I am looking for high-powered, heroic, non-simulationist, tactical combat RPGs similar to Fabula Ultima or 13th Age 2e.I like grid-based tactical combat RPGs. My favorites include relatively well-known titles like D&D 4e, Path/Starfinder 2e, and Draw Steel, and more obscure titles like Tailfeathers/Kazzam, Tacticians of Ahm, level2janitor's Tactiquest, and Tom Abbadon's ICON.Still, I concurrently find myself also wanting to run gridless tactics. Two systems I have tried extensively are Fabula Ultima and 13th Age 2e. Of the two, I like the latter significantly more. Sure, 13th Age 2e does not have as much build customization, but I find that the moment-to-moment, turn-to-turn decisions are significantly more interesting than in Fabula Ultima. (Also, I am just not interested in Fabula relying on opaque combat information at all. I would much rather that challenge be intrinsic to the enemies, rather than arise from lack of knowledge.)I have been keeping a combat diary of my 13th Age 2e game here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HQC2x2FfjnBDZDaicQDCLWO2-R6xMyUAa_rJcMABpfw/editNevertheless, I would still be interested in giving Fabula another try. I would like to see how much more tactical (if any) the combat is with the new Bestiary and its boss mechanics. This ambition of mine is a doused by my one most tactically savvy player burning out on Fabula precisely because its tactics are not particularly in-depth, though.So now I am looking for alternatives. They need to be high-powered, heroic, and non-simulationist (i.e. not gritty, not GURPS). They need to focus on tactical combat, and emphasize abstract distances (i.e. no grid, no concrete distances). Ideally, there should be a very well-stocked bestiary.I have been running Daggerheart on the side. We are currently 6th level. I do not find its combat all that tactical.I have considered Cypher, but I am waiting for its new edition.What games come to mind?
Addendum: Sentinel Comics is one of those RPGs I would have found nearly perfect, were it not for its combat balance being on the shaky side. It has very little in the way of character advancement, too, and I like it when the PCs gain stronger new abilities as the levels rise: abilities that were once gated off behind high levels.I have tried getting into both Exalted 3e and Exalted Essence. Just not for me in any way, system or setting.
>>98195155Damn that's wild. In the time it took you to write this book and ensure you found a full-resolution picture of my wife did you maybe think you should ask google?With your addendum you have now named over a dozen system and vaguely described a solid 60 to 70% of all tabletop games of all time in some shape or form.Fate Core uses Zones but will likely take a lot of work to make combat granular enough. You should just homebrew zones into a system you like rather than hoping some perfect system will coincidentally be printed for your exact use case.
>>98195189Funnily enough, I know of a Fate tactical combat hack: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Qa9VSFjH9reUTEmQMxzGEpPYz00Tw3QMWOCrdtOKmk/editI have tried it once. It was okay, but it was still Fate at the end of the day, and Fate is not particularly well-suited to tactical combat.
>>98195155>They need to be high-powered, heroic, and non-simulationist (i.e. not gritty, not GURPS).GURPS is somewhat realistic by default, but it has lots of optional rules for cinematic play.
>>98195594
>>98195155What you are looking for is probably SotWW.>CypherMonte Cooks cypher has absolutely nothing to do with tactical combat.
>>98195594>>98195596You know, for how much I've heard GURPS peddled around, I don't think I've actually seen anyone report hosting a game with it here in my several years of lurking. Feels like the only reason someone would chose to play it out of our demographic is:>1 - They want to do a Fallout campaign and heard that Fallout is mechanically based off GURPs>2 - They want to do crossover Fortnite slop that necessitates keeping track of mechanics that would normally be restricted to a specific genera of systemAnd everyone seems to think 2 is cringe
>>98195594What about tactical combat in the vein of Fabula Ultima or 13th Age 2e, though?>>98195613I have been recommended Shadow elsewhere, too. I certainly need to look into it. Thank you.
>>98195155World of Five Nations.
>>98195155You'd probably actually really like Cyberpunk RED. It's all the tactics of FNFF without the high lethality making things too gritty or letting your heroes get one shot
>>98195769I am generally skeptical towards the Cyberpunk RPGs on fulfilling high power and heroic.What are the selling points for someone looking for tactical combat there? What combat roles might be found across a party?
>>98195769>>98195775Red basically requires a grid map in order to be run with any consistency, due to the way cover and movement works. It *is* more heroic than you would assume, Edna, but characters also don't have intrinsic powers and abilities like the games you seem to enjoy do, and character advancement is very, very slow on two axis (money and improvement points) and fucking with the speed at which PCs improve kind of borks the challenge of the system.
Maybe try HERO System. It's essentially the cinematic counterpart to GURPS. Best known for its superhero setting, Champions. HERO System is the genre-agnostic base system.
>>98195155Did you ever take a look at FFRPG Legend? That came out a couple years ago.
>>98196456I did, though I found it on the dense and intimidating size, even for me.What would you say are its selling points from a tactical combat perspective?
>>98195746Hypothetically, you could make tactical combat in the vein of Fabula Ultima or 13th Age 2e with GURPS. (I say this without having played Fabulia Ultima or 13th Age myself, but I assume it's not too many steps removed from D&D 4E, which I have played) The advantage/enhancement/limitation system is flexible enough that you can theoretically create any ability you can imagine with enough effort and without much homebrew if any at all. The GM will have to set limits and guidelines if he wants to get the actual feel of these types of games, though, or make all the abilities himself. If you were already looking to make something like your own game, then this could be fun. If not, then this will end up being a massive chore. But there are probably already lists of pregenerated abilities in setting guides or someone else's GURPS games to lift from if you look hard enough. I wouldn't know, though, since I always make everything myself.>>98195727I've ran two GURPS games and I'm solidly in the second camp. Ran an unholy gacha slop crossover of GFL, AKN, PGR, Nikke, and LBC. The system handled these settings better than any other system I've ever tried. Although, my focus was on translating lore/fluff, and not on translating game mechanics 1:1. Even though translating game mechanics 1:1 would be theoretically possible, I think that's totally misguided to even attempt. Too many system hacks I've seen focus too much on trying to translate mechanics 1:1 from a video game, but are too caught up in the mechanics of a familiar yet incompatible TTRPG system, then fail to translate either the game mechanics or the actual setting itself. I like GURPS because it lets me take what I think is actually important from a setting and mix-and-match mechanics without too much fuss.
>>98196756I had the same reaction you did.
>>98195155Nechronica.
>>98197416>The GM will have to set limits and guidelines if he wants to get the actual feel of these types of games, though, or make all the abilities himself. If you were already looking to make something like your own game, then this could be fun. If not, then this will end up being a massive chore.Yes, I prefer for tactical games to be ready-to-go as opposed to "some assembly required.">>98198295I can sympathize.
>>98195155doesn't exist yet. BRP offshoots are to deadly and nobody else tried
