Need advice on a system to use!

[Abaddon87]

So I've been playing pen and paper games for about 5 years now. I have played about 4 sessions of GURPS and the rest has been D&D 3.5, so I know that I've only seen the tip of the iceberg. I want to try running a game, and I love the Fallout game series. So I've decided to make a Fallout themed game, but I don't know what system to use. I prefer GURPS and its ability to literally make any kind of character you want and its point based system. I also like the skills dictating combat effectiveness. The only problem is that the GURPS system is kinda complicated. Once I got the hang of GURPS combat it goes pretty fast, but is there a way to water it down a bit? I want my game to be focused of fun, and I want the heros/players to feel empowered and special, but not invincible. I have also played the Fallout 3 video game extensively and was thinking of ways to merge the two systems. Its just a thought though so no big deal if it becomes to hard. Anyways, I think I've rambled enough. What would you guys say is a great system to use for a fun, fast and accurate game of post apocalyptic survival?

[HunterOfJello]

Gamma World is post-apocalyptic and similar to the Fallout style from what I've heard. I haven't played the game myself, but it looks like a lot of fun. A new version of it just came out this year.

[dsmiles]

Gamma World is good, but I would recommend Mutants and Masterminds 2e. There's a ton of books out for it, and from everything I know of M&M, you can portray almost any setting with it. From Ninjas in the Wild West, to Post-Apocalyptic Earth, to Present Day, to Piiiiiiiiigs in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!

[houlio]

GURPS could easily represent the Fallout universe. In fact, many of the combat options can be disallowed if you want to simplify the game, and the rulebooks do in fact support this sort of style. Furthermore, the post-apocalyptic feel is very easy to simulate in GURPS, just make sure to properly manipulate the tech levels. In fact, I'm pretty sure there was a thread from years ago about making a fallout GURPS on the Steve Jackson forums. Otherwise, adaptation is mostly up to your ability to fill in the gaps with detail.

If you want to have a very simple skill resolution system, you should look at the Mongoose Traveller system, it's just rolling 2d6's and adding maybe three modifiers at the most, success is on 8+. Everything is determined, however, it would be much more difficult to make Traveller (like, completely refluffing and retooling many of the mechanics) be fallout-y than GURPS.

EDIT: Try these links
POST EDIT:This one is better

[RandomNPC]

Exodus was made to be the fallout pen and paper game, but the rights were pulled, so they changed the names and art, there's even a drug called "Volcano" that says in its description: "When Psycho wears off...."

My gamers are enjoying it so far.

[The Rose Dragon]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten + other various Unisystem books.

I mean, why are you even asking?

[Hida Reju]

Well after thinking on it I would use the New World of Darkness base book and just make everyone that is a PC a human with no supernatural template.

You can use the other books to simulate mutants.

Another option is to get out Spycraft 2.0 its a D20 based game with a lot of options that I happen to like a lot.

[Knaight]

Cortex in its various incarnations is either free or low cost, its lighter than GURPS while still being skill based and quite intuitive. Similarly, there is Savage Worlds, though I hesitate to recommend it.

However, ORE seems just about perfect for this. The Nemesis incarnation of the ORE rules is completely free, taking it and stripping out horror elements should be enough to get what you want.

[Abaddon87]

These are all great ideas! Thanks guys!

I was also thinking about maybe doing something like this:

-10 pt stat system based off the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats from Fallout 3

-Use % Dice and the 100pt skills list from the Fallout3 game, you roll under the skill lvl, your (attack, lock pick, med check, etc) works.

-Weapons all do a set amount of damage depending on skill with that class of weapon.

-A lot of the creeps/enemy stats are in the Fallout 3 strat guide

-Still use a point system like GURPS for character creation and instead of xp


Any thoughts on that quick idea?

[Dimers]

That looks solid. I was going to suggest Shadowrun 4th-ed as a pretty good chassis for building a Fallout rules system (it's even got a luck stat, which d20 and GURPS significantly lack, and the skill set is totally in line). But it looks like you're quite comfortable with homebrewing, and I bet that'll give you a better result than adapting one of the big RPG titles.