The Ultimate Generic Game system

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

There are quite a few out there,
GURPS, Hero, Rolemaster and Even Palladium, whats your favorite and why?

[Entsuropi]

Oi! i was just about to start this topic  

Seriously though, i would like some comments on this - i could do with grabbing a universal system of some kind but have not the foggiest of which one is best.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Well I like the more Lyrical RPG's so Im going to have to vote for Maelstrom (Hubris Games) A close second would have to be Hero, third would be BESM and fourth GURPS.

[Slant]

I can't say that I really like ANY of them.  Whenever people try to come up with a system that works well for ALL genres, it doesn't.  I have favorite systems for supers, and fantasy, and sci-fi, but nothing that could encompass all three of them equally as well.  GURPS gave it a good try, but while it is a great system for Star Trek style sci-fi or for high-tech espionage, it fails horribly when it comes to things such as supers, horror, or space fantasy.

[Fellfrosch]

I'm not a huge fan of universal systems, or at least not the way the term is usually applied: a big pile of customizable abilities that can be adapted to any genre. I don't count Palladium because everything's pre-built, like spells and super powers and all of that. Among the "pure" universal games, I'd have to say BESM is my favorite.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I just got "Big Ears, Small Mouse," a BESM supplement. So I borrowed a copy of BESM to learn first. Heh. Good to hear it's a good system.

I'm going to vote for TWERPS as my favorite

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I just spent my lunch break reading BESM. and I have to change my vote appropriately. I love this system. I must buy a copy now.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Easy....
1)Savage Worlds
2)BESM
3) WEG's d6 system.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

BESM its not just for manga anymore!!

I had to add on to this post... Currently Gurdians of order is offering all of their supplements to BESM in an attractive case.  I think its 60 bucks.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Actually, that box is only for 7 of their 11 BESM products (not counting the calendar or the free downloads, or the d20 variant, to which I say d'hell?!). And it's 70 bones. Which is still a good deal, since each of those products is between $15-25. (ie, you could normally get maybe half that many...).

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I still think its a cool deal.

And did you see that they got the Liscense to Tekumel! Plenty cool.

[Rycharde]

GURPS. I like crunchy games. Not too crunchy like RuleMaster   Just crunchy enough. That and GURPS puts out some beautiful worldbooks. A lot like TSR was doing near the end of its reign a few years ago.

Knock on wood and hope that there is no similarity between the two.  

I used to follow the Chaosium system. The one that they began with Runequest. But they sold that game to Avalon Hill, changed the format of Stormbringer, and CoC was not quite in line with the Runequestian gaming layout to begin with.  

I have tried Hero (I should say Champions) and found it a bit deep in rules. And when you finished building your character it was like the rest, though the SFX were different.

I luv the concept of the Rifts Worlds. A work of genius, plain and simple. Problem is I did not really appreciate the style of play in the Palladium worlds. The Palladium rules have much to be desired.

Now, I not saying that GURPS is the best thing to happen since sliced bread or anything. But it is a fairly well put together system, with rules that can be modified by the gamemaster as needs  be. I'd just wish they'd release Supers 3/e that would actually work with 4-color superheroes.  

[Fellfrosch]

Welcome to the boards, Rycharde.

I've never really played GURPS, and I've played HERO but didn't pay attention during character creation, so I can't comment on those systems. I agree with both your points on Rifts, though--the setting's a work of genius but the rules have serious issues.

[Prometheus]

It's natural to like the system you've played the most, so I'm going to have to go with Hero. It's a pain sometimes in that it really doesn't have ANY campaign setting to build off, but I'm constantly amazed by the sheer customizability of the character generator---if you can get some sucker GM to make an entire world for you it's great. It has its own goofy rules like any other roleplaying system, but overall it's really a nice piece of work.

Palladium I've tried a little bit here and there, but I never quite took to their rule system. The Turtles books were a lot of fun though.

BESM I'm still interested in trying. We almost got a game going over here, but never actually got to try it out. I might go get myself a copy sometime. Even if I never actually end up using it, the art is pretty cool.

[Entsuropi]

I have BESM now. Its a cool game, and the character gen rules are amazing - you can build anything