Remedy
2016-12-05, 02:26 AM
I'm looking for those RPG books that you might describe as toolkits, or systems for creating your own systems. Basically, something that provides structure and guidelines for you to weave your own design into. Sort of "rules for creating your own sub-RPG" if you will.
I've heard people directing this sort of thing to Rolemaster, and I've given it a cursory glance, so maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but it seems remarkably rigid for a toolkit. It seems to go the "has a lot of stuff, then you can cut things out until it's the game you want" route, which is... Unappetizing. It doesn't really feel like I've taken any creative control, and it doesn't really make the process for adding my own ideas any more streamlined/supportive than homebrewing in any old system. If I'm wrong about it, please let me know how so.
I've also heard a lot of good things about Fudge for this sort of deal, but that's going far too rules-lite for me. I'm much more willing to wade through a crap ton of crunch on my end to produce a healthy medium-crunch experience for my players than I am to shunt off all effort and let my players try to sink their teeth into water.
GURPS seems extremely interesting, but falls somewhat into the Rolemaster issue from what I've seen online so far, especially in regards to things like, say, making magic work a certain way based on my world's rules. It looks like it's more about dumping gallons of density at you and letting you just cut until all the stuff that doesn't work is gone, rather than giving you a toolset with which to craft the parts you want. I'm not unwilling to take it for a test drive if you guys think it'd fit my needs, but it's just about the densest thing I could pick so I don't want to get into it unless I have some assurance.
My biggest thing is that I want a tweakable supernatural system to represent my settings' metaphysics. I'm not asking for miracles - if I expected to do just whatever the heck I wanted without restrictions, I'd make the system myself or kludge homebrew into another system rather than looking for a toolkit - but if there's no facilitation for me to exert my creative influence, because magic always has these predefined spells in these unchangeable schools which you can only access at this level or in this order, or spirits, creatures, and supernatural phenomena can only have these traits and features with no variation, then I may as well just play a game with its own setting rather than bothering with some flat junk just pretending to be customizable.
Are there any other books I should consider looking into? Or do you have anything to say about why I should or shouldn't give the listed games a(nother) chance?
I've heard people directing this sort of thing to Rolemaster, and I've given it a cursory glance, so maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but it seems remarkably rigid for a toolkit. It seems to go the "has a lot of stuff, then you can cut things out until it's the game you want" route, which is... Unappetizing. It doesn't really feel like I've taken any creative control, and it doesn't really make the process for adding my own ideas any more streamlined/supportive than homebrewing in any old system. If I'm wrong about it, please let me know how so.
I've also heard a lot of good things about Fudge for this sort of deal, but that's going far too rules-lite for me. I'm much more willing to wade through a crap ton of crunch on my end to produce a healthy medium-crunch experience for my players than I am to shunt off all effort and let my players try to sink their teeth into water.
GURPS seems extremely interesting, but falls somewhat into the Rolemaster issue from what I've seen online so far, especially in regards to things like, say, making magic work a certain way based on my world's rules. It looks like it's more about dumping gallons of density at you and letting you just cut until all the stuff that doesn't work is gone, rather than giving you a toolset with which to craft the parts you want. I'm not unwilling to take it for a test drive if you guys think it'd fit my needs, but it's just about the densest thing I could pick so I don't want to get into it unless I have some assurance.
My biggest thing is that I want a tweakable supernatural system to represent my settings' metaphysics. I'm not asking for miracles - if I expected to do just whatever the heck I wanted without restrictions, I'd make the system myself or kludge homebrew into another system rather than looking for a toolkit - but if there's no facilitation for me to exert my creative influence, because magic always has these predefined spells in these unchangeable schools which you can only access at this level or in this order, or spirits, creatures, and supernatural phenomena can only have these traits and features with no variation, then I may as well just play a game with its own setting rather than bothering with some flat junk just pretending to be customizable.
Are there any other books I should consider looking into? Or do you have anything to say about why I should or shouldn't give the listed games a(nother) chance?