Fantasy gaming that isn’t d20?

[innerdude]

While we're at it, I also think Ironsworn's d6 + trait vs. d10/d10 is a pretty awesome mechanic.

 

[ichabod]

GURPS and the Fantasy Trip use d6's. Fate uses special dice (+1, 0, -1).

 

[overgeeked]

Excluding what’s already been mentioned…

Risus. EZD6. Monsters! Monsters! Lair of the Leopard Empress. Sword World. Fabula Ultima. Fate. 7th Sea. Righteous Blood Ruthless Blade. Baron Munchausen. Monster of the Week. Dresden Files. Apocalypse Keys. City of Mist. Vaesen. L5R. Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme. Ars Magica. Amber Diceless. Ironsworn. Root. Dungeon World. World of Dungeons. Changeling: The Dreaming. Cortex Prime. Dark Crystal. Labyrinth. Stormbringer. ElfQuest. Lords of Creation. HeroQuest 2E. Mouse Guard. Burning Wheel. Prince Valiant. Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Exalted. Avatar Legends. Fiasco.

And literally thousands more.

 

[GMMichael]

So my gaming group had a mild argument if there was a better alternative than a d20 as one player felt it was very swingy. . .

If you want to make a d20 (roll) feel less swingy, you can narrow the range of outcomes from that roll.

Of course an attack roll (and their near cousins, the ability checks), for example, will feel swingy if possible outcomes range from automatic miss (or worse) to automatic hit (or better). But what if rolling low meant you do 1 damage, and rolling high meant you roll damage normally?

Or if the swinginess is due to the die's common representation of 100-percentile points of results, with 1s being in the 5th percentile of outcomes and 20s being in the 100th percentile of outcomes, what if everything below 6 represented the 25th percentile of outcomes, and everything above 15 represented the 75th? Or: every roll under 5 is a 5 and every roll over 15 equals 15?

I solved the d20-swingy problem in my game with two methods:
1) the GM often rolls against the PC, so even a low roll can beat the GM, and
2) there are no degrees of success - just Pros, Ties, and Cons. You haven't swung all the way to Critical Failure if you roll a 1; it's just a Con.

 

[jdrakeh]

My own Yarnmaster is d6-based. You can pick up a free copy here (see Community Copies near the bottom of the page).

 

[Thomas Shey]

RuneQuest, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Dragonbane, Fantasy Trip, The One Ring

Though if the objection is to the big swing in D20, D100 (for RQ) isn't liable to be perceived as any better.

 

[Thomas Shey]

In addition to some of the above, you have Hero (in its Fantasy Hero incarnation).

 

[Ulfgeir]

MERP (as well as Rolemaster) used d100-rolls. At least in MERP, if you rolled really well (95+), you rolled again, and added the result of this roll to the old one. Yes, this new roll could aslo explode and add more.. Likewise if you rolled really low ion the first roll, then you would roll again and subtyract the value, and yes it exploded downwards as far as I recll)

Elfquest was straight BRP. Again d100-roll for skills, roll low.

Darksword Adventures used complicated biddings, and rock-scissor-paper if I recall correctly (you could use a d10). It appeared to be unplayable though

 

[DammitVictor]

Non-D&D Fantasy Games I can recommend:

Novus - A 2d10, class-and-skill based game by the author of HARP.

Against the Darkmaster - A well-polished retroclone of MERP. Class-and-skill based, elegant d% system.

Barbarians of Lemuria - At least I'm pretty sure BoL is still in the game, but it's the lightest and fastest system I enjoy-- 2d6 plus X and Y, single digits only, with a marvelous Careers system replacing skills.

BareBones Fantasy - The fantasy version of dWd Studios' d00 Lite system. It's really not as fleshed-out as their other games... I suspect because they expect people to have their own vision of what "fantasy" looks like that they'll fill in themselves.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Zweihander - D100 a WFRP system