I'm looking for a RPG system to spend my hard earned money on. I have a few hundred dollars to go

For deep tactical combat, not sure you're going to get much more grid focus than 4e. Or things like the warlord and other mechanics designed around that.

13th Age takes bits of pieces of 4e and streamlines things. They did take a few bad ideas and throw them back in (simpler martials) and I'm a bit annoyed that monster generation isn't as streamlined. Combat is also simplified down into 'engaged' or not, making for faster combat, but less tactical.

There's also strike, but I honestly don't know shit about it. inb4 somebody asks why Veeky Forums keeps shilling it.

You know that feeling when somebody perfectly summarizes about 3 hours of discussion with your group, tons of internet searching, back and forth in two internet forums in 5 words?
Exactly.
I'm looking for D&D but not shit.

If you're concerned about battle slowing down the definitely stay away from GURPS. This monstrosity is the rules for shooting a shotgun

I don't, but glad I could help.
My immediate recommendations would be:

>Dungeon Crawl Classics
Weird and weirdly functional mix of OSR and modern-ish mechanical design.
It is less focused on building a character to play throughout the campaign and more on rapidly rolling up a group of characters and whittling them down until only those who have at least a sliver of a chance of reaching level 5 are left. Classes feel and play very differently, with strong niche protection (and different ways of meeting a very grisly and untimely end) and there are SO MANY TABLES.

>Legend
This one has you covered on deep tactical combat, being built specifically for that, and strong, thematic character customization.
There is just one tiny, glaring, monstrous issue: no Monster Manual.
The game is brilliantly designed and fully playable, but the group working on it fell apart. As a result, you have to make every single monster yourself, using the PC creation rules. The community may or may not have made a collection of pre-made monsters yet.

>Fantasy Craft
Toolbox galore.
Like Legend, this game was created by completely taking 3.5 apart, looking very closely at how the system could actually be made to work, and putting it back together with a coherent idea. This one is less focused on combat and more on realizing 3.5's potential as a generic fantasy system. Interesting classes, meaningful feat trees, adjustable campaign rules that can be bent by both the GM and the players...
I just hope your players don't want casters with long spell lists, because SPELLBOUND NEVER.

If thats what your worried about depth wise then GURPS should be fine as combat can go really fast if you know what your doing and the burden of rules is mostly on the GM and you can run it with as many or few rules as youd like.

The hell you talking about, firing a shotgun is easy, what kind of shitty GM did you have? Or did you just see that one image everyone posts to try to perpetuate the meme that GURPS is hard and have never actually read the GURPS rules nonetheless played it.

Thanks for the thoughtful answer. I will surely check those out, I actually had never heard of any of those.

I'm gonna back up on Legend (Rule Of Cool's system and not Mongoose's Rune Quest spinoff) and Fantasy Craft.
Both games can get heady with active details and rules, but only after a while of everybody playing so it's gradual enough that people should know what's up and how to go about their business without falling into choice paralysis. So long as you don't decide to jump into the deep end with higher level characters everybody should be able to deal with those systems' complexities pretty well.
Also Legend is free, incomplete as it is.

I'd also recommend you check out Open Legend RPG, which is free through their website and does some interesting things with d20 mechanics: Points in an ability score add dice to the roll, not a flat modifier; Ability scores are sort of collapsed with skills; All dice explode; Spell lists and special powers are replaced with Boons and Banes, which are basically 4e-style powers that are universally available so long as you have one of the prerequisite ability scores (and it makes sense).

Strike! is a lightweight alternative to 4e.

Very lightweight.

It's a generic, modular system with very good tactical combat stuff and flexible character generation.

I'm not sure if it ever went into print, as it's indie as fuck. Probably wouldn't buy a print version cause it's gaudy as hell and not very well edited anyway. Pdfs are cheap from what I remember.

I'll even do it for you

Linked is a primer for strike made by some guy over at somethingawful.

Pathfinder is designed by fuckwits who refuse to acknowledge the core issues of 3.5.

If you want a different flavor of D&D, try some OSR stuff.

Since we are on topic, why did Veeky Forums never built its own system?
Divide the process in say
Phase 1 - Setting
Phase 2 - System
Phase 3 - Playstesting
Phase 4 - Refinement

Everyone pitches ideas and we vote on what we like. Get drawfags to do illustrations. Make it a git repo or some other sort of collaborative thing. Release it on an open source kind of license.

