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Get your own Free Home PageFor me, RPGs are a great creative outlet. I can create, act, and socialize with others. They offer reasons for research into history, culture, and human behavior. This hobby is almost like making movies or writing books that can surprise even the artist, because the result is open-ended. At its best, gaming is like an improvisational theater piece (playing characters) combined with the best things about model railroading (world building) and writing novels (research and plot creation). Best of all, it can be very inexpensive and it involves playing with your friends.
I have played many game systems in many settings. I am not one of those people who insists that his favorite game system is the ultimate while others stink. It what you do with them that counts. Nevertheless, I do have my favorites:
GURPS, by Steve Jackson Games, is my favorite role-playing system. It is a generic system, which means that it is adaptable to almost any genre of adventure game one would care to play. There are many supplementary worldbooks for almost any type of adventure type, and the system is easily supplemented for any genre you can invent. It has rules covering almost any situation, but once a character has been created playing is generally simple.
Best of all, GURPS is a point-build system, so that characters can really be customized to the player's exact concept. Proponents of the Hero system will point out that Hero came up with a similar system first (it's true) but I find the GURPS rules are more consistent and more clearly and entertainingly written, big points with me. I have played Hero and like it; I just like GURPS better. I decided to use GURPS for all my gaming so as not to duplicate my sizable investment in gaming stuff. I have never regretted that decision. Best of all, I can change campaigns without having to re-train all my players.
I plan to use GURPS in my upcoming Space Rangers campaign.
For more information, check out the GURPS Page at Steve Jackson Games.
Great system--the first really good science-fiction RPG. I was very sad to hear about GDW's demise, but Traveller has survived. Even the character generation system is fun--like solo roleplaying.
A great system. The Glorantha world is very well defined, but is open enough to allow the GM to make it his or her own. Non-Gloranthan Runequest works very well too. I liked the second edition best, I think. Vincent Seifert did a marvelous variant called "Vincequest" that is a combination of the best in Runequest and the best in Vincent's ingenious mind.
Currently playing this for the first time. What Jan Engan does with it is incredible.
The Erom campaign has actually had four major phases. I started playing it in 1979 with some friends in the Manoa area. It lasted about a year and a half. We used Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules and had a blast. No one got past about 7th level, though magic items abounded.
Erom phase two started in 1981 with three players and me. Two of them were still in the game when I wrapped it up in mid-1997. We were still using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The game grew to about eight to ten people. after about four or five years, I went on hiatus for about two years. The group still met, but we played other things.
Phase three of Erom began five years (game time) after the end of phase two. The same characters once again fought evil, saved the world, and managed to get invited to the Mariner's Ball.
Phase four was a major change. We switched to the GURPS system with a lot of success. This was made easier by the fact that twenty years (game time) had gone by and a whole new generation was taking up the challenge. Three of the players actually created characters that were the children of their original characters.
Phase five? I have relocated to California from Hawaii, and I cannot imagine running Erom without the usual gang--but who knows?
Between phases three and four of Erom, I ran a Seventeenth Century Swashbucklers campaign that took place in England, Ireland, and the Caribbean. No magic, just swords and pistols (well, maybe a little voodoo). The GURPS system worked extremely well for this one. The highlight for me was when a character, having suddenly encountered the arch-villain in London, rolled a critical failure during the ensuing combat and started the Great Fire of London.
This never got too far off the ground, but it was a 1930's pulp adventure series. I moved before I could really get it rolling. Maybe someday?
Starting soon. For more info click this Space Rangers link.
Vincent Seifert is a very brilliant man. His home-brewed rules system, Vincequest, started as a variant of Runequest and grew into--well, it was good: flying islands, strange lighter-than-air beasties, Skarlish Lightning, and lots of gnarly adventures. Vince left Hawaii some years back, but Vincequest is alive and thriving in Sacramento.
I have known six really brilliant GMs. Dave Stroup is two of them (Vince Seifert and Jan Engan make up the other four). Dave's modern horror-punk and paranoia atmosphere and beautifully managed story arc made this the top gaming experience of my life.
Dave Stroup again. Immortal warriors are among us--the Ar Rud. It's an Immortals campaign with sword-wielding Ancients existing secretly in today's world. The best thing about this campaign was that it was not at all derivative of "Highlander," which when you think about it was pretty hard to do--but that's what makes Dave a genius.
Michael Lim ran the most twisted and original Traveller campaign imaginable. More fun than Traveller should be, really.
I just started this, but I know I'm in the hands of a master (mistress sounds too racy.)
I'll keep you posted on what else I have done later.
Copyright © 1998, 2000 Paul C. Pinkosh
Revised--January 5, 2000
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