What is your favorite/"go-to" generic RPG, and why?

Actually this. My group used it for a street level super heroes campaign, a space nobles/fading suns campaign and the western. Worked really well.

Over the Edge.

I like functioning rules which fit on a single page of paper (one side character creation, the other actual game rules).

What is the system even like?

I greatly dislike pathfinder and you made me squirm a little bit. But I completely respect your opinion and you are right, there are a shit load of rules to run damn near anything, even if I don't like them. I'm glad you have a single system you like, I can't find one to get married to.

You roll 1d100 and success is determined depending on if you roll over or under your Mormon stat.

So it's just a percentile game? Why do so many people have such a boner over it then?

That was just a bad joke user.

That guy's fucking with you. If I recall it's an odd dice pool system where you use dice associated with two of your attributes plus whatever equipment or background experiences or whatnot you're bringing to bear in the conflict.

I usually homebrew a lot because I'm not a fan of rule heavy systems, but...

For medieval, King Arthur Pendragon. Rules actually add drama and fun instead of being just padding, and it plays very smoothly. Srsly, its a thing of beauty to watch this system work.
Sadly it was made only with knight PCs in mind, but most of my medieval games are about knights so yeah. Original fluff is pretty awesome too

gets it. I ran lots of stuff with Dogs in the Vineyard, from hunting skinwalkers in the 1800's bayou to modern stories inspired by Breaking Bad, and it never let me down.

Risus is great for teh lulz gaems like the saga of Ron Paul reaching the top of the Republican Party Primary Deathmatch.

Anything that doesn't have keith thompson art

monkey-paw.deviantart.com/art/Heavy-Infantry-Designs-254818707

OpenSix (d6 Adventure, Space, & Fantasy). It's pretty much perfect for me. MiniSix is pretty great too, as it combines them all in a unified ruleset that's less than 40 pages while also giving alternate rules on bringing in specific stuff from OpenSix, but I wind up filling in a few of its gaps (and replace its weapon damage codes) with O6 anyway, so I just stick with that most of the time.

Forcing 3.PF to do anything but generic dungeon crawler is a crime against humanity and you should be ashamed.

>how do people even play

A lack of real choices. There are better systems out there, but none of those - /none/ of those - have groups available in as many places as Pathfinder does. For a lot of locales, it's the only game in town.

>Pathfinder, because you can do basically anything with it.

That's true for basically every rpg with enough work. That's kind of how imagination and writing works.

Just like you can eat soup with a fork. It's up to you man, if that's what you like, don't let anyone stop you. Just don't get surprised when they call you a retard for not using a spoon.

Pathfinder or D&D are great for very specific things, dungeoncrawling and more or less superpowered fantasy.

The fact that they have modules or rules for doing basically anything has nothing to do with whether or not the systems are good for it, and everything to do with trying to get the playerbase to buy more stuff instead of trying other rpgs that are better suited for what they want.

Basically this.

I really hate the way 3.PF poisons peoples mind on what an RPG is.
Most take a couple of hours to learn and maybe 30 minutes to make a character.
Even though D&D is the original it's a cancer to have as a first RPG.

The worst is when people try to force D&D to run political games.
It just doesn't work it's always either the Players are massively over powered and you get the why don't we just kill everyone situation or under powered and are forced to be mooks for all the level 20 politicians.

It just doesn't work and the systems themselves discourage actual roleplaying in favor of speech checks and shit.

Wizards and Paizo when Wizard shat their own bed are basically the Games Workshop of role-playing games. They survive by having such a head start that anyone new to the hobby is going to get exposed to them first, and have a good chance of staying with it just because it's easy to find people to play with and because of how many products there are for it.

Not because they're any good.

What RPG would you rather be the default that everyone went to Veeky Forums?
I'd throw my vote for Ryuutama.

RuneQuest 6. It's a generic, somewhat realistic game with familiar BRP mechanics and an improved combat system compared to the BRP base. It's flexible enough to allow most kinds of games, although it really shines for sword & sorcery. Frankly, it handles very high-power gameplay poorly, and space or vehicular combat requires a lot of invention to make interesting beyond "roll your Trade skill".

