't have to have rules that support all types of play, no. It should cater to specific mix and it CAN largely neglect one if not two modes of play. More realistically though will have instead one or two dominant modes of play. That's when we say things such as:
"D&D 3.X is a gamist system with some simulationist elements."

>Look at the games that have been produced under it.
GNS doesn't make for better game design. But it helps talking about one's own preferences.

>>55253193
I'm not overly familiar with Hillfolk but to my understanding, they do slightly different things

MonsterHearts is a teen drama, it revolves around melodrama and the characters making consistently bad decisions, in a social structure which relies heavily on unpredictable emotions and ever-changing rumours

In MonsterHearts shit can and will get out of hand, and fast

Conversely, Hillfolk seems to be a more generic system, designed to lend emotional weight to more action-driven scenes by interspersing them with scenes of emotional struggle

The two games are for two different things

>>55253701
>As you describe, it would be impossible to make a game that is ONLY one of those elements, because it would not resemble an RPG as most people understand the term.
I disagree. For example, I find it very hard to find really narrative mechanics in games. Narrative playstyle being defined as being about emerging theme/premise. That's because even FATE's Fate Points could be described as Genre Simulatinoist instead - but the distinction is too fine and it's generally better to let it slide.

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I like Talislanta4e's core system. It uses d20s, but it actually does a good job of keeping them balanced, with degrees of success and bpnded accuracy that actually works. It scales really well, letting you give players cool shit and throwing more challenging enemies at them without either making the die pointless next to the bonuses or the whole system just collapsing.

>>55253953
Yeah, the book isn't great, but you don't really need 12 subsystems,

You need the core (skills, tricks, complications) to handle out of battle stuff, and the tactical combat module, and that's about it.

>>55251508
The Runequest/BRP one. I've been playing that for fucking ages.

>>55251508
Mutants and Masterminds 3e
I go to /co/ for villain ideas and I haven't heard any complaints, at least since I kicked That Guy and That Girl out.

>>55251508
Burning Wheel
>rules are easy to learn but have a lot of room for learning to use them well, also modular complexity allowing the game to run with varying levels of crunch depending on the situation and group
>produces character-driven games which encourage each of the PCs to be multifaceted people with a fleshed-out worldview
>non-human races play noticeably differently than humans and each other instead of being humans with special abilities
>system allows characters to improve and change according to the events of the game so you can see how your character has been shaped by the events they've experienced

>>55254165
>a dm with balls
storytime?

>>55255177
>be me
>big fan of DC and optimistic capeshit
>also be college student
>join gamers guild to find players
find a good group of people, but all they play is D&D
>Spiceupyourlife.jpg
>offer to run mutants and masterminds, get a good response.
>6 players
>4 of them are real nice gamers, make good heroes and get invested in the setting
But you aren't here to hear about them
>2 of them are Those Fucking People
> first one is a depraved nymphomaniac
>all she talks about is kinkshit, all the fucking time
>she keeps talking in an 8 year old voice despite being 19 years old
>makes everyone uncomfortable
>also violently emotionally disturbed, but don't realize this until later
>second is this tremendously smug fat guy
>very opinionated and very, very loud
>always going on about how he's only going for a degree until he can build a forge and make swords full time
>Whatever, it takes all kinds
>I make the mistake of not overseeing character creation
>day of the first session arrives
>kinkgirl makes Safeword
>half naked dominatrix that whips criminals literally out of their pants
>"well there's nothing in the rules that say that your attacks could do that...."
>throws a literal temper tantrum until I relent
>fatsmith has dumped his entire power point budget into object creation
>Every
>Single
>Point
>His character is the bastard child of gary busey and an alien
>Name is Remix
>He decides what he manifests by pressing random article on Wikipedia
>nothinggoodcancomeofthis.jpg
>first session
>Dr Destruction and her henchman The Centipede have broken into the local museum to steal paintings in order to fund her super-science
>Beta Team (What they willingly chose as their superhero team) was called to stop her
>fun superhero combat commences, Ice Queen uses her powers to cut off means of escape, while Legionnaire uses his power "The Strength of Rome" to deflect centipede's blows
>Remix summons the mayor of a small Spanish colony.
>He is very Confused
1/?

>>55251508
PbtA and Rapidfire (Warbirds, Remnants) are pretty up there for me. The FFG Star Wars narrative die are rad as shit too, though I will admit I haven't had an opportunity to play the game; just admire it from afar.

