Hairfoot said:
I'm looking for something to use as an intro to RPGs for people who haven't played before, so my chief criteria are genre versatility and easy learning.
My list of "teaching games" isn't quite the same as my list of rules-light games. But most of 'em are a lot lighter than some of the suggestions in this thread (Exalted?! Why not Aftermath while you're at it?), so they may serve. I've had good success with:
Marvel, the FASERIP edition - good for comic book fans, the keyword system is pretty intuitive.
Fudge - again, keywords rule.
BRP - Chaosium's venerable Basic Role-Playing system as seen in many games. Percentile skills are easy to grasp. I actually have a homebrew system built around BRP and with elements of the old
Worlds of Wonder set that I use to intro new players, and am thinking of adopting as my standard ruleset.
Perfect20 and Core Elements - two attempts at distilling d20 down to its essence, both pretty good.
Megatraveller - clear and simple system, particularly attractive to old fogeys (like me) who like the idea of a 40ish year old character chucking his career and striking off to make it rich in an uncaring galaxy.
Lord of the Rings - the RPG by Decipher, reasonably simple system with a strong common reference point.
Feng Shui - good for action movie fans.
Hope those help.