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View Full Version : CHALLENGE:The best free system



StabbityRabbit
2014-04-13, 06:07 PM
So playground I had an idea: why don't we try to find the best ttrpg. What systems do you think are best for certain things (I have no delusions no one system can do everything all at once perfectly for everyone) and why. It can be any system for any reason you want just tell me the name of the system, what it's the best for, and why you think so. There's only one stipulation: the system must be free. Have fun!

EDIT: SRDs count.

Grod_The_Giant
2014-04-13, 07:26 PM
Do SRDs count? Because I'd say that Mutants and Masterminds 3e (www.d20herosrd.com) is about the best crunchy action AND character creation game I've played, and as far as I can tell the SRD is 100% complete. The game's got good fast combat, and the majority of the crunch lies in its character creation system, which is insanely, insanely versatile and very fun to play with. Built for superheroes, but works well for any moderately high-power, cinematic action game.

StabbityRabbit
2014-04-13, 07:53 PM
Do SRDs count? Because I'd say that Mutants and Masterminds 3e (www.d20herosrd.com) is about the best crunchy action AND character creation game I've played, and as far as I can tell the SRD is 100% complete. The game's got good fast combat, and the majority of the crunch lies in its character creation system, which is insanely, insanely versatile and very fun to play with. Built for superheroes, but works well for any moderately high-power, cinematic action game.

Sure I'll count SRDs. I'll put an edit in the op.

Zovc
2014-04-13, 08:26 PM
I've never played Dungeon World (http://www.dungeon-world.com/), but it looks like a very promising system.

SRD available here (http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/).

Grinner
2014-04-13, 09:05 PM
Disclaimer: I know of more systems than I've actually played. Take my advice with a grain of salt or three.

GUMSHOE: The mechanics are uniquely tailored for investigative games. From what I've seen, you don't actually roll skill checks to gather clues. Rather, you use skills to qualify for clues, and then piece together the clues yourself.

Wushu: It's easy to pick up and innately flexible. In fact, it's more of a narrative guideline than a RPG. If you're looking for a generic, rules-light, and narrative system, look no further. If you're looking for mechanical depth, look elsewhere.

Cthulhu Dark: It's Call of Cthulhu simplified. You really only have two choices: insanity or death.

Dread: Also known as the Jenga game. It's not a traditional RPG, so it may not be for everyone. Still, I'm told it's amazing for horror games.

Grod_The_Giant
2014-04-14, 09:32 AM
Dread: Also known as the Jenga game. It's not a traditional RPG, so it may not be for everyone. Still, I'm told it's amazing for horror games.
Is that free? Last I looked it seemed to be a book/pdf thing.

JeenLeen
2014-04-14, 09:44 AM
Is that free? Last I looked it seemed to be a book/pdf thing.

There's a sample (quick-play?) ruleset download and some free scenarios on the website. I think you could play a good game using the simplified/truncated rules in the download.
However, I think you are correct that the full game is not free. I imagine some of the rules about when to require a 'pull' from the Jenga tower, what exactly should happen should a player not pull and/or the tower falls, and how to adjudicate things in-game are in the full rules. Rules for all that are in the free download, but I found them a little lacking in detail.

---
For best free game, I'm leaning towards M&M as well. Its relatively easy to run, combat goes smoothly, and although crunchy mechanically it also has aspects to encourage good role-playing and telling a fun story. The ruleset is very similar to D&D 3.5, so it was easy for me to learn, but it didn't have some of the aspects of D&D I found tiresome.

I also like that (generally) you do not 'level up'. You have a Power Level that puts a limit on your attack, defense, saves, skills, and (most) powers. You can gain xp to spend on improving yourself or developing new skills or powers, but your Power Level stays the same (again, generally.) This helps me to enjoy building up power without having to be concerned overmuch with powergaming.

Downside is that it's very easy to break the game, so you need players and a DM who are fine with understanding that and imposing self-limitations. (This is true of most games, but M&M seems particularly vulnerable to it.)

AMFV
2014-04-14, 09:51 AM
Best free game for what purpose? Even free games have differing design goals, and therefore what is best for one group may not necessarily be what is best for another.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-04-14, 10:24 AM
Mythender

What it's best for: Epic, world-shattering throwdowns against mythic power
Why it's great: It's the only game I've seen that instills an epic sense of scope, and it does that with a multiple-aspected approach. You roll massive handfuls of dice, are encouraged to one-up yourself, and get bonuses for describing utterly incredible feats of awesomeness. It also touches on themes of personal corruption: when you have to draw mythic power into yourself to beat the Myths, how far are you willing to go? Will you risk becoming a Myth yourself? Will you humble yourself to try and preserve your humanity?

