Skip Navigation
52 comments
  • Savage Worlds - Pulpy Action-oriented system, tons of setting books, has e.g. an official Pathfinder rulebook. Uses exploding dice balanced out by "bennies" and "wild dice". Lots of fun IMO, I especially liked when my Shadowrun 2e game converted to the Sprawlrunners Savage Worlds rules, combat and hacking went much faster and was a lot more fun to play. My current multiverse based dimension-hopping campaign is using this system and it's been a barrel of fun. I feel no need to fudge dice since the players can choose to spend a bennie to re-roll when it matters to them. Running out of bennies is basically like the character running out of luck, so it's very cinematic in that way.

    Freeform Universal - totally free system (as in it's Creative Commons). No GM dice rolls. Players roll dice only when both success and failure are interesting. Has some similarities with Savage Worlds in terms of player agency and a system similar to bennies.

    Basic Roleplaying - Percentile-based d100 system. Used for RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. Perhaps the best system for a simulationist approach due to all skills being a number from 0-100 that shows the exact percentage of the time the character will succeed. This means there's very little mathematical crunch and the extremely straightforward stats always tell you at a glance what your odds are going to be in any roll. I haven't personally played it but I find this design incredibly elegant.

  • Eclipse Phase, White Wolf games, Mutants and Masterminds, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire...

  • The D20 based Cypher System game Numenera is what I run and have the most fun in. Takes place about 1 billion years in the future on the Ninth World, what future humanity calls the new Pangea continent that once hosted 8 previous super civilizations that rose and fell.

    Character creation is fun, based on the formula 'I am a [descriptor] [type] that [focus]' with what descriptor you give your character giving appropriate bonuses, like Charming giving skills in interaction and starting off with an important contact you charmed before the game. Type is class, like a Nano that can control some of the latent nanites in the air. Focus is something very unique, something that can start an adventure itself, like Talks to Machines or Murders.

    Health isn't nebulous HP like it is in dnd, instead split into three pools 'speed' 'might' and 'intellect' with some abilities having pool costs, or some strenuous actions depleting it. I like the feeling of weakening it can give after a day of adventure.

    Even if you're not into it I'd get the bestiaries at least, best I've seen so far and easy enough to slot into dnd.

  • Man this does feel true to life on the Internet though. Some people would rather invent their own edition of dnd than check out something frankly better.

52 comments