Is there a system that allows you to easily make a unique, one of kind style playable character...

Is there a system that allows you to easily make a unique, one of kind style playable character, with their own strength and weaknesses? Assuming all of the group going to play characters like that, so some sort of balance is needed

Maid RPG

FATE can do that, but Veeky Forums has a hateboner for it for some reason.

I mean... A lot of RPG's can do that? You haven't really provided enough information to give a definitive answer.

There’s some kind of weird pushback against narrative-based systems. Nerd elitism or something I guess? I never really understood it myself.

Absolutely shitloads. In fact, I'd say it's the default mode for modern RPGs. Class-based systems are pretty rare outside of D&D and WoD.

It's the fact that it bills itself as being a rules-lite/narrative game while having a PHB that's comparable to crunchier systems like D&D or ShadowRun.

That and meta currency is shite regardless of how it's used.

But the first one straight up isn't true, the Fate Core rulebook is pretty tiny, and the latter is just you expressing an opinion as if it has some kind of objective weight. Which, y'know, it doesn't. Metacurrencies are fine.

No game that bills itself as being "rules-lite" should have more than 50 pages, and that's only if the bulk of the PHB is spent giving the reader details on the setting or giving the GM ideas for possible plot hooks.

Anything beyond that is just bloat made to make the book seem like it's worth the $30-50 price tag.

...What?

First off, all the rules are available for free on an online SRD. You don't need the rulebook anyway.

The rulebook, instead, acts as a reference manual and gameplay guide, not just giving you the mechanics but explaining them, giving examples along with stuff like GMing advice and how to use the particular advantages FATE has to offer.

If you don't think that extra content is worth the pricetag... You don't have to buy it? I don't see how that's in any way objectionable.

Theres a lot but freedom usually comes at the cost of lost depth

Again, the game is supposed to be called "rules-lite" and yet it needs to dedicate 200+ pages towards explaining how to play it?

Do you not see how ass backwards this is from a conceptual standpoint?

But that's not true? It doesn't take anywhere near that many pages to explain it. The online SRD is pretty damn short and sweet. And there's FAE if FATE is too much for you.

G-GURPS

Browsing through the basic section of the SRD, doing a rough count, at most there's a little over twenty pages of content there, and that's including all the setting creation and GM side stuff.

>It doesn't take anywhere near that many pages to explain it
Then why is it 200+ pages long? Are they being paid by the word or some shit?

Oh wait, I didn't realise I'd skipped ahead a section. The basic rules actually take up way, way less.

see

Because it includes extra content that a GM or player might find helpful, useful or inspiring?

Just like every other RPG rulebook out there? I struggle to think of any game book I own with is a 100% bare bones reference manual with no extra content whatsoever.

>Because it includes extra content that a GM or player might find helpful, useful or inspiring?
How fucking detailed is your game and setting that it requires (if we assume and are legit) over 200+ of information to get the point across?
>Just like every other RPG rulebook out there?
Let me guess, your only experience with rules-lite games are FATE?

No? I own plenty of rules light gamebooks, and Fate Cores is chunkier, that I'll acknowledge. But given all the extra stuff it provides, and that all the rules are free anyway, I still fail to see why it's a bad thing.

Also... You don't know what's in it? So you're bitching without ever having read it?

You realise it's not just the SRD that's free, right? The entire rulebook is free on their website.

>So you're bitching without ever having read it?
First day on Veeky Forums?

I've been here a depressingly long time. Somehow I manage to maintain a faint flicker of faith in humanity, enough to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's usually a bad idea, I'll freely acknowledge that. Still, for some reason I keep on believin'.

Remember, the best places to discuss your hobby are places where it's only tangibly related to the core discussion topic.

So never go on /v/ for vidya discussion, never go on /a/ for anime discussion, never go on /co/ to talk about cartoons/comics, and never go on Veeky Forums to discuss traditional games outside of D&D, WH40K, or MtG.

It's no coincidence that the moment people started to crack down on off topic threads that the quality of the board began to take a dip.

If, judging from your picture, you want to run a Hellboy/BPRD campaign or something similar, you do realise that there actually is an official GURPS based Hellboy RPG, right?

It's all just writing that enjoys "see page 17 for more" type of crap, instead of minimizing categorical leakage.