The opposed roll blackjack mechanic is easy to handle in a hurry, combat is neat and tactical, there's tactical and practical reasons to use most gear beyond +1 to damage. Most of the rulebook is easy to read and set up in a intuitive manned, although there's a few things that are a bit obscure.

I've ran WFRP in it to great success, and played several games of various tech levels, from 1300s fantasy to modern horror to post-apocalypse games, and it's by far my favourite system.

Poison'D

1: It sets out to do ONE thing, and does it well (let players play grimy horrible pirates and do grimy horrible pirate shit) instead of trying to be a worldsimulator that is clunky and way thicker than it needs to be, in order to be kind of shitty at everything instead of shooting for great at one thing.

2: It emphasizes how your character creation is about tradeoffs, instead of trying to cheat the system and be good at everything.

3: it reinforces the idea that your character is supposed to be a person, not a videogame character that has an xbox controller jammed into the back of it's skull, that you play as a total schizo with no beliefs or personality and always chooses the option that gives the best outcome.

4: It gives the players some narrative voice and a chance to describe and join in on the storytelling.

More games should have the same philosophy instead of trying to compete with WoW without graphics. It makes me throw up into my mouth that role-playing threads here routinely use language like "quest giver" and "build"

I like Savage Worlds. Quick to learn, and can do many things.
But I have meant to learn Fuzion for quite a some time. Still havent started with it.

With all the positive voices about DitV I guess I'll take a look at that as well.

I like Ryuutama since it evolves adventure in the classic sense, has a big focus on roleplaying and exploration and mixes roleplay and crunch well.
Things like buying items for role play and system reasons like a book you then take actual travel logs on for rewards.

Savage Worlds is my default system too.

If I want a super simple one for a short couple session game I use something a mate introduced me to for his Alien vs Predator games.

Basic percentile.
Everyone picks a major and two monor skills.
The major skill is at 75%
Two minor at 50%
Any other skill test is done at 25%
You only really roll if under duress.

If you survive the session you can upgrade any skill. Either pick one to make 50% or upgrade a 50% to a 75% or 75 up to 90% which is the max.

It's reasonably freeform so it's good if everyone is stumped for a game to play and not everyone is on the same page for rules.

When used as AvP it was done largely as a horror game and really enjoyable, he was a great GM though.

>Pathfinder is hard to learn meme
It's not, unless you have brain damage. I'm not saying its a great system, but its not this terrible beast that Veeky Forums makes it out to be. Especially when almost every conceivable rule, ability, etc is a click away.

Yes it's not "hard" to learn but it is significantly more complex that a lot of other RPGs.
And it lies to you about how useful a lot of options are combined with a huuge number of trap options means there's a huge gap between learning it and understanding it.

A vague, poorly defined fantasy setting which implies a number of magically and technologically advanced empires once existed, but now only small kingdoms and nomadic tribal cultures remain.

Aesthetically it's closer to Legend of Zelda, Ico and Journey than it is to Dark Sun. Tone is basically a more colorful Dark Souls with less undead or the ever-pressing threat of entropy getting organized and fucking the universe up within the next human lifetime.

D&D.

Played every edition (cept 3/3.5/4) and it's still what I use to rope in new people. Yes it's flawed and I enjoy other systems, but I still come back.

Besides, trying to get new people into ttrpgs usually ends up being:
>Would you like to play [PnPGame]
>What's that?
>Well...Y'know D&D?
>Yeah.
>It's like D&D, but...

This sounds fun. What is it?

Isn't pathfinder just essentially 3.5 ed DnD?

Yeah hence 3.PF

Generic just means never really good.

Instead I like flexible to customize. And that doesn't just mean skill table and weapon stats. It means the game dynamic, the dimensions characters are tracked in, level of detail, and rules focus.

ORE is the best I know.

