The pure ROLEplayer would be better off with GURPS 4e because the power is where it originally was and should have never left - the GM's hands. The GM designs the monsters as she sees it and can do so on the fly making them as tough or weak as they want right there at the time of battle. That keeps her players on their toes. BUT G4e has so much crunch that it can be bogged down by rules lawyers so you may have to nip that in the bud right away.
This leads me to my real point though. What system is best of these for online PBEM or forum based play? I have used all the above mentioned in forum based play. The most useful was actually D&D4e as long as I had access to a mapping/combat program to do screen shots to post showing the action. That went well when WoTC had their online gaming table available. When they pulled the plug on it the system and game became a chore taking too much time to DM and died. Combat also took too long and the many available classes made the game a non-challenge. The deck was too stacked in the PC's favor because the rules were in STONE vs. flexible in the DM's hands as Gygax meant for them.
This brings me to Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. (DCCRPG). This RPG borrows some from the old and some from the new. Dwarves and Elves are now a class vs. race with a class (like they were in original D&D) there are simple classes - Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric. No more Elvin fighters (ie Rangers) stealing the thieves job, no more fighters with cleric powers stealing the cleric's job etc... and it uses the good old random character method my very first AD&D DM did. You start with 2-4 0-level characters, go adventuring and see who lives. This becomes your character and your STORY or your ROLEplay begins!
The philosophy behind DCCRPG harkens back to the original D&D of putting the story telling power in the hands of the DM. Over time D&D became more of a strategy/chess game, which is fine but it is so radically different that it should have been called something else because it is NO LONGER D&D. Once the power of altering things is removed from the DM's hand he becomes a referee only no different than the players and the story is GONE. That is actually what WoTC wants so that you are forced into buying into their seasonal D&D Battles ie. pay to play.
DCCRPG may be the system to use for PBEM or forum based for two reasons:
- simplicity of classes and races cuts down on time and complexity of characters and options which bog down online play.
- simplicity of rules and putting those rules in the hands of the GM enables her to move the story along and adapt. Indeed there are no distance requirements like in 4e or push/pull rules. This is important for online play because GONE is the need for a map which takes real life time to handle.
I have found over time as a player and GM that those 2 items are what kills forum and pbem games. Those 2 things take up so much of the GM's personal time and players while they wait for a player with complex skills to do their action that they either get bored of it, forget to check on the game because its taking so long, or the drain on their personal time is too much.
Modifying some games does not work because it breaks the entire game. D&D4e is entirely built around the push/pull and exact distance mechanic that without miniatures and maps the game is unplayable. GURPS4e is even more rules crunchier that changing one little thing can affect the entire system due to its generic nature. Pathfinder suffers from high level problems like 3.5 did and its myriad of classes also bog play down though less so than 4e which I think is more philosophical as players seem to be more ROLEplay minded with it than 4e. And Savage Worlds is too niche market that few people have it and its a closed system. DCCRPG on the other hand is very well known from old 3.5 players of their DCC adventures and it is so simple like OD&D was that players do not need a book to learn it.
I am going to test my theory that DCCRPG is the best for fantasy rpg online by making the 0 level adventure included with the book on playbyweb.com. Players will use the awesome random generator here: http://purplesorcerer.com/create.htm to make a set of 4 0 level characters to adventure with. I will report how it is going weekly.
Rob
