Non-Generic Systems

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I'm really tired of "generic" systems that claim to be able to do everything, but end up being able to do just that but at a sub-optimal level. I much prefer specific systems, that focus on doing one thing well instead of doing everything at a passable level. I recently began working on a system built to handle nothing but firearm-based combat, but gave up when real life caught up with me.
Does anyone know of any specific RPG systems that are designed to do one genre, but are not restricted to any particular setting?

[Otogi]

GUMSHOE is excellent an epic fantasy system.

Nah, I'm just kiddin'. It's a mystery system (maybe horror-mystery).

[Britter]

inSpectres is designed to do Ghostbusters/Men In Black/Buffy the Vampire slayer style things.

3:16 - Carnage Among the Stars is designed to do starshiptrooper-esque Space Marines stuff

Dread is a generic horror game.

[The Glyphstone]

CoC for horror, obviously, but I can see it being adapted to a pulp-action ruleset pretty easily - just beef up the PCs, tone down the SAN rules, and give them better guns.

M&M is the quintessential superhero RPG, but with the right sourcebooks, you can do all sorts of things with the engine.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

GUMSHOE is excellent an epic fantasy system.

Nah, I'm just kiddin'. It's a mystery system (maybe horror-mystery).

It is pretty balanced, but has no grounds in reality.

[dsmiles]

Ninjas & Superspies and TMNT (both on the Palladium system) are fun.

I've found that Rolemaster/HARP, while rules-heavy, is very good at gritty sword & sorcery pulp action.

HoL is amazingly funny, and a spoof on all that is roleplaying.

[Britter]

Prime Time Adventures allows you to play many genres, presuming that they can be modeled by a season of TV shows. It is an interesting system. It essentially models a season of a TV show.

[erikun]

Faery's Tale Deluxe and Burning Wheel are designed to do one thing, and do a fairly good job at it. I suppose that World of Darkness could work this way, although I'm not sure how well it would work on just modern politics, for example. Shadowrun and Eclipse Phase might work with adjustments, but are fairly tied to their setting.

[One Tin Soldier]

Yeah, World of Darkness could be described as such. (Each individual game is different, but they each stick to pretty much one type of game.)

[Oracle_Hunter]

Bliss Stage does one genre really well. Of course, you may consider the "setting" inherent in the system too restrictive.

Ditto with Mountain Witch, really.

What do you mean by "setting?"

EDIT: Also, I like D&D4 for Heroic Fantasy, but I'm guessing you've already thought of that one

[Yora]

Mouse Guard is extremely specific, not only when it comes to the setting, but to the job of the Characters. In Mouse Guard, you're supposed to play a member of the Mouse Guard and all the rules are based on that assumption.

[Totally Guy]

There's Freemarket which does the genre of "you run a business on a happy space station".

That's a genre I'd never seen before.

Edit: But thinking about it there's no real reason to go outside of the existing setting...

[Tyndmyr]

7th Sea is magical pirates. It is epic.

Paranoia is, well...paranoia. It's a blast.

Both are great examples of systems that are highly integrated with the setting, and which really help promote a feel of gameplay that goes with it. Like you, I find this preferable to generic systems.

[potatocubed]

Burning Empires - it's really good for humans vs. brain-eating worms, but only very vaguely applicable for anything else.

[Totally Guy]

Burning Empires - it's really good for humans vs. brain-eating worms, but only very vaguely applicable for anything else.

You do get to build the the world though so the location can be very different every time.

[The Big Dice]

There's a moderately popular fantasy system out there called Dungeons and Dragons. I hear it's been around a while and has a few different versions of it out, too.

[Samurai Jill]

Burning Empires - it's really good for humans vs. brain-eating worms, but only very vaguely applicable for anything else.

Brain-raping worms. There is a distinction.

I'd just point out that BE was closely derived from the Jihad: Burning Sands supplement for Burning Wheel, intended (basically) to support games in the Dune setting. Mouse Guard seems a very specifically-tailored game, but there have been hacks proposed for Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire, Tolkien's Middle Earth, Mass Effect, and so on. There's a Firefly adaptation for DitV. The opening chapters of Sorceror give examples of Demons basically being interpreted as everything from fallen angels to hyperintelligent AIs, and the Sorceror and Sword supplement covers Grimm-style fairy tales, post-apocalyptic wastelands, and arabian nights as sample 'settings'.

This systems are often more flexible than they're given credit for, as long as the basic procedural structure is understood.

[Totally Guy]

There are some Apocalypse World hacks out there too. I'm still getting to grips with the base system.

[Goonthegoof]

I'm gonna be killed for mentioning this one, but D&D is pretty good for high fantasy games.

[BayardSPSR]

I'm gonna be killed for mentioning this one, but D&D is pretty good for high fantasy games.

*Gentle stab.*

Except yes, it is, if cut down to apply better to the setting. Otherwise you end up with the random monster mishmash that can make it so funny. Not to mention the potential for god-killing. And wizards. Them.

That said, what ARE the generic systems that bug people so much? Just as a matter of interest.

[manyslayer]

Extreme Vengeance for blockbuster action movie games. Rules for

Macho Women with Guns (and, specifically, Batwinged Bimbos from Hell - hit to the head do less damage against bimbos) is pretty tied to the genre by the rules.

[valadil]

That said, what ARE the generic systems that bug people so much? Just as a matter of interest.

