For Want of a Stat System
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It occurs to me there are several RPGs that try to mimic the 80s and 90s action movie experience. They might work out.
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@n0q said in For Want of a Stat System:
I remember Shadowrun being one of the first systems which came to mind, but I'd concluded it would be an absolute fuck to tear the Shadowrun out of that system, with the way money, race, cyberware, and magical aptitude was worked into chargen (balance purposes). Similarly, 'good' martial arts was locked behind magic, as well. In retrospect, maybe this was just super lazy of me. I'll take another look at it with an eye towards revising chargen to fit my needs.
I'm not sure which version of SR you were looking at, but with the point-buy system, the balance is less clunky and easier to tune towards your needs. I'm not sure the vehicle rules really fit what you're looking for, but it does at least have them. I also don't know what you consider 'good' martial arts though... my character in tabletop absolutely kicked butt in melee combat without any magic. I mean, sure, physical adepts are better (that's kind of the point) but that doesn't mean mundane experts suck compared to other mundanes... at least in my experience.
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I second Faraday on that, I made a human ganger that focused on melee and pistols with a butt load of Krav Maga maneuvers and cyber and was the scary guy of our group. Yes, a psychical adept could likely have done better but I was taking out enemies at a rate of 2 or 3 a round.
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@ThatGuyThere Actually, Samurai are the bees knees when it comes to physical characters at the start. Physads need time and advancement to be able to match and possibly surpass a well built street sam.
Hello! Long time listener, first time caller...
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@Lithium I think that depends on which version of the game you're using. But either way, cyber and magic both obviously give you an edge over someone with neither, but that's true of all forms of combat. I haven't seen melee be any worse off than anything else in that regard. But then, our group came up with these elaborate Shadowrun martial arts house rules that made the rounds way back when, so I might be biased there.
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@WTFE said in For Want of a Stat System:
GURPS splat books can be a good read. GURPS itself is ... well, shit.
Yeah, even if you hate the system, GURPS makes fantastic splat books that will help you with nearly any game you're running.
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@faraday said in For Want of a Stat System:
@Lithium I think that depends on which version of the game you're using. But either way, cyber and magic both obviously give you an edge over someone with neither, but that's true of all forms of combat. I haven't seen melee be any worse off than anything else in that regard. But then, our group came up with these elaborate Shadowrun martial arts house rules that made the rounds way back when, so I might be biased there.
I've never played an SR edition where a physad started out with the ability to be /built/ better than an optimized street samurai.
Is it possible for a physad to beat a starting samurai? Sure, but it really depends a lot on how each player knew the game, how optimized they wanted their characters to be, and where they put stuff.
Yes, availability limits do put a cap on street samurai, but not as much as the 6 magic points to spend on physad powers does imho.
