What is the best generic system for playing fantasy games?

What is the best generic system for playing fantasy games?

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Aww, this pic is so cute. It always gets me.

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Funny.
Real answer, OP? Savage World or 13th Age.

Why 13th age instead of lets say 5e?

D&D isn't generic
inb4 D&D IS generic

D&D is generic if you don't use the Faerun stuff.

Unironically 4e

What? You seem confused user.

Sure, you can repesent a wide range of fantasy if you leave out a specific parts, but it will always be fantasy.

How would you represent Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi, Modern? You could hack it (as ANY PnP), but then it wouldn't be DnD anymore.

GURPS

and 13th age is?

Genesys is picking up speed, and their Terinoth Fantasy Supplement is about to drop.
However, it depends on what you want OP. If you want gritty simulationist, I could suggest to you Mythras. If you want to go back to OSR style games, I could suggest to you a million Retroclones.

Are you seriously suggesting Fantasy AGE and 13th Age are also functional cyberpunk systems?

Dungeons and Dragons 5e. It's the fantasy game that lives up to the fantasy game expectation.

Tell me about OSR i have played DCC and basic fantasy before

D&D 5e. If you want low-magic use the classes from Adventures in Middle-Earth.

No and never mentioned anything like that. Don't lump posts together just because we're all anons.

OP requested a fantasy system, so answering "DnD is fine for that" is more legit than if he wants a "generic system for anything", but even that doesn't change the fact that DnD isn't generic.

HERO

Maybe you should pay more attention to what you're actually arguing and replying to.

>...13th age
>Why 13th age and not 5e?
>D&D's not generic
>Sure it is, it's not hard-keyed to Faerun
>it doesn't count as generic because it's only fantasy

If isn't also arguing that 13th Age can do cyberpunk then it's a total nonsequiter.

5e becase let's be honest...

It's epic.

Epic for the win.

Exaggerate the ellipses more. Don't shy away from the acronym. You're doing well.

openlegendrpg.com

I like the system, it is generic, it handles fantasy well, and it's completely free.I haven't seen the setting they pushed for it, but it's not baked into the rules in any case.

I've seen that around, it looks interesting. How does it play?

>Savage World

Savage Worlds is one of the most aggressively awful systems I've ever played. It takes serious effort to choose practically the worst resolution system imaginable. I'd rather play fucking Exalted than Savage Worlds, at least its base mechanics do not contain epicycles.

>13th Age.

13th Age is not generic, and also is a shitty clone of a tabletop Diablo attempt.

There is no such thing as a good generic system for playing fantasy games. Every system that attempts to do everything within the genre sacrifices ability to do anything well.

That said, DnD 3.X with its E6 houserule set offers the most robust support for vanilla fantasy gaming that is an equal mix of combat and questing/exploration.

Riddle of Steel/Iron Throne are better for lower, grittier end of vanilla fantasy with main focus on combat.

Well, that explains your post. In that case I can understand your train of thought.

I know that d20 is somewhat generic, but 5e less so even if it evolved out of it. That's all I wanted to say.

Personally I would go with Basic anyway, but that's personal preference.

Well, it plays fine. Fights are a little bit tense because the dice explode and a sudden explosion can change the battle dramatically. I was wary of this going in but it's turned out quite fun, especially if you are in a group that can turn that sort of thing, narratively, into something interesting.

As for character creation, if you have a strong concept and spend some time gaining mastery of the feats and boon/bane system you can really make whatever thing you come up with. If you are the type that relies on mechanical options and decisions in creation you can do that as well, it's pretty easy to find something interesting that a feat or something will let you do and then reverse engineering a character that utilizes it. Since the system doesn't have baked in flavor, and because you have something like constraints or a direction by your choices, I find that creativity comes quite readily after that.

>Dungeons and Dragons 5e. It's the fantasy game that lives up to the fantasy game expectation.

I expect from a fantasy game to being able to model Conan the Barbarian nearly always succeeding on tasks where Bob the Random Peasant would nearly always fail. 5E does not deliver even something this basic.

