btw, I want to give some background on my RPG experience because I realize I'm probably really starting to sound like one of those early 90's D&D appologists.
I did in fact play D&D from about 82 til 89. But in 85 I started playing RoleMaster/SpaceMaster more and more, and when AD&D 2e came out I felt it was a poor imitation of RM/SM. For a few more years I played RM/SM (there were other game systems in there as well, but those were my main systems) until I started having trouble making RM/SM adapt to what I wanted.
From about 92 on, my main perspective in game systems has been "how adaptable is it to what I want to express". I actually found GURPS to NOT be what I wanted. It's Generic, but not epic ... and some times epic is what I wanted. I also found it to be a little too calculation intensive. The latter is also why I didn't stick with Hero. Eventually I had to settle on "how much does this game NOT get in my way", since too many game systems, even GURPS, concentrate on giving you the ability to tell a certain type of story, instead of giving you the tools to tell YOUR story.
Other games I've played are Aftermath, CT, TNE, Warhammer FRP, ShadowRun, various editions of Top Secret and Gammaworld, Marvel Superheros, V&V, various WhiteWolf games (really liked the Mage setting), Cyberpunk (orig and 2.0.2.0), FASA's Star Trek game, and I own the Icon Star Trek and Dune games as well. In 93 or 94 I picked up The Mutant Chronicles (which I liked more for its setting than mechanics, but I mention it because it's also a "careers based development" game) and have been trying to convert its mechanics to other game systems ever since.
The three game systems that really heavily describe my perspective on RPG's starting in 94 and up until d20 came out were: Fudge, DreamPark, and Castle Falkenstein. The mechanics for all 3 are very minimalist, and the first two are VERY flexible games. If I had had more time, I was doing a lot of work to try to re-do DreamPark with Fudge mechanics (since the DreamPark game mechanics weren't just minimalist, but simplistic) ... I never got around to finishing up a magic&powers section of the system though.
Then d20 came out, and it caused me to re-evaluate a lot of things about what I like and want to do with gaming. In some ways, you can compare the major features of d20 with the featurs of Fudge: Abilities, Skills and Gifts (or Feats as d20 calls them). I was worried that classes might get in the way, until I heard that they had done away with the old rules for multi- and dual- classed characaters and merged them into one system that applies to all characters of any race. That intrigued me, and ever since the 3e PHB came out, I haven't looked any other game systems. It has satisfied me enough to keep me just looking at that one system for the last 9 to 10 months ... probably the longest stretch of fascination with a single rule set that I've ever had.
So, I'm not only "not a D&D appologist", for the last 12 years I was a critic of the D&D way of doing things. I was heavily into systems that were neither level nor class based. (and in relation to another discussion, I have also been to all sorts of extremes on minimalist-vs-complex and abstract-vs-simulationist rules) But d20 hasn't "Gotten in my way". I don't agree with how d20 does everything (I would _REALLY_ like to have a magic system like Ars Magica and/or Mage:The Ascention, or even just one like Shadowrun, or even just Spell Law), but it has proven to me to be a good tool. And the class system hasn't been an issue to me at all*. I've been considering converting parts of the Mutant Chronicle setting into d20, and a game I had been building up to run in Fudge is the d20 game I'm running right now. I'm not even on the Fudge mailing list anymore, since a couple months ago I realized it didn't have much relevance to what I've been doing in gaming lately.
(* well, okay, that's not 100% true: the D&D3e restriction on "prefered class" and keeping multi-class levels in parity has caused me frustration in one of the games I've been playing. But that restriction is only in D&D3e; in Star Wars there's no such restriction so there's no reason to expect that you'd have to have it in any other d20 game. Really, you _could_ do away with d20 classes entirely and still have a game that's compatible with other d20 games ... but you probably need to keep the level system in place if you want to maintain compatability.)
[This message has been edited by kzin (edited 13 June 2001).]
