Quote from: David Johansen;825420JAGS (Just Another Roleplaying Game System) is a more rigorous and structured points buy game that uses 4d6 with 6 read as 0 as its system.

JAGS is a "GURPS heartbreaker" that (among other things) attempts to address what the author saw as opportunities for improvement in GURPS. These include

1. An abstract conflict-resolution system called "dramas" that attempts to provide structure for non-combat interactions (hacking, court-room dramas, etc.)

2. A separation of points between "character points" which you use to make your basic human and "archetype points" which can be used to buy exotic or supernatural abilities

3. Super powers that cost a percentage of your points, so being super-fast or invisible or whatever costs x% of your points instead of a flat rate. This is, flat out, the best way I've seen to do those kinds of powers despite the increased math.

It is, ahem, crunchy and all the criticisms of GURPS would apply (in spades, probably), but JAGS (like GURPS) is mostly respected for its world books (Wonderland, Havenot, C-13).

Also, it's all free.

Cheers,
-E.

I have played all three systems mentioned in the OP, and had some fun with all (though I personally think SW doesn't always make perfect sense math wise, and yes GURPS can be obsessive about detail). As far as generic systems go my preference is actually Basic Roleplaying.

Quote from: -E.;8281033. Super powers that cost a percentage of your points, so being super-fast or invisible or whatever costs x% of your points instead of a flat rate. This is, flat out, the best way I've seen to do those kinds of powers despite the increased math.

Why do you say that?  It's not something I've ever seen done, but my immediate impression is that it would make it harder to tune the power level of the game, since you'll always have 100% of your points to spend, regardless of whether that 100% means 5 points or 5 million.

It makes powers scale better with skills.  One of the problems with GURPS for supers is that the relative power of one point of a skill becomes very minor compared to 1000 points in a super power.  So, in a thousand point game there's really no reason not to have a 30 in any important skill.

Quote from: nDervish;828136Why do you say that?  It's not something I've ever seen done, but my immediate impression is that it would make it harder to tune the power level of the game, since you'll always have 100% of your points to spend, regardless of whether that 100% means 5 points or 5 million.

In my experience powers like super speed (giving multiple attacks) or invisibility (making your attacks harder to avoid and simultaneously making your defenses more effective because in addition to being hard to hurt, you're also much harder to hit) are basically power multipliers.

Or to put it another way, a guy who can hit 100 times a round ought to hit less hard than a guy who can only hit once a round.

If super speed costs a flat 4 points, then you'll ensure that the guy built on 5 points hits softly because he only has 1pt left over to buy powerful fists.

But then everyone built on 5 million points can trivially buy super speed.

If being super-fast costs 50% of your points, it's proportionally the same at any power level.

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: David Johansen;828140It makes powers scale better with skills.  One of the problems with GURPS for supers is that the relative power of one point of a skill becomes very minor compared to 1000 points in a super power.  So, in a thousand point game there's really no reason not to have a 30 in any important skill.

Or... I could have just quoted you...

Cheers,
-E.