Topic for this week: Have you ever ported the DC world to a different set of rules? If you have, what rule-set and how did it go?
I'll start. I have used the Dark Conspiracy world with two alternate sets of rules. The D6 Adventure! rules and the Fate system.
The D6 rules conversion was the easier of the two, at first, being a rather simple d6 dice-pool rule-set. The only real problem came from an individual who, neither I nor the other members of our group at the time, currently bother speaking to. He was a Pathfinder man through and through. He was our GM off and on for about 25 years (with long breaks due to LIFE). When he hit burnout, he couldn't step aside and allow anybody to take over, even with a different system. The extremely unpleasant group implosion that followed, was just a matter of time....
Moving on. The players did not like a few small details that are part of the Adventure! rule-set. In combat, only body armor will resist damage. This makes a fight extremely deadly for everybody and they didn't feel it allowed them to be "heroic" enough since everybody was too scared to mix it up with the baddies. Easy fix, the old Star Wars version of the rules allowed the characters to use half of their Physique dice to resist damage. We'll just do that.
The other complaint was a mechanic WEG used to reduce the number of dice rolled in opposed contests and combat. When a roll is opposed, only the character with the higher skill needed to make a roll, with his dice pool reduced by the number of dice available in the opposing pool (I don't even remember doing this but it was mentioned... ehhh....). Another simple fix, just have everybody roll everything normally and total it all up. Easy. We will probably go back to the D6 rules at some point, though I will probably use the V6* version from Radioactive Ape next time.
*Free on RPGnow, if you want to check it out:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/70124/Ato ... oleplaying
On to Fate. This is the most recent attempt at using the DC world with an alternate rules system. Fate was a little harder for me at first, but was also a bigger hit with the players. The new (to me) way of thinking of things took a little getting used to, I am old and new concepts take longer to sink into my head than they did as a youth
. Once we got started and we began using the system, it became much easier very quickly. Fate has a very short learning curve and proves to be a good system, it takes a lot of preparation-induced sweating off of the GM's shoulders (stat-wise) so you can spend most of the available prep-time developing story elements the players handed you the previous session. It was GREAT (!) for both myself and the players, this is one of the biggest pros of the Fate system, in my opinion.
Many people claim that Fate is not suitable for a horror game since it is actually pretty hard to kill the characters and the characters can do so much, so easily, with the way Fate handles these things. I say bollocks, to that. Killing a character is not an important focus, to me, when I run a game. I want to do heroic stuff when I play and I want the players to feel free to be heroic and willing to take risks to save the people around them. I let the situation of the NPCs and the darkness of the opposition create the horror.
The characters may not die (unless the story makes it necessary, but that is a social contract thing) but they will get a permanent negative aspect (a crippling wound which gives a permanent penalty), if they are taken out in combat. That is fairly horrifying to me and most players I know, so it does keep the tension at an appropriate level. I also keep a tight reign on what a normal human (which is what the characters are when I run DC with the Fate rules) is able to accomplish. I don't care if they roll a stage +10 success, if a human can't do it, it does not happen. This sort of goes against the spirit of the system a bit but it does keep the game in the right feel and tone of normal people fighting back against the darkness.
Dark Conspiracy will live a long life with me and my current gaming group because of the Fate system. Everybody had fun and that is the whole point of playing.
At this point, I am going to go off topic and recommend that you give Fate a go, if you haven't done so already. The PDF is free to anybody who wants a copy, all they ask is, if you like it and want to float a little capital their way, just go back and "buy" another copy (for whatever you wish). Hell, I sought out print copies and bought them (no, I am not affiliated with Evil Hat and get nothing from this recommendation, though it might sound otherwise).
RPGnow:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/114903/Fate-Core-System
Evil Hat's own web-store:
https://www.evilhat.com/store/index.php ... 65vphuqfj0