I was gonna say WaRP (which is OTE as a generic game). I love it. It's simple, opens up for rp and fun times are had using it. Also fits my gm style. [spoile]also it's OGL[/spoiler]

I've heard that the Od6 magic rules are fucked up. Is it true?

I loath level and class based systems... and that's pathfinder/DnD

QAGS if I want a really quick game. Considering Savage worlds for more involved but, honestly it's never come up.

Shadowrun
I personally prefer SR4 but the group likes SR3

Its the whore of RPG's, it will do anything you want it to.

Wanna play a wizard orc biker who meets up with a delusional cyborg cowboy and a shapechanging temptress fairy and robs gems from snake people in Arctic bases... and have it make sense!

Yep Shadowrun every time

>>Pathfinder is hard to learn meme

Sorry mate, but it's not a meme, and it's true.

ACKS can be explained in ten minutes to a bunch of children. An ACKS class can be explained in five minutes to a bunch of children. A character can be made in thirty seconds to five minutes. It's simple, incredibly easy to use, and still manage to be well detailed with everything you will ever need, from AC to spells, saving throws to dailies.

In thirty minutes every single of your players has made a character and you are ready to play, even if they had no previous knowledge about the game.

In thirty minutes in Pathfinder, you have, maybe, maybe, finished to explain some basic rules about the combat system. If your players are very clever you have maybe advanced to explaining the beginning of one class to one player.

I don't know by which metric you have decided that Pathfinder is not a difficult game, but this is a bullshit metric. The number of games that are more difficult to learn and understand that PF is very small (I can count them on the fingers of one hand).

The spell creation rules are pretty complicated and honestly one of the only parts of the system I don't like. Fortunately if you prefer you can use "magic" systems from Adventure or Space, which are written a bit better/smoother.

MiniSix handles its magic better with far more simplicity and allows for more thematic and actual roleplaying spellcasting, letting things like limits on how many spells can be cast per day and whatnot up to the GM. It's honestly just: Roll Magic Skill to reach Spell Target Number. If success, follow spell description. If not success, then the spell fizzles. The spells provided are simple enough and it's really easy to make your own spells up on the spot. I personally have a "spellbook," with the MiniSix spells and a few others converted. They work perfectly fine, as the only things you need to make when making a spell are its target profile, how long it lasts (or if it's concentration), and the target number that needs to be reached. Very easy, very simple.

I've been trying to get my group to transition over to MiniSix, while still keeping stuff from OpenSix that we prefer. Things like damage codes, or how in some settings we use more fleshed-out attributes by borrowing from Od6--and the system has rules for implementing stuff from Od6, so this is REALLY easy--and a few small houserules from our Od6 days. None of the houserules are really "This is needed for the system to work," so much as it is "This feels a bit smoother and thematically fits what we need."

If you're curious, here's the MiniSix PDF.

I remember skimming through it a long time ago. Can't remember what I thought about it in detail, but I think I found it interesting.

I actually have all the free Od6 stuff I could find on the internet, but I've never read through it, and hearing about the magic system made me lose interest. A compromise, or mix, of the systems might be a cool idea though! Thanks for the reply

Then how could it be hard? DnD was a very simplistic system.

Lol no.

D20 is needlessly complex and incoherent, both to understand, and to resolve.

Anybody who claims differently has never seen another game except maybe gurps.

You have a very skewed view of RPG complexity friend.

Any love for Fate in here?

Classic unisystem all day erryday

>You can always refluff Pathfinder
Kill yourself

My favorite is Strike!

Savage Worlds (with some tweaks) and FAE are also great tho.

Stop shilling Strike!

Why does Veeky Forums keep shilling Strike!?

Risus.

Yes, really.

GURPS

Lots. But I wouldn't call it generic.

Sure, you can play in any setting. But the tone is limited to heroics imho. And it tends toward funny, just because the mechanics make you pile on ideas.

There are ways to make it grittier, but they require huge changes or violation of the design principle of unburdened narrative cooperation. And this is a logic problem because the players would have to conspire against their own character in sinister and surprising ways.

