P&P RPGs Database

[felipepepe]

I'm doing a bit of research on P&P RPG systems, but is a pain to find a good source of info on anything besides the really mainstream stuff... I could just download the .pdf totally buy each ruleset, but does any bro knows of a nice website/blog with summaries or in-depth reviews of such games?

It doesn't have to be the full ruleset, as that would be evil piracy; just a short summary of the attributes, skill checks and combat logic would be enough.

 

[Ninjerk]

Excidium expressed some dismay when I recommended another poster check out rpg.net, as they list a dizzying number of PnP systems. I think I found the site looking for any house rules/precedent regarding Changeling crossover with previous Storyteller systems. I don't know about the general quality of the archive, but the discussion I found was insightful anyways. Check it out if you haven't already.

 

[lightbane]

I remember there was something similar to what you're talking about in one thread of the Something Awful forums, somewhere inside that subforum dedicated to tabletop games, it was about bad/obscure rpgs, reviewing them and pointing out their flaws (and strengths). Dunno if that one will work for you though.

 

[Telengard]

RPG Geek has a public reviews section that goes into that kind of detail and includes indie games, though it's bad to navigate.

But perhaps better, you have a decent resource in the people here. if you have specific game systems you're wanting info on, there's the chance someone here owns them, and can get you the sections you need. I still have a collection of over 30 small and indie rpg systems, and I doubt I'm alone in that.

 

[felipepepe]

Hummm, making other people work towards my obscure goals sounds nice... what I actually wanted was a catalog of P&P rulesets, so it's easy to compare and understand what they are about, what they bring to the table of interesting.

In example, I did this summary of Numenera:

Numenera

Description: Numenera is a medieval fantasy setting, built upon extinct sci-fi civilizations, somewhat inspired by "Book of the New Sun".

Claim to Fame: Written by Monte Cook. Inxile’s Torment game will be based on it.

System Base Style: Light on rules, focus on the setting and the story players will experience.

Attributes: There are 3 attributes: Might, Speed and Intellect.

Character Creation: “I am an [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]” character creation, based on choosing a descriptor, a character type and a focus:

- Descriptors giver more nuances to basic classes and gives more personality to PCs.
- There are 3 basic character types: nanos (mages), glaives (warriors) and jacks (skill guys).
- Focus are a character's super-cool & unique stuff, like awesome psychic powers, being a lycantrope or partially phasing out of existence.

Skills: There’s no definitive list of skills, GMs have only guidelines.

Experience: Leveling up is based on tiers; you use XP to buy 4 upgrades per tier (learn a skill, increase an Edge, increase Effort or add 4 to an Attribute), and once they are all bought you advance a tier and get a new special ability. Each upgrade costs 2 XP, and there are only 6 tiers. Also, the GM can directly intervene in the game by "paying" 1 XP, but a player can refuse by paying 1 Xp himself.

Metaphysics: The focus of the game are the 4 types of Numeneras:

- Cyphers: single-use only, can have any kind of ability & form. Supposed to be like character abilities that change all the time. Can only be carried in limited amounts.
- Artifacts: distinguished items of various kinds, can go out of charges based on rolls (i.e., 1-4 in a d6). Balance is not the focus.
- Oddities: weird shit, mostly just flavor (i.e., six fingered glove).
- Discoveries: interesting stuff, like portals & other stuff that can be used as plot points.

Task Rolls: Any check = roll a d20 higher than test difficulty x 3. Can use attribute pool to reduce test difficulty, but only as much as you have Effort (2 Effort = can decrease 2 levels). There's also a per-attribute stat called Edge, that cheapens the attribute cost of lowering the difficulty. All this is meant to make character's actions have weight, based on how much they choose to invest on it.

Damage: Damage subtracts from attributes, each attribute depleted equals a penalty; all 3 equals death. There are 3 weapon & armor categories (light, medium heavy), with static damage (and no rolls) & DR. Both can have vast arrays of special proprieties.

Additional Resources: http://www.numenera.com/

Something like this on the most popular and interesting rulesets out there would be quite handy.

