Please help me find a new gaming system!

[Ahnirades]

Dragon Warriors meets all your criteria, including an evocative, superbly realised setting.

Check out the Free RPG Day link at the bottom of the page:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1609

 

[Varianor Abroad]

FATE

Or it's children and kissing cousins, Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files.

Here's what's good about FATE/SotC:

*It allows for creativity in spades, within an agreed-upon framework and threshold level of reality. You are not limited however by the setting, rather it inspires!

*Time wasted perfecting the details of areas is never spent. Instead all flows dramatically and almost effortlessly. Players may declare minor details, major ones with a Fate Point. Instead of losing minutes or hours to pointless specifics, you enhance your time by bringing in excitement and better answers than you might do on your own. The value of player buy-in is intense.

*The Game Master may bargain with the player(s) to alter their character's fate! Yes, you can make a player willingly do things - by giving them a token to improve their fate elsewhere/elsewhen with a Fate Point. If they don't agree, all's well and you move on. There's negotiation and choice, instead of "my way or the highway".

*It sets up a free flowing game that promotes play cooperatively between players and the GM. Players absent from a scene might just sit around and offer suggestions on what could happen next! That sometimes works out swimmingly.

*Reality tastes far more tangible when players can't fly and little details like turning on the lights or using a garden hose become important.

You know what's best about it? When you put a death trap in an antique store, and then blow it up with UnMen! (Remote-controlled self-destructing monochromatic minions teleoperated by brains in jars! I dare you to say that five times fast.) Then you lead the players on a car chase after the fleeing evil Baron's cousin who owned the store.

Or so I've heard.

 

[BluSponge]

Another Savage Worlds recommendation here.

For a classic campaign setting, check out Shaintar. Or Hellfrost. Or Winterweir. Or just grab a copy of the Fantasy Companion and break out your old FR box. Or Greyhawk. (Of course, SW plays a LOT different than DnD, but so long as you don't mind...) In game math is minimal. If you can add single digits, you can play. I'm math challenged and it's never been an issue.

Alternatively, you have a bucket-load of options:
True20 (d20 variant that tastes vaguely like SW)
Earthdawn (classic fantasy campaign with TONS of detail available over three editions)
Barbarians of Lemuria (no classic campaign setting but it's easy enough to adapt)
Jaws of the Six Serpents (ditto)

Tom

 

[Steel_Wind]

The obvious answer is 1st Edition AD&D. I hear it was once popular and there may well be some setting material and modules available for it, too.

Just ignore weapon speed factors when it comes to initiative. Don't let it trouble you -- everyone (including EGG) ignored it back then, too.

 

[Aus_Snow]

As mentioned in that other thread just now (and as more or less suggested above). . .

Legends of Anglerre.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Aside from Dungeon Fantasy, Banestorm is probably one of the more well known GURPS settings. I'd say it's written in a manner and a level of detail which somewhat reminds me of how some of the Forgotten Realms books are put together. GURPS Banestorm
There's a ton of detail on various places in the world; important people; etc.

I gather Banestorm is the old GURPS Fantasy? When I read it (3rd ed., some 20 years ago), it was rather uninspired and lacking details.

We called it GURPS Fantasy-like as you could describe most elements with a short sentence: "These people are like [such-and-such] from the movie/book [so-and-so]."

 

[Argyle King]

I gather Banestorm is the old GURPS Fantasy? When I read it (3rd ed., some 20 years ago), it was rather uninspired and lacking details.

We called it GURPS Fantasy-like as you could describe most elements with a short sentence: "These people are like [such-and-such] from the movie/book [so-and-so]."

I'm not nearly as knowledgable about GURPS 3rd Edition as I am 4th, but I do think Banestorm has some roots in the old GURPS fantasy setting. Though, from the little bit I do know of 3rd Edition, I'm given the impression that the setting has been much more fleshed out in the new edition of the system.

Like I said, to me, the way the Banestorm book is written reminds me quite a bit of how many of the Forgotten Realms books are written. There's a lot of detail concerning culture, people in positions of power, and various other things. Thinking about it more now, I'd say it is also similar to some of the first few Eberron books for D&D 3rd Edition which had sections detailing things about the world which characters of that world would know as well as details about the world which characters of that world wouldn't necessarily know. Parts of the old Greyhawk Gazetteer would also be a good analogy.

One thing which might throw people off when quickly browsing through Banestorm is how much it takes from the real world. While it is a fantasy world, it borrows (quite literally) many things from real world history. These elements are explained with the background story to the setting, and these elements are blended with other elements which are more in line with typical fantasy tropes. Venturing through the lands of Yrth, you may find Muslim Goblin Merchants and Christian Crusaders right alongside dragons, dark elves, and fantasy style witchcraft.




Alternatively, Dungeon Fantasy takes a very different approach. Browsing through Dungeon Fantasy is a different experience than reading through Banestorm.


The two products are written with two different styles of game in mind, but you can combine the two, and they are both completely compatible. The modular and internally consistant way in which GURPS is written allows for a group to combine different resources into the style of game they want.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Venturing through the lands of Yrth, you may find Muslim Goblin Merchants and Christian Crusaders right alongside dragons, dark elves, and fantasy style witchcraft.

Yes.

It's rather a brilliant concept actually.

Magic storm seizes bits of Earth history. Plunks them down in a fantasy universe. Insert PCs. Add adventure.

Amazing that they put out a complete sourcebook on it in 2005. I had no idea. Still operating off much older stuff.

 

[Wraith Form]

I'll go in a different direction and recommend either:

-Barbarians of Lemuria Legendary Edition, or
-Legends of Steel Barbarians of Lemuria Edition

Both use almost identical rules (the latter uses the rules of the former, but with a different setting). Pretty light on rules, you have attributes, "careers" (which are basically skill groups), and combat abilites. Resolution boils down to

-roll 2d6
-add whatever modifiers are appropriate based on attributes, careers, and combat abilities
-try to beat difficulty number (usually 9, can be modified for easier or harder tasks)

Resolution is very quick, and the game flows smoothly.

The setting of Barbarians of Lemuria is more sword and sorcery weird fantasy (unusual monsters, animals, and races). The setting of Legends of Steel is more traditional-it is still labelled sword and sorcery but could be run as high fantasy if desired (it is humans only, no other PC races).

This ^. Ye gods, this.

 

[coyote6]

I will Xth the SW, GURPS, Barbarians of Lemuria (though I've only played a swashbuckler variant being done by the guy that made BASH), and FATE.

However, which would your players most like to play?