serleran wrote:That, to me, is why I love "generic" systems, like BRP, because you can take whatever the hell you want and say "this'll work in my game"

Indeed........
Although I do that with every system game product I have.
(Well most of it anyway)
I find some simple way to either make it all work, or convert what I can and make the rest up as I go.

Some of them take more effort to make them work, but most of them are easy enough to convert, at least in part if not completely

Toss out some of the special new critter and PC skills and special abilities and (to me) the wierd races and special abilities (like the fire breathing Paladin Half Dragonborn dude) and the speciallty stuff in 4e, and 3.x e and its quite similar to AD&D 2nd edition.

Especially so for the Goodman Games DCC products.
They are even easier to convert than much of the other D20 and 3.x stuff is.
Many of the new monsters and new spells are actualy listed in detail at the back of the module/books.
I dont see how much easier it could get, unless they did the conversions for me.
Which they actually did for a couple of the DCC's.

Castles and Crusades is not exactly generic, but it is easier than anything else that I can think of right now to use with other systems materials.
The Rules are so generic for C&C overall, that the game master (Castle Keeper) could use any reference materials out there with more ease than most other game systems.

But overall, you are right.
Generic systems make the work go easier and simpler by far.