Game Systems to Try

[marune]

+1 to Burning Wheel / Mouse Guard
Shadow of Yesterday (freely available on the web)

 

[TheHeretic]

Burning Empires (even better than Burning Wheel)
Savage Worlds
Star Wars Saga Edition

 

[The Green Adam]

What's D&D?

As someone who rarely plays D&D might I suggest...

Ars Magica
Faery's Tale Deluxe
InSpectres (Just ran a house ruled version of this for Ghostbusters and it went over really, really well)
MAID
Mouse Guard
Mutants & Masterminds
Star Trek (LUG or FASA)
Star Wars (WEG/D6)
Traveller (Classic or Mongoose)

About a dozen others come to mind but the above listed games are the ones most intriguing me at the moment.

AD
Barking Alien

 

[Cam Banks]

Mouse Guard is a much more accessible version of the Burning Wheel system than BW itself (or Burning Empires for that matter.) And it just beat D&D4E for Best RPG at the Origins Awards last night.

I'd be remiss if I didn't throw in a mention of our Cortex System RPG and the games that use it: Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, Demon Hunters, and Supernatural. Like Savage Worlds, it's a fast and easy to learn game, but unlike SW it doesn't focus as heavily on tactics or miniatures and instead emphasizes dramatic gameplay. You can pick up a copy of the rules as a standalone rulebook filled with options, or try any of our licensed properties as self-contained games.

I recommend the Brotherhood Recruitment Manual from Demon Hunters as a good introduction to the rules.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[GrimGent]

The game is not focused on the details of mundane action.

...To the point that any action actually based on the four attributes in Nobilis is considered miraculous, and simply won't fail unless countered by another miracle of equal power: a character may perform one of those per turn, along with one mundane action such as jogging around or debating in a regular fashion. One of the attribute ratings, Aspect, covers by itself all the physical, mental and social activities that people generally are capable of, as a kind of a measure for baseline competence and not unlike all the attributes in most other RPGs rolled together, although those abilities can still be fine-tuned further by picking appropriate Gifts and Handicaps. The finest feats performed by the most talented mortals correspond to the lowest levels of Aspect: winning a gold medal at the Olympics would have the difficulty level of 2, for instance, which renders it completely effortless for any Noble whose own Aspect attribute (ranging from zero to five) is at least equal to that. And something that anyone at all might do with a bit of luck? That's difficulty 0, and not even worth resolving mechanically unless the player wishes to ensure that there's no chance of failure whatsoever. No Noble slips on an icy street unless it's either a deliberately taken risk on their part or a sign of some supernatural enemy moving against them.

Unfortunately, the book can be fiendishly difficult to find at a reasonable price, at least until Eos Press finally gets around to publishing that rerelease which they announced a while back. For a small sample, here you can find the chapters 1 and 7 (the introduction and the example of play) which Guardians of Order used to offer as free PDF downloads at their now defunct website before going out of business, along with the handy "So You've Been enNobled" pamphlet which explains some of the basics of the setting.

 

[ashockney]

I surprised nobody has mentioned Hackmaster. Very enjoyable game experience that takes D&D (as we know it in 3e/4e) sideways.

I'd also second votes for:
Hero Games (preferably Champions)
Savage Worlds (preferably Necessary Evil)
Stormbringer
Battletech (skirmish game)

 

[malraux]

You could always go for FATAL the RPG: the game. The game isn't to play the RPG, its to turn to a random page, read it, then turn to another random page. You stop when you become angry enough to hit something and you score is the number of pages viewed. Good scores are around 4 or 5.

In truth, I recommend trying Call of Cthulhu. Its good as an entirely different system.

 

[I'm A Banana]

7th Sea is quite nice.
True 20 is slick and easy.
FFZ is keen if you like a narrative style.

 

[Shades of Green]

I'd heartily recommend Mongoose Traveller (sci-fi) and BFRPG (D&D-like fantasy). Both are excellent and (relatively) rules-light games; Mongoose Traveller is commercial, BFRPG is free.

Other than that, I fondly remember reading a 24-hour-RPG-contest entry called Silent Archea; I can't find it on the net anymore, though.

 

[GrimGent]

Other than that, I fondly remember reading a 24-hour-RPG-contest entry called Silent Archea; I can't find it on the net anymore, though.

Here you go. And while you're over at that 1KM1KT site, why not take a look at Sufficiently Advanced, a Culture-style science fiction game released under Creative Commons?