You forgot to mention Cypher System. It’s a fantastic universal system that can be applied to any genre for your campaign, be it adventure, drama, or mystery!
He forgot to mention a lot of them, but the three he chose are good markers from a spectrum of narrative-to-simulation RPG styles. Despite the vast amount of options that Cypher System provides, a LOT of the abilities seem...meh. Unlike FATE or GURPS, which provide you a framework on how to build the abilities you want, Cypher System abilities feel more like rigid D&D spells. That makes Cypher System feel more underwhelming than what it should be, as a universal RPG system, IMO.
@@ronwisegamgee as someone who thinks the cypher system is great, I can’t agree more. It was incredibly overwhelming to get into. The huge list of foci feels like so much to some new player, and there is some really funky rules elements that are super hard to find (like how shields work). Another reason Cypher is not my preferred genre-neutral system mainly because it leans really heavily away from combat and players get really powerful really fast by default.
GURPS if you use the Gurps Character Creator, creation is no problem. People struggling to create builds in 5e to create a interesting character to play. You can do it in Gurps. Most rules are optional. All the books are awesome. You can make any universe that the players and you want. Problem is they have no OGL equivalent. You have to apply and get approval for anything you want to sell. If you are just running or providing for free. Its fine.
A nod to Chris below, the Hero System is a crunchy point buy system. Imagine as a wizard you could design all your own spells. As a spy, investing all your points on stats and skills so you can actually do what you designed your character for. There is a strong learning curve, but once you understand the mechanics you can create almost anything. Math Heavy during creation.
@@timbuktu8069 I still remember a game from forty years ago - it was just Champions then - where my girlfriend watched us start a fight and then went out. When she came back, hours later, the same fight was still running. It was only a few minutes of game time.
For folks who want much of the customization of GURPS with a fraction of the complexity, I've found BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) 2nd edition to be a nice sweet spot, if you can manage to get your hands on it.
Never played any of them! Though I have played Call of Cthulhu which I believe uses the same engine as BRP. The percentile die system and the all-in-or-nothing approach to skills it encourages feels a little incongruous to me, but I know it has its fans
@@kevinjheath - Just import the one from WFRP 4th edition's d100 system. Counting how far, or below, your tens die roll is beyond the target number's tens place.
I don't particularly care for Fate, it seems like you need to fail to eventually have a chance to win. Add to that the fact that it is a story driven system and it just isn't for me. I have played and GMed both Savage Worlds and GURPS and I enjoy them both. I haven't had any problems running either of them, even with less GM support than D&D. I'm used to creating new campaigns from scratch because we didn't have a choice in 1974,
I really like mini six, an streamlined open D6 ruleset that's a bit more on the rules light side. Very fun to play and easy to grasp, I often use it as my goto for DMing with new players
Realize this video is a year old at this point, but I'd love to see some review of Heroes and Hardships, which just came off of a successful kickstarter.
I personally like B.E.S.M (Big Eyes Small Mouths) as a generic System. Sure it is marketed as an "Anime" system but Anime is an art style. An art style that has been used to tell a LOT of different stories. In reality, B.E.S.M. is just a Point Buy System, which gives you a LOT of flexibility with character creation.
I run fantasy campaigns in GURPS (so I don't know that much about other genre supplements). I think getting Dungeon Fantasy RPG and Nordlond bestiary (+ possibly other Nordlond stuff) is worth looking into if you want some prepackaged help as a GM =)
The main classic point-buy systems are GURPS, BESM, and Hero. GURPS is great for normal humans, Hero is great for supers, BESM falls in the middle, but isn't quite as built out. If all you want is humans, or things very close, go to GURPS _3e_. It's a great done-in-one. 4e handles a lot more, but the first thing the GM needs to do is start carving away all the parts of the system that don't look like your campaign. GURPS 4e has a 2-book basic set, and then Powers, Martial Arts and Social Engineering are the Advanced Set (and potentially others, but those just extend major core systems). Various genre series (like Action) are to help with the "pruning down to your campaign" process.