EDIT: This wiki tried to do so, but they clearly gave up after only a few systems.

 

[Telengard]

Like so?

Blue Planet (1997)

Spoiler

Description: A hard-sf far world rpg set primary on (and under) an ocean world.

Claim to Fame: Dolphin and Whale characters. Character size is used as an exponential factor in the performing of various tasks. Also is heavy into the science of an ocean world.

System Base Style: Rules-Lite that is at the same time very deadly.

Attributes: There are 8 Primary Attributes and 5 Derived. The main are: Build, Fitness, Agility, Dexterity, Awareness (which is broken down into 5 sub categories), Intellect, Presence, Will. Attribute baseline is 0, and characters can have positive or negative (penaltied) Attributes. The human range is -3 to +3.

Races: human, dolphin, killer whale, augmented human types

Class: Essentially a career based game, with "careers" purchased as packages.

Skills: This is a skill-based game. There are many skills (90+ when including the sub skills), oriented primarily around the sciences. Skills are bought in packages, and characters start with from 3-5 packages depending on power level.

Metaphysics: Can purchase Biomods to enhance a character - with biomods being a system which will be kind of familiar to anyone who has played Shadowrun. Minus the dehumanization.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d10. One wants to roll low. Aptitude level in a skill determines # of dice rolled (1-3); only lowest die counts; Target Number = Attribute + Skill; lowest die must ≤ its Target Number.Task difficulty applies a modifier.
Damage: Damage is figured versus a threshold. Base Weapon Damage Rating - (Toughness + Armor Rating) = Threshold. Roll 3D10, and each d10 that is ≤ Threshold results in 1 Wound Level. Can die with 3 wounds.

Additional Resources: Dark Planet Fansite

 

[felipepepe]

Fantastic bro, that's exactly what I had in mind. :D

I'm on the cellphone now, later I'll post about Br systems like Daemon and 3D&T, and format the numenera one to your standard.

 

[Excidium]

Alex is the best RPG database I know.

 

[felipepepe]

True, and the guy is on the same city as us. We should just call him for a beer and transcribe the conversation, like that Truffaut & Hitchoock book.

 

[Telengard]

Millennium's End (1993)

Spoiler

Description: A gritty modern-day (getting to be historical) technothriller RPG.

Claim to Fame: Pinwheel-transparencies for ranging bullet trajectory. Highly detailed wound system. Highly detailed weaponry with 5 types of ammunition.

System Base Style: Just about as simulationist as one get get. Punishing.

Attributes: There are 10 Primary Attributes and 6 Derived. The Primary are Intelligence, Sensibility, Agility, Coordination, Constitution, Strength, Personality, Appearance, Bravado, Willpower. Characters have a base value of 15 to 25 for each Attribute based on sex. The Player then modifies the base by assigning twenty-five d10x2 dice to those Attributes.

Races: male, female

Class: Classless, with a required purchase of at least 2 career packages with some of the available skill points.

Skills: A heavily skill-based game, with ~200 skills, though many of those are specialities of a parent skill. Skills are purchased with a pool of points derived from Intelligence and education level. Every character must buy at least two skill packages, one of which is level of education. The remaining points can be used on other packages or individual skills.

Metaphysics: None.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d100. One wants to roll low. A character has 9 Talent Bases (these are derived from Attributes) that provide bonuses to a rolls based on its type, such as Academic providing a bonus to research and knowledge skills. The Target Number is = Talent Base + Skill Level + Subskill Level; the roll must ≤ its Target Number to succeed..Task difficulty applies a modifier.
Damage: Damage is based on hit location and weapon type. Punching is based on character mass. Guns do a fixed damage based on weapon type and ammo loaded. A person's body is divided up into 13 hit locations. Each location applies a multiplier to damage based upon its vulnerability (Torso is x1.4). Armor converts a portion of damage from one type to another (for instance, Puncture to Impact). The different types of damage cause various direct impairments and secondary effects depending on their type. Wounds also reduce any skill involving the struck body part by exactly the amount of damage done.
Hit Location: This needs special mention. The game uses a transparency overlay target system. So, a circle with a center target is placed over an outline picture of a person (or whatever is being attacked). Any obstructions (such as a wall) are placed over the body, obscuring the parts that are actually obscured. Then the transparency target is placed on top. If the attack hits, it strike the central point on the target circle, thus hitting what was aimed at. A scattering of numbers spiraling away from the center are used for misses. The amount that an attack is missed by is looked up on the scattering of numbers, and the missed attack hits that location. Which might be a wall, a different part of the target body, a nearby friend, etc

