Heyo Veeky Forums, I'm a degenerate scrub who's only ever played PF and D&D and I'd like to branch out more. What I'm really looking for is something that isn't "dungeon crawl or bust".
What does Veeky Forums recommend that isn't inherently a combat simulator? Will post art in the meantime.
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For fantasy I'd go with Runequest 6/Mythras.
For Sci-Fi I like Traveller. The new Mongoose v2 is pretty good.
FATE/Gurps are good open ended systems to run anything in.
>gurps
triggered
I've heard good things about Runequest, but only in that people have said "it's good". Can you tell my anything about how skills are handled in those games? I say "skills" but that's probably my d20 bias showing- what I mean is "the stuff that doesn't involve murdering things/the result of practicing a discipline"
WFRP 2E.
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Symbaroum! Legends of the Wulin! Atomic Highway!
There are tons of good systems out there. What specifically are you looking for genre/tone wise? Do you want more fantasy, or are you looking for something new?
Gonna work backwards a bit so forgive me if I ramble:
My main gripe with 3.P and 5E is how they simulate combat competently but basically fail at everything else. I think combat (or at least conflict) is a vital component to roleplaying but I'm just burned out on mechanics revolving around that.
In essence, I'm looking for a system that has mechanics that creates engaging non-combat narrative experiences.
With roleplaying you generally have a blank check to do whatever, but if I didn't care about engaging mechanical systems then I'd just do freeform RP.
Let me know if I should rephrase- I did ramble for a bit.
That gives us a bit more to work with. Would you enjoy something mechanically lighter? Are generic systems a dealbreaker?
Generic systems aren't a deal breaker, I just call out GURPS specifically because of prior poor game experiences.
Mechanically light systems are absolutely welcome, especially if they don't sacrifice depth of play. I hear Ryuutama is decent in that respect, but I haven't really dived into it.
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Try Reign.
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You have good tastes friend
Savage worlds as long as what your running is not combat focused.
Savage runs everything and anything, the biggest gripe people tend to have about it is the exploding dice, which i can understand, but it is intended that combat be fast paced so that its not the core focus of the game. Any half decent GM can work around the base problem bennies present so those are really a non issue.
Its easy to pick up and game play is really manageable, if you have a high roleplaying game, i really recommend it. plus the core rule book is like $20
OSR feels like not the same game as PF and 5th.
In addition, GURPS, Traveller might be good.
>especially if they don't sacrifice depth of play
Damn. I was going to recommend Fate, but that's a game for hardcore roleplaying junkies. Might be worth a look anyway, knowing what you don't want is just as important as knowing what you do, and I could be totally misreading you. Maybe try MiniSix? I've never played it, but it's supposed to deliver on Fate's light, simple, flexible thing in a more conventional package.
A couple other suggestions, even though they're neither light nor generic:
>Shadowrun
In a nutshell, you're mercenaries in a cyberpunk world where magic and fantasy races sort of reappeared out of nowhere one day. Massive, very fleshed out game world with a huge amount of content and resources, plus some quite decent videogames to introduce you to the lore. Was also the subject of the greatest thing Veeky Forums has ever produced (IMO), Shadowrun Storytime
>Fantasycraft
If your reaction to 5e was "This is an improvement, but still not quite what I was hoping for," this could be your system. To me this it's proof there actually was a lot of good to 3.5. It sort of rebuilds its parent system from the ground up, streamlining and balancing it. A good chunk of the classes aren't even combat-focused, with some weird ones like explorer and sage (who's entire purpose is to know things)
Another very solid recommendation
Can you trouble yourself to at least read the OP before posting?
Awesome, thanks for the suggestions! I think I have enough to go on as far as personal use goes.
world of synnibarr 2/3rd edition
Raven?
Are you drinking again?
>heard good things about Runequest, but only in that people have said "it's good". Can you tell my anything about how skills are handled in those games?
RQ's greatest strength is that the characters grow organically. It's skill-based without levels so all of your advancement is on a smaller, more precise level. Your skills get better the more you use them.
There's a version called Magic World that is nicely balanced. It's more S&S than high fantasy but everything is modular.
You might want to look at Rolemaster. I don't know what the latest version is. It's really swingy and has glaringly broken builds but it's fun as hell. The critical tables are extravagant.
gurps. It's simply a good system.
This seeems like as good a thread as any to ask, I've been planning a Persona-esque campaign set in modern day with magic and shit that only really works properly in the alt-world. I've been considering generic systems, but am not sure what to try to use, GURPS, FATE, or some other third option not yet considered.
Already been recommended a couple times in thread and OP mentioned he's had bad play experiences with it. I'd have suggested it too but let's not push a game if someone says they didn't like it.
OP, Reign is really cool (also mentioned upthread), uses the One Roll Engine (ORE) which is simple, flexible and mechanically neat (one single roll encompassing hit location, speed of your action, damage, extra effects, etc.) Has easy/straightforward rules for mass combat, domain management, all kinds of stuff. Magic systems are really neat, and the game has some GREAT (and also FREE) expansions for stuff like, say, extra fighting styles ("esoteric" and "martial" disciplines), more magic styles, giant monsters, a modern psi/alien setting with rules for guns and soldier disciplines, and ORE is also used in Wild Talents which is a neat supers system if you ever feel like branching out.
Reign has two main variations; Reign, and Reign: Enchiridion which is all the rules but next to none of the fluff and some of the fluff specific disciplines taken out. But it's got a neat setting so yeah.
Whoops, no sage fields intended.