The Campaign Builder's Guild

This is the official thread for discussing roleplaying systems as rated on the roleplaying wiki page.
[note]To add your rating, edit the page and insert:
{{UScore|Phoenix|5}} where your name replaces Phoenix, and your rating 1-5 replaces the 5.
Be sure to place this above the {{CBGTotal|title}} which totals everything.[/note]
Since the inception of the CBG we have been discussing what systems works best for our campaigns. As the site was original a migrant from the D&D forums, most early settings were d20-based. But more and more I've seen people branching out.

So share your favorite (or least favorite) gaming system. While your at it, be sure to rate it on the wiki. Doing so is easy (see note).

To start off the discussion, my favorite is The Riddle Steel. As others have said, it's complex, but it's also flavorful and about as realistic as it gets without totally bogging down.

I've also been impressed by what I've seen of 4e, at least in theory. But it seems we have many dissenters on that one here.

And the one I most want to learn: GURPs. Sounds pretty good from what I've seen.

Storytelling System and Star Wars Saga = EPIC.

Is Storytelling White Wolf?

Isn't SW Saga pretty close to 4e? (never played it, but I had heard that)

Are we rating just the system, or the background material (the "official setting" or whatever else) too?

What about non-published systems like Guildschool? Oh and as an aside I updated the OWD section. It was still using the old manual style so I changed it to the scripts.

Has anybody played with the Alpha Omega system?  I keep hearing good things from people, but I'm a little mixed with it.  Just curious.

Quote from: PhoenixIs Storytelling White Wolf?

Isn't SW Saga pretty close to 4e? (never played it, but I had heard that)

1) Yes
2) Sort of yes

Saga was kind of an intermediate between 3.5 and 4e, so they say... an opportunity for WotC to improve their Star Wars system so that people would want to play things besides Jedi when it came to strength, and to try some new mechanics. That being said, it's not really that close to 4e. You could say the biggest 4e resemblance would be 1) a change to attacks so people aren't letting off 8/round, and 2) the addition of talents so that characters have a new ability pretty much every level.

Quote from: PhoenixIsn't SW Saga pretty close to 4e? (never played it, but I had heard that)

Star Wars Saga Edition is a real mix bag of d20 Modern, D&D 3.5 and the direction 4E was taking.

Things it shares with d20 Modern:
- The way Weapons are listed and how they are organized
- Character classes who have either a talent or a feat at each level
- Emphasizing a small handful of character classes

Things it shares with 4E:
- No iterative attacks (except for TWF, which has a massive negative)
- Standardization of Penalties (-1, -2, -5, -10)
- Diagonal Movement (2, 2, 2 in stead of 1, 2, 1)
- Emphasis on the PC's as the Heroes of the story
- Encounter based Powers
- Simplified races

Things it shares with 3.5:
- Same basic combat system
- Character Classes with 20 Levels
- Prestige Classes
- Encounter based Powers (akin to Tome of Battle)
- Multiclassing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the systems I enjoy to play... Well there's 3.5, 4E, Star Wars Saga, Story Telling System (Exalted), Legend of the 5 Rings' system and Dark Heresy.

I've checked the wiki and found several systems missing:
* Synergy
* Earthdawn
* Lot5R (original version, not the d20 adaption)
* Fading Suns (also the original system)
* GURPS
* The Dark Eye
(in no particular order; I'm specifically referring to the game systems used by those games and not their implied settings.)

Also, imho there should be a separate section for the various d20 derivates like Revised Star Wars, Everquest d20 (especially EQ2 d20 is very different from standard DnD while still being a d20 game), Babylon 5 d20, and Spycraft.

@Biohazard: another big similarity with 4e is that attacks are resolved with "{Attack} vs {Defense}" instead of the AC/saving throw mechanic from 3[.5].

As an extra bonus for some of us Saga also uses metric.
My current personal favorite is  (Unhallowed Metropolis
A very setting specific system, but the setting is also pretty damn cool.
I have all the Riddle of Steel books, but i find it hard to actually engage my players with the system. The tone of the system is also a bit to feudal/medieval to really mesh with my more exotic taste. That being said, it is a very ingenious system.
In the D20 vein i really like Iron Heroes and hope i can find the time to play it at some point. The rules seem to beckon ideas and to enforce creative character design instead of just serving as trivial templates for stock characters.
I'm really not impressed by GURPS; borrowed the books from a friend and the rules are way to complicated. Rules should have some kind of inherent intuitivity. That being said, the game allows for near-complete creative freedom both for the DM and the player.
Haven't read storyteller yet, but planning on reading up on it so i can play Hunter: the Vigil.
Dark Heresy and Warhammer Fantasy also deserve mention as they are both quite imaginable and well-made and have a good deal of original ideas mechanic-wise.  

As with all the ratings pages, by all means add anything that's missing :)

As mentioned on the discussion page, I'm not sure every subsystem of WW needs to be rated separately. I leave that decision to those that have played more of them than I.

@Sparkletwist: I was thinking of rating the system only, at least so far as it is separable of the fluff. Perhaps another page for rating world fluff?

@Nomadic: my inclination is to stick with published systems. But it's a community project, so add what you feel works.

@CC: Yeah, I actually liked WFRP

There are a lot of systems missing, like the latest L5R game (not the OA), Heroes Unlimited, Star Wars Saga, d20 Modern/Future, the WoW RPG (both the d20 and other versions), etc.

Quote from: Cataclysmic Crow[...] I'm really not impressed by GURPS; borrowed the books from a friend and the rules are way to complicated. Rules should have some kind of inherent intuitivity. That being said, the game allows for near-complete creative freedom both for the DM and the player. [...]

Imho GURPS4 did that a lot better than previous editions of the system. GURPS3 was a mess, that's right, but 4th edition did for GURPS almost the same thing 4th edition did for DnD: cleaning up the system, consolidating mechanics, and making it more intuitive - however, the core concepts stayed the same unlike DnD4.

Quote from: PhoenixAs with all the ratings pages, by all means add anything that's missing :)

I'd like to, but I'm currently too lazy to create a new account (haven't used the wiki before :(). Not having a SSO makes computer scientist Ra-Tiel cry. :-/

Quote from: PhoenixAs mentioned on the discussion page, I'm not sure every subsystem of WW needs to be rated separately. I leave that decision to those that have played more of them than I. [...]

The problem is that the mere differentiation "oWoD" <> "nWoD" doesn't suffice imho.

Take M:tA as an example. M:tA 2nd edition was ridiculously overpowered both in terms of mechanics as well as setting concepts (Space fortresses on Pluto? Magical terminators with lazer eyebeams and nano-claws? WTF?! x.) while M:tA 3rd edition was so down-trodden and hostile to mage characters (ascension war lost, avatar storm, paradox suddenly much more dangerous, ...) that these were basically two completely different game in terms of flavor and theme.

Quote from: Elemental_Elf[...] the WoW RPG (both the d20 and other versions) [...]

Wha?  :huh: Other versions? What other versions are there? I only know of the d20 variant.  :?:

Quote from: Ra-Tiel

Quote from: Elemental_Elf[...] the WoW RPG (both the d20 and other versions) [...]

Wha?  :huh: Other versions? What other versions are there? I only know of the d20 variant.  :?:

I could have sworn there was a non-d20 version of the WoW RPG... Huh, guess I was wrong =/

Quote from: Ra-Tiel

Quote from: /
[/quoteThere is, it's called WoW online :P