Isn't concensus fundamentally impossible in that kind of project?

Wow, that's terrible.

Nobody cares but lemme try again.

The key to "D&D but not shit" is axing Vancian magic.

If you want depth, FantasyCraft.

If you want tactics, 13th Age.

If you want quick, Beyond the Wall.

I mean, sure, but I'm guessing that through voting we could at least get a majority of people happy. Plus, say we're voting on setting. If the options are "Sci-fi", "Fantasy", "Horror" and fantasy comes the winner, even if I voted for horror, I think I won't mind helping anyways.
Plus, I'm sure with sufficient playtesting, we could -somewhat objectively- weed out what does not work.
There has already been some "large scale" projects across 4ch, and I consider Veeky Forums one of the most civilized boards in here so, I don't see it as THAT far-fetched.

Thanks for your effort!

Just forget about setting.
Don't try to get Veeky Forums to agree on an arbitrary setting.
Don't try to blend everything Veeky Forums likes into one clusterfuck, they will hate it.
Best Veeky Forums can do is a set of rule that would work in every setting, something like gurps, but shitty.

4e axed vancian casting, but OP doesn't want that either

Because Veeky Forums projects doesn't get group projects done. At best they spit out a coherent starting that a smaller group of people will do and return to us with.

More often it dies quietly somewhere in the dark corners of the internet.

>Don't try to blend everything Veeky Forums likes into one clusterfuck, they will hate it.

Dungeons: The Dragoning was pretty amusing for what it's worth.

You made it all worth it, user.

Makes sense, if you think about it. Those who don't like where the project is headed just leave it alone, those who do work on it.

Veeky Forums dev'd quite a few projects like that,

Stop shilling Strike!

Why does Veeky Forums keep shilling Strike!?

"Sci-fi"
Hard sci-fi? Space fantasy? Cyberpunk? Post-apo? Soft sci-fi? Space western? Dystopia? Tech noir? Space opera? Pulp sci-fi? Biopunk?

"Fantasy"
Here we go again, High Fantasy? Heroic Fantasy? D&D setting copypasta? Medieval fantasy? Hard fantasy? Space fantasy AGAIN? Grimdark? Supernatural? Historical fantasy?

And so on and so on.
You're not the person to direct a collaborative Veeky Forums setting user.

Cmon dude that was just an example, plus, I'm not claiming to be able to direct anything, I was just asking why it was not done before. (which I guess I got my answer).
Anyways, in your example, we can vote again on the sub-setting, and have people pitch options, so I don't think its such a big deal.

I enjoy Shadowrun but that would probably be too in-depth for you. Messing with magic, physical, and virtual worlds can get hectic. That said, I do like the basic system.

IKRPG is also a fun one, though I don't know how much material there is for it now. I do know it's spread between books and Privateer Press' magazine, No Quarter. The No Quarter stuff is mostly irrelevant to actually playing the game (only need the core rules which is one book), but it does have some cool stuff plus it expands on lore.

Both games are fairly lethal so combat shouldn't take way to long, though Shadowrun is rules heavy. So it can take a while if you're being autistic about all the little modifiers for any given attack or action.

Might also want to take a look at Legend of the Five Rings (L5R). I'm not really a fan of it though.

Harnmaster. - Edgy and gritty
Rolemaster - hope you like tables
Runequest - clean and crisp
Dungeonworld - babies first RPG.

By voting for the setting you'd split the community of people who want to participate in the project but only if they like where the project is going (99% of anons, including me honestly) in 3.
And then by voting for the sub-setting you'd split the remains in 12.
In the end, after people who don't have time for this shit abandon the ship, you're left at best with an handful of writers who would have been better off if they started it all alone.
Whatever they come up with will probably be ignored by Veeky Forums, which has already forgot their existence.

Another user here, kind of wondering the same thing but for a generic multi-genre system instead. So far I know of Risus, D6, Savage Worlds, and GURPS, but I'm wondering if there's one best one that features fast set-up and play without any glaring flaws.

Fate/ Fate Accelerated for the more narrative bent.

Also, if you hadn'tY-you too...

>I'm looking for D&D but not shit.

Ever heard about The Dark Eye? I don't know how well known it (or its licensed PC games) is by now in your part of the world. TDE finally got an english translation last year.

