Generic System

How would you make a generic system? What mechanics would you use? This is going to have to work as a catch-all system, and the rules must fit into 1 or 2 posts. It has to be something you actually want to play for more than one session, too.

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I've heard that every game about animals eventually becomes a recreation of Watership Down. Is it true, Veeky Forums?

Generic systems are a dime a dozen, and they suck.

Sounds like Risus.

Just do talking. Describe stuff to players. When something random might happen roll, or have them roll, a die or dice of your choice. Interpret it however the hell you want.

Best played in darkness or with everyone's eyes closed so they can imagine shit better.

A game is only as good as it's writers. You can have a perfectly elegant dice mechanic, but if the books are written by people who don't know what they are doing, they will suck.

GURPS is a crude and unwieldy system which still manages to be one of the best games on the market because it actually has people who give a shit writing it. We don't need another hundred systems to choose from, we need some more companies to put the effort into research, writing and quality control that SJ Games do.

No they don't, faggot. Half of them are literally better than most dedicated systems. Hell, even Savage Worlds does heroic fantasy better than D&D itself, including 5e.

How the fuck is GURPS crude? It's got a very elegant core mechanic.

RISUS is Lasers-and-Feelings tier bullshit.

>savage worlds is better than 5e
It's different than 5e, but you are basically just saying you don't like 5e which is something else entirely.

I would use GURPS.

I run a variant of Tracy Hickman's XD20, though have had the most success with newbies who don't know much about what else is out there. It's quite vague and it pretty much relies entirely on the GM, but it can be used for virtually anything, including conversion of full-fledged games and adventures..

can you tell me more about the system?

I already have Fate, FUDGE, and HeroQuest. I don't really need another generic system. There is very little that I could want that wouldn't be covered by all the above, so it is hard to come up with ideas for creating a new one - much less enough good ideas to justify doing so.

WarriorCats is certainly not going to turn into Watership Down.

I think the stereotype may just be the result of GMs getting sick of players and the whole "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies" is pretty much how Watership Down ends.

Isn't that pic Watership down?

Generic system? Shouldn't Watership down be made with the fucking Call of Cthulhu system on bonus nightmare fuel?

only if done right.

Minor ranting aside, this is a good overview with examples of play:

rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14739.phtml

It can be explained in 30 seconds, characters, NPCs and monsters can be built in 60 seconds, and you can play it with a single D20.

And this is the version I run with, with a bit of homebrewing (I use FFG 40K crit tables for flavor, for example, as the system is a touch vague on what happens when you run out of HP).

rpg-tinker.blogspot.com/2014/11/heres-d20-adventure-game.html

Very useful to go with it is this Rough Chances table, which when you think about it is actually all you need to add a little structure to an otherwise all-narrative game: rpg-tinker.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-rough-chances.html

I'd just use Basic RolePlaying. It's my favorite system by far.

Well, the poster only claims that it does heroic fantasy better, not that it's better.

>Savage Worlds
Isn't entirely generic. It's a pulp fiction game.

I'd basically do it as a GURPS ultra-ultra-lite system. 4 main statistics: strength, dexterity, intelligence, and health. Given a standard array (off the top of my head, I'd say 12, 11, 10, 9) arranged in those scores how you like. You get a certain number of skills you're proficient in (+2 over the relevant ability), specialized in (+4), and maybe one or two you're incompetent at (-2). Skill resolution is 3d6, roll at or under your skill level (modified for difficulty) to succeed.

Neither is GURPS, GURPS doesn't work for pulp.

Savage Worlds still does more genres well than, for example, Mutant Year Zero. Or World of Darkness.

>the fucking Call of Cthulhu system on bonus nightmare fuel?

Nah, because Call of Cthulu is a bloated, badly designed RPG system.