Additional Resources: Modus Operandi fansite

RECON (1981)

Spoiler

Description: A historical military RPG set in the Vietnam War (with expansion to merc campaigns outside of Vietnam).

Claim to Fame: Vietnam War. One of the oldest RPGs, but also still one of the few historical military RPGs. Has a fully random character generation system. Quick and dirty character generation in a skill-based game.

System Base Style: Random and realistic.

Attributes: There are 3 Attributes: Strength, Alertness, Agility. These are found by randomly rolling a d100.

Races: none

Class:Uses a hybrid of Class and Career. A character takes a Primary class and a Secondary class (cross-training). The game's skills are divided up into categories, and each class allows a different number of skills to be chosen from each category, with some skills being exclusive to certain classes. For instance, a Pigman gets to choose a lot of skills from the Heavy Arms category. With most skills being common to all classes coupled with the random skill determination, one isn't so much choosing a class as a character's intended focus. Classes are: Grenadier, Intelligence, Medic, Pigman, Point, RTO, Sniper, and two Secondary only: Demolitions, Heavy Weapons.

Skills: This is wholly a skill based game that has 60+ skills, with those skills focused on combat. Mostly guns. Skill level is determined also by a d100 roll. So, a character chooses a number of skills in a given category based on class, and then randomly determines what skill level each of those skills will have. Which means, the group can have a sniper who isn't good at sniping, or a medic who is a top-notch marksman. But primarily, it means the Players have to learn to use the skills this random group of drafted guys have in order to win, instead of maximizing specialists to conquer the enemy.
Experience: Experience is gained through adventure, and that experience can be spent to raise skills, but skill gain is slow. One is largely what one is at the beginning.

Metaphysics: None.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d100. One wants to roll low. The Target Number is the skill or Attribute itself, heavily modified by the situation, which can cause up to a -80, or even more in a few situations. For instance, if you are in the situation of being ambushed, all combat skills while firing from cover are lowered by 60%, or -80% if moving while firing.
Damage: People can soak some damage, with HP = Strength, but they can also die fast with the amount of potential damage being thrown around. Every regular weapon does a set number of dice of damage, which are rolled and added together. A weapon has a number of attacks each round based on its ROF, and each attack can do the listed damage. Really heavy weapons have a kill radius, within which people just die. The end.

Additional Resources: Welcome to the Jungle

Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (1999)

Spoiler

Description: A post-apocalyptic survival pulp adventure RPG with dinosaurs.

Claim to Fame: Based on the Xenezoic Tales comic series. Shooting dinosaurs. Lightweight vehicle travel, damage, and combat rules that are focused on vehicle penalties rather than HP of damage, plus all GDW games use the same vehicle setup, so expanding vehicle selection is easy.

System Base Style: Simple but with lots of stat tracking (fuel consumption, fuel capacity, ammo, supplies). Based on the GDW system (Twilight 2000).

Attributes: There are 6 Attributes: Strength, Education, Constitution, Charisma, Agility, Intelligence. Attributes range from 1 to 10. Skill are coupled with each of these Attributes. They limit how quickly higher levels in skills can be attained.

Races: none

Class:Classes are based on regular day job, not adventuring career.The given available careers are Criminal, Doctor, Engineer, Explorer-Diplomat, Farmer, Guard, Hunter, Laborer, Manager, Nomad, Old Blood Mechanic, Politician, Sailor, Scientist. Each has prerequisites that must be met to be able to take it. The list is not exhaustive, and since they are collection skills and advantages, adding more is a simple task.

