Point of Discussion

[pyrephox]

Since I know my friends list is almost /entirely/ made up of gamers, I'll ask:

What makes a good RPG system for you?

This isn't a matter of organization, or of artwork, or of cost. What is it, specifically about a game system, that gets your attention and revs your engines?

For me:

Between 5 and 8 descriptive stats that give a good, easily communicated, picture of a character's general competence. Tri-Stat, although I like the flexibility of it, I hardly ever actually /use/. Anything with more than 8 or 9 stats, on the other hand, is too much of a pain in the ass to teach and use. I /like/ D&D stats, although leave off the Comeliness, thanks.

Simple, dice-based, combat resolution. For me, Unknown Armies has just nearly the perfect combat resolution system. It can be damned deadly, but it follows the same simple formula under almost all circumstances, has provisions for a variety of weapons and fighting styles, and best of all, is easy to extrapolate a reasonable solution to any combat situation the rules don't specifically cover. In Nomine, love it though I do, is a good example of frustrating combat.

Abstract health. I don't like hit tables, or having to calcuate crippling chances for each limb, or having to keep track of how much armor is over each body part. Give me some hit points, health points, vital points, or whatever you want to call it, and I can make up the rest as I go along.

Fatigue system for magic/psychic/supernatural abilities. I've actually /yet/ to see one that I really like. I know the system I want to see, but it's not been implemented in any game that I'm familiar with. And that's a darned shame.

So. Those are the ones that immediately spring to my mind. What turns /you/ on?

Comments

[usekh.livejournal.com]

To be honest setting more than anything. I can deal with a crappy system if the setting is fun/interesting.

As regards to system. Simplicity and flexibility. I am not a fan of level based systems at all. I am not too terribly hung up on realism.

But what I =really= love is cinematics. Why I love exalted. Stunts rule my world :)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I like choices. I also like being able to quickly grasp what the choices I'm presented with mean. So I can enjoy both Over the Edge and GURPS, though they're wildly different in terms of complexity, because in both cases I can easily assess what it means to be a Forensic Detective, or to have Bad Temper and an ST of 12.

In a similar vein, I like a sense of control. While dice do fall where they may, I like feeling like my character's actions and results are not entirely controlled by the initial stats. Being allowed to try to resist your disadvantages, having ways of "trying really hard" to increase your chances on a roll (whether it's a matter of Buffy's luck dice, or spending fatigue points, or describing your pose well), and allowing at least some strategy; these things please me. Oddly enough, for strategy I'm just as happy with a very abstract system, where the GM adds modifiers as desired for what's described, as I am with a carefully-detailed system like GURPS. I'm less fond of combat systems where combat options seem constraining (You can do X, Y, or Z) rather than freeing. For some reason d20 combat feels this way to me, while GURPS combat does not; I'd have a hard time pinpointing the rules that make it so.

Following the theme of choices, I like being able to make my character different from others. Again, this can be a matter of tons of little choices like in GURPS, or just very free-form few decisions like Over the Edge. And again, this is one frustration I sometimes have with D&D; at first level, one Fighter Half-Elf looks much like another, and having slightly different feats and differently divided small numbers of skill points... well, they just don't feel important as distinguishing features, to me. It's easy enough to distinguish my character's personality free of the system, but I want my character to be /mechanically/ unique too.

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

Fast, light, and small. My ideal system is very close to Over the Edge, a game system so small and quick it can be written on a 3x5 card and communicated in five minutes. It's just enough to get you playing and not enough that you have to look up any tables.

Another great game is Baron Munchausen, but I'm not very good at it.

I am a big fan of anacrusis and drivingblind's system, FATE. It has more body to it than something hyper-light like OtE, but it's still very descriptive and very easy. I'm a big fan; it's pretty much exactly my speed.

I don't like anything that requires me to look up a table while I'm playing. If I need to consult a table, the system is too hard and too overbearing. Tables annoy me.

I very much enjoyed Dying Earth, but that was because I could have stats for my clothes. Dying Earth rules. It's a hilarious game. Behold my gigantic codpiece and weep!

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't know it to look at me, but...

Stats that are easily comprehensible and communicable. White Wolf still has my favorite stab at it, just for the explanations and examples of what each level in a stat or skill could be equated to. D&D is good, GURPS is good. West End's system took a bit more work, but wasn't too bad. The absolute worst remains Pinnacle/Alderac's system with Deadlands, etc. I still have no clue how to differentiate a strength of 2d8 from 3d6 from 1d12 -- what do they MEAN?

Simple, logical dice mechanics. This is, for instance, where AD&D falls down; D&D3+ improved immensely on it. West End's D6 system was amazing at it.

I like, actually, a more realistic health system; I just never seem to end up in games that use one these days. I'd love to play in a grimly realistic world where wounds matter and it's possible to bleed to death and worry about infection and such.

Easy, intuitive character creation. This is where GURPS falls down -- it takes bloody forever to make a character. Original D&D was excellent at this; West End Games & Shadowrun did well with their template systems (which GURPS later implemented in sourcebooks). Hand off a character, do some customizations and GO. A party of Star Wars PCs can be made in under ten minutes.