Fate is great, but its application is limited, not generic. Not in tone.

tbqh i do this too
is easy to learn and the tone is good for meeting people
Also I used Everyone is John last weekend and it was good.

Fun thing about minisix: you can take from the other Open six games and put it into minis with relative ease.
Mini six has two games that are pretty interesting: Breahworld, which is modern Gammaworld. And For They Are Legion, a horror urban fantasy.
Just kinda sad their isn't much of a fantasy game.

What tweaks do you use in Savage Worlds?

What the fuck is Strike?

They may sound a bit silly but:

-fuse strength and vigor into one stat
-simplify weapons and remove combat skills: everything uses agility for attack and your STR for damage (it is assumed for ranged weapons in modern settings you can carry bigger ones with more ease, hence the increased damage), and ranged attacks don't get the benefit of rolling against a static value.

This way vigor has the defensive benefit of health and the offensive benefit of damage, and Agility has the defensive benefit of higher chance to dodge, and the offensive benefit of precision.

Also, no fucking katanas.

A 4e retroclone sort of thing bolted onto a really lightweight/simple narrative system with elements from *World games and Burning Wheel/Mouseguard.

It's kind of a weird combination, but it hits all the spots for me.

Those aren't that silly. I kind of like them. I don't think I would ever use them though since I like combat skills. But I do like combining strength and vigor, I think more games should do that, one of the little things I like about EotE.

Also Strike sounds cool. I may need to check that out.

Don't. Strike! is shit.

I'll decide that myself after I read it. Regardless if it sucks or not, it has sparked my interest.

Can fucking D&D battered wives stop trying to pretend like D&D 3.X is not a goddamn phonebook compared to most sensible rpgs?

No, it's not difficult to learn in the sense that if you try, you probably won't fail. Just like it's not "difficult" to walk 10 miles instead of taking the car. Anyone can do it, it's just that it's a lot of time and work compared to many of the alternatives.

Here, to get you started:

uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1449846116

fair warning, layout, editing and art is terrible

>Goes for the simple game
>Thinks its the most fun
>Doesn't take time to read rules and find out Pathfinder is a decent system if you dislike all the shit D&D ruined after 3.5
> ACKS

>Bet my life you haven't touched a D100

Best RPG to go to is any Warhammer D100 imo.

>if you dislike all the shit D&D ruined after 3.5

3.5 is literally* rock bottom for the series. EVERYTHING is up from there.

*I jest, actually 3.0 was.

>Everything is up from there

Oh boy, OH BOY. 3.0 was decent for a time, then it got kinda. .Iffy when Pathfinder came around and more or less fixed all it ruined. Then 3.5 came around and just. .Well we know that song and dance. Anything after that seems to be ruining the role play aspect of the RPG itself and going straight for minmax and stat hog.

Ryuutama. You don't have to require a calculator for anything. The rules are open and you can add your personal dm shit to them. No skill tables just dice rolls. Magic system might be eh and the combat system is very very simple but it's easy to start a game in under an hour

>Pathfinder came before 3.5
You're a dumb piece of shit talking about things you know nothing about. I bet you've never even touched a d20 in your entire life.

I'd agree if the skill system wasn't so godawful. Maybe it's because I'm used to Od6 where your skills build on your attributes, but having characters with stats in the thirties and forties have most of their skills in the teens feels a bit too "3.5 shoehorning characters into their specialties," to me.

Especially if you have the bad luck of having a GM who doesn't realize that effectively every single roll needs the appropriate modifiers attached. If they come from something like 3.P where modifiers are mostly things added by character abilities and not by the GM saying that something should be easier or harder because of the situation, then having them GM a system where modifiers are a very common MUST just makes the system suck.

>D20
>Not playing a D6
>Not playing a D100

Go back to board games.

Id have to fully agree with you there, the one thing D100 Warhammer fails at is more or less turning anything space marine into a walking death machine with no skill needed to do anything at all.

A lot of the game also loves to use "Rules as written" so unless you really know the lore itself, you're kinda fucked. Aside from that if one person in the party does, he's gonna meta the fuck out of it.