There are two types of generic system roleplayers: those who play GURPS, and those who are wrong… 😊 Seriously, though, GURPS can be used, and used well, for any genre, EXCEPT, perhaps, very high-powered Supers. But, even then, you can still have a blast. You can play serious/ silly/ cinematic/ realistic styles of games, in any genre you can think of. The rules can be as complicated, or as simple, as you wish. Every dice roll (apart from damage rolls) is done with three six-sided dice, so results are on a bell curve. There are templates for character types, if you choose to use them, but creating a character from scratch is far more fun. As stated, there are numerous source books, covering different settings, tech levels, magic, etc, but few adventure modules. However, you can use adventure modules from other systems, and convert them on the fly. GURPS uses standard imperial measurements, and stats are easy to translate into how smart, strong, fast, etc, anything is. I have played many RPGs in my 53 years, and GURPS has always been my preferred system. Mind you, I was playing “The Fantasy Trip” when it was first released in the 70’s, which is basically a proto-GURPS system. I was also playing D&D, Advanced D&D, Call of C’Thulhu, Traveller, Star Frontiers, and any other system I could get my hands on. But I always came back to GURPS. The game has been in its 4th Edition for some years now, with no real thought about a 5th edition in the horizon. The reason? The rules of 4th Edition are pretty much it. Steve Jackson Games pretty much perfected the generic RPG, so any future updates and changes will simply be refinements on what is already there. If you have not done so, give GURPS a look. You will likely be glad you did. Cheers,
If I am playing a quick game I really like Tricube Tales and/or Tiny D6. I have read Genesys and like the system, I just have not played it yet. I love Savage Worlds as my main goto, The source books are wonderful. I will finally be able to play a campaign that starts with Pathfinder passes through 50 Fathoms/Rippers into Deadlands to Deadlands: Noir from there into Modern times, then Interface Zero/Sprawlrunners through Dead Lands: Hell on Earth, Dead Lands: Lost Colony and beyond. All with one system and support material already printed and ready to go. With all the material I have listed there is still more...
Any advice ehere to find a good and free list of GURPS encounters for different settings? I'm relatively new and only GMed Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu and it would help me so much to have a "bestiarum" with standard enemjes and NSCs like "normal soldier"' "captain", "sailor", "pitbull" and so on.
This is great! I love the the DIY options that generic systems offer. I wasn't a big fan of how complicated I found Pathfinder to be, but when I found the Savage Worlds edition of Pathfinder, I was blown away. I think Savage Pathfinder is more fun. One system I recently learned about is Index Card RPG. In my opinion, it challenges Savage Worlds for top billing as a generic RPG system, although I think Savage Worlds is the OG of generic lift-and-lay engines.
how does Fuzion stack up? i'm planning on homebrewing something based around Chronicle_001_Xenomorph_Invasion. just wondering if there's some glaring issues or things to note.
I found QuestWorlds (technically HeroQuest 2.2e) and it's a great generic system. Characters have abilities which can be freely chosen.. They're a bit like Fate's aspects but they can always be used and have ratings and subabilities. Also, all conflicts can be resolved with same systems. Not yet another rpg that consists 80% of combat rules. Conflict resolution is interesting and can be used for all kinds of conflicts. Highly recommended if you're looking for a narrative system that still has quite a bit of substance. Also, QuestWorlds SRD is available for free =)
I've looked at FATE, but it seemed TOO loose for me. I've played lots of GURPS years ago -- Supers, Wild Cards, Psionics, even a custom campaign of Victorian Superheroes. Its great, but I found I had to have some pre-made characters handy for would be late arrival players. QUICK creation is not GURPS's forte. I had one guy try and make a character and while his math was right, he had so many skill points the rules would have forced enough aging roles that he'd likely be starting as a 60+ year old character. The only problem I had with GURPS was the optional rules... Hard to find, and only used in crazy circumstances. But there was always someone who knew of them and wanted to use them. (Bikini armor for instance, does more the less it covers). I prefer a system to have some values pinned down. Some of these modern systems seem TOO freeform. I've always had problems with players redoing their character mid ways, changing scope or effect of abilities.
Arn't most rpg systems generic? Year Zero is used with post Apocalyptic, Fantasy and SF. Rolemaster has Pulp, Black Ops, SiFy, Fantasy and post apocalyptic. Runequest has Basic Role Playing for everything. I can hardly think of any system that is not generic.
I don't think GURPS is that realistic, it feels more whatever some 90s nerd boys thought is realistic. Of the given here I would take Fate, but I am working on my own system which goes even further into the narrative approach that Fate.