The two I see most often in /OSRG/ are Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and ACKS.
LotFP isn't anywhere near universal, in fact it's basically just the best of the systems that try and fic AD&D, and a good system if you really want to do Old School Role-playing, but don't want to deal with THAC0 and the like.
ACKS has a wider variety to it, feels more like Late-era AD&D, with all the supplements and support and alternative classes and kits.
Both of these are Race-as-class, class-based games, so there's that.

>Savage World
Lame Wild-West wargame adopted for roleplaying.
>13th Age.
Shitty 4e-lite clone with dumb-ass escalation die mechanic that adds nothing interesting and is just meta bullshit.

D6 fantasy
Mythras classic fantasy

>13th Age is not generic, and also is a shitty clone of a tabletop Diablo attempt.

13th Age is very loosely based on 4e, not 3.x.

Generic systems aren't truly generic. Fantasy is is also a very wide genre. So there's no correct answer to this question, instead there's a lot of possible answers depending on what sort of gameplay you want, and what sort of fantasy you want to play.

Something more deadly but heroic and were players have various options for character creations, also some kind of freeform magic or just a flexible system

also ways for characters to be teid in the setting

5e is many things, and many of them good, but "epic" is not one of them.

Hmm, interesting.

Your best option is to play Making your own system you lazy nigger

If you are looking for generic systems only, Savage Worlds seems to fit the bill the most with the least amount of splats. The combat is pretty deadly because any attack dice can explode, but the players get to cheat with "bennies". The character and magic system are "build your own" type, and it overall runs pretty fast. Characters aren't tied to the setting much, aside from the possibility/ease of homebrewing setting specific races and Flaws (every character should have some of those).

Non-generic, Barbarians of Lemuria has an entirely freeform magic system (but requires wizards to go through all sorts of shit to use it) and runs really fast, got a very nice Sword and Sorcery (and sandals) feel.

ACKS doesn't have a huge amount of supplements (it has three books out at the minute, and only one of them is really necessary for a complete experience).

BUT the thing that ACKS has is a race / class / magic system creation system. So you can build your own magic system using the maths presented in the books and slot that into your fantasy world.

Also, the Heroic Fantasy book is coming out soon and that'll cover every woefully abandoned swords and sorcery or low fantasy setting.

>13th Age is very loosely based on 4e, not 3.x.

Yes, and 4E was an attempt to remove from 3.X everything that interfered with delivering tabletop Diablo experience.

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It's shitty diablo clones all the way around!

GW lifted the tyranids from starcraft, Gary based D&D on Diablo, WotC even continued to copy Hearthstone with their cheap paper knockoff, and even Overwatch got copied by Infinity. Blizzard just can't catch a break.

This is the lamest bait Ive ever seen. I wish there was a way to keep you from getting your (you)

I was trying to go for sarcasm to highlight a point, not the bait that would've been too obvious, but I'll take that (you) anyway.

After all, a system is just a chassis to run the narrative.
The question is what sort of story you want to tell together with your players.
Do you want something that simulates the chaos and violence of combat with every decision having tactical value?
Of mortal men facing the supernatural ?
I would recommend a crunchy system
Personally: Mythras/Runequest

Or is it more important to tell WHO the heroes are and what makes them the people they are ?
Living through the heroes journey and having their decisions more important than what sort of chest plate they wear.
You might want a system that is more narrative based.
Here I really, really, REALLY recommend Heroquest 2/glorantha.

There is also everything in between.
Iron heroes looks nice if you like it a little more crunchy and pushing special resources around.
So does 4e

Made me chuckle

It depends of the feel.
For example I like gritty fantasy, where you can lose a hand, monsters are very bad news and magic is comonplace but with a more folkore, ritualistic feel and normally you have to deal with spirits or the fey.
Books or inspiration for it would be more like a Conanesque, the First law, Farfhard and the grey mouser,Fighting fantasy games,Dominions/Call of Elysium
LOTR, or Elric style of fantasy, so I play BRP based ones like Mytrhas or Runequest, with the magic a bit toned down in than you recoup magic points slower or in place of power.

Sounds interesting, do you use all combat options in runequest?

Fantasy supplement for Open D6 by West End Games. It is also free.

Freeform magic with ability to create your own spells, and this system could easily be generalised for any superpowers. Changing skill/attribute list or adding new skills and abilities isn't much of a problem either - if you want to better tie the game to a certain setting.