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[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

I really like this InSpectre system - I think I'm gonna have to play a game of this. And the rules really do look pretty versatile.

I ran UnSpeakable at a convention for total n00bs who only joined my game because the game they *really* wanted was full. They wound up having a great time and had no problem learning the system.

I think it's a great choice whenever you are trying to emulate TV or movies. On my blog (mostly dedicated to OD&D, but occasionally mentioning other games,) I adapted InSpectres to cover Millennium, Lost, and Carnival of Souls.

For an adaptation, I generally recommend starting with InSpectres and adding hazards from octaNe. It makes a pretty easy-to-use core.

   You have a blog about OD&D? Mind providing a link to it? I like D&D and tried to do a blog about it for a while but it wasn't just D&D and I ended up not being able to keep it up and got pulled in to many directions though it is still out there and I occasionally post on it. I mostly just read blogs now.

[talysman]

I really like this InSpectre system - I think I'm gonna have to play a game of this. And the rules really do look pretty versatile.

I ran UnSpeakable at a convention for total n00bs who only joined my game because the game they *really* wanted was full. They wound up having a great time and had no problem learning the system.

I think it's a great choice whenever you are trying to emulate TV or movies. On my blog (mostly dedicated to OD&D, but occasionally mentioning other games,) I adapted InSpectres to cover Millennium, Lost, and Carnival of Souls.

For an adaptation, I generally recommend starting with InSpectres and adding hazards from octaNe. It makes a pretty easy-to-use core.

   You have a blog about OD&D? Mind providing a link to it? I like D&D and tried to do a blog about it for a while but it wasn't just D&D and I ended up not being able to keep it up and got pulled in to many directions though it is still out there and I occasionally post on it. I mostly just read blogs now.

I didn't want to shill my own blog, but here it is:

http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/

The small amount of InSpectres-related stuff I did is all grouped under one tag:

http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/search/label/inspectres

[Telgin]

I really like GURPS, even if I've only played it a fairly small amount.  I enjoy the complexity and flexibility.  I'll avoid the D20 comparison, since that's been done already.

Of course, it does have its drawbacks in that you really need like 4 or 5 books to do most settings well, and that's a lot of referencing to do.  And of course with so many options it's easy to forget stuff and get lost.

It's worth it to me though.

There are a few other systems that try to do the same job, but I don't really have any experience with many others.

[GlyphGryph]

Of course, it does have its drawbacks in that you really need like 4 or 5 books to do most settings well, and that's a lot of referencing to do.

See, I think this is why I never really "got" GURPS. I would rather stab myself in the face than have to go through that many books to host a game. I'm not sure I could /get/ through that many books. I literally wouldn't know what they were for, or what I was doing, and then I would die out of sheer bewilderment, and my players would be without a host.

The concept of needing 4 or 5 entire books, for anything, just totally boggles my mind.

[Criptfeind]

Huh. Is that really differnt from D&D I am wondering? I mean. In a D&D in a setting you need at least four books. PH, DMG, MM and then the setting book. And that is core only. There is at least half a dozen other books that are considered by many to be normal to use (the complete series) then the dozens of other books which are nice to at least have on hand to pull a monster or spell out of once in a while since they all mesh thematically.

[Scelly9]

I generally go without the setting book anyway. I find it better to create my own world. The problem is, it uses up MASSIVE amounts of time.

[talysman]

Huh. Is that really differnt from D&D I am wondering? I mean. In a D&D in a setting you need at least four books. PH, DMG, MM and then the setting book. And that is core only. There is at least half a dozen other books that are considered by many to be normal to use (the complete series) then the dozens of other books which are nice to at least have on hand to pull a monster or spell out of once in a while since they all mesh thematically.

Which edition?

You can get by with just the first three in 1st edition. Technically, since there's a monster list in the back of the DMG, you can get by with just two. If you don't have a copy, there's an all-in-one-volume clone, OSRIC, which will work just fine.

With OD&D, I use only Men & Magic and Monsters & Treasure, most of the time. They are very small books... and I have them in PDF on my e-reader, anyways. There's only a couple mechanics to learn from U&WA, anyways, and I have the mechanics memorized, plus there are tricks to building monsters or improvising prices, so I actually mostly just refer to my notes, rather than to a book. I have a copy of Swords & Wizardry Complete at the table for the players, if they want to look up spells or prices. The experience is roughly the same with other clones (Labyrinth Lord is one book, for example.)

[Telgin]

Technically you can get by with just the Basic Set, which is two books: a player's book (mostly for character creation and some basic rules) and the game master's book (which goes into the mechanics more thoroughly and lists out a lot of optional stuff such as details from environmental hazards to how difficult it is for PCs to find jobs when not adventuring).

The problem is that I'd imagine a substantial number of players are looking to play a typical fantasy game though (certainly not all, but a lot), and to do that with the Basic Set requires a good bit of work for the GM.  He'd have to come up with stats for a lot of monsters and a lot of equipment and maybe spells if they're in the game.

That's where the other books come in.  They're mostly advice on how to do this sort of thing.  The Fantasy book for example goes into a lot of detail on how to build a fantasy world, provides some templates for common critters and character types, provides some more spells, things like that.

It's all up to the GM how much effort he or she is going to put into coming up with stuff on their own.  The books like Fantasy, Low Tech and Magic are huge helps, but not required.

Although it is still a bit telling that you could almost consider that 5 must read books to do a proper fantasy setting.  Or you could skip them and use the Dungeon Fantasy PDFs to just do a proper D&D knock off, but it's still extra stuff.

It's the price you pay for it though.  GURPS has rules for everything if you want it.  Supposedly one of the books has rules on raising a biological spaceship as a zombie.  No joke.

[Scelly9]

For some reason I REALLY enjoyed the Bio-engineering rules book. It seems like it would be fun.