Best free rpg system?

[Ichneumon]

So, what do you see as the best freely available:

1. Rule-light system?

2. Rule-heavy system?

3. Generic system?

4. Setting specific system?

[The Rose Dragon]

Witchcraft. Accept no substitutes.

((Yes, to all four.))

[Aroka]

Freely available? Stringent, that limits the field to just a few games.

1. Unisystem (The Rose Dragon's Witchcraft, above).
2. Mongoose's new RuneQuest. Link 1 Link 2
3. Toss-up between the two, but RQ carries it with over 30 years of history and close to 20 of personal acquaintance.
4. RQ played with Glorantha (not Mongoose's Second Age Glorantha, though; Third Age with old RQ/new HeroQuest material all the way). A lot of the setting is even freely available, if poorly collated. Stuff like the Book of the Red Cow PDF and dozens of fan sites and a Glorantha website with a giant Prosopaedia make it possible, if arduous, to become familiar with the setting without buying books (but you should buy the books where possible, because they are awesome; the old ones and HeroQuest ones, that is).

[Satyr]

Yeah, Witchcraft is awesome, but not exactly a rule-light system; but the quality of the game is outstanding for a free game.
Witchcraft is very likely the best free "complete" game a complete setting, complete rules, etc.
Fudge is also good, but takes a lot of work; it is more a tool set as a completed system, so that one have to invest some time and dedicaton to make it work.
The various D6 games, are also free by now, as is Tri-Stat. The D6 stuff is pretty good, too, and probably the best "rule-light" system around.

[Tyrmatt]

I'm glad two people have said Unisystem already. I'm planning on making two All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaigns for Halloween. One themed around zombie blasting, wise-crackin' action and the other around ultra realism survival in a world filled with the shambling dead. Y'know, as soon as my All Flesh book comes through customs.

[FelixG]

D6 Space

Free version from the people who brought you Star wars D6

generic system and from what i have had a chance to read it could be both a yes to 1 and 2 depending

Edit: had the name backwards ^.^

[Evard]

http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/tunnel-wars

http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/magic-pants-vs-power-squid

I realllly like the Hp system of tunnel wars :3

[Cirrhosis]

Talislanta is a full campaign setting . after they released the 5th edition, they released every book they printed for free on their website [www.talislanta.com].

[Project_Mayhem]

You are all wrong.

There can be only one

[Mongoose87]

You are all wrong.

There can be only one

I am eternally grateful that you reminded me of this.

[Glimbur]

I have enjoyed using Wuthering Heights for any setting where the PC's are too high class and wealthy to concern themselves with base, earthly difficulties. They instead search for meaning in a soulless world plagued with ennui, struggle vainly against their heroic flaws, and, in my experience, commit mass murder.

[Project_Mayhem]

Ah yes the other greatest free rpg. I'm sure there's a Jeeves and Wooster themed one as well

[Kiero]

Wushu, Risus, PDQ, There is No Spoon and The Pool are all good choices for rules light and free.

Honourable mentions to Warrior, Rogue & Mage for the rules-light and fantasy-specific slot.

[Dairun Cates]

So, what do you see as the best freely available:

1. Rule-light system?

2. Rule-heavy system?

3. Generic system?

4. Setting specific system?

1. Rules light? Risus. Just Risus.

2. Rule Heavy? Dunno. This is a bit of a weird one. Free games aren't typically rules heavy and the ones that are are usually a bit meh or horrifying. I hear that Fuzion is supposed to be a good alternative to the Hero system.

3. Generic? Risus again. Just Risus. So wonderful. Quick, easy, fast, and fun.

4. Also easy. Pirates vs. Ninjas! Oh what? Don't like self promotion? Fine. Depends on whether you prefer flavor or crunch really. The Returners Final Fantasy RPG is supposed to be pretty fun flavor-wise, but I hear some horrendous things about the mechanics (infinite loops and weird leveling). Hmm...

Oh wait. Everyone is John. Yeah. That's gotta be it. You don't get more specific than that.

[Project_Mayhem]

Aww man, I forgot about 'there is no spoon'

Seriously, there's loads of awesome freepgs

[Knaight]

So, what do you see as the best freely available:

1. Rule-light system?

2. Rule-heavy system?

3. Generic system?

4. Setting specific system?

1) Fudge, though some work is involved. If you want really, really light, Risus then Wushu.