Could you give a bit more detail about GURPS lack of realism? I'm not saying that you are wrong, I'd just like you to be a bit more specific. . . When you say " it feels more whatever some 90s nerd boys thought is realistic," that is fair enough, and one would guess that it is probably somewhat based on the GURPS designers ideas about reality (although, probably Steve Jackson would be an 80s nerd boy). But it raises the question : how were the "90s nerd boys" wrong about reality? And how do you see reality differently than a 90s nerd-boy would?
@@robrau8795 Sure, has been a while since I thought about GURPS, but I will try. For me GURPS feels cold and impersonal, like steel and glass skyscraper when I think that that that a system should feel more like a cozy mansion that has character. And that is one aspect o the nerd-boy view, that everything gets reduced to numbers and vectors and the like, but there is no life in any of this. It is just the bad stuff from films like Matrix or Fight Club, and missing the human factor. Just look at willpower being derived from Intelligence, that is absolute nonsense! Or how stiff all the actions a character can perform while pressed into the most minimal actions. It feels so compartmentalised and lacking any holistic way that it comes as a coherent reality together. All the advantages and disadvantages and other elements look to me like poorly programmed polygons and thus lack the fluid nature of reality. That might work for a boy building his world with toys, but there is no soul in any of this. Hope that helped somewhat to understand why this is a bad form of realism that simply feels not compelling for me.
Cortex prime definitely needs to be considered as does Open D6.
You forgot to mention Cypher System. It’s a fantastic universal system that can be applied to any genre for your campaign, be it adventure, drama, or mystery!
Cypher is my fav.
He forgot to mention a lot of them, but the three he chose are good markers from a spectrum of narrative-to-simulation RPG styles.
Despite the vast amount of options that Cypher System provides, a LOT of the abilities seem...meh. Unlike FATE or GURPS, which provide you a framework on how to build the abilities you want, Cypher System abilities feel more like rigid D&D spells. That makes Cypher System feel more underwhelming than what it should be, as a universal RPG system, IMO.
@@ronwisegamgee so does cypher system with the create your own types, descriptors and foci rules/guidelines lol
@@ronwisegamgee as someone who thinks the cypher system is great, I can’t agree more. It was incredibly overwhelming to get into. The huge list of foci feels like so much to some new player, and there is some really funky rules elements that are super hard to find (like how shields work). Another reason Cypher is not my preferred genre-neutral system mainly because it leans really heavily away from combat and players get really powerful really fast by default.
GURPS if you use the Gurps Character Creator, creation is no problem. People struggling to create builds in 5e to create a interesting character to play. You can do it in Gurps. Most rules are optional. All the books are awesome. You can make any universe that the players and you want. Problem is they have no OGL equivalent. You have to apply and get approval for anything you want to sell. If you are just running or providing for free. Its fine.
A nod to Chris below, the Hero System is a crunchy point buy system.
Imagine as a wizard you could design all your own spells.
As a spy, investing all your points on stats and skills so you can actually do what you designed your character for.
There is a strong learning curve, but once you understand the mechanics you can create almost anything.
Math Heavy during creation.
When people say 'math heavy' they seem to mean it involves a little bit of arithmetic; which is all Hero requires.
My problem with Hero System is the combat. You have so many options it's easy to get lost in the minutia,
@@timbuktu8069 I still remember a game from forty years ago - it was just Champions then - where my girlfriend watched us start a fight and then went out. When she came back, hours later, the same fight was still running. It was only a few minutes of game time.
For folks who want much of the customization of GURPS with a fraction of the complexity, I've found BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) 2nd edition to be a nice sweet spot, if you can manage to get your hands on it.
I see there's more recent editions. Would you mind explaining why you chose the 2nd?
Isn't that an anime game?
@@davidmorgan6896 It IS, though it's designed to accommodate virtually all genres of anime, from space opera to horror to high school drama.
I'd like to hear your take on Cypher, Gensys, and Basic Roleplaying.
Never played any of them! Though I have played Call of Cthulhu which I believe uses the same engine as BRP. The percentile die system and the all-in-or-nothing approach to skills it encourages feels a little incongruous to me, but I know it has its fans
@@kasplachproductions6198 Admittedly BRP could use a margins of success/failure mechanic.
@@kevinjheath - Just import the one from WFRP 4th edition's d100 system. Counting how far, or below, your tens die roll is beyond the target number's tens place.
For generic system, use Savage world for my cynematic games... and BRP system for more realistic games
Cortex plus. Chaosium Basic Roleplaying (BRP). Year Zero engine.
