I want to learn more about other lesser known systems, but I'd like to learn them from people on Veeky Forums...

I want to learn more about other lesser known systems, but I'd like to learn them from people on Veeky Forums. What systems do you enjoy and why? I know the qualifier of "lesser known" is kind of vague so just go with your judgement.

Trail of Cthulhu is a really good mystery system which I feel tends to be ignored due to filling a similar niche to the more well-known Call of Cthulhu

Earthdawn is cool as fuck. It's not-D&D fantasy with an attempt at making the rules make sense and with tweaks here and there to make it more interesting. The class system is actually an in-setting thing as opposed to an abstraction of a collection of abilities, martials are not non-magical "durr me hit with stick" idiots because everyone is magic to different degrees and they get plenty of interesting abilities, items are not dropped for the next sword with another +1 made by Chucklefuck the Wizard and instead items change based on the deeds of their wielders, and so on.

It's not for everyone since it's got typical FASA crunch even in the newer, cleaner versions, but it's absolutely worth trying if you can stomach that.

will shill for Dread
very thematic horror themed system based on using a Jenga tower for conflict resolution. Amazingly designed, but not really compatible with anything other than oneshots
Dogs in the Vineyard - You play as religious enforcers in the west, vaguely based on the Mormon faith. Has an interesting escalation mechanic with raises and holds of dice. Useful if you want to run/play a game that doesn't just default to violence to solve every problem
Paranoia - 1984 simulator where everyone has a secret and you get multiple lives because you will lose them trying to find your briefing room. System is designed with a kinda meta-fuckery assumption, probably not the best system for new players.
A Thousand and One Nights - everyone plays as viziers in the Sultan's court. Because you are proper nobility insulting or threatening other viziers is forbidden so instead you resolve conflict by telling stories and casting the other players in insulting or satirizing roles
Don't Rest Your Head - horror game where you have supernatural powers that increase in potency the longer you stay awake. Straightforward risk-reward mechanic as the longer you stay awake the more penalties exhaustion can impose on you
Mousegaurd - Redwall the RPG, heavy focus on teamwork and has solid rules for encouraging roleplaying

that's most of what I can think of for the "big" lesser known systems. I've got a metric fuckload of literally who pdfs saved up that I could expand upon later.

I know this is a pasta, but still.

Even games "without" alignments still have degrees of morality to them or factions with codes of conduct
This is straight up false. Other than D&D and WoD I have never played a game that has anything similar as an integral part of the system.

Oh wow, user, ONE NITPICK. You sure showed him. Besides,
>factions with codes of conduct
>Other than D&D and WoD I have never played a game that has anything similar
So, you've only played D&D and WoD? Try playing a 40k RPG, the Imperium has some pretty fucking strict rules

...

I'd be hard pressed to say alignment is really "integral" to D&D. Even with 3.0, where alignment might have been at its height in importance, they offer advice and rules on how to play without alignment, and it largely just means omitting a few spells. It's easily removed or altered, and even some 3.0 settings use alternate forms of alignment/morality/factioning, such as that edition's take on Oriental Adventures.

It's less that morality is mechanically a part of the system, and more that players can judge (and complain) about each other character's morality/faction, or even just their interpretion of morality, in every game. Alignment has always been more fluff than crunch anyway.

People on Veeky Forums barely play D&D. You're only gonna get stale memes.

I wrote up a 4000-character post about why I like Dogs in the Vineyard but then I accidentally lost the whole thing before I could post it.

The majority of the roleplayers on Veeky Forums play D&D. Hell, a full majority play 5e.
Most of Veeky Forums just knows better than to post in a thread like this one.

Legend d20 and FantasyCraft are both takes on a fixed 3.X. From experience they're both really really good at what they want to do, but I wouldn't recommend either of them to GMs without ample prep time since you need to put together your monsters by hand in both.

Dramasystem. Book is called "Hillfolk" after the default campaign pitch. The system tries to set your game up like episodes of a TV drama, with not every character in every scene but every player capable of spending resources to influence the scene whether their character is there or not. It's a neat take, interesting, but hard to implement in practice if you aren't playing with people with some experience in improv.

The thing that makes it awesome to me though is since the system barely touches on combat and the default conflict resolution - which uses a deck of cards - can be swapped out with no issues, the whole system can be layered on your favorite RPG without much trouble.

Why no one recommend Gurps ?

>He thinks that people posting in D&D threads actually play the game

They play other systems even less.

Sine Requie is pretty original and, dareisay, good, if you are willing to chew up some Italian.

Strike! is 4e with all the D&D-isms removed.

Needs a bit tweaked skill system, but otherwise it's doing what it set out to do.

Dungeon World is very good once you "get it"

it really helps you to be a better master even when you return to D&D

if it was out when i started i wouldn't have been a shit DM for so long

This too.

Would recommend just about anybody run at least one game in apocalypse engine. Not a huge fan of them for longer campaigns, especially since spellcasters in dungeon world start to break the game at high levels, but they're excellent as a 6-month stint and will teach you some good GM habits.

>Needs a bit tweaked skill system, but otherwise it's doing what it set out to do.

Keeping autists busy?

well at least they have to trow the dice every time they cast so if you hit hard when they fuck up high level spells they will be more conservative.

in D&D most spell can just be cast no drawback.
worst thing that happens is that the spell fails and that is only if is a combat spell.

i think that a good way to balance spellcaster would be something like that.
everytime you cast you take risks

Savage Worlds. Quick, simple, fun, lets you immediately know to kick someone out if they start sperging about metacurrency.

Because GURPS it's shit, I guess.

Wouldn't say that SW is "lesser known" but definitely lesser played. I ran a 1 shot using the API sourcebook and had the best fuggen session ever. It helped that they all agreed to work with pre-genned characters and were well experienced roleplayers, but for their first time playing SW it was a real hoot.

My one suggestion for anyone playing SW would be to find a sourcebook, setting, or online doc that you think you and your group will like and give it a go.