Generic RPGs

...and why I like them!

I enjoy customizing the game that I referee. I enjoy world building. I enjoy all the creative aspects of our role-playing hobby, both during preparation and through impromptu rulings and content creation during the game. This is a thinking person's hobby and that is a big reason that I have enjoyed it for nearly half a century!

My introduction to FRP gaming was of course the 1974 edition of the world's most popular role-playing game. The three little brown books require the referee to make several decisions about the game, both before and during play at the table. That appealed to me in the 1970s and continues to do so up to the moment I write this. I would not have it any other way. Even RPG systems that require almost no input from the referee/game-master ae subject to my "tweaking" tendencies. I much prefer to adjust system mechanics and setting details to reflect my own sense of logic and to suit my personal preferences. This is part of the joy I get from running a game.

I started with the little brown books in a white box, soon adding content taken from the then emerging Advanced line of products, but after a few years exploring the limits of that system, I found myself seeking a system that felt more "realistic" in certain areas - especially combat. RuneQuest is the game I settled upon. RuneQuest is a very specific game designed for a specific setting - Glorantha. I struggled with this aspect despite my fondness for other qualities. Fortunately the folks at Chaosium saw the potential of the basic rule system built for RuneQuest went far beyond Glorantha and soon Basic Role-Playing was released as a slim stand alone rule system - one which eventually came to form the engine of many RPGs released by Chaosium, including the very popular Call of Cthulhu game.

Basic Role-Playing (BRP) in its earliest iteration is one of the first generic rule systems for roleplaying. Using a percentile mechanic it is both intuitive and scalable - being easy to add to by simply converting the chance of something in the game occurring into the d100 role-under basic mechanic. There are no classes to define characters in BRP, rather each player generates their character through a combination of ability score dice rolls and percentile based skills. The world building referee is encouraged to modify the BRP game by altering the ability score dice and the selection of available skills to reflect their vision for character species as well as setting technology and the availability of magic.

Steve Jackson Games' Generic Universal Role Playing System, better known by the acronym GURPS, is another early entry into the "generic" system field. Aimed from its inception at being a system that could be used to play in any genre, any setting and across all conceivable  technologies past and future, GURPS has generated perhaps the broadest spectrum of setting support of any so-called generic RPG. Like BRP, GURPS characters are built on attribute scores and skill lists. Unlike BRP, GURPS is a point-buy character generation system allowing the player great freedom in building the character they wish to play - within limits set by the referee/GM. The latter is an important feature of all RPGs and especially so in a generic system where by necessity options are abundant and not all options are appropriate for the game being envisioned. 

Savage Worlds is a more recent entry into the generic RPG offering and utilizes a dice ladder mechanic where the set of polyhedron dice is advanced through as skills and attributes increase. The roll for success is a score of a four or better. The default die is the d4, with a d6, d8, etc. advancing the character's chance of success as appropriate for more powerful or skilled characters. Like other generic systems, Savage Worlds is designed with the intention that the system be easily used to play in any setting, any genre and any technology level with or without fantastical elements including magic. I personally came to Savage Worlds following an interest in a number of very appealing published settings that utilize the SW system.

The published generic systems (and there are many of them) all facilitate the kind of design-your-own game approach that I prefer in role-playing. Having started my journey in role-playing with the little brown books, I have taken to heart the advice of co-author Gary Gygax who while explaining why some additional decisions regarding the game will  need to be made by the referee expressed the following sentiments in his Afterword to the 1974 edition of D&D:

We have attempted to furnish an ample framework, and building should be both easy and fun. 

(A)nd the best way is to imagine how you would like it to be, and then make it just that way! 

(W)e are not loath to answer your questions, but why have us do any more of your imagining for you?