Now I know some Indie developers have created some but Im talking large budget, something of Wizards or Paizo's publishing power here.
For me it would be a difficult choice. I frankly love all of the above lol.
It's got a very flexible core set, and then whatever theme you want you just buy the appropriate supplement for, the system is very easy to learn and master, and it's alot of fun.
I probably wouldn't care and forget about it quickly. Like I already do every time.
Unless it was the Girl Genius RPG.
You might want to look into Savage Worlds then.
It's got a very flexible core set, and then whatever theme you want you just buy the appropriate supplement for, the system is very easy to learn and master, and it's alot of fun.
I have had a cursory look at Savage Worlds, it sure seems to cover all possible genres. Do you think characters and creatures etc. from different supplements work well together for multi-genre gaming? What do you think about the mechanics? I guess I am probably dreaming about there ever being a 4e system that could accomplish something similar. I quite like the balance and AEDU system from 4e. WotC has never really made games from different genres that were supposed to mesh with each other. I think the closest I ever got was a Doctor Whoish game I ran for a couple of years using 3x and Dragonstar by Fantasy Flight. I know I could get the players in my current gaming group to explore different genres with the system we are currently using, but it might be more difficult to get them to try a whole new system.
ADH: I guess I have similar questions about Gurps. Have you played using it? Has it been updated recently?
Cheers
It would enjoy something fairly open, balanced and extremely adaptable to the specific kind of game and character you want to run.
That already exists. It's called the HERO System.
My experience with it however is limited. Let me ask someone else to speak here...
Well, I've only played 3rd edition and the Lite version of 4th (available for free download), but in my experience, creating player characters in GURPS takes more time than in most other systems I've seen due to the nature of the point system, but I imagine this is less so if you go with a lower point value per character. Writing up stats for NPCs on the other hand is delightfully quick and easy, as most of the time you won't care about their exact point values.
What I really like about GURPS is that the basic book covers many flavorful quirks one might choose for a character, complete with mechanical implementation and point values. An impressive range of advantages and disadvantages like intuition, luck, empathy, gigantism, albinism, dyslexia or gullibility. My favourite is perhaps Common Sense [10 points]:
Any time you start to do something that the GM feels is STUPID, he rolls against your IQ. A successful roll means he must warn you, "Hadn't you better think about that?" This advantage allows an impulsive player to take the part of a thoughtful character.
I personally find the combat rules to be a bit weird and unwieldy even in the simplified version, but that's a minor issue compared to the system's flexibility. If there's something you want to do that's not covered by the basic set, you can either find it in a supplement or easily write something of your own.
I've heard about GURPS but never tried it, will have to give it a shot. I don't have anyone local to game with and my schedule is to crazy to travel to game. But I like collecting the books anyway.... I can PbP if I really get the urge.
GURPS, like any RPG, requires some ground rules set pre-campaign.
i find it works much better when the GM sits the players down, explains the general idea of the campaign "we're doing a Weird West campaign: 1890's western-backdrop but with ogres running off with horses strewn over his shoulders, kobold demolition crews, riverboat gambling den owning liches, shamanistic lizardfolk, haughty french elves, russian dwarves, etc..."
if he's really thorough, he'll probably give them a list of "suggested" skills, skills that for this campaign are going to be useful, anything outside that list is at GM and player's discretion on if it will be allowed or not.
i've described GURPS to a friend as trying to build a lego set using several large buckets of lego that has parts from a whole lot of different kits: pirates, medieval, star wars, indiana jones, city, racing, etc... you've got a lot of parts you can use, but if you want to make a model of a Space Pirate scene, then you'll have so sift through a lot of stuff until you get the Tie Fighter parts you can slap onto your Pirate Ship.
it's a system i really like but i've never gotten around to GMing it. played it often enough and really liked it every time, but i've had one heck of a time trying to setup a game.