Generic RPG systems

Today I was walking home, and stopped in a gaming store. I’d been there before, so I already knew what kind of product they stocked. However, today I saw that they had copies of Genesys from Fantasy Flight Games.

I don’t really have a lot of experience with generic RPGs, but I’ve been increasingly curious. Have an elastic mechanical system to apply to games as I see fit just seems too good to pass up. I’ve looked at a couple of different ones, and have heard excellent reviews of FATE and Savage World, but seeing as how Genesys is the system for the extremely popular Star Wars game, I’m very intrigued.

I’ve yet to hear anything from people who have tried, but I’m keep an ear to the ground. Oddly enough, I rarely hear of people who play generic systems as is. Usually, it’s a modified version that is used to accommodate a certain genre or concept. I wonder about the experience of just playing normal people, like in a thriller. I feel like a generic system would be really good for this, but still allow for other types of game experiences as well.

I’d love to see a series of side-by-side reviews of generic RPGs. I just don’t have enough experience with them to evaluate the systems comparatively. There’s so many, and it’s hard to know which one would be just out-and-out quality. It is, however, an excuse to do more gaming. And let’s be honest, more gaming is almost always a good thing.