Interesting find.

[Adaen of Bridgewater]

To my mind there are a lot of decent systems that do not include the D&D "Class-level" system and some decent ones that do have some semblence of classes and levels. I imagine that most of you are aware of these systems, but have issues with them. Here's a list of some systems that might fit the bill:
Classless:GURPSFUDGEHarnmasterMasterbookHeroTalislanta RPG (this one has a shiny new edition too)RuneQuestRiddle of SteelConan RPG (this one might surprise some)
With Class/Level, but in a way I feel is less objectionable: Rolemaster/MERPAge of Heroes (free download)The Atlantis System (a.k.a., The Arcanum, The Lexicon, and The Bestiary)Arduin
There's probably many I'm missing...these are just off the top of my head.
Although I think P&P is a good system for Simulationist play (which I prefer), it is one of the least well written rulesets ever considering the complexity. The more complex a system is, the better the rules need to be explained. As written, the rules are very hard to digest for even a seasoned gamer, let alone a novice player.
I would be interested in hearing people's impression of these and their thoughts on the P&P ruleset in comparison.
Keep in mind, I currently am a player in a d20 game....the campaign has been so well done and is so elaborate, it would likely work with any ruleset so I don't mind so much. Also, we're at an intermediate level (~6) which I feel the D&D system handles acceptably (low and high levels are both problems). I also GM a homegrown system of my own devising that is much more P&P/Harnmaster-like than D&D-like, but I like to think it is fairly innovative (at least for my campaign and tastes).
-Adaen of Bridgewater
 "Choinski, Burton" <Burton.Choinski at MATRIXONE.COM> wrote:
In recent days I've found me and my friends less inclined to use the P&P system, because of all the rough edges and special-case rules.  We are all older then we were in 83 (gods, have I been with this system that long?) and binging in modern gamers to such a complex system is hard.

However, in many times we have used the Perilous Lands with other systems (granted, the magic is not always fit very well, but the cultures and map is used extensively).

A synopsis of the combat/magic resolution and skill useage would be good.
      -- Burton


----------------------------------------
Burton Choinski
Principle Software Engineer, Quality Engineering
email: burton.choinski at matrixone.com

phone: 978-322-2135
fax  : 978-452-5764

MatrixOne, Inc.
Two Executive Drive
Chelmsford, Ma 01824
www.matrixone.com

The First in Intelligent Collaborative Commerce
----------------------------------------


|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Kurgan [mailto:Kurgan at FASTMAIL.FM]
|| Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 1:07 AM
|| To: POWERS-AND-PERILS at geo000.CITG.TUDELFT.NL
|| Subject: Interesting find.
||
||
|| Hey guys,
||
||
||     Has there been any recent traffic on the [@geo] P&P list? I
||     haven't gotten anything in ages. Just to play it safe I just went
||     and re-did my subscription, so I know that's working now. It'd
||     kinda suck if all this time I'd been unsubbed and didn't know it!
||
||     Anyway, I just ran across something interesting that I
|| figured was
||     worth mentioning. The thing that causes P&P to really trip our
||     triggers is the lack of level/classes and other typical D&D-ish
||     crap that people like us generally loathe. So, tonight I was
||     goofing off on eBay and spotted something. It's a new game called
||     "Undiscovered", and it has no classes or levels, uses lots of
||     skills, and a percentile-based system! I'll never ditch P&P, of
||     course, but this was definitely worth checking out, especially
||     with everyone and his brother jumping on the sickening D20
||     bandwagon these days.
||        So, to make a long story short, I bought the darned
|| thing. I'll
||     letcha all know if it's worth a darn when it gets here. If anyone
||     here has already played it, please let me know. God help us, it
||     looks like someone may have actually published something worth a
||     damn again, something that we all know far too well only seems to
||     happen once or twice a decade in the RPG world.
||
||
||
|| Best regards,
||
||     Kurgan
||
||     Mailto:Kurgan at Fastmail.fm
||
||
||  Today's Zen Wisdom:
||
||     1860: I'm not illiterate!  My parents were married...
||
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.powersandperils.org/pipermail/pnp/attachments/20030313/9d4f3750/attachment.html>