Skills: A character gains a number of skills as common to everyone, gains a few more from class, and then a few more on top of that as bonus that can be applied to any skill. It costs one point to raise a skill each rank until it reaches a rank equal to the controlling Attribute. After, that it costs double to raise the skill. There are 35+ skills in the game, primarily focused on the skills of survival. Combat skill choice is limited.

Metaphysics: There are psionics, and there are dinosausrs and other sf/fantasy elements, but these elements are all separate from the player characters.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d10. One wants to roll low. The Target Number is the skill itself with a flat variation. Tasks are generally easy, medium, or hard/ An easy task requires rolling ≤ 2x the skill level. A hard skill is under ≤ 1/2 the skill level.
Damage: Number of attacks and damage is by weapon, but armor can reduce the damage while armor penetration can counteract the reduction. # of Damage Dice rolled is = Weapon Damage - (AV * PV). Damage Dice are d6s. Different body parts have different HP values.

Additional Resources: RPG Geek page

If I get some more time, I'll do a few more.

 

[Telengard]

Another set.

Skyrealms of Jorune (1984)

Spoiler

Description: A post-post-apocalyptic sci fi/fantasy blended rpg set in a far colonial world

Claim to Fame: Unique setting. Blend of fantasy and sci fi tech. What is a post--post-apocalyptic game? That would be one that is set long after the destruction war, when humanity is back up to the medieval age. Medieval, but also still has access to sci fi weaponry, if limited in supply.

System Base Style: Detailed with an even more detailed setting

Attributes: There are 12 Attributes: Constitution, Strength, Speed, Social, Education, Aim, Color, Learn, Spot, Isho, Agility, Listen (the strange ones deal with magic). Attributes are found by rolling 4d6 and dropping one or by purchase. Race can modify the result by -4 to +4.

Races: human (human, muadra, boccord) or bio-engineered (woffen, crugar, bronth)

Class:Characters purchase a class with a pool of skill points, and any remaining points are used to buy skills directly. Classes are many, devoted to occupation. Dyte punk, sherja, gloundan shadow warrior, ex-milita, burdonthan military, caji, jungle-runner, merchant, learsis (healer), entris (translator), condrij, beaster, thomboc, sailor, toth (citizen city), toth (country), shast (innkeeper), yiordeh (private detective), querrid, iscen (researcher classics), iscen (researcher outdoors), yord, githerin (legal thieves)

Skills: A skill-based game that incooprates the difficulty of using a particular skill, so some skills require more "seasoning" before you raise them in rank. Most of a character's skills are acquired through choice of class. There are 100+ skills, based heavily around diplomacy, with20+ skills devoted to languages (in its sub-section on the character sheet). There are four ranks for skills - unfamiliar, familiar, experienced, and seasoned. Each skill can have a level of 1 to 20, but to achieve a particular rank requires a different amount of levels depending on the difficulty of the skill.

Metaphysics: Has Isho, or magic. Not all races can use Isho. And most races are limited to a single fixed Dysha (magic category). Only muadra are free to learn Dyshas as they wish, and only muadra who take the proper occupation can really utilize it fully. Isho is also found in crystals beneath the planet's surface, and the different colors of crystals have differing effects. Isho crystals can be drained for Isho points or Color points or activated to "cast" their magic. The different Dyshas have differing collections of spells, but that should not be unfamiliar to anyone who knows D&D. There are also Isho skills, though, that allow sensing, unweaving, interfering, etc with spells.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d20. One wants to roll low. The Target Number is the characters level in the skill, but the character gain a success at the rank the character has in the skill. So a character who is seasoned will have a seasoned success, while an unfamiliar will have an unfamiliar success. A result of 1 offers a chance for critical and a 20 for a flub, these needing to be confirmed with another roll. Criticals and flubs raise or lower the success rank by one step respectively.
Advantage: Whether or not a character can attack or defend or both during a given round is determined by an advantage roll, which is a little like an initiative roll. Roll poorly, and you can do nothing that round. Roll okay and you can defend but not attack.Roll decently and you can choose to attack or to defend. Roll well and you can attack and defend.
Damage: To hit an opponent, it must fierce pierce through armor, with armor penetration being determined by a separate roll with modifiers based on weapon. Another roll determines where on the body the character was hit. Then injury is rolled for, modified by factors such as the quality of the hit. Injury is a little different than a regular damage roll. There are 5 ranks of injury: Superficial, Minor, Major, Critical, Death. Most weapon can achieve all of these results in one good hit, but it is easier for some weapons to achieve certain injury ranks than others. So, a bow is 2, 5, 7, 9, 11 respectively, while a field ram is 2, 7, 10. 13, 15. Note: a death result to a limb does not kill, counts as destroyed instead.

