My favorite RPGs (yes, favorite is not the same as "best" -- either answer is interesting, though) are Hero, GURPS, Fudge, Risus, and Tri-Stat dX. Hero is the one I've played the most and for the longest, and it's probably still the one that I would run the most if all external factors were under my control. It's a little much for bringing in newbies (which I've been doing a fair bit of lately), and there's something in it that seems to push towards statting out every little tiny thing (there are writeups available for towels and pen knives, and in Hero's point buy system, those are a fair bit of "game code"). It's a bit more work to run than I really have time for these days, too. GURPS I see as kind of a more realistic version of Hero. I loved it back when it first came out, and for a few years I didn't want to run anything else. The sourcebooks are myriad and usually of high quality, but it never really handled high-end gaming very well. Supers is probably my favorite genre to game in, so GURPS kind of fell by the wayside for me. I do still use it a fair bit, and I'm very excited by what I've seen in Pyramid of 4th edition -- that and maybe GURPS Powers (due out August 2005, apparently) might bring GURPS back to the top of the heap for me. Fudge is fun for when I want a lighter game. My kids love it, and I'm quite fond of the basic mechanic (I have only one set of Fudge dice, but with the 3d6 and d100 charts on the character sheet, it's still pretty simple). I run an online Fudge Supers game, and the flexibility in the subjective powers generation is wonderful freeing after years of Hero. I'd also probably use Fudge for a quick pickup in almost any genre. Risus is even lighter, and I think the writeup of it is near genius. It's easy enough to stat up anyone in a minute or less, and the play is pretty darn fluid. Like many light games, though, it relies a lot on GM interpretations for the rules -- sometimes that's great, but I could see players being uncomfortable with it. I haven't actually run anything in it yet, but I probably will soon. Tri-Stat is my new current favorite. It seems to strike a fairly happy middle ground between Hero/GURPS and Fudge/Risus. I do find that I don't like the 2dX bell curve (well, more of a triangle I guess), and there are some niggling issues with the mechanics that might end up turning me away from it (I think I'm going to adopt a roll-high mechanic for combat, rather than the too-failure-prone method that they have). I'm running a test supers game with it to see how it turns out. Personally, I'd rather learn one generic game and do several settings/campaigns with it than have to play a different one every time we switch campaigns. I remember the first time I heard about a generic game (I think it was GURPS), I thought that was just such a great advance. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 9 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com