If your wanting a BPRD/Hellboy campaign I'd check out FATE

More specifically I'd check out the Atomic Robo Roleplaying Game which uses FATE and is all about weird unique characters and fringe/superscience nonsense

Wild Talents
GURPS
Mutants and Masterminds
BESM

How is FATE a narrativist game?

A ton of rpgs will fit your description. Remember two things however.

1 with more creativity and open resources will mean less balance. Does not mean less fun.

2nd If you think for any moment that the cast of hellboy are the same tier of power levels you would be dead wrong. Characters in most novels and tv series ect. Are often not the same lvl or dp or what ever you want to call it. They often are not balanced and are designed more on the basis of no one will step on each others toes. Take xmen for example. Many characters there are not balanced to each other in raw levels or dp. However the gm will make sure that each character has their own moments and their own quest lines that only the character can pull off. And 90% of the time they will not overlap each other. Aka no 2 guys being stealth masters no 2 guys being best artillery ect.

I really don't like the games that make fate points (or whatever they call it) their core mechanic. So is there any really rules-light system that handles stuff without use of fate points or makes them optional?

FATE presents itself as being the game system for exactly that. Opinions are somehow divided, as the thread shows, on their success at it.

13th Age has the’One Unique Thing’ and generally encourage player characters to be special. It is also a D&D derivative, and heavily geared towards cetain specific setting assumptions, which may or may not turn you off.

Savage Worlds is good for relatively simple rules and having tons of options and supplements. To me, SW characters still feel kind somewhat limited by the simplicity of the rules. Your experience may vary.

Some will tell you that anything can be done with GURPS. I’m not a fan, but it is an open system where only your imagination sets the limit. Maybe too geared towards hard sci-fi for a pulp or fantasy game if that’s what you have in mind.

>tangibly
That word isn't the same word as tangentially.

Beast: the Primordial
Deviant: the Renegades

AD&D with all rulebooks and expansions etc.? With a near infinity of options, surely you can...
>balance
Oh, sorry.

Make. Your. Own.

In general I'm not a fan of narrative systems because I feel like they add mechanics to things that work better without them (i.e. character motivations, relationships with npcs and other players, personal beliefs, etc), while removing mechanics from things that really need them in the name of streamlining (i.e. combat). FATE seems fairly inoffensive in that regard though; most of my distaste comes from Unknown Armies 3e, which is a dumpsterfire.

Hero Sys-

> Easily

Just man up and play Hero System. It is the Rao to M&M's Kenshiro.

> Hero System 6th Edition Trove
m3g4
#F!06Q2kY7I!r2JY-moVxFUGl90w6LDa2A


> Hero System 5th Edition Trove
m3g4
#F!Ym5RHIJL! Qk1NgisxONlZbCQdbNYBZg

Powered by the Apocalypse systems tend not to have Fate points and they're pretty rules light. They are crunchier than FATE in that there's usually rules for stuff like levelling and pre-defined skills, but their aim is to be way more flexible than settings like D&D and go for a more of a 'one roll fits all' type of deal rather than having loads of different rules for different situations. The level of crunch varies from system to system.

>I feel like they add mechanics to things that work better without them (i.e. character motivations, relationships with npcs and other players, personal beliefs, etc
Very much this desu. They do this in an attempt to focus on and incite roleplay but I usually chop this stuff out, because if anything I find it more annoying and prohibitive to have to keep tracks of relationship stats and my goals aligning with a session in order to get XP instead of just doing regular old roleplaying for the fun of it.

Seconding wild talents.
Though savage worlds would also be a good one. I am fairly certain the scifi's updated has all of these guys covered. I mean abe is a core race unless he's got something more than fish person I'm forgetting about going on. Roger is just a construct (again base race) with a slightly more detailed energy requirement easily hashed out with the gm. Light bulb ghost boy on the other hand has been shown to to way more than race creation by itself would allow, but I think spells in the solomon kane book would have him covered, dead dog possession and all.

Which edition is best?

I think Sixth Edition is overall the best but since Hero is generally cross-compatible between editions it can be tweaked with trivial effort if you prefer a rule from an earlier edition. Be sure to check out Champions Complete for a compact version of the full game if the core two volumes are intimidating.

RISUS.