Additional Resources: RPG Geek page

Fading Suns (1996)

Spoiler

Description: A sci fi/fantasy blended setting heading in a universe headed into a new dark age.

Claim to Fame: Mimicked peoples views on a fading empire. In a field dominated by space opera, post-apocalype, and fantasy, a sci fi world heading into the brink was unique.* A spaceship scif fi universe with worlds held in medieval thrall.

System Base Style: a storyteller RPG

Attributes: There are 6 main Attributes and 3 balanced Attributes. They are: Body (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance) and Mind (Wits, Perception, Tech). And the balanced Attributes are two sides of the same coin: Spirit (Introvert/Extrovert, Passion/Calm, Faith/Ego). The Spirit Attributes are often used in the casting of spells. Attributes range from 1 to 10, but can be augmented through various means magical and technological to go above 10.

Races: there are humans and aliencs, and it is possible to take alien characters, but Alien is a class. There are no "race" choices. The three alien races are: Ur-Obun, Ur-Ukar, and Vorox

Class:A mixture of class and career. Character choose a class, and then take careers within that class and possible from the listing of extra careers. The classes are: Noble, Priest, Merchant, Alien. Then, for instance, the Priest chooses an Order: Urth Orthodox, Brother Battle, Eskatonic, Temple Avesti, Sanctuary Aeon, Mendicant Monk, Imperial Priest Cohort. After which there is upbringing: City, Town, or Country and Wealthy, Average, or Poor. Then Apprenticeship: Cathedral, Parish, Monastery, Brother Battle. Then Early Career: Paastor, Monk, Missionary, Healer, Inquisitor, Brother Battle. And finally, Tour of Duty, which can be another selection form Early Career or can be from Extra Careers, which includes awaking occult powers or adding cybernetics. Each stage adds skills and abilities to the character.

Skills: A skill & attribute game with 80+ skills, with a heavy inclination on character development (ie story). Skills are primarily earned through class and career choices. nut a few skills everyone just has (called Natural Skills). Many skills have a list of Complimentary Skills, which are simply other skills from the list which can aid in the use of that skill during certain situations and in specific ways, should the character also have that skill.

Metaphysics: Has a large list of different possibilities, both magical and technological. There is the Occult, which is Psychic powers, Theurgy rituals, and Antimony spells (not a part of character creation). Occultists all bear a Stigma, which marks them apart. Psychics have many and powerful powers, but they are also plagued by a Dark Twin. During flubs with psychic powers, the Dark Twin gains access to the character's life and can begin changing things, the degree of which depends on amount of dark Urge gained. Theurgy rituals often involve vestments and relics to aid in their practice. Each of the holy orders has its own rituals But Thuergy also has its opposing force, Sin.
Equipment: Being a game based around lots of different tech levels, equipment has a tech rating. Locations are rated for tech level, and generally only items of that level or below are available at that location. Tech ranges from Stone Age to futuristic think machines.