2) GURPS Lite. Sure, its only a demo, but it has everything you need. And GURPS is pretty awesome. Alternately, Ars Magica.

3) Fudge, or GURPS Lite. You want light or heavy?

4) Probably Nemesis, the setting isn't too great but it runs off of the ORE engine which is nothing short of brilliant. Alternately, Ars Magica.

[Mongoose87]

I have enjoyed using Wuthering Heights for any setting where the PC's are too high class and wealthy to concern themselves with base, earthly difficulties. They instead search for meaning in a soulless world plagued with ennui, struggle vainly against their heroic flaws, and, in my experience, commit mass murder.

I think I was born to play this game.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Microlite 20 fits into all of those categories.

It can fit on a Pocketmod (a single folded piece of paper) but there is also a 660 page collection of extra rules and setting specific material.

[Moons]

if you want rule heavy take narutoD20 1000pages of free rules and content.

[Tyndmyr]

3.5

*points at the SRD*

[Knaight]

I have enjoyed using Wuthering Heights for any setting where the PC's are too high class and wealthy to concern themselves with base, earthly difficulties. They instead search for meaning in a soulless world plagued with ennui, struggle vainly against their heroic flaws, and, in my experience, commit mass murder.

I love it already.

[Dairun Cates]

I have enjoyed using Wuthering Heights for any setting where the PC's are too high class and wealthy to concern themselves with base, earthly difficulties. They instead search for meaning in a soulless world plagued with ennui, struggle vainly against their heroic flaws, and, in my experience, commit mass murder.

On the one hand, this is hilariously awesome on an "Everyone is John" level. On the other hand, how does anyone kill ANYONE when Rage just seems to go down over time? Seems more like a game of people failing to kill themselves because of their constantly dwindling rage score.

[potatocubed]

It looks like you need a constant series of terrible events happening to you to keep giving you +1d10 Rage, since that's pretty much the only way to keep your rage high.

Although I quite like the idea that the game is a race to achieve whatever it is you're after before you inevitably descend into lassitude and depression.

...PbP, anyone?

[Dust]

The Returners Final Fantasy RPG is supposed to be pretty fun flavor-wise, but I hear some horrendous things about the mechanics (infinite loops and weird leveling).

Please avoid this system like the plague.

[KiltedGrappler]

Swords & Wizardry (White Box as well as standard S&W), Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Mutant Future, and Mazes & Minotaurs are all fun, with different degrees of rules crunch.

[Dairun Cates]

Please avoid this system like the plauge.

See? And that's the thing. Another group of people I know will tell you its fine. Thus, why I just said I don't really know. I've thumbed through it, and there's a few crazy things in there, but there's some decent ideas too. I find it hilarious that the developers of the system don't seem to care about infinite attack loops because, and I quote, "No one will ever have a party with 2 time mages and a bard."

Of course, MOST free RPG systems are either made for an anime, video game, or book series, or are general roleplaying systems. I love RPG systems, and I've read through quite a few, but of the free ones, there's just not a lot of setting heavy systems that are solid. Of course, once you DO get to good systems with specific settings, you start getting into Pokethulu and Wuthering Heights territory. Which is to say it gets weird. So, I didn't really have any new ones to add to the pile (excluding the obvious shameless promotion above).

So yeah. I just linked Everyone is John, because you don't get more setting specific than in the mind of a man named John in Milwaukee.

[The Big Dice]

So yeah. I just linked Everyone is John, because you don't get more setting specific than in the mind of a man named John in Milwaukee.

Is that the RPG based on Being John Malkovich?

[Jolly]

D6 Space

Free version from the people who brought you Star wars D6

generic system and from what i have had a chance to read it could be both a yes to 1 and 2 depending

Edit: had the name backwards ^.^

I'm confused by this. Are you saying that the underlying mechanics (stripped of the fluff) for the old WEG d6 Star Wars game is available for free now? If this is correct, where might I find this?

[Dairun Cates]

Is that the RPG based on Being John Malkovich?

Nope. It's about an incompetent and crazy man named John who gets into wacky adventures because he can't do anything without nearly killing himself unless one of his multiple personalities has a skill for such a thing. At which case he only fails 1/3rd of the time.