Alternative to WoTC D&D

[Desdichado]

Thus my question is: what are the better D20 gaming systems out there that people have played? Especially ones that are “closest” to the WoTC D&D universe? As well as others like Iron Heroes?

I actually prefer to do fantasy with d20 Modern + d20 Past + Unearthed Arcana for a few key houserules. You can modify magic level with ease from practically none to nearly D&D-style wahoo.

Star Wars SAGA is a good system; and very close to D&D. Same with the Wheel of Time RPG; I wouldn't be interested in the Wheel of Time setting, but I've been dying to use those rules in a homebrew setting for some time.

Conan, Black Company and Thieves' World are all great alt.DnDs with a lower magic, more Sword & Sorcery feel to them.

Heck, I've even kludged together a system based on D&D, Midnight, Rokugan and d20 Call of Cthulhu before that worked quite well—the only challenge being that the rules were spread around in too many books.

True20 is another great alternative that plays very similar to D&D; perhaps a bit simpler, and is extremely flexible. It can work for D&D-like games all the way to supers and more.

Not d20, but certainly work with similar settings; I'd also recommend Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying and Savage Worlds.

 

[Desdichado]

One of the issues there is that Gurps, Shadowrun, and Exalted seem to be moving to newer versions even faster than D&D.

If the issue is that D&D is changing editions after only 8 years, and since 1975 has had 4 versions already in the intervening 33 years (this will be the 5th--I'm counting OD&D here,which may or may not really be a valid count but does give the "worst-case" estimate--giving a little more than 6.5 years/version), then supported gaming lines may not be what you want.

That depends on how you count; you could also make a reasonable claim that 3.5 was a seperate edition; at least—it redid the three core books and most of the splat books that were out at the time. In terms of purchases required to stay "current" it was as much a new edition as any.

What about the whole B/X slash RC progressions, too? D&D's actually had a lot of editions over the years. Counting from AD&D 1e to 4e and saying only four editions in 30 some odd years seems to be missing a lot of data.

I do agree, however, that if the OP is worried about other systems undergoing revisions, that's a valid concern, certainly. I have very few game systems that are current with the edition that's in print today.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Thus my question is: what are the better D20 gaming systems out there that people have played? Especially ones that are “closest” to the WoTC D&D universe? As well as others like Iron Heroes?

Iron Heroes.

Arcana Evolved.

True 20 Adventure Roleplaying

Conan.

d20 Modern/d20 Past

Pathfinder

Coming this fall: Final Fantasy Zero...

Personally, I'd go with True20. It's awesomely modular so you're free to boink it around and do what you want with it. It uses the same basic d20 mechanic, and just makes everything very broad, so that you can make more specific stuff as you want. Truly, a huge chunk of 3e (and probably 4e) can be tacked on to T20 without any hiccups.

If you miss the granularity, jump on the Pathfinder bandwagon.

 

[qstor]

People seem to have trouble following directions. ~ Piratecat

 

[rogueattorney]

That depends on how you count; you could also make a reasonable claim that 3.5 was a seperate edition; at least—it redid the three core books and most of the splat books that were out at the time. In terms of purchases required to stay "current" it was as much a new edition as any.

What about the whole B/X slash RC progressions, too? D&D's actually had a lot of editions over the years. Counting from AD&D 1e to 4e and saying only four editions in 30 some odd years seems to be missing a lot of data.

Yeah, depending how you want to count it, "Fourth" edition is at least the sixth edition of D&D, and could be as much as the 10th edition.

Right now is actually a great time to be a fan of "divirgent" D&D evolutionary paths. In addition to the various d20 offshoots, such as Pathfinder, already mentioned in this thread, there are the various prior edition emulators such as Castles & Crusades, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and BFRPG, all of which have some decent support and are more or less cross compatable with each other and with most pre-3e products.

I was never a fan of 3.x but have probably bought more new gaming product in the last couple years than in the previous 15 years combined.

 

[CaptainChaos]

True20 is another great alternative that plays very similar to D&D; perhaps a bit simpler, and is extremely flexible. It can work for D&D-like games all the way to supers and more.

Looks like the revised edition PDF just came out too.

 

[Fighter1]

Hey Everyone

I am the OP. I thank everyone, inclusive of the moderator for supporting my position and intent and actually answering my question.

For those of you who choose to use others posts for your own bantering and self indulgence – get a real hobby – take that energy and use it in a game not pounding on people online. If all of you used that much time and energy to develop a game I think that perhaps gaming would be the worlds most successful industry!

With all the good input we pow-wowed and are sticking with D20 for sure and stuff that is close to D&D v3.5 – like Pathfinder. We also looked at Farland World online for ideas on a new setting or additions to our current home-brew setting.

Paizo has a free “Alpha” release of Pathfinder that I downloaded and quite frankly I like what is there – nice twists on the core classes. Some of the other rules not so much though. But I think we’ll be using at least a good chunk of Pathfinder if the final product is the same as the Alpha release.

GURPs is not D20 so we ditched it; Conan might be interesting – checking it out now.

Thanks again everyone; if there are any new ideas please feel free to post them!

Fighter1

 

[prosfilaes]

I think it is a great deal more plausible at the table to explain how someone survived a sword and is able to keep fighting than it is to explain how someone who just took a full auto blast from an assault rifle to do the same. But since you disagree, how about an analogy...

[...]

Fantasy settings are just much more forgiving with respect to suspension of disbelief than future settings.

I don't see how the analogy helps at all. In fiction, it's amazing what type of damage James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, and Dylan Hunt can shrug off. Gaming-wise, I don't know how you handle your rogue ignoring a 40-foot cone of fire that could kill an elephant and yet can't transfer that to someone surviving an assault rifle.