Are there any good generic/universal RPG rulebooks at 250 pages or less out there?

[Isamu Dyson]

I'm open to recommendations .

[Rhynn]

Fuzion, but honestly it's such a skeletal system that you might as well not bother. It doesn't natively cover magic or much of anything else.

I think Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the original anyway) was well under 250 pages; my version was basically notebook-sized (approximately A5 pages).

I'm not sure if Tri-Stat or Unisystem really have any kind of setting/genre-independent published version; simply for that reason, they're more multi-genre than generic.

Basic Role-Playing probably skirts the 250 page limit, depending on edition.

[Scots Dragon]

Tri-Stat dX is universal, freely available, and clocks in at 106 pages.

You can find it here.

[Rhynn]

Tri-Stat dX is universal, freely available, and clocks in at 106 pages.

You can find it here.

Wicked! I figured Tri-Stat would meet the standard if it was separately published.

[Zavoniki]

Cortex is 165.

[CombatOwl]

I'm open to recommendations .

Fate Accelerated Edition is 32 pages long. It's larger cousin, Fate Core, is 302 pages.

[Lorsa]

Why so obsessed with page count?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Fate Accelerated Edition is 32 pages long. It's larger cousin, Fate Core, is 302 pages.

What I came here to suggest. I'd also like to point out that I have no idea what Fate Core is 300 pages, because they easily could have cut out a lot of the redundancies and made a more concise product. FAE is basically Fate Core anyway, so anybody who's familiarized themselves with FAE could skim Fate Core and understand that too.

Why so obsessed with page count?

Because long books take effort to read, most likely. Especially true when it's a generic system that doesn't even have a setting to pull you along with.

[Segev]

Tri-Stat dX is one of my favorite generic systems.

However, if you really want dirt-simple, I'd look up Risus. It'll probably take you half an hour to read the whole rule set.

[obryn]

I'd recommend Fate Accelerated, which is the rules-light game FATE always knew it could become. It's pay-what-you-want for download

Also, Savage Worlds Deluxe, Explorer's Edition is universal pretty awesome, a lot more trad-style, and clocks in at 192. It's quite universal, but also has a toolkit for D&Desque fantasy built into the core.

The first is highly narrative and rules-light. The second is kind of rules-intermediate, with more crunchy bits. Pick your poison.

[Lorsa]

Because long books take effort to read, most likely. Especially true when it's a generic system that doesn't even have a setting to pull you along with.

But doesn't that also depend on amount and size of pictures, general layout, font size and word count?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

But doesn't that also depend on amount and size of pictures, general layout, font size and word count?

Yeah, but it's still a good general indicator. Wordcount would be better, but when's the last time you tried to find the wordcount on one of your RPGs?

[tensai_oni]

Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed almost counts at 257 pages, but these include the covers and introductory adventures, not to mention a lot of full-page pictures. Cut that out and you easily make it under 250.

[Isamu Dyson]

Why so obsessed with page count?

It's not an obsession, truly. I merely want to pare down the list of generic/universal RPGs to those that typically facilitate quick construction of adventures and expeditious mechanics resolution.

Besides which, I already have GURPS/Hero/Mutants & Masterminds/Basic Roleplaying/Savage Worlds.

Cortex is 165.

Cortex intrigued me when I learned which systems use it. It is rather unfortunate that the price for a copy of the rules is inflated.

[Segev]

For good generic-ness, I would recommend M&M 3e over 2e. 3e takes some bold steps that make it truly stand out as a flexible system, while I've personally found 2e to be a touch clunky by holding on to too many d20isms that don't work for what it's trying to do.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed almost counts at 257 pages, but these include the covers and introductory adventures, not to mention a lot of full-page pictures. Cut that out and you easily make it under 250.

It also has an entire chapter that's basically the history of comic books and its ages, which is largely irrelevant if you're not using it as a superhero system.

[Zavoniki]

Cortex intrigued me when I learned which systems use it. It is rather unfortunate that the price for a copy of the rules is inflated.

Uhm... Wow that is quite inflated. Book is not worth 60$.

I suggest the currently 5$ PDF instead.

[Felorn]

Savage Worlds is great.

Basic Roleplay from Chaosium is pretty excellent too.

[Mr Beer]

FATE and GURPS are opposite ends of the spectrum. I recommend FATE.

[Crìsdean]

I've been using Mythic Role Playing. The art is between mediocre and bad, but I'm really enjoying the actual meat of the game. It took me a little while and some testing to get a feel for it, but it only weighs in at 146 pages, including things like character sheets. I ran a fantasy yeti hunt campaign with it and I plan to run a hard sci-fi campaign with it next.

[erikun]

HeroQuest 2nd edition is 134 pages, including the material about Glorantha. Fate Accelerated Edition/Fate Core has already been recommended.

[Knaight]

Fudge is 108 pages, and free. The d6 system has been released for free as well, and I think it clocks in at 200ish. Technically there are multiple versions, but they are all basically the same.

[Raimun]

Gotta agree with Savage Worlds. Great game, great game.

[CombatOwl]

Yeah, but it's still a good general indicator. Wordcount would be better, but when's the last time you tried to find the wordcount on one of your RPGs?

Copy the text into Word, check the word count.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Copy the text into Word, check the word count.

You have .pdfs of all gamebooks you own?

[Jayabalard]

GURPS lite is below that threshold.

[Lorsa]

It's not an obsession, truly. I merely want to pare down the list of generic/universal RPGs to those that typically facilitate quick construction of adventures and expeditious mechanics resolution.

Besides which, I already have GURPS/Hero/Mutants & Masterminds/Basic Roleplaying/Savage Worlds.

Perfectly understandable! But isn't that a better question then? Generic RPGs that facilitate quick construction of adventures and expeditious mechanics resolution? I don't really see page count being involved in answering that question.

[Yora]

Fate Accelerated Edition is 32 pages long. It's larger cousin, Fate Core, is 302 pages.

Fate Core is technically 300 pages, but it's actually a large font on small pages. If you used a font size like in D&D 3rd Edition, it would probably be well under 100 pages.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Copy the text into Word, check the word count.

Oh, I didn't say it wasn't possible. But it's certainly more convenient to do a pagecount skim and chop things up into "short/long".

[Lorsa]

I had a check and the nWoD corebook has a 222 page count (including the index) and it is sort of generic as you can easily make it into a medieval type game by replacing 2-3 skills.