Quote from: Rincewind1;663879Well, I'm biased because the whole mechanics of RQ/BRP, after years of vain pursuit, became my "go to" mechanic, all their imperfection (and my various houserules) included. But I can see what you mean - I have no experience with GURPS, but it's supplement to add to the generic base certainly comes to mind when talking about BRP.

I was talking specifically about the Basic Roleplaying bigass gold book you referenced, not the mechanics themselves. Magic World, Runequest, Superworld, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu...I play or have played all of these. BRP is great, that gold book...ehhh.

Quote from: Brad;663884I was talking specifically about the Basic Roleplaying bigass gold book you referenced, not the mechanics themselves. Magic World, Runequest, Superworld, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu...I play or have played all of these. BRP is great, that gold book...ehhh.

Ah. Well I can understand the gripe - it is indeed a bit flavourless. But then again, aren't most universal systems, when presented with "core ruleset", at least?

Quote from: Zachary The First;663830OK, so I've messed around with BRP, read the Renaissance SRD, played with OpenQuest 1e, and downloaded Age of Shadow.

With all of these RuneQuest/BRP-derived systems (including the originals themselves), if I wanted to run a game that encompassed the following?:

-On the lighter side of rules-medium

-Restricted magic to only certain characters (such as practicing mages or alchemists)

-Will work for a traditional fantasy campaign (elves, dwarves, halflings, humans, etc.)

-Doesn't break combat into 27 different possible actions/reactions (more simplified; crits, wound tables, a few basic moves are ok, etc)

-Allows for some character customization

Given those requirements, I think your best bet is Magic World. It meets all of those requirements. I own the BRP Gold book, MRQ2, Legend, Runequest 6, OpenQuest 1, and Magic World and I think straight out of the box Magic World is the most like what you describe.

Should you decide to go the OPenQuest route, the OpenQuest Developers Kit for OpenQuest 1 is still freely and legally downloadable from D101 Games:

http://d101games.com/books/openquest/openquest-developers-kit/

Quote from: Rincewind1;663893Ah. Well I can understand the gripe - it is indeed a bit flavourless. But then again, aren't most universal systems, when presented with "core ruleset", at least?

Yep.

I advocate a very high setting/system/gamestyle match, and so generics need a lot of tweaking in my book, because few generics are any good at supporting what makes a campaign different.

Quote from: LordVreeg;663927Yep.

I advocate a very high setting/system/gamestyle match, and so generics need a lot of tweaking in my book, because few generics are any good at supporting what makes a campaign different.

Agreed - a generic system is just a set of pieces you need to put into order.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the opinions offered thus far. Very much appreciated.

Quote from: Zachary The First;663830-Wait for OpenQuest 2 (coming out soon)
-BRP with Classic Fantasy
-Mongoose Legend
-Basic Roleplaying With Classic Fantasy
-RuneQuest 6
-Age of Shadow
-Use the Renaissance SRD, strip out the black powder stuff.

Going back to basics here: Legend and RQ6 is basically the same thing however RQ6 does a massive amount of refining, tweaking, clarifying and providing customisation options while Legend doesn't. To be harsh, Legend is a classic Mongoose product where quality control is sacrificed for the sake of having something on the shelf.

Classic Fantasy is being revised. The new version appears to being rebuilt using the Legend OGC.

Magic World is BRP optimised for generic fantasy.

Open Quest I was built on built on the (incredibly botched) Mongoose RQ I SRD. Newt managed to take the workable bits of RQI and turn it into a light, highly playable game engine. I missed the OQ2 kickstarter but I believe it is essentially an evolution of OQ1 with stretch goal-based extra content.  Renaissance and Age of Shadow were both built on the OQ1 SRD

Essentially you have 3 things to choose from.
RQ6/Legend (will call it RQ6 from now on)
Magic World
OQX

All of these will do vanilla fantasy with magic only for specialists perfectly well. None of them require grids or a whole range of tactical combat support. In my experience, however, there are two big mechanical differences between RQ6 and Magic world/OQX which have a real Marmite love/loathe impact.

1) RQ6 has hit locations but no general HPs, MW/OQX has general HPs but no hit locations.
This means that in MW/OQ6 death occurs through HP loss as usual. In RQ6, death only occurs when a critical location (head, chest or abdomen) receives twice its HPs in damage. In RQ6 you could get an arrow in each arm and in the leg and still be no closer to dying with maybe a total of 15 HPs worth of damage and be no closer to dying. On the other hand, a single 10 point axe blow to the head could kill you instantly. In MW/OQ6, 15 HPs of damage is probably enough for death.

This makes RQ6 a lot more unpredictable because you don't have the comfort blanket of HPs attrition to judge how long you can keep going for.

2) RQ6 has folded all manner of special attacks (knockback attacks, tripping, disarming etc) and special results (what happens when you roll a critical) into a single mechanic that only comes into play if you do better than the opponent. MW/OQX use the traditional BRP approach of having a bunch of different modifiers and procedures for special attacks and parries and then having a matrix of effects depending on the interaction of attack and parry.

The way it works is this.
MW/OQ6. To make a knockback attack, look up the rules for knockback attacks, apply modifiers and follow the procedure. Opponent maybe able to resist in some way.
RQ6. To make a knockback attack, just attack normally. If you get a special effect you can knock the opponent backwards as a special effect.

This means that RQ6 has a very simple decision making process before you roll the dice. Basically if it's your turn to attack in melee then you can either (this is a slight simplification) attack, try to run away, or delay so you can save your attack for a parry.

