Okay, so I've mentioned before (or maybe it's just a weird flashback) that I'm gaming on alternate Wednesday nights now. This Wednesday my buddy Kaiser is running a Star Wars game with pre-gen characters and we're using the Mini Six rules for the D6 system. I've been intrigued by these rules, and the regular D6 rules, ever since I came across them. So I'm really looking forward to this game because I will get to see the rules in action. As I slowly build my new fantasy RPG campaign world I'm leaving aside the decision on which set of rules I'll use. My work on the world has been almost system-independant so far. I say "almost" because it will have a D&Dish flavor to it. There will be paladins, orcs, and a few other bits.
However, I still have plenty of time to think about what the final set of rules will be. Right now the contenders are:
- Pathfinder
- Old School Hack (hacked to be customized it for my world)
- D6 (or Mini Six)
- BESM 3rd Edition
- BESM d20
So Wednesday's session will be a major deciding factor in whether Mini Six (and/or the D6 rules) gets voted off the island or not.
What other rules were voted off already? Well, so far we have:
- AD&D
- Chivalry & Sorcery (1st and 2nd Editions)
- D&D 3rd Edition
- Ironclaw
- Basic Role Play (BRP)
- Dark Dungeons
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess
- OSRIC
- Swords & Wizardry
- The Secret Fire
- Microlite74
- Labyrinth Lord
- Palladium Fantasy
A couple sets of rules are still awaiting sentencing by the judge:
- Savage World
- BASH Fantasy Edition
- 13th Age
- Dying Earth RPG
- D&D 4th Edition
- D&D Next (?)
- Exalted
A big part of the problem for me is that I really am torn between rules with lots of detailed crunchy bits (e.g. Pathfinder) with lots of options for everyone and something simpler which runs smoothly at the table (e.g. Old School Hack) but with lower granularity in the crunchy options. I'm also undecided on what amount of power level inflation I want in the game. The player powers at higher levels in D&D/Pathfinder are cool, but a high-level game is very different from a low-level game: it's almost superhero vs. gritty. Do I want the high power levels? Will staying with a lower power level mean that nothing really "big" can happen in a game?
Actually, one of the main things the final rules set must be able to accommodate is customization. I do want the game to have classes/templates/jobs (or whatever the rules set calls them). My earlier posting on the class templates I made up for my BESM game shows the sort of customization I want in this area. To me the types you will meet (or be) in the campaign world are a big part of setting the tone and style of the game. This is a major reason I reject the OSR type rules with only three or four classes (mage/fighter/expert or wizard/fighter/thief/cleric). There's no room there for the customization I require.
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