Link: Mythender (http://mythenderrpg.com/)

Note that you still need a lot of physical components. But the game itself is free.

Rhynn
2014-04-14, 10:29 AM
I think we just did this thread, but I can't be bothered to dig it up.

Anyway, pretty much any of the retroclones in my sig, just a matter of taste.

Magic Myrmidon
2014-04-14, 10:37 AM
My favorite is Legend from Rule of Cool. Super flexible system (seems to default to fantasy, but it's super easy to refluff into sci fi, for example). It's well balanced, but it feels like every character is both unique and can do awesome things. It's basically 3.5 made balanced, fair, and SUPER fun.

neonchameleon
2014-04-14, 05:36 PM
Disclaimer: I know of more systems than I've actually played. Take my advice with a grain of salt or three.

GUMSHOE: The mechanics are uniquely tailored for investigative games. From what I've seen, you don't actually roll skill checks to gather clues. Rather, you use skills to qualify for clues, and then piece together the clues yourself.

Wushu: It's easy to pick up and innately flexible. In fact, it's more of a narrative guideline than a RPG. If you're looking for a generic, rules-light, and narrative system, look no further. If you're looking for mechanical depth, look elsewhere.

Cthulhu Dark: It's Call of Cthulhu simplified. You really only have two choices: insanity or death.

Dread: Also known as the Jenga game. It's not a traditional RPG, so it may not be for everyone. Still, I'm told it's amazing for horror games.

Dread isn't free. And no one's mentioned Fate yet? For shame! (Fate Core SRD (http://fate-srd.com/fate-core-menu))

Arbane
2014-04-14, 06:04 PM
I'm surprised nobody else mentioned Risus (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm) yet. Rules-lite (6 page rulebook!), fast, flexible, a bit silly, and lavishly illustrated! with stick figures...

Tengu_temp
2014-04-14, 09:06 PM
I'm surprised nobody else mentioned Risus (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm) yet. Rules-lite (6 page rulebook!), fast, flexible, a bit silly, and lavishly illustrated! with stick figures...

I'd say it's because Risus' mechanics are so dirt-simple that there's not much you can do with it. No strategy, no clever ideas, just roll dice until you win. You can fish for the +1 die bonus or the "use an unfitting archetype for this action" bonus, but those are just exercises in making the DM laugh. Because in the end, that's what Risus is good at - comedy. And not much else.

For most rules-light games, Fate is way better. Spirit of the Century (which runs on older Fate mechanics) has a free SRD too.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-04-14, 09:24 PM
I'd say it's because Risus' mechanics are so dirt-simple that there's not much you can do with it. No strategy, no clever ideas, just roll dice until you win. You can fish for the +1 die bonus or the "use an unfitting archetype for this action" bonus, but those are just exercises in making the DM laugh. Because in the end, that's what Risus is good at - comedy. And not much else.
I would say that Risus is a little deeper than that. It depends how far along the "fictional positioning" line you want to go. There's a section in the rules where it specifically suggests that the GM uses the chosen Cliche as a metric for difficulty-setting. If your Cliche is poorly-suited to the task, it means that you'll face a potentially higher difficulty rating. (I don't remember what the full text of it was, only that it talked about a Wheelchair-Bound Occultist facing a target number of 30 to swing across a chasm.)

In that regard, it totally rewards clever thinking and careful planning. You figure out ways to approach a situation so that your better Cliches are acceptable to apply. Honestly, it's the same way that you run a serious game of Fate, which some people ironically argue the exact same things about. "You just grub for appropriate Aspects and roll until you win; there's no strategic differentiation."

Arbane
2014-04-15, 12:17 AM
In that regard, it totally rewards clever thinking and careful planning. You figure out ways to approach a situation so that your better Cliches are acceptable to apply. Honestly, it's the same way that you run a serious game of Fate, which some people ironically argue the exact same things about. "You just grub for appropriate Aspects and roll until you win; there's no strategic differentiation."

It's tactical, it's just that the tactics are different ones than D&D uses.