The setting is wonderful imho, always loved it. Interesting blend of "down to earth" medieval style and many fantastic elements. Also, because it's over 30 years old now, very detailed and rich. It even has metaplot which doesn't suck.

Ruleswise, to be honest, its age was a problem. TDE collected a lot of unnecesary and junky rules over the years, to the point that it was all simulation and no game. I personally shied away from it for many years because of that. Luckily the designer cleansed the game thoroughly with the latest 5th edition and now it runs smooth. Tested 5th edition with players who didn't knew the game and even they could handle it quickly. You as a experienced player will be able to dive right into it imho.

The publisher provided free quickstart rules with their kicktarter, so you can test the sytem and see if you like it for yourself:

ulisses-us.com/thedarkeye/TDE-Quickstart Revised 20160505_tm.pdf

OpenD6
opend6.wikidot.com/

Whatever you do, do not play GURPs

Maybe 2e is what you need

Anyone has any experience with Open Legend? Seems to be pretty decent, but the fact that Mercer has his face on it makes me doubtful.

>Everyone pitches ideas and we vote on what we like.

Veeky Forums hates polls.

almost all the polls we made died without completing it

One we were able to survive was gurp alien generator poll.

The rules were:
1-Pick all the choices you like (between the ones that would be possible), the one with most votes win.

I have one question, what is the generic system that is the closest system to gurps (must not have classes) and use linear dices

I am stupid this was the result
Chemical base: Water-Based Life (Cold to Hot worlds)
Habitat: space dwelling life
Race is sapient
Trophic Level: Hijacking Carnivore
Place the race lives has 0.1 g
Movement: Immobile
Size: 250 yards
Weight: 78130000 pounds
Size in race local gravity = 1150 yards
Weight in race local gravity = 7604375000 pounds.
Strenght = 3933 ST
Bilateral
18 segments (each segment has one limb per side) won.
Has tails
Long tail (Long enhancement) and Barbed striker tail (Striker doing cutting or piercing damage)
Is an tool using race
6 sets of manipulators (each set has normal DX or High Manual Dexterity 1)
Internal Skin
Outer Skin : Scale
Scale Type:Armor shell (DR 5)
Cold-blooded (no disadvantage)
Growth Pattern: Unusual growth pattern (add segments )
Reproduction:Parthenogenesis
Gestation: Pollination
Special gestation: Brood Parasite (young raised by another species)
Moderate r-Strategy: 1d+1 offspring per litter, some care after birth
Vision: Telescopic Vision 4
Deaf
Touch: Acute Touch 4 and Vibration Sense
Has those special Senses:
360° Vision
Absolute Direction
Ultravision
Scanning Sense (Radar)
Primary Sense of Communication: Scanning Sense (Radar)
Lifespan: Extended Lifespan 2
Average IQ: 11
Mating Behaviour: Permanent pair bond
Social Organization: Pair-bonded
Gregariousness: Loner (0)
Concentration = Short Attention Span (9)
Curiosity = Curious (9) (reduce selfcontrol number to 6)
Playfullness: Compulsive Playfulness (9) (becomes Trickster at 12 if specific being of this race is is Overconfident)
Empáthy: Empathy ( add Charitable at 12)
Chauvinism: Racial Intolerance
Suspicion: Normal
Egoism: Selfless (6)
Imatination: Versatile

So far as I can tell his involvement is just coauthoring a setting with Ed Greenwood to show off some of the game's mechanics.
Also when they say it's 'open source' they aren't kidding: they even run design stuff through Github. It's interesting seeing the history of edits, tweaks, and revisions all out and open like that.

What you want is Dungeons: the Dragoning and spend your money printing it out. Be sure to get the second core book and the fan splats and print them too.

That's pretty cool. And regarding mechanics? Have you run the game?
Also, I'm a bit worried about the no monster manual thing.

HERO System. Quite similar to gurps, but leans more towards high heroic adventure as opposed to GURPS's 'People die when they are killed' simulationism

I just bought a core of the LotR LCG. Did I do good? How viable is the game with 1 core for 3/4?

wrong thread much.

This is good. After that I want to say Mutants and Masterminds and Runequest 6th.

