What's the best system for a more light-hearted heroic fantasy? Something like Belgariad, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser...

What's the best system for a more light-hearted heroic fantasy? Something like Belgariad, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Dragon Quest, and so on.

I'm currently considering Ryuutama, but I haven't looked into it much. D&D 5e is also on the table, as is Dungeon World and Savage Worlds.

Bump for interest.
A simple TRPG that plays like an old JRPG would be great.

Savage Worlds does a good job at this, because of the notoriously whacky shit that tends to happen.

Depending on how capable you want your players to be, you might want to start them off with a few XP or tweak the combat a bit, because especially early on fights can quickly turn into stunlocks for one or two players.

I don't necessarily want it to -play- like an old JRPG, but just to feel like one. (Unless that's what you meant.)

Basically, I want players to be skilled and capable and to not get easily killed or crippled. I want exploration and adventure to be a big part of the setting, alongside combat and roleplaying.

That's why I was leaning towards Ryuutama, it really seems to capture the old JRPG / classic fantasy feel.

I'll have to check out Savage Worlds in actual detail. I'm only passingly familiar with it.

How would you recommend tweaking combat? Any expansion or additonal material I should look into for a fantasy setting?

I'm using Strike! for all my non-serious shit with combat in it, but it's got deliberately non-grindy, barely increasing non-high numbers (way more so than 5e).

Haven't heard of this. I actually like systems that keep their numbers low, so that's fine with me.

How do you like it? How does it handle noncombat stuff?

Savage Worlds used to have a Fantasy Companion, but I think this is contained in the Gentlemen's Edition Core Book now. Might want to look that up.

Other than that, it's been a long time since we played Savage Worlds, so I can't really give you houserules, sorry. You should just have an eye on the recovery system, since it can potentially get frustrating.

Over all, I can really reccomend the system, though, since it's incredibly easy to homebrew with and has a good amount of pregenerated content and subsystems to use if you so desire.

Thanks, I'll be looking into it. I appreciate the advice and assistance!

>How would you recommend tweaking combat? Any expansion or additonal material I should look into for a fantasy setting?

Not the guy who recommended it, but here's my list:

Use the Savage Armory fan supplement for weapons. There's a fantasy companion as well which is official but it's not really needed.

I remove skills; you just roll the associated stat (but edges related to skills remain, just improves)

I fuse strength and vigor, and have all (both ranged and melee) damage/vigor rolls key off of that (you can carry/use heavier bows/crossbows/guns with higher STR), and all attack rolls and your dodge for both melee and ranged key of off your finesse (ranged is kinda BS strong in SW otherwise).

OP, I'm going to cast my vote for Savage Worlds as well. It's cheap, ten bucks for the core book, and a hard copy, no less.
The combat is quick and rewarding, and between the general buffs PCs get and the bennies (tokens that you spend to reroll dice), they don't go down easily. The system assumes that most enemies go down in two solid hits, unless they're meant to be important (which means they get the same stuff PCs get, and then some). Initiative changes every round, so it keeps things dynamic.
As for fantasy settings, their Fantasy Companion has a lot of your standard D&D bits in it, and their Evernight setting is pretty unique.