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[talysman]

off topic: PTTG??, you reminded me, I need to find a D&D game to play at some point. I like it, but when I play it with my friends (as DM or not) it tends to devolve into extreme sillyness (including, at one point, a spell that summoned a useless human made out of pumpkin which sang what came to be known as the 'pumpkin song'. after about 3 games of it being there, a rule was added that a battle that goes on longer than 10 turns with the pumpkin man, everyone in the fight goes insane and dies)

On topic: never played, only just heard of it.

If you have a webcam and a mic and are willing to play online, do a search for "ConstantCon" and join Google+. There are near-24/7 pickup games of D&D and other systems in the Google hangouts. You can find more info about ConstantCon on the Playing D&D with Porn Stars blog. It's been going on for months.

And yeah, some of those pickup games are GURPS.

[Capntastic]

The GURPS as Linux analogy works, because it's infinitely flexible and there's toolsets for basically anything you would wanna do.  I do not like Linux because sometimes I just want to get stuff done rather than worry about my toolchain or how to set things up.  Sometimes I enjoy Windows because I know that the majority of other people are going to know what I'm talking about when describing a problem or something.  I dunno, it's a tradeoff. 

My favorite "do whatever" system is One Roll Engine, specifically Wild Talents.  Character sheets and powers make sense to me, and I can look at them and instantly know what's going on.  It's flexible enough, while simultaneously being simple enough, that I can come up with an arbitrary power and instantly know the point cost without having to refer to a book.  Basically it's my favorite system.  I love it!!

Like I know for GURPS mecha you can spend hours statting out how much horsepower your mecha's engine puts out and how much force their super punch does or whatever, but for ORE you'd just go "okay I want my mecha to have a super punch, let's give it a Super Punch power, it should be about this strong, and have these extras and flaws attached to it".  There's a nice blend of abstraction and granularity with it.

[Aqizzar]

Like I know for GURPS mecha you can spend hours statting out how much horsepower your mecha's engine puts out and how much force their super punch does or whatever, but for ORE you'd just go "okay I want my mecha to have a super punch, let's give it a Super Punch power, it should be about this strong, and have these extras and flaws attached to it".  There's a nice blend of abstraction and granularity with it.

This is the criticism I always hear about Gurps, and the response is this: Just because some super granular detail exists, doesn't mean you have to use it.  The old vehicle design system especially was designed for people with too much time on their hands.  You can just stat mecha for instance like giant people, or even as normal people and just remember what scale you're dealing with when working out contests.

[Scelly9]

I like GURPS for the settings. The space rules are nice, too but it seems that a few rules are missing.

[Capntastic]

I understand you don't have to use it.  But it's been my experience, when there are tools like that floating around, people are gonna want to use them.  Especially if they bought the rulebooks for 'em.

I don't even remember how GURPS handled basic combat or contests (though I think there were a lot of attack/defense modifiers or something, for melee dudes in particular?), but ORE's virtue is that everything uses the same dice mechanic:  Roll the dice pool, match the sets, and that tells you everything you need to know about the result, from damage, speed, location, etc.

I will go on about ORE now: 

If Exampleguy has a body stat of 3d and and brawling skill of 3d, we roll 6d to determine his karate pool.  A dice roller gives me the resulting sets of 2x6, 2x10.  Exampleguy can choose either set, punching you in the torso or the head.

That's how basic skills work, but powers are built by determining what they do.  A power has at least one quality, either being 'attack', 'defend' or 'useful' (which means anything that isn't attacking or defending). 

A basic flight power would just have the useful quality, with a speed capacity (how far you can fly per round).  The range would be determined by how many dice in the pool you have, so 10d in flight would be something ridiculous like, I think, 5 miles per round.  There's a chart for these capacities, for speed, ranges, mass, etc.  From this you can determine how far you can use your telepathy, or how much gold you can summon per round.  You can get extras to boost them even further, and do other things.

But what if you want your flight power to also let you defend?  It makes sense that a dude who can fly 5 miles a round should be able to zip out of the way of a train or whatever.  You simply give it the defends quality as well, which tacks an extra 2 points per die to the cost.  You could even turn your flight into a straight up attack power, allowing you to headbutt enemies or whatever.  As an example, it seems kind of bland to view everything based on if it attacks, defends, or whatever else, but there's enough extras and flaws to really make things stand out.

The Progenitor setting has some of the best superpowers around.  Even the ridiculous combat powers are set up in such a way that there's far more to it than "more dice wins".

[talysman]

Porn Stars blog.

y'see, I was thinking 'maybe...' up until this point.

I suffer from a severe lack of webcams and microphones, though.