Shoot, that actually looks interesting. Has the English version been published yet? Right now I'm running 5e, and we're all enjoying it, but TDE looks like it might be more fun. Among other things, I was considering modding D&D 5e with a bunch of small changes to make weapons not suck (looking at you, longsword) and give any martial class the ability to dodge, block, or parry, but it looks like TDE already includes most of that.

Rogues To Riches (the one that says its a traditional tabletop roleplaying game, not the one that says it's a storytelling game for the criminally imaginative).

Basically what you want but the guy who made it disappeared before making too many character options.

RuneQuest has been mentioned a few times, but RuneQuest 6e (now renamed Mythras) is the best generic fantasy game you can play in my mind. The design team is really good, and the game is cheap.

They also have a supplement called Classic Fantasy that turns it into D&D, except better in every way. Better yet, it's all cheap!

Yeah, came out summer last year, drivethrurpg has the pdf versions, for the printed version look wherever you get your RPG books from or Amazon. Afaik the core rules, monsters guide, setting guide for one continent and a couple adventures are available in english.

I haven't played it yet, just read through the rules the other day after hearing about it on Veeky Forums a few times. I'm going to pitch it to my group soon and see what they think of it.

In the GM's section there are some pre-baked stats based on level and if it's meant to be an exceptionally powerful enemy, and then you can add feats to that to give it more shape, with a list of suggested feats listed on the page.
It's a bit of a 'more art than science' sort of approach, but still straightforward. Here's an example from the rules. Want a poisonous snake? Make their Agility one of their 'primary' attributes, give them the Boon Focus feat for the Stunned or Persistent Damage banes or both, and plop in HP and defenses from their level based on how flimsy they're supposed to be.
So they'd make an Agility attack, poison more consistently on a hit, and there's your snake.
Want to make a bigger, badder snake? Up the level on the table or use the boss NPC table, maybe add a feat. Mama Snake can thrash at someone with the end of its tale while biting? Add the Multiattack Specialist feat. Poison's even worse? Potent Bane.

Now that I think about it it's a lot like building enemies in Legend, but instead of all of the components being rarefied things you have these universal pieces so it's so much simpler, and there's less to compile or refigure as you move things around.

^This guy gets it

From my experience, Shadowrun 4e. It has the most balanced mechanics (it really isn't THAT easy to make a super-broken character, but doable), and it has the advantage of being different enough to be able to tell a great variety of stories, but also familiar enough so that people aren't left floundering.

Not Pathfinder because it is just 3.5.

You haven't been too explicit about exactly what you are looking for, but you honestly can't get anything more comprehensive than GURPS while still having generally good game design. It plays faster than any of the three systems you mentioned, and has depth at the same time. It isn't balanced however if you say that your players can choose anything from any book. You can use a series like Dungeon Fantasy to get a bunch of material out of the box without GM intervention. Otherwise you should work with your players to help them create the exact character they are going for. I definitely find it to be D&D that just plays better and has more to it.

Runequest is another candidate. Combat may be more intricate than you like, but everything else hits all your checkpoints.

What were your problems/issues with 5e?

I'll recommend Shadow of the Demon Lord. Its got its own setting presented, but the base system is light and modular enough to port out to whatever you want to do. Uses nothing more than a d20 and some d6s, as written is quite deadly, and I love its system of boons and banes as modifiers.

Honestly, yeah, is a really good system.
Friend of mine has been trying to find a way integrate it's strain and more specific storytelling dice into a game of his own.

Gereric Multi-genre system eh? How about Generic Universal Roleplaying System AKA GURPS?

You wanted to shill so hard you haven't even finished reading his post.

It's okay.
I do it too

>What is Dungeons: the Dragoning 40K

>D&D but not shit
>TDE
Liar.

Doubling this. The system is great and really easily portable. Running it currently and even the new players grasped the system in like two games.

Can we get a drawfriend on this? I have no concept of even how to process what I'm looking at.
Are we just some kind of XBOXHEUG crenoid?

informed advice requires additional info, OP.
1. which genre/setting?
2. which playstyle(-mix)? gamist? simulationist? narrativist?

burning wheel
also-rans:
Dragon Age
WFRP
The One Ring

I'll refer you over to

>why did Veeky Forums never built its own system?
because people only put up with the substantial work required if they get some personal compensation (if not pay, then at least the props)

Best Fantasy game is Warhammer Fantasy roleplay 2e. It's a blend of horror, humor and fantasy. Combat is unforgiving, magic is dangerous and after a few traumas your character starts to believe he's the captain of a bloodbowl team and the orcs you're fighting is the other team.
Also you play normal people overcoming great peril and becoming heroes, not killer machines from start on.