In theory this makes combat simpler and faster because you don't have to make many decisions until you get a special effect. Some people though just don't grok it or get paralysed by decisions.
E.g. OK, I want to knock the orc backwards. Hey, I got a special effect, brilliant, orc croquet here I come. Hang on. Maybe I should hit it in the head instead. Or what if I don't knock it back far enough, maybe I should try and trip it except my roll isn't brilliant. Let's have a look at the special effects options to see if there's something better I can choose.

Five minutes later and the rest of the table (orc included) has lost the will to live.

If the group groks special effects they suddenly become the best thing since sliced bread because they effortlessly produce all manner of things you want to do because things like disarming, tripping and so on become as central to combat as simply degrading HPs.

3) A bonus. RQ6/OQX both resolve everything through skill rolls. MW has retained the resistance table and characteristic rolls as well as skill rolls. RQ6/OQX have also stripped back the number of skills. This tends to make the GM's job easier in that you're not always trying to figure out which is the best mechanic for a particular issue. On the other hand, like every simplification, it occasionally feels awkward.

In summary: if you imagine Call of Cthulhu tweaked for Vanilla fantasy you have Magic World.

OQX looks like a radically stripped down CoC with new stuff added on top.

RQ6 is a radical rebuild which on the surface looks similar to CoC but gets there by a different method.

That said, they all feature rolling your skill or less on d100 and stat blocks for all of them are about as interchangeable as pre D&D 3 stat blocks.

My preference is RQ6, especially if GMing, but I would happily play any. RQ6 gives you the greatest number of tools and advice to manage a wide range of settings. It does though take a lot longer to "get" RQ6 than OQX/MW if you are already familiar with BRP games.

Ok, that was longer than I intended.

Surprised no-one has mentioned Chaosium's Magic World.

It's a complete, in-print BRP fantasy game in one volume, smaller and less expensive than RQ6 or the Big Gold Book.

I much prefer it to OpenQuest, better production values for one thing.

Quote from: deleriad;664179

No, seriously, that's an awesome overview.

So, I guess my next question is: How complicated is RQ6 to run and play? I really like what you're saying about the special combat effects (which seemingly negates my concern over 27 combat options, but I've also heard folks say it's a pretty massive tome that can be daunting. But here, it sounds as if it's pretty common-sense overall.

Would not having a lot of BRP experience actually be a perk, as you seem to suggest in your last part there?

Oh, and anyone feel free to answer; that's not just directed at deleriad.

Quote from: LordVreeg;663927Yep.

I advocate a very high setting/system/gamestyle match, and so generics need a lot of tweaking in my book, because few generics are any good at supporting what makes a campaign different.

I consider following to be the big five generics that have the scope to implement a specific campaign.

GURPS
Basic Roleplaying/D100
Hero System
Savage Worlds
Fate/Fudge

The first three focus more on traditional RPG genres while the later two have focus more on off the wall setting support. Although at this point in all of these game you can do pretty any setting you want.

Note that none of the above games are ready "out of the box" for an arbitary setting. However they are more ready than having to come up with House Rules for a game to fit the setting you want.

They also have a cost disadvantage coming up with house rules for D&D campaign may be a little more work but cost nothing. With GURPS, and the other system above you get ready made subsystems that you can cobble together to get the exact game you want but you have to own the books in the product line that cover those areas.

The exact approach that works for an individual is, as always, dependent on their circumstances.

In Zach's case I recommend going with Legends at first then switching over to OpenQuest2 at a later point if that is a better fit. Get one copy of Runequest 6 and crib any rules he likes. Use Legends (and later Openquest 2) as a base document modified with the rules he wants. Print it out.

Then add anything else he wants from the entire range of BRP/Legend/MongRQ/Rune6/OpenQuest line of products.

The current situation with D100 RPGs is like classic D&D. There is a family of highly related products stemming back to the late 70s which material easily taken from one to use in another. Like classic D&D and the OSR the best approach is not to overthink just pick one that "feels" right, jump in with both feet, and build from there.

Within a year of regular play you will know what you like and have the d100 tweaked the way you liked it.

Quote from: Zachary The First;664199So, I guess my next question is: How complicated is RQ6 to run and play? I really like what you're saying about the special combat effects (which seemingly negates my concern over 27 combat options)

It is very straightforward to run... up until the point that combat starts. Then you have a lot of factors to consider: weapon size (which affects parrying), weapon reach, the action point economy, special effects, situational modifiers, and tracking damage sustained to hit locations - for characters and NPCs. If you enjoy detailed tactical combat, it won't phase you. If you prefer abstraction, it may be a lot to juggle.

Quotebut I've also heard folks say it's a pretty massive tome that can be daunting.

It's a tome, but the layout adds page-count for the benefit of readability. There are also 5 fleshed-out magic systems that pad the contents. You may not have need of all of them.

If we were to go with RQ6, are there any good resources/handouts out there to help manage combat flow and modifiers? I heard there is a phone app for like 99 cents--is that worth it?

Quote from: Zachary The First;664206If we were to go with RQ6, are there any good resources/handouts out there to help manage combat flow and modifiers? I heard there is a phone app for like 99 cents--is that worth it?

You should just play Age of Heroes (d100 with strike/parry/damage system), shatter all your dreams of coping with game systems, burn out and find a new hobby. You'll be happier in the long run

Quote from: Zachary The First;664206If we were to go with RQ6, are there any good resources/handouts out there to help manage combat flow and modifiers? I heard there is a phone app for like 99 cents--is that worth it?

There are some GM Reference sheets on the Design Mechanism's downloads page. The phone app is mentioned here, but it's Android only. (As far as I'm aware).