Amusingly, the blog has nothing to do with porn. It's gaming stuff only. He just happens to be a guy who works in porn who plays (fully clothed) D&D with other people who work in porn. There's a bunch of other non-porn people pushing ConstantCon, and I just discovered there's a non-porn-related blog at constantcon.blogspot.com ... so you can check out information without danger of nakedity. I only mentioned that blog because it's one whose name I remember off the top of my head, because honestly: now that you've heard the name Playing D&D with Porn Stars, are you ever going to forget it?

But I understand about the lack of webcams/microphones. That's why I don't participate in ConstantCon. Plus, I have no guarantees of a set computer schedule, so I can't plan on an online game.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

Porn Stars blog.

y'see, I was thinking 'maybe...' up until this point.

I suffer from a severe lack of webcams and microphones, though.

   Zak's blog is actually a decent blog for things D&D though you have to say your an adult to view it because an occasional NSFW photo appears as his play group is as the name suggests. One thing to note though is that it tends more towards the OSR side of things though I am sure you can find any edition of D&D at ConstantCon along with a number of other games. As for not having a webcam or mic I don't think you actually need the cam and if your really wanting a game mics don't have to be to expensive, I bought mine for under 20 though I personally should invest in a better one as I do a lot of lets plays.
   As for GURPS I like the system a lot and I have read a good number of the books though never actually played a game of it. I personally believe that its one of the rule systems that has stayed closer to the roots of tabletop RPGs then modern D&D. Basically the game will really depend on who you have DMing it. This is something that modern D&D has a stated goal of removing, the affect of the DM on the game so that every session can be a "fun" session. On Travelers GURPS I have to say I would rather just stick with actual Travelers but for a while the GURPS version was the only one you could legally buy.
   On the having the books side of it I will say that that means less now then it has ever meant. I play in a 3.5 D&D game and the group has all the books as pdf's. When we played World of Darkness it was the same. We do have the core books in hardcover mind you but nowadays, especially if the version of the game you want to play is no longer sold its never been easier to "get" all the books you need though if the game is still available and you like it I highly advise getting copies of the books you use even if only to show support for the game you like. Also if you happen to like older editions of D&D I advise checking out the OSR movement as there are a number of retroclones which allow you to completely legally play even the oldest editions of D&D and there is more new material for them then since they stopped being supported.

[GlyphGryph]

I mentioned ORE (well, the game that started it) on page one as one of the games I've tried and enjoyed, but to be honest I don't enjoy it /that/ much more than GURPS.

Anyone know of any good, generic scene-based systems?

[talysman]

I mentioned ORE (well, the game that started it) on page one as one of the games I've tried and enjoyed, but to be honest I don't enjoy it /that/ much more than GURPS.

Anyone know of any good, generic scene-based systems?

The system behind InSpectres and octaNe is highly adaptable. Same die roll mechanic in each, some slightly different rules that you can still mix and match, additional rules in the free variants UnSpeakable and Blood & Steel. Those four games cover "Ghostbusters"-ish comedy/mystery (InSpectres,) gonzo post-apoc (octaNe,) Lovecraftian horror (UnSpeakable) and swords & sorcery (Blood & Steel.) There's another published game called Against the Reich which covers pulp action/adventure, but I don't have those rules, so I can't comment on any rules differences.

[Muz]

So, uh, where do I find more about GURPS?

Heh, I was thinking of making some kind of 'open-source' game rules system since I don't like any of the ones I know, but if GURPS works, it might be better.

[freeformschooler]

So, uh, where do I find more about GURPS?

Heh, I was thinking of making some kind of 'open-source' game rules system since I don't like any of the ones I know, but if GURPS works, it might be better.

Look up GURPS Lite. It should tell you a lot of the things you need to know, but it doesn't have everything the main books do.

[GlyphGryph]

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.

[Jackrabbit]

I ran a GURPS game once. It remains the only pen and paper RPG I have ever run, it ran for two sessions and was an enormous failure but my god it was fun to make the setting. The level of detail in GURPS, and the way you can scale it up or down to meet your needs is fantastic and the world building is incredibly fun.

Just wish I actually knew how to GM. Maybe I'll try and gather friends in the real world before trying it out again with the additional challenges of it being online.

[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.

[Gunner-Chan]

Just wish I actually knew how to GM. Maybe I'll try and gather friends in the real world before trying it out again with the additional challenges of it being online.

I'd actually say, online, IF you know the other people well is easier. People that you're really familiar with in person tend to in my experience be just ever so slightly harder to deal with than when you have the added issue of online play.

Though maybe that's just with me? I'm not sure. Gurps is a fun if heavy system at times though. Yet ultimately simple.

And if people are screaming too simple at times, then... Why are you playing? TRPGs are for roleplaying. Not Rollplaying.

Ill also add that MaidRPG is a great game to learn to GM with. It will FORCE you to learn to adapt, and there's very little mechanical fluff to block events.