Task Rolls: Main die is a d20. One wants to roll low. The Target Number is found by adding the character's associated Attribute and Skill for the task being performed. The character must then roll ≤ the Target number, affected by various modifiers depending on the difficulty of the task. However relative success is determined by how high the character rolled. A character gains Victory Points based upon the number rolled, as long as it is a success. So, a roll of 9-11 is 3 Victory Points and a "good" success, as long as the Target Number was 11 or more that is.
Damage: weapons have a listed number of dice of damage, to which an attack's Victory Points are added as additional dice. A d6 is rolled for each point with results of 1-4 indicating a point of damage, which total is then subtracted from a character's Vitality (HP). Heavy vitality loss incurs penalties.

Additional Resources: Fading Suns Wikia

*and depressing

Gear Krieg (2001)

Spoiler

Description: A two-fisted pulp alternative WWI

Claim to Fame: World War II setting with sci fi elements, particularly mechs*. Very pulpy. Connected to its tactical game, in a similar vein to Battletech's RPG version.

System Base Style: Rules-light for two-fisted action. From Dream Pod 9 using the Silhoette system*

Attributes: There are 10 Attributes with a 0-Average. Attributes generally range from -3 to +3, but can go up to 5s. The Attributes are: Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity, Fitness, Influence, Knowledge, Perception, Psyche, Willpower

Races: none

Class: doesn't have classes. Characters purchase skills from a pool of points.

Skills: A skill-based game with 60+ skills, directed mostly towards pulp action and character development. Skills can go as high as level 7 and specializations can be purchased, which add a further +1 when that specialization comes up.

Metaphysics: none

Task Rolls: Main die is a d6. One wants to roll high. Both dice are rolled, but the high die matters if skilled, the low die if unskilled. The result is then added to the Skill or Attribute being tested. If that number is over the difficulty of the task, then the task succeeds. However, margin of success is important, determined by how much the result was beaten by. A character can influence these results with Daring Dice.
Damage: Weaponry has a damage multiplier. Thus number is multiplied to the margin of success when making an attack, with the result equally the amount of damage done. Characters have wound thresholds for certain levels of wound - Flesh Wound, Deep Wound, and Instant Death, those thresholds derived from Attrributes. The amount of damaged suffered will cause one of those results, which has various penalties.

Additional Resources: Dream Pod 9 section

*codex translation: WEABOO INFLUENCE ALERT!

Then there are the really, really indie, which are free, so you can look at the rules all you want: Just search "free pnp RPG"

Shadowmoor (2013)

Spoiler

Description: A survival horror fantasy RPG with miniatures elements

Claim to Fame: characters are regular people (like innkeeper), no heroes. Players control 4 characters not 1. Death is common

System Base Style: technically rules-light, but with multiple layers, such as a leadership layer, making it not so rules-light when you get down into playing

Attributes: There are 9 mundane Attributes divided into three categories, and 9 mystical Attributes, also divided into three categories. Mundane are: Phsyical (Strength, Size, Constitution), Mental (Knowledge, Dexterity, instinct), Social (Perception, Wits, Charisma), and the mystical: Faith (Bless, Cleansings, Mantras), Connection (Enchantments, Tattoos, Bonds), and Invention (Alchemy, Engineering, Chiurgery). They range from -2 to 7 (sometimes 8). Attributes set a limit on how high skills can go.

Races: human, ogre, goblin, djinn, dryad, gnome

Class: doesn't have classes.

Skills: Characters don't start with combat skills. They have the skills of their trade, and only learn combat skills if they manage to survive. Combat skills each have a related Attribute, and no skill can reach a higher rank than its related Attribute. Attribute have no other influence on skills.

Metaphysics: Has a selection of 3 magic areas. They aren't called this, but they could easily be called Divine, Witchcraft, and Alchemy. They do what you expect, but even the spell-like ones can be used an infinite number of times. The spells are controlled instead by the limited results available and casting times. ie there no fireballs.

Task Rolls: If unskilled at the skill being called on, a character rolls a d8. If skilled, a character rolls one d10 per rank in the skill. A few skills (guns) are marked easy, and you roll d12s instead. For the most part, only high die matters, though there are situations where you have to accumulate successes.
Damage: Weaponry does an amount of damage by weapon, and the given damages will be quite familiar to anyone who has played fantasy RPGs. However, there are critical successes, and critical success does a fixed 15 points of damage regardless of weapon. So, daggers and greatswords do the same on a critical.