I don't particularly care for Fate, it seems like you need to fail to eventually have a chance to win. Add to that the fact that it is a story driven system and it just isn't for me.
I have played and GMed both Savage Worlds and GURPS and I enjoy them both. I haven't had any problems running either of them, even with less GM support than D&D. I'm used to creating new campaigns from scratch because we didn't have a choice in 1974,
You should look into the open d6 system too.
I really like mini six, an streamlined open D6 ruleset that's a bit more on the rules light side. Very fun to play and easy to grasp, I often use it as my goto for DMing with new players
GURPS sounds cool
Realize this video is a year old at this point, but I'd love to see some review of Heroes and Hardships, which just came off of a successful kickstarter.
I personally like B.E.S.M (Big Eyes Small Mouths) as a generic System. Sure it is marketed as an "Anime" system but Anime is an art style. An art style that has been used to tell a LOT of different stories. In reality, B.E.S.M. is just a Point Buy System, which gives you a LOT of flexibility with character creation.
I run fantasy campaigns in GURPS (so I don't know that much about other genre supplements). I think getting Dungeon Fantasy RPG and Nordlond bestiary (+ possibly other Nordlond stuff) is worth looking into if you want some prepackaged help as a GM =)
The main classic point-buy systems are GURPS, BESM, and Hero. GURPS is great for normal humans, Hero is great for supers, BESM falls in the middle, but isn't quite as built out.
If all you want is humans, or things very close, go to GURPS _3e_. It's a great done-in-one.
4e handles a lot more, but the first thing the GM needs to do is start carving away all the parts of the system that don't look like your campaign.
GURPS 4e has a 2-book basic set, and then Powers, Martial Arts and Social Engineering are the Advanced Set (and potentially others, but those just extend major core systems). Various genre series (like Action) are to help with the "pruning down to your campaign" process.
Index Card rpg is pretty good considering it simplify how weapons work by setting the dice used for weapons and such.
There are two types of generic system roleplayers: those who play GURPS, and those who are wrong… 😊 Seriously, though, GURPS can be used, and used well, for any genre, EXCEPT, perhaps, very high-powered Supers. But, even then, you can still have a blast.
You can play serious/ silly/ cinematic/ realistic styles of games, in any genre you can think of. The rules can be as complicated, or as simple, as you wish. Every dice roll (apart from damage rolls) is done with three six-sided dice, so results are on a bell curve.
There are templates for character types, if you choose to use them, but creating a character from scratch is far more fun.
As stated, there are numerous source books, covering different settings, tech levels, magic, etc, but few adventure modules.
However, you can use adventure modules from other systems, and convert them on the fly. GURPS uses standard imperial measurements, and stats are easy to translate into how smart, strong, fast, etc, anything is.
I have played many RPGs in my 53 years, and GURPS has always been my preferred system. Mind you, I was playing “The Fantasy Trip” when it was first released in the 70’s, which is basically a proto-GURPS system. I was also playing D&D, Advanced D&D, Call of C’Thulhu, Traveller, Star Frontiers, and any other system I could get my hands on. But I always came back to GURPS.
The game has been in its 4th Edition for some years now, with no real thought about a 5th edition in the horizon. The reason? The rules of 4th Edition are pretty much it. Steve Jackson Games pretty much perfected the generic RPG, so any future updates and changes will simply be refinements on what is already there.
If you have not done so, give GURPS a look. You will likely be glad you did.
Cheers,
For a long time I've been looking for the "best" Generic Rpg System. Still learning and getting to know Savage Worlds
Savage Worlds is fantastic! I also am a big fan of PDQ, for really light games.
If I am playing a quick game I really like Tricube Tales and/or Tiny D6. I have read Genesys and like the system, I just have not played it yet.
I love Savage Worlds as my main goto, The source books are wonderful. I will finally be able to play a campaign that starts with Pathfinder passes through 50 Fathoms/Rippers into Deadlands to Deadlands: Noir from there into Modern times, then Interface Zero/Sprawlrunners through Dead Lands: Hell on Earth, Dead Lands: Lost Colony and beyond. All with one system and support material already printed and ready to go. With all the material I have listed there is still more...