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>>55256738
>This whole time kinkgirl keeps interrupting combat with off topic remarks and generally trying to make the whole game about her
>keeps making everyone uncomfortable
>other girl at the table is glaring daggers
>kinkgirl is too busy being an attention whore to notice what an attention whore she's being
>fight finally gets taken outside
>Safeword finally whips the clothes off of the centipede and ties him to a lightpost
>naked
>then proceeds to describe the scene in as excruciating detail as she could.
>donotwant.jpg
>rest of the group pursued Dr Destruction
>Remix: I summon a freight train on top of her!
>check his sheet
>check the book
>potentially could have summoned a whole fucking trainyard
>drops a fucking train on the fleeing villainess
>nearly kills her over a fake monet
>our hero
>at this point, the group and especially me, are pretty much done
>before we break, I mention that back at their headquarters is a message from the National Hero Association
>Safeword has been disbarred for public indecency
>Kinkgirl begins to scream and cry
>threatens to report me to the college for bullying
>I don't give a fuck
>stomps off, good riddance
>we break until next week
>next week, fatsmith approaches me about playing a new character
>"one you'll be less of a dick about"
>mfw
2/2

>>55257087
Well what was his next character?

My favourite system, although not necessarily the best, is Legends of the Wulin. It has a lot of problems, but there's no other games that come even close to doing what it does, so I've managed to work through the problems.

Man, are there some fucking problems though. I can go on a longer ramble if anyone is curious, otherwise I won't spam the thread with it.

>>55257253
whats the system like, haven't heard of it before

>>55257616

Wrote this up earlier, can't really do much better for quickly explaining the system, why it's great and why it sucks-

This is going to be weird, because first I'll start with why I love it, and then I'll give you a boatload of reasons not to play it.

Legends of the Wulin is a truly unique game. A Wuxia game (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon shit) with an extremely unusual set of design principles, combining a level of crunch, depth and detail with more narrative and story focused ideas. Usually, narrative design and crunch are considered opposites, but the game brings them together in a very novel way.

The best example of this is the combat system. Fights in LotW are great. They're mechanically engaging, with your mix of Kung fu styles interacting with your opponents in surprising and enjoyable ways, and they're also strongly narratively driven. Your ideals and beliefs, what your character cares about and why they're fighting, all these things can be just as important as the weapon in your hand. This even carries over to the damage system. Winning a fight might not mean killing your opponent- Conveying your sincerity through the clash of blades to win them over to your side, proving your skill and impressing them or even just coming to a greater mutual understanding are all perfectly valid consequences of a fight, and the system mechanically supports all of them just as much as injuring or killing a bad guy, giving them real mechanical weight in the system.

There's a lot more I could say... But now I need to get on to the downsides.

The first thing to say is that LotW is a very atypical system. It does a lot of things differently, meaning assumptions you've learned from other roleplaying games can trip you up, and things can seem very unintuitive until you grasp the systems internal logic. Even simple things like the idea of rolling dice first, declaring actions second can trip people up.

>>55258007

This is made oh so much goddamn worse by the terrible editing of the core book. I cannot stress this enough. For all the love I have for this game, it is oh so much harder to actually learn to play than it has any right to be. Internal contradictions, rules buried in the middle of fluff paragraphs or only stated offhand in an unrelated section, important rules not being explicitly said fucking anywhere in the book, and instead needing to be divined from implications and extrapolations... It's absolutely fucking appalling.

The system also has some core balance issues. Some Kung fu styles are way too strong or too weak, some things are really inconsistent, and there's a few insidious mechanical bugs that you notice more and more as you play the game. There's a fan made supplement, the Half Burnt Manual, which makes a good go at improving a lot of these, but even with that there's a lot of issues.

I love LotW, but that's why I think it's important to be honest about it. If you like the sound of it, then you might want to persevere in trying to learn it, there's a few people around on /tg/, a IRC channel and a Discord server I'm aware of that are dedicated to it who can help explain some of its more twisted concepts and help clarify how it's meant to work, but even with a guide it isn't an easy road.

It also isn't a system for everybody. I've seen it rejected from both 'sides', narrative storygame lovers turned off by the crunch, and crunchy groups turned off by the narrative aspects.

Still, if you think you fit in that section of the venn diagram and are willing to get ready for an arduous journey into deciphering the ancient Kung fu manual that is the rulebook, I promise you it'll be a game experience unlike anything you've ever played.

>>55257218
his next character was he can go fuck himself because he stranded me in front of hurricane matthew and this was the last straw.

>>55251698
My nigga

I want the Dungeon Fantasy boxset so bad.