I'm not sure I really buy the whole "Generic systems can only get you X amount of the way as a "dedicated" system." GURPS has more than enough options to tweak it to be exactly what you want. What I disagree with is that a generic system will necessarily only do a given genre or setting 80% as well as a dedicated game. So we have a mix of those different approaches. Two of us will play anything someone wants to run, but will almost always run GURPS. A couple of people in my regular group are into using different systems, so when they run things, they mix it up.
I agree with your take on the trade-offs between sticking with a generic and learning new dedicated systems. You can use all the options to make the system fit your concept of the setting or genre just the way you want it, and not have to hope the designer of a dedicated game sees things kind of close to the way you do. This is another place where a big, generic, toolkit game like GURPS or HERO shines. If GURPS system were tied to a dedicated low-tech fantasy game, for example (The Fantasy Trip 5th edition, perhaps, or now Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game), it would be one of my favorite games, just for the way the system works.Īlso, I am very rarely 100% into any dedicated game's default setting, and prefer to do my own world-building. In my case, there are few systems that I enjoy running or playing anywhere near as much as GURPS. Especially since it seems the people who want that still have access to it.Ĭlick to expand.My mileage is varying somewhat. But I don't foresee game design swinging back far enough to give us something like GURPS again. Just give me something I can hack into the shape I desire. If nothing else, there'll be people like me who reach rules saturation and simply cannot bring themselves to learn another game's rules. I don't see generic systems ever going away. Even our big name generic systems don't release generic supplements (Savage Worlds had three, and that's a drop in the Savage Worlds ocean), they release settings with custom rules additions and modifications for those settings.
And although it doesn't get as much play as it did some years back, the mantra of "system matters" still holds water and plenty o' peeps want a game where the system is custom built for a particular tone, setting, and story.
The trend is for games to focus more on building narratives through abstract and simple rules. Mostly because that's not how game design has evolved. But I don't think we're going to see a big resurgence of the Mega Crunch Generic System anytime soon. HERO, GURPS, and BRP haven't been the new hotness for some time, but they have their dedicated fans. Fate gets a lot of love, Savage Worlds has some dedicated fans, and Genesys is trucking along nicely as the new thing.
Generic rules are still a big item in the RPG marketplace.
0 kommentar(er)