Thank you. I miss the Genesys RPG and BESM in your list. 😢
Any advice ehere to find a good and free list of GURPS encounters for different settings? I'm relatively new and only GMed Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu and it would help me so much to have a "bestiarum" with standard enemjes and NSCs like "normal soldier"' "captain", "sailor", "pitbull" and so on.
This is great! I love the the DIY options that generic systems offer. I wasn't a big fan of how complicated I found Pathfinder to be, but when I found the Savage Worlds edition of Pathfinder, I was blown away. I think Savage Pathfinder is more fun. One system I recently learned about is Index Card RPG. In my opinion, it challenges Savage Worlds for top billing as a generic RPG system, although I think Savage Worlds is the OG of generic lift-and-lay engines.
how does Fuzion stack up? i'm planning on homebrewing something based around Chronicle_001_Xenomorph_Invasion. just wondering if there's some glaring issues or things to note.
Cypher System shout made.
Another cool system that comes to mind is Everywhen
I found QuestWorlds (technically HeroQuest 2.2e) and it's a great generic system. Characters have abilities which can be freely chosen.. They're a bit like Fate's aspects but they can always be used and have ratings and subabilities. Also, all conflicts can be resolved with same systems. Not yet another rpg that consists 80% of combat rules. Conflict resolution is interesting and can be used for all kinds of conflicts. Highly recommended if you're looking for a narrative system that still has quite a bit of substance. Also, QuestWorlds SRD is available for free =)
I like this one.
I've lost so much time trying to get FATE and love it when I did it. Never played Savage worlds, but it seems funny as fuck! GURPS is too much for me.
You mean I can't run DnD 5e to do any and everything?
I've looked at FATE, but it seemed TOO loose for me. I've played lots of GURPS years ago -- Supers, Wild Cards, Psionics, even a custom campaign of Victorian Superheroes. Its great, but I found I had to have some pre-made characters handy for would be late arrival players. QUICK creation is not GURPS's forte. I had one guy try and make a character and while his math was right, he had so many skill points the rules would have forced enough aging roles that he'd likely be starting as a 60+ year old character. The only problem I had with GURPS was the optional rules... Hard to find, and only used in crazy circumstances. But there was always someone who knew of them and wanted to use them. (Bikini armor for instance, does more the less it covers). I prefer a system to have some values pinned down. Some of these modern systems seem TOO freeform. I've always had problems with players redoing their character mid ways, changing scope or effect of abilities.
Im interested in Open Legend
Arn't most rpg systems generic? Year Zero is used with post Apocalyptic, Fantasy and SF. Rolemaster has Pulp, Black Ops, SiFy, Fantasy and post apocalyptic. Runequest has Basic Role Playing for everything. I can hardly think of any system that is not generic.
You left out the best generic system ever made: Champions.
So nothing at ALL about the Hero system? Hero is superior to GURPS
I'm a big fan of HERO too---but I also like GURPS.
I prefer EABA and Stuff!
That’s an easy block
I don't think GURPS is that realistic, it feels more whatever some 90s nerd boys thought is realistic. Of the given here I would take Fate, but I am working on my own system which goes even further into the narrative approach that Fate.
Could you give a bit more detail about GURPS lack of realism? I'm not saying that you are wrong, I'd just like you to be a bit more specific. . .
When you say " it feels more whatever some 90s nerd boys thought is realistic," that is fair enough, and one would guess that it is probably somewhat based on the GURPS designers ideas about reality (although, probably Steve Jackson would be an 80s nerd boy). But it raises the question : how were the "90s nerd boys" wrong about reality? And how do you see reality differently than a 90s nerd-boy would?
@@robrau8795 Sure, has been a while since I thought about GURPS, but I will try. For me GURPS feels cold and impersonal, like steel and glass skyscraper when I think that that that a system should feel more like a cozy mansion that has character. And that is one aspect o the nerd-boy view, that everything gets reduced to numbers and vectors and the like, but there is no life in any of this. It is just the bad stuff from films like Matrix or Fight Club, and missing the human factor. Just look at willpower being derived from Intelligence, that is absolute nonsense! Or how stiff all the actions a character can perform while pressed into the most minimal actions. It feels so compartmentalised and lacking any holistic way that it comes as a coherent reality together. All the advantages and disadvantages and other elements look to me like poorly programmed polygons and thus lack the fluid nature of reality. That might work for a boy building his world with toys, but there is no soul in any of this. Hope that helped somewhat to understand why this is a bad form of realism that simply feels not compelling for me.