 

[felipepepe]

I'm back from the holidays, updated the Numenera entry and did the two BR systems I had around here:

3D&T (1998)

Spoiler

Description: Brazilian RPG, was very popular there in the early 00’s. Was designed as a cheap and simple game for first-time players.

Claim to Fame: Distributed for free, became quite popular thanks to rules and campaigns for famous anime, video-game and comic book stories. The original rule book was a copyright infringement nightmare, going from Batman and Street Fighter to D&D and Evangelion pictures and references.

System Base Style: GURPS for dummies.

Attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Defense and Firepower. They range from 1 to 5.

Races: Anything. Really.

Skills: There are 11 non-combat skills, that are divided into 3 categories (Easy, Medium and Hard), each with set bonuses and penalties.

Metaphysics: Characters have Magic Power equal to their Hit Points, and can use them to cast magic spells or special attacks. There are 6 magic paths (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light and Darkness), that players may use their character points to learn and specialize in. Spells can belong to more than one path, or have different versions for each path, each with a different cost. Players can also spend their character points to create special attacks, that can range from hadoukens to limit breaks. They simply add their level to the damage roll of an attack, and cost that same amount in Magic Power to use.

Task Rolls: 1d6 + attribute being tested + bonuses/penalties, versus the required value for the task.

Damage: Strength (or Firepower for ranged attacks) + Dexterity + weapon dice to decide the attacker’s “Attack Force”. Then the target checks his Defense + Dexterity + armor dice to decide his “Defense Force”. Attack Force – Defense Force = Damage dealt.

Additional Resources: Free PDF (in portuguese).

Daemon (1993)

Spoiler

Description: Free Brazilian RPG system, based on percentages and focused on realistic campaigns.

Claim to Fame: Started as USP engineers researching mathematical system and algorithms for simulations. Since they were nerds, it became a RPG system. Was open-source way back in the 90’s, leading to over 500 e-books being written for it and freely available for download on their website.

System Base Style: Based around 1d100 rolls and percentages for checks, that supposedly presents a perfect challenge progression. The rest of it is mostly a RuneQuest copy.

Attributes: There are 8: Constitution, Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Will Power, Charisma and Perception. They range from 1 to 100 and the player has 101 points to distribute between them.

Skills: Each skill has a ruling attribute, and there are Skill Points players can use to learn skills, based on their INT and age. The engineer’s orgasm is how that the ruling attribute value + your skill level is both your test value and your % chance to hit.

Task Rolls: Player rolls 1d100 (usually 2d10), and must score less than the test value. Attribute related tests values are the attribute x 4. Skill related tests are simply a roll against the character’s skill level. If the test is considered easy, the value is doubled; if it’s considered hard, it is halved.

Damage: Attack rolls are: 50% + the attacker’s % to hit - the defender’s % to dodge or block. Critical hits land when the 1d100 roll is lower than ¼ of the attack’s skill. Armors give Damage Reduction, but every hit does at least 1 damage. There’s also RuneQuest-style “Heroic Points”: temporary bonus HP to be used only on key situations, to represent the heroic efforts of the characters.

Additional Resources: Official Website (in portuguese).

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

This should be done in a web page, with screenshots and links and all that stuff. Something like the IMDB for table top and P&P gaems.

 

[Gregz]

This should be done in a web page, with screenshots and links and all that stuff. Something like the IMDB for table top and P&P gaems.

I would spend hours on such a site, it would be very cool. Especially w/ cover photos and other iconic images, character sheets, etc.

Also, don't forget the classics:

D&D editions
Shadowrun
Steve Jackson's Car Wars
Star Wars (West End Games)
Paranoia
Twilight 2000

 

[DarkUnderlord]

If people want some sort of thing for this on the Codex, it would be possible. Either as content pieces or a special system. We're looking at a database for RPGs. Adding PnPs should be possible.

