The ME system

["Scott Levy" <becubed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So what is it that you like about the ME system?

To me the actual mechanics of it aren't anything special, the only realy
novel concept was the template overlays for the hit location.
Other things in the combat section are fairly simplistic.
Look at the modifiers - very few there.
No differences in recoil for any type or calibre of gun.
Long range shooting with scopes becomes silly with a high power scope, a
shot at someone 1Km away is resolved as if at 27m if you use a 36x scope.
The higher the inherent accuracy of a weapon the greater the penalty once
you exceed the effective range.

The damage section is really a distillation of the concepts from Time Lords
by Greg Porter. He was listed in the credits page of the first edition. It's
hampered by the fact that there is no random component in it once a hit is
scored. The fist time I played it became apparent this was a flaw when the
first three people shot were hit in the arm and sufferered exactly the same
effects.

The rest of the game is actuall a very ordinary d100 system.
Character generation is very simplistic, calculate the number of points that
you have to spend and then spend them. Without GM intervention you end up
with PHD killers.
Skill resulution comes down to the GM adding whatever arbitary penalty or
Bonus they think is appropriate and then roll.

To me what I liked about the ME system was the setting more than the
mechanics, the damage system was good with a bit of tweaking to give it some
randomness but the rest of the combat system was a bit poor. In the end I
twiddled some other rules to give me the detail and common sense that I
wanted. The rest of the system is outclassed by several other systems that I
know of.

What do you all think?

Scott