How setting-reliant is the system?

some of the older out of print systems are fantasy.

middle earth roleplaying
d&d basic
>img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1431/73/1431738654868.pdf

dunno why you'd spend money.

if you must have miniatures perry miniatures makes the best medieval/historical and infinity has the best sci fi ones.

some of the old GW metals are also very colourful, you can always find them on ebay.

How does Veeky Forums feel about Earthdawn?
I like what I've heard about the setting but I don't know how the system plays. Would I be better off looking at Exalted?

Reign, or the Enchiridion version if you want it fluff free for using with your own settings.

>Would I be better off looking at Exalted?
God no.

Earthdawn is great, bit of an odd system at times but not a bad one, it works well. The setting is really neat and technically used to tie in with Shadowrun but they seem to have distanced themself from that now. I vaguely recall talk of a new edition but never followed up on if it happpened or not.

Honestly wondering same thing as op and nobody talks about pic related is it just crap? Or can u make a good game out of it?

Play higher level 5e characters. Grid based combat with level 11 characters is plenty engaging. I play with a table full of good warmachine players, and we still have tactical disagreements and lack of perfect coordination. The system has characters that don't just jam on one trick at that level.

Maybe start the campaign at level 9 so that the martials can look forward to peaking at level 11.

This thread is filled with so much bad advice. Is this what Veeky Forums has become?

Is that the generic version of Dragon Age? If so, yes. Pretty much just crap.

not very much. it's however kinda era-reliant: it's less medieval and more renaissance. see pic of the user above.

>guys, in the past people would come to Veeky Forums and get quality advice
surely you jest, memester

You complain about bad advice, yet do not offer better advice.

Yeah, I'm stopping by after mostly not using this place since 2008, and this is basically what it used to be like.

Back then you'd probably have gotten more people suggesting FantasyCraft, 4E, Fate, 4E+Aspects, or a 3.5 rulespatch like E6. Also nobody ever mentioned GURPS for some reason.

Genuinely interested in seeing your opinion on the subject. What would you propose as a replacement for D&D that does not suck?

Not him, but I'd suggest Anima - Beyond Fantasy, SenZar, or GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.

>Actual best game
In my experience there is the Best RPG system which is the best one mechanically, thematically, etc. I have my own opinion on what that is.

>Real Best Game
Then there is the "Best" RPG system. Which is the one that all the people you play with know, and you can call sit down and have a fun evening playing- Have several fun evenings for years! ... without breaking down or getting frustrated at a system (See Veeky Forumss norm edition wars).
This is also different per person and group, but I honestly think it's important to recognize what system that is for you.

How does magic works in this game?

as much as D&D - you can always make up your own world but you're stuck with the game's assumptions about what magic is capable of, what a house costs, what monsters are out there

I never would have imagined somebody on Veeky Forums would recommend Anima.... Not judging here, I own everything except one book, but I'm still surprised.

That depends on what you want it to do. For instance, if you wanted to emulate "Ray of Frost" you would just use the Energy ability score to make a ranged attack and do Cold damage. Something like "Fireball" would use the cube area attack and be less accurate.

Any negative status effect would be a Bane, which works like an attack and can be added to a normal attack if you beat their defense by enough, while something like healing or stoneskin would be a Boon where you roll to beat a DC based on the power level that you're using the Boon at. What Banes and Boons you can use and what power levels you can use them at depends on your ability scores.

It has a lot of cool concepts but it's very dated, not at all balanced,and when you need a 7th-circle character in a hurry it's tough to get a sense of what they should be capable of and in how many skills.

I see Earthdawn as the forerunner of 4e D&D - everyone is a big over-the-top hero, everyone gets cool powers. What we really need is the game that's the next step along the Earthdawn -> 4e spectrum in terms of balance and easy of play that still manages to be a big, crunchy traditional fantasy game. No harm to purveyors of Strike! and other lightweight substitutes, but I want lists of gear to buy.

Hey that´s pretty good, i want to try it

Also here's two relevant chunks of text that I meant to attach.

Sounds to me exactly like th HERO RPG.... maybe just dumped down for being easier to get into?