But if you get a nooby party that just wants to play a decent system, GM's can easily fix the stats, I just enjoy it for Rogue Trader's ship building. I find it a decent homage to traveler

>d100 games
>high roleplaying potential
Woo boy, are you ever going to be disappointed when you actually start playing the games you claim to know so much about. Save yourself the heartbreak and sign up for an improvised theatre class instead.

>Ctrl+F
>Hero System
Oh, great! You guys should talk about this more.

>What is your favorite/"go-to" generic RPG
Fate
>why?
Because if I want a skill to exist, I just name it and it exists. If I want a detail or ability to exist, I just have to name it. If I want a unique capability specific to a setting, then I just need to name it and let players take it.

If I'm coming up with ideas, either as a GM or as a player, I want to spend my time coming up with the ideas. I don't want to spend my time reworking the entire mechanics of the system in the hopes that it might support my ideas.

Gotta agree with this one. The core mechanic is much less intimidating to new players than something like, say, Edge of the Empire. That is even if the latter is actually the simpler game of the two.

>much less intimidating to new players
uhu-

hurp a durp durp gurps

Every time.

GURPS really is a wonderfully versatile game. All you ever need for a game is the Basic Set (or even just GURPS Lite, if you're willing to make some compromises), but if you want more, you can easily pick out a relevant book based on either a genre (fantasy, supers, horror, etc) or a style of play or subsystem you want (gun-fu, martial arts, magic, powers, etc).

The main problems GURPS has, though, are horrendous organization in the corebooks, lots and lots of combat rules, and character creation isn't very easy for new players.

>putting paper clips onto the edge of the sheet to track things.
I'm stealing *that* for my homebrew.

GURPS. Why use anything else?

Guy who doesn't like playing GURPS here.

I still have all the PDFs saved, because those things are high quality reference material for whatever the hell you decide to run. If you do nothing else to prepare for a game, download the GURPS books related to the concept and read through them, as they will improve it immensely.

I completely agree and have to add that the main reason you can't mention it is that the fanboys are choleric cumstains who will monopolize any thread that never invited them and scream everyone else into the ground.

I know what you mean; on its own, the system supports a particular kind of playstyle.

I'm trying to mutilate the system to make room for more horror and combat (which, despite this aim to do it through the system changes, I also believe can be accomplished through proper atmosphere).

I think a lot could change if you just made the NPCs behave and share stats [very nearly] as the proactive and powerful PCs.

I think for more colorful combat you just have to prepare your scenes better. Think up aspects and possible developments during prep so you can offer them to the players during the action. Structure your battlefields, the location rules are pretty good. If you prepare your battlemaps well they can offer interesting tactical options.

Fate isn't for +3 damage. weapon lists, or whittle down damage. But if you embrace it it makes for pretty good combat. Not by itself though, you have to flavor it.

As for horror, that's hard. I think it can only work by taking away the very freedoms of the Fate rules as a mechanic. Suffer mental damage from fear and you can't invoke aspects for the rest of the scene. Consequences don't go away one scene after you take care of them, but last for a while. A while that extends into the next trial by adventure. It can probably be done, but it requires some very basic rethinking of the game dynamic.

Toss up between HeroQuest 2 or BRP, depends on how I'm feeling.

I would like to throw in Ubiquity and ORE to the mix but I've never had a chance to see them in action, just read the books.

This.

Reign is one of the best made games ever.

Very true about the good Aspect setpieces for battlegrounds, that always makes things interesting (and pretty shitty if the GM doesn't fabricate any).
I'm going for Consequences/Aspects that are very threatening by description, which is sort of a part of how aggressive or sadistic your NPCs/environments are.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten/Terra Primate
I like built-in slant toward the survival genre with the modularity provided by the sourcebooks.

Primo meemo b8 m8

FATE, desu. I'm none too proud of it either.

>Gurps
>It does everything well.
It does a lot well, but certainly not everything.

>Generic just means never really good.
Hardly, but Do Go On.