The Pros and Cons of Different Game Systems

[Charon]

This will be a thread where we discuss the pros and cons of various games, learn about new games, argue over the pros and cons of a favorite game system, ask questions to people who have played the game, etc.

Old World of Darkness

Pros: Rich history, and I mean a rich history. There is thousands of little details you can use to enrich your gaming experience. Hundreds of big details which can shape your entire game. The powers are also suitably epic. Hunters may be one of the weakest factions in the game but they still feel totally badass, and Mages are the most powerful and you get that feeling with the range of their powers. Each system is built to fit very well into their niche.

Cons: Combat. Good God is the combat horrid. I've had 1-1 fights where one side was horribly more powerful than the other but the fight lasted upwards of 8 rounds. Plus since there is the attack roll, the dodge roll, the damage roll, and the soak roll, each turn takes a long time.

GURPS

Pros: You can build anything. ANYTHING. Want to play a Space Marine? Done. How about a dragon? Easy as cake. A god? No problem. A rabbit? Yeah you can do that too. Also, the dice pretty much consists of three d6. You might occasionally use more or less d6 for damage rolls, but other than that it's only three d6 and they make it work wonderfully. There are lots and lots of rules that you can either use or throw out depending on how complex you want your game to be as well.

Cons: Character creation takes a very long time. With endless possibilities it takes awhile to sift through the possibilities to get at what you want. This is a huge turn off for people that are new to gaming and even some people that are old gamers. The skill system is also a bit tricky. It's very easy to get a skill to the point where it's almost pointless to be rolling for it.

Aberrant

Pros: Probably the best superhero game I've ever come across. The powers are incredible, the feel is epic. And they have damage stats for using semis as melee weapons.

Cons: The way the damage and soak figures work out each character is either a glass cannon or a brick wall, with very little inbetween, which can be annoying. Additionally, the "threat" of taint is a lame duck. When you're rolling enough dice to be considered the second coming of Christ botches aren't really possible.

Legend of the Five Rings

Pros: An in-depth and very rich history, compelling characters, fast and deadly combat. The roll/keep system works amazingly well, allowing even low-level characters to occasionally be badasses and badasses to be insanely good. All in all a fantastic system.

Cons: The system is set in pseudo-Eastern morality and thought processes, so it can take awhile for a player to get into the idea that things like the honor of your lord is more important than the life of your family.

[Comrade Rudolf]

I'll agree that Aberrant is the best superhero game that I've come across as well but that isn't saying much. Most Superhero games I've played or even looked at (Marvel has made at least a couple, one was even partly good) have all needed some retouching before making them fun if not playable.

The Scion game isn't a superhero game per say but has a similar feel to aberrant but much more well rounded. It could easily be shifted to make a good superhero game since a lot of it seems based on stories of mythic hero's and monsters. The combat is a little more streamlined than most WoD games too.

I really enjoy the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) role playing game. The fact that it started as a card based game and still continues as one is part of what gives L5R a lot of its great history. The tournaments they hold for the card game actually allow the winners of them a strong say in what happens in the story line. I've never been a bit fan of the card game but have loved the story they have been developing over the years. Reading the old stories is a good way to get into the right state of mind to play the game as well.

[The Minx]

Another con for GURPS would be that you have to supply the flavor for most of the supplements, in contrast to World of Darkness or similar, unless you buy specific modules. The core set is only the bare bones rules.

As with many games, it has a number of routes to abuse (for instance the infamous daggers through eye slits build), and once you get past its mechanics, it's not as realistic as it is sometimes made out to be.

I'm still a fan, though.


FUSION

Pro: very simple, very logical, very elegant and easy to start up and run.

Con: not as easy to find stuff with it as some other games, and most heroes are a lot more mortal than in other systems, though this need not be a bad thing.


D20

Pro: tons of classical flavor and rich in history, tons of stuff to support it, quick and easy combat, powerful heroes with much to strive for and still one of the best choices for high fantasy.

Con: this is the game where an elephant has a better reflex save than a cat on account of having more "levels" of "animal", and where a rogue can completely dodge the effects of an explosion with no cover and without actually moving. So, it doesn't do realism very well.

And there is that disparity between class power levels...