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View Full Version : What are some good freeform game systems?



Dante & Vergil
2010-10-29, 04:30 PM
Anything from rules lite to rules heavy, a system where pretty much any concept can be made, and that's pretty much it.

Toptomcat
2010-10-29, 04:38 PM
Risus comes to mind.

SurlySeraph
2010-10-29, 04:40 PM
Mutants and Masterminds is d20-based with very wide open character-creation options.

kyoryu
2010-10-29, 04:42 PM
HERO/Champions?

Blackfang108
2010-10-29, 04:45 PM
I believe there's an Amber Diceless, based on an epically awesome book series by an author who's name I can't spell.

Xefas
2010-10-29, 04:51 PM
Primetime Adventures. You can play it with dice, but it's also completely playable with just a standard deck of playing cards. This, combined with its freedom of character concept/plot concept/setting/etc, and rules-liteness makes it an excellent game for getting certain kinds of folks into RPGs.

In my experience, D&D makes a good intro game for your typical video gamer. It's a recognizable brand name, it has piles upon piles of rules and mechanics, and roleplaying isn't even required to make any of it work. It's essentially a board game version of a video game, with some vague "Oh, and you can totally talk with a funny accent and stuff" roleplaying advice mixed into the core books. Console gamers, as well, are definitely used to shelling out $50-$60 regularly for their hobbies, so the vast array of rulebooks works for them as well.

Primetime Adventures makes a good intro game for something like a Literature or Drama/Theater major. Every single mechanical rule in the game, from character creation, to stats, to conflict resolution, could probably be fit onto a single index card. And, it can not function without roleplaying. Roleplaying is basically how everything happens. You collaboratively set up a scene, decide amongst the group which characters are in that scene, figure out the motivations of everyone in the scene, play it out, and then flip cards to figure out which character succeeds in getting what they want out of the scene, and which ones fail to get what they want.

And it's cheap. It's $12 for a pdf (http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/search.php?mode=search&page=1).

Dante & Vergil
2010-10-29, 05:06 PM
So far we have,

Risus
Mutants and Masterminds
HERO/Champions
Amber Diceless
Primetime Adventures

Any others?

The Rose Dragon
2010-10-29, 05:08 PM
I just find it jarring that you are looking for "freeform game systems" when freeform is a synonym for "systemless".

Do you mean generic instead of freeform, perhaps?

kyoryu
2010-10-29, 05:16 PM
I just find it jarring that you are looking for "freeform game systems" when freeform is a synonym for "systemless".

Do you mean generic instead of freeform, perhaps?

That was the rationale behind my suggestion of HERO/Champions. Knowing what the specific goals are would help with a recommendation.

kc0bbq
2010-10-29, 05:16 PM
I believe there's an Amber Diceless, based on an epically awesome book series by an author who's name I can't spell.Roger Zelazny. And the equally unspellable Erick Wujick wrote the game system.

It's a great system if your players can handle all the abstraction. There really isn't any concrete comparison of what, say, a strength of Amber (100) actually would be. All we know is that two characters not known for their physical strength didn't seem to have any problem lifting a BMW out of a ditch. You can do anything, depending on where you are, at least.

I use the Over the Edge rules for most of my non-system-dependent games. The most success I've had was on a pulp serial game. Each of four play sessions represented two reels, each with a cliffhanger and a roller caption opening. If you can represent a tank battle vs. Thuler cult nazis outside an Atlantean temple on the moon with a party consisting of a gorilla from Gorilla City, a plucky kid mechanic, a Texas Ranger, and a doctor possessed by a voodoo spirit, you can do anything.

Character creation can be done in a couple minutes if the players have a sound concept.

Raum
2010-10-29, 05:38 PM
Anything from rules lite to rules heavy, a system where pretty much any concept can be made, and that's pretty much it.Wushu comes very close to being pure 'freeform' but, given that you mention character creation, you probably want more crunch. So a few others...

Risus is good and I remember its predecessor Over the Edge fondly. FATE is a crunchier version and the DFRPG version of FATE is very good for creating everything from a pure human to a Sidhe lord. Cinematic Unisystem also does a good job of combining a variety of characters into a single game - it uses everything from mortal humans to vampires and demons. Classic Unisystem's All Flesh Must Be Eaten also provides a pretty good toolkit. Going to even crunchier games, ORE's Wild Talents covers a lot of ground if not the variety of power levels. So do most of the Supers genre games.

What are you looking for other than the ability to create any character concept?

Tengu_temp
2010-10-29, 05:43 PM
I've heard a lot of good about GURPS, but I haven't actually read the book. Mutants and Masterminds is my favorite (it really is extremely versatile, and fast to play on top of that), but it's already been mentioned.

kyoryu
2010-10-29, 05:47 PM
I've heard a lot of good about GURPS, but I haven't actually read the book. Mutants and Masterminds is my favorite (it really is extremely versatile, and fast to play on top of that), but it's already been mentioned.

I used to run a lot of GURPS. It's good if you're going for semi-realistic, but it's not all that great for doing very heroic stuff.

Yora
2010-10-29, 05:50 PM
At which point BESM comes up. It's similar to GURPS in that it is claseless and very generic, but doesn't bother at all with realism. :smallbiggrin:

The Rose Dragon
2010-10-29, 05:54 PM
At which point BESM comes up. It's similar to GURPS in that it is claseless and very generic, but doesn't bother at all with realism. :smallbiggrin:

It also doesn't bother at all with being easy to use or balanced, either. :smalltongue:

kyoryu
2010-10-29, 06:15 PM
It also doesn't bother at all with being easy to use or balanced, either. :smalltongue:

GURPS isn't particularly balanced without heavy GM oversight, either.