GURPS. It does everything passably well, but gets a B or B- at most things. The two instances where I really like GURPS is that it works well in between genres. We've done some pre-industrial type settings that are just a little too advanced to be high fantasy. GURPS filled in that gap nicely. I've also seen it work well for mixed genre games and mixed tech level, although how well it works probably depends on the genres and tech levels. If I wanted to go back in time and equip dinosaurs with lasers, GURPS would be the right system.

As someone trying to write a game system, I have some sympathy for the generic games. Reason being, I came up with a resolution mechanic I'd like to try out. That mechanic has no basis in a setting. As a thought exercise I've considered it in a variety of settings and it seems to work wherever I put it (although I haven't played with the system yet, so who knows if it's even fun). With no attachment to a setting, I've kind of been building mechanics for any tech level.

So long story short, I never set out to write a generic system. But nothing ever dictated what setting to use, so I have yet to specify and write for a given setting.

[Vulaas]

Dresden Files RPG is a pretty good urban fantasy

[obliged_salmon]

Another generic is RISUS, when you want your rules light with a capital RULES LIGHT.

[BayardSPSR]

[It's long.]

Spoiler

Show

GURPS. It does everything passably well, but gets a B or B- at most things. The two instances where I really like GURPS is that it works well in between genres. We've done some pre-industrial type settings that are just a little too advanced to be high fantasy. GURPS filled in that gap nicely. I've also seen it work well for mixed genre games and mixed tech level, although how well it works probably depends on the genres and tech levels. If I wanted to go back in time and equip dinosaurs with lasers, GURPS would be the right system.

As someone trying to write a game system, I have some sympathy for the generic games. Reason being, I came up with a resolution mechanic I'd like to try out. That mechanic has no basis in a setting. As a thought exercise I've considered it in a variety of settings and it seems to work wherever I put it (although I haven't played with the system yet, so who knows if it's even fun). With no attachment to a setting, I've kind of been building mechanics for any tech level.

So long story short, I never set out to write a generic system. But nothing ever dictated what setting to use, so I have yet to specify and write for a given setting.

Hm. Seems like what makes the generic systems like GURPS sub-optimal is that they have the intention of being generic... I say this because I can agree with you completely on the last paragraph.

[The Big Dice]

GURPS. It does everything passably well, but gets a B or B- at most things.

Everything except man to man combat, that's something GURPS does extremely well. And task resolution, too. Not to mention tactical rather than overkill magic.

Sure, GURPS isn't perfect. But as games at the grittier end of the spectrum go, it's head and shoulders above the rest.

That said, my favourite generic system is currently True20. The mutant offspring of GURPS, the SRD and Mutants & Masterminds.

[valadil]

Everything except man to man combat, that's something GURPS does extremely well. And task resolution, too. Not to mention tactical rather than overkill magic.

What do you mean by task resolution?

[The Big Dice]

What do you mean by task resolution?

I mean how you resolve a task. In D&D, you roll a D20 and add a modifier to beat a difficulty. In GURPS, you roll 3D6 and attempt to get lower than a skill or stat. There can also be modifiers, such as going for called shots in combat or trying to perform a task under stressful circumstances.

The problem with D&D, and any other single dice based games is linear probability. That is, there's an equal chance of any number coming up on any given roll. This is even more complicated because while you can argue that the more times you roll a dice, the more chance there is of getting a desired result, the truth is that dice have no memory. Odds reset every time you roll.

GURPS has, in my opinion, a better structure. You usually know in advance the roll you need to acheive your desired outcome. And because with multiple dice being rolled, there is a bell curve, it's possible ot play the odds a little more. It's easier to take calculated risks when you know you've got a 75% chance of rolling 12 or less.

[erikun]

I never quite understood the compaint against flat dice rolls in the flat vs curve debate. I mean, if you have a 75% chance of success, does it matter what randomizing method you use? 3d6 or 1d10 or flip a coin twice, you'll get the same results. I suppose it does matter with character building or increasing challanges - you need to spend quite a lot starting out or taking on tough jobs, while midway through you gain more benefit from bonuses and it becomes increasing difficult to get those last few points.

I guess that makes sense in a way, as you do need to work much harder to see a noticable improvement once you've mastered the fundamentals in most areas in real life. Still, it seems like it becomes rather difficult to quickly judge a change in difficulty. On a flat scale, a +10% either way is just a change in 10%. On a curve, it can typically be anywhere from 2% to 25%.

[Kiero]

I never quite understood the compaint against flat dice rolls in the flat vs curve debate. I mean, if you have a 75% chance of success, does it matter what randomizing method you use? 3d6 or 1d10 or flip a coin twice, you'll get the same results. I suppose it does matter with character building or increasing challanges - you need to spend quite a lot starting out or taking on tough jobs, while midway through you gain more benefit from bonuses and it becomes increasing difficult to get those last few points.

I guess that makes sense in a way, as you do need to work much harder to see a noticable improvement once you've mastered the fundamentals in most areas in real life. Still, it seems like it becomes rather difficult to quickly judge a change in difficulty. On a flat scale, a +10% either way is just a change in 10%. On a curve, it can typically be anywhere from 2% to 25%.

Because it's never about just one roll. A bell curve groups results around the middle, meaning that there's less of the wild, extreme results. Static modifiers become more important than the randomness of the roll.