System Recommendation

[Zahhak]

Hey all. Without getting too much into the details, I'm looking for a game system that de-emphasizes dice rolling mechanics and places more emphasis on collaborative story telling and character development. I guess if it matters, the specific campaign is sci fi in nature with a focus on exploration and investigation.

I had a recommendation for Strands of Fate, but not sure about it, thought I'd crowd source it.

[Grinner]

I'd recommend FATE Core over Strands of Fate. They're similar, but FATE Core is a bit cleaner. It's also free.

[The Rose Dragon]

Active Exploits is the only diceless generic system I can think of, so I'm gonna suggest that the first thing as the ultimate expression of "getting the dice out of the way".

Otherwise, I can suggest Anima Prime or FU, particularly the former. Do note that Anima Prime requires inter-character conflict to work (not necessarily combat, but you might need to tinker a bit to make non-combat conflict work better), because there are very few mechanics for non-conflict scenes, and they only facilitate recovery of conflict resources.

[erikun]

Fate Core does focus on characters creating and invoking Aspects (that is, interesting things) and compelling their own Aspects (making interesting things to overcome happen to their characters).

HeroQuest has a very flexible system that allows players to choose whatever they want for skills, although there isn't the compulsion for players to and or create hurdles for their own characters. There are guidelines for changing difficulties throughout a campaign, though.

Burning Wheel (and similar systems) have several ways to customize a character to make them more interesting. Players are encouraged to take on challenging situations, and actually are required to do so to increase skills. Natures can be used to grant benefits (and run magic) but high Natures can come back and penalize characters when trying to act strongly against them. Characters also have Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits, all of which let players influence a scene or give goals to the character to achieve.


There are also game that probably aren't what you think of when you say "Pen and Paper Role Playing Game", but are more along the lines of collaborative storytelling. Fiasco, for example, is a game centered around characters interacting with each other in scenes, then rolling dice to determine how well (or poorly) things work afterwards.

[Autolykos]

I can also suggest WUSHU. The mechanics put more emphasis on the "collaborative storytelling" part than FATE, and are even more streamlined.

[Grod_The_Giant]

FATE is pretty good if you can run it properly-- not everyone can; I'm a generally pretty capable DM and I couldn't deal with the compels-- so it gets my vote. If you do wind up using it, I drew up a sci-fi skill list and some rules for space combat you might want.

[Actana]

In a more unorthodox move, I might recommend the Stalker system. It's fairly geared towards the setting it's made for (ie Roadside Picnic, Stalker, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games), but it could be made work for other settings. The system is entirely diceless, and mechanics are handled by giving out points for both how good the idea is, and how well it's being roleplayed, plus a bonus for any points your character might have in a relevant skill.

It's quite a cool system and the setting is amazing. If you're looking for something different, I could well recommend the game.


Otherwise, I can also recommend FATE Core. It's free, so there's that too.

[Kiero]

I can also suggest WUSHU. The mechanics put more emphasis on the "collaborative storytelling" part than FATE, and are even more streamlined.

If you're going to recommend Wushu, at least give the link to Open Reloaded, which explains how to play the game.

Wushu Open is intended as a primer for people to write Wushu games, not necessarily be a playable game in and of itself.