The SBRPG Restoration Project, Part 5

What was SBRPG an alternative to?

To examine the landscape, you will need to go back to 2005. While GURPS 4 was still a new system back then, we were not directly trying to create a replacement for that. What was on our minds was D&D 3.5E, and SBRPG is a direct replacement for that system.

D&D never changes; the designers always "string you along" with new options and classes, and this is true of any version of D&D they have ever released. You are blowing paycheck after paycheck on new books, more options, and better choices. The more you buy, the worse it gets, and the more unhappy you become.

Eventually, they create a new edition as a soft reset when the sales drag, and sell it all to you again. I have seen seven versions of the Ranger over three editions of Wizards' D&D from 3.0 to 5.5E, with three of them being in 5E.

In the 3.5E days, we knew there had to be universal formulas for things like character development and design, race, and power design, so we set out to create those. You did not need to recognize that endlessly buying books to have a system, such as a system with. You do not need endless "thesaurus classes", the bard, troubador, skald, minstrel, entertainer, and so on. Why?

Is a barbarian a fighter who harnesses rage power and employs a specific fighting style? Tack that on there, adjust your XP per level, and get playing. We don't need a dozen pages of fluff text and class powers for what is essentially a fighter.

You world may not even have "fighters" and you may do something else, like a duelist or pirate. Those aren't rogues. Why do we need to make those subclasses of the thief class? D&D 3.5E, to maintain their "sell you stuff" monetization strategy, constantly forces square pegs into round holes all the time.

Levels define skills. D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder 1e never got that. Why have levels if your skills are not tied to them? Why do I need to spend points on "class skills?" If the stealth skill is a rogue class feature, then what value should a level 6 thief's stealth be rated at? Hello? McFly!

Round peg, yes, round hole.

Level 6, that's right!

It was an abysmal decision for D&D 3.0 and 3.5E to make. How many books did they print with that assumption? And Paizo carried this on to Pathfinder 1e? From D&D 3.0 being released in 2000 to the end of Pathfinder 1 in 2019, we had 20 years of this nonsense.

We liked the idea of classes defining roles and skills, but we didn't like having to constantly buy books, and that pile getting higher and higher. So we wrote a system with class design, and then power design went along with that, since that is typically another thing they hold out on to keep selling you books.

We spent 20 years buying books as well.

GURPS and Champions have power design, but they do not have classes. We liked classes since the original version of SBRPG was designed to play freeform, allowing players to have a "level 5 fighter" with a few ability scores and assume the rest from there. You can play SBRPG that way and have it work fine. You can't play GURPS or Champions by just thinking a level for anything.

SBRPG is so simple that you could play it at lunch with 3d6 and a piece of paper. Even a "level 5 power" inflicts a level 5 hazard, and most spells are easily figured out (1d6L, 2d6C, or 3d6S) per level. Sacrifice a few levels for increased range or additional hazard levels or effects. Simplified, level-based power design is a new system I want to add to the revision.

We had a version of SBRPG that used a d20. We preferred 3d6, and it was a truly universal game where you could find these dice anywhere in the world and play the system easily. Once you get a d20 involved, you need more dice for damage, and things get messy. We put 3d6 on the cover, and that is all you need.