 

[felipepepe]

Cool. Meanwhile, we could try to improve the template we're using to describe them. I like the model that Telengard made, but it still needs some twists to be more universal and give a better sense of the game... maybe adding strengths and failures, hit points ranges, settings the system accepts....

 

[Telengard]

If you're going to go database, instead of just for personal research, I would keep things simple-ish.

Some potential adds:
Setting: I think that's a rally strong addition. So that the data doesn't get bogged down, though, I would keep it basic (ie generic Tolkien fantasy, Medieval Viking fantasy). Some RPGs could go on for pages, if they were allowed to here.
Experience System: could do something good with this too, probably also keeping it simple (ie xp & levels or checked skill use)
Character Health: or some other similar phrase, since not all RPGs use hp. Then the ones that do have hp, list hp range and gain
Equipment: a short note on vehicles, weaponry, ammunition etc would help express those games with a lot of toys
Travel System: a short description on method of travel, if used, so games about the journey would get their due
Non-combat Content: (heavy, medium, nonexistent)

Edits:
Dice Used: Primary Die:
Task Methedolgy: (is skill-based, stat-based) General Roll: Attack Roll:
Game Focus: (ie diplomacy skills, combat)
Character Creation Method: (point based, random rolls)

Contentious Bits:
For a database, I highly recommend keeping all opinion (such as strengths and weaknesses) out of the data, though. Opinion is too hard to quantify in a manner that people find acceptable. One could collect a codexian review stat simply enough, and that works in its way. But as contentious as even that would be, actual strengths and weaknesses would get debated endlessly. As in, who gets to decide the strengths and weaknesses of a game? If there is a dispute, who gets the final decision? If the common consensus about strengths and weaknesses is wrong, where is an appeal made? Blah blah blah etc etc etc

Even the simple old rating system of Appeal: grognard, power-monger, tactician, casual, centrist would broker endless, pointless debate

So, keep it to collecting data. And let the data show the issue, if possible, and then let people form their own opinions about it.

 

[felipepepe]

Makes sense; 3D&T has a glaring problem that Dexterity governs casting AND dodging, so high-level mages are not only able casters, but also very hard to hit. I thought it was relevant to mention stuff like this, but you're right, it would turn into a mess, as most systems have very subjective weakness and strengths.

 

[Telengard]

That particular one, I think would be good to list. But, I would say just put it under the How Characters Get Magic section, stating it as a plain fact. And then, if people want to argue back & forth about whether or not it's derp, they can do so in a separate post. While your data stays pure and clean.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'm going to take this opportunity to pimp out Godlike again. Most original superhero/alt WW2 RPG around, probably the best written as well (don't know if the revised edition has corrected the major fail at Finnish geography tho).

This should be done in a web page, with screenshots and links and all that stuff. Something like the IMDB for table top and P&P gaems.

I would spend hours on such a site, it would be very cool. Especially w/ cover photos and other iconic images, character sheets, etc.

Also, don't forget the classics:

D&D editions
Shadowrun
Steve Jackson's Car Wars
Star Wars (West End Games)
Paranoia
Twilight 2000

This does leave the general question of "are editions counted as separate games" or not, since Twilight 2000 is a notable example of a new edition being radically different (and IMO much better) and made by different people.

 

[felipepepe]

Well, we sure can't fit all the D&D editions in one post...

 

[lightbane]

I found a webpage that does some reviews for PnP games, perhaps it works for your project: http://www.tgdmb.com/viewforum.php?f=1

 

[felipepepe]

Cool forum, their longest thread is called "Pathfinder Is Still Bad", going for over 4 years and 163 pages.

Also, guy goes to review World of Warcraft RPG, someone cry "but there's already a D&D 4th review!"

 

[ColCol]

Hey, someone mentioned Recon, I just bought the revised edition on a whim recently (along with the whispering vault).

 

[Telengard]

RECON was my favorite of the 1st generation of RPGs. And I never really found anything else like it.