Some days just wind up like that. Right behind a mention of CGI greatness, I point out for our dice-rolling brethren that the site for Green Ronin's universal d20 system True20, is up. This will make sense to precisely nine of you, but Steve Kenson has stripped out all the sacred cows and built the system GURPS should have been (if you dig point-buy instead of level-based, go drink in Mutants & Masterminds instead, soon to be all-genres thanks to the upcoming Masterminds Manual.)
Return to your character sheets and go about your business.
17 comments:
Only 9 of us? Me thinks you are underestimating the strength of the geek contingent...
-PS
I love GURPS 3rd's character creation, but am less fond of their superhero rules. I love M&M's superhero rules, but I'm less fond of their character creation.
I'll give it a shot. Maybe Green Ronin will give me a nice surprise.
Thanks for the true20 link! I'm always looking for systems to read and pick apart.
And I am a fan of M&M in the worst way.
I'm definitely a character points person myself. But I'll check out True20 anyway.
i actually prefer the character buy system myself. True20 is about the best level-based generic system I've seen, though, and a chunk of it is derived from M&M. M&M itself may be geared for capes play, but te forthcoming Manul will give scale and tone rules additions, and then we'll have a complete system from them.
Even with Mastermind's Manual, I don't know that M&M (or True 20, for that matter) would be great for gritty games. GURPS gives more variety at the low end, so (for a martial arts example) a master of Muay Thai feels different than a Shao-lin monk.
For supers, M&M is about the best.
But that's just me. I liked Buffy season 6 & 7.
It is an odd experience -- to one who grew up at a time when admitting to playing role playing games was akin to publically confessing a deep carnal interest in opossums, and being found to own a cigar box of (say) Grenadier warg riders was as peculiar and damning as to be discovered to have a shed full of opossums who walked funny -- to stumble on respectable and functional adults discussing the subject.
Role playing games that is.
Not opossums.
Possums are hot.
The "O" in "opossum" is for the Oh-face...
Possums are hot.
The "O" in "opossum" is for the Oh-face...
Copper wire brush.
Eye sockets.
Twist and scrub.
Repeat as necessary.
Have you looked at Primetime Adventures? If you're a GURPS/D20 fan, then it may lack the crunchiness your gaming group likes, but my experience has been very good, the actual play writeups I've seen have been entertaining, and its goal ("Play the greatest TV show that never was!") seems like it might be of interest.
GURPS 4th addition rules cleared up most of the problems from the previous system. Still only uses six-sided dice, though.
I'm just shy of 40 and still play once a week, these days with my 10 year old daughter.
Pff. GURPF 4th is a disaster. The kind of system that makes Champions look simple and straightforward. I'm convinced they playtested it with a bunch of gearheads and theoretical math majors. And that's even before we get to "GURPS Powers" which seems to have been written solely to be as useless and confusing as possible.
I played GURPS 3rd for over a decade, collected just about every GURPS book I could get my hand on, filled up entire legal pads with GURPS characters just for the joy of creating the characters. If I can't make sense of GURPS 4th, what chance does a neophyte have?
I'm going to stick with GURPS 3rd for now, perhaps with some of M&M's superpower rules tacked on. It may not be perfect, but at least I can understand it.
Actually, I'll take back part of what I just said. GURPS 4th isn't that bad. I think many of their changes were more-or-less unnecessary, but I can figure out how to build a GURPS character using 4th's rules. But the 3rd edition still makes more sense to me.
And "GURPS Powers" still sucks.
Once I played the original Champions I never went back to D&D, so comparing GURPS to Champions doesn't seem like such a bad thing. I actually like the fact they added % based enhancements, etc. It's due to Champions I can calculate fractions in my head!
GURPS combat can get very complex, but the complexity is purely optional.
I haven't looked at GURPS Powers, yet.
It's actually less like what the GURPS system should have been, and more like what the new D&D third edition should have been in the first place. The "sacred cows" were left in to placate old-school D&D gamers and make sure that they made the transition from 2nd to 3rd edition.
And, even if they had to leave that stuff in for 3rd edition, its is at least what d20 Modern should have been like - strip out the sacred cows and stop the mooing! I've got my preorder in for the True20 hardcover and I can't wait to get it.
I just got the email for the updated True 20 pdf. The new document is a significant improvement over the original (225 pages to 95) in volume, but it is also an improvement in content. The "first edition" was pretty much a cut and paste from Blue Rose, but this edition really shows off the power of the deconstructed mechanics Green Ronin put together.
Highly Recommended.
You all might want to check out the one system I have seen that takes D20 and shows it how to play the game.
http://www.spycraftccg.com/
Spycraft 2nd edition is the best D20 system on the market. I can play any time period I want and can adapt the rules to any setting.
Hida Reju
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