Grod_The_Giant
2014-04-15, 03:06 PM
It's tactical, it's just that the tactics are different ones than D&D uses.
It's got its depth, but it is a fairly different feel from your average d20 game. Scene/environmental aspects tend to be the weirdest things for people, since they only have an effect "when dramatically appropriate" (ie, when you spend points).

Grinner
2014-04-15, 03:44 PM
Is that free? Last I looked it seemed to be a book/pdf thing.

Sorta.

It's licensed under Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA, I think?), so it can be redistributed freely. The trick, then, is bothering to track down a copy.

Tengu_temp
2014-04-15, 03:57 PM
Fate offers much deeper and more varied gameplay than Risus. You can use fate points, stunts, aspects and maneuvers, which makes it more interesting and adds a tactical level without actually making the gameplay more complicated to keep track of or more crunchy. In Risus, you literally don't do anything but roll dice until you win; you can get more dice if the DM gives them to you because you were funny enough, but that's all.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-04-15, 04:57 PM
I still feel like that's not a fair shake for Risus, because you could also easily boil Fate down to "you roll dice until you win", especially for pre-Fate Core. Risus merely shifts things into the arena of the fiction.

It's a bit like saying that old school D&D isn't tactical, because you don't have special maneuvers to case a dungeon room or whatnot.

At any rate, it's still good, and its selling point is that it can fit on a coffee mug. Or there's the 6-page rulebook that includes plenty of rules examples and suggestions.

StabbityRabbit
2014-04-16, 05:51 PM
So a couple of you told me that I basically remade an old thread. I'm sorry, I just wanted to engage the forums. My other idea was to make a thread about porting your favorite TTRPG character into pokemon stats, but I decided that more people would be interested in this. I can try to get this thread deleted if it's an issue.

Rhynn
2014-04-16, 06:51 PM
:elan: Throw, throw, throw yourself dramatically on your sword!

It's not like there's 20 replies or anything.

Tengu_temp
2014-04-16, 06:59 PM
It's a bit like saying that old school D&D isn't tactical, because you don't have special maneuvers to case a dungeon room or whatnot.


As a matter of fact, oldschool DND is not very tactical. It's an exercise in being extremely careful to the point of paranoia, trying to read the DM's mind, resource management, and hoping the dice are lucky today. But there's not much tactics involved.

Anyway, about Risus: it's a good game for when you want to run a simple, short, comedic game where actual mechanics are not that important. But there are many people who claim that it's The Best Free RPG, an amazing example of elegant simplicity with mechanics that are perfect for everything, and I simply cannot agree with that.

Rhynn
2014-04-16, 07:05 PM
As a matter of fact, oldschool DND is not very tactical. It's an exercise in being extremely careful to the point of paranoia, trying to read the DM's mind, resource management, and hoping the dice are lucky today. But there's not much tactics involved.

lol.

Nope.

Formation and marching order, protecting the spellcasters in melee, choosing the right weapons and balancing their use in the party (second row spears, missile weapon users, etc.), ambushes and all other basic tactics (traps, retreats, etc.), enemy morale, tactical use of spells...

It's also strategic: between engagements, you're worrying about your resources (hit points, spells, torches & oil, rations & water) and about conserving them, and about larger decisions, like whether to risk searching another room or two or to start withdrawing (a much trickier proposition than you might think, given that a good OSR dungeon reacts to the PCs' incursions; several old modules explicitly give the DM suggestions and ideas on how), how to handle the treasure, how to secure your camp, and so on.

Tengu_temp
2014-04-16, 07:29 PM
Formation and marching order, protecting the spellcasters in melee, choosing the right weapons and balancing their use in the party (second row spears, missile weapon users, etc.), ambushes and all other basic tactics (traps, retreats, etc.), enemy morale, tactical use of spells...

Those are simple, rudimentary things. DND 4e is my benchmark for a tactical game, and you can everything you just described in 4e, and much more on top of that. The big difference is that both PCs and monsters are much tougher in 4e, so a single mistake is less likely to bite you right in the ass.

And there are games that are much more tactical than DND 4e, not because of movement or weapon use, but because they offer you an extremely wide array of valid choices to use, every round, and you have to decide what you want to do. GURPS and Legend of the Wulin are examples of such games, though they approach it in completely different ways.

I already covered the strategic parts under resource management, by the way.

Soarel
2014-04-17, 12:44 AM
Well, if you include SRDs then Pathfinder is my personal favorite for D&D.

However, the Legends of Middle-earth RPG is quite fun, and uses a generic, rules-light system for Tolkien-based gaming.