Good Non-d20 systems?

[Emiricol]

Riddle of Steel (www.theriddleofsteel.com) is an option. I wrote a review of it at http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=1428 if you are interested.

 

[Psion]

Fantasy Hero - very flexible.

Exalted - lots of flavor.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I'm told that Unkown Armies is a wonderful system. It's kind of tied to freaky modern fantasy, but there's a dude at unknown-armies.com who's used it for what he calls Conan-like fantasy.

I don't have the book myself (money, blah), so take this with a grain of salt.

 

[mhensley]

GURPS 4 is excellent for fantasy. Especially since the GURPS Fantasy book came out.

 

[Professor Phobos]

Hmm. Fantasy, you say?

Well, the current king of non-D20 fantasy has to be Exalted. It uses a variant of the old Storyteller system, and is what you might call an "everything and the kitchen sink" kind of game. It's tough to describe, but it is epic, (mostly) non-Western fantasy. It was initially described as "Gilgamesh with Wire-Fu", but it's really kind of developed its own strange genre. It has dinosaurs bred to pee heroin, Lovecraftian deities, a Celestial bureacracy, Big Damn Swords, a huge world to play in, and all manner of crazyness. It would also introduce you to the basics of the Storyteller system. It's a bit too heavy for my tastes, but it is much lighter than D&D 3.5. Being introduced to White Wolf might lead you to the World of Darkness, which is the 2nd most popular set of RPGs out there and the rulers of modern day horror. Not my personal favorites, mind, but worth looking into as lots of people like them.

Other than that, there's the Old Classics- Warhammer Fantasy, Tekumel, Talislanta and Glorantha. All ancient and much-loved fantasy settings, many with relatively recent new editions. The new Tekumel is quite good, no one knows if the new Warhammer is good and I can personally vouch for Talislanta's quality. I know little about Glorantha except that it is spectacularly well developed (and that it has ducks, for some reason).

Other than that, you could try All Flesh Must Be Eaten with the "Dungeons and Zombies" supplement. But for that, you'd really have to like zombies. Who doesn't, though?

 

[donbaloo]

Wow, I'm astonished at the level of response this site is capable of in such a short period of time. Thanks for all the input. I've been researching through some of the various systems that you folks have put forth and HARP seems to be pretty close to what I'm looking for I think. Its hard for me to find details on character advancement within the HERO fantasy system but from what I've read it sounds as if it might be good too. I have every intention of delving into Warhammer research as well. I'll have to look more closely at these products. Thanks again for all your help.

EDIT: Just wanted to add...really and truly I guess its not a setting that I'm particularly aiming for because I'm fine on putting those together myself or choosing an existing one. I think what it boils down to is the fact that I want an alternate form of character advancement where characters get better at skills they use and not at ones they don't use. No more class packages, just individual skill advancement. Same for magic but I'm hoping the Black Company CS will twist magic use enough to suit my taste. Again, my thanks to all who have participated thus far...

 

[Crothian]

While Exalted is fantasy I don't think it will work in this case sine the orginal posted mentions Black Company like campaign in the first post. Exalted just is not the best system or game for that type of grim and gritty game.

 

[Professor Phobos]

For even better response, try RPG.net. That's not tied to D20 as ENWorld is, so you'll find a wide diversity of opinions, tastes, etc, for the "Obscure" roleplaying crowd.

I'd be remiss as an Eden Studios fan if I didn't mention Unisystem Lite's up and coming Army of Darkness game. I can also vouch for the effectiveness of Unisystem Lite running any kind of fantasy game, as I've had great success with twisting Buffy/Angel toward that end.

 

[Professor Phobos]

While Exalted is fantasy I don't think it will work in this case sine the orginal posted mentions Black Company like campaign in the first post. Exalted just is not the best system or game for that type of grim and gritty game.

Well, the basic Solar exalted game...probably not gritty. Grim is just a matter of tone and is independent of power, so I'd dispute that even for the default kind of play. As for gritty...Heroic Mortals appear in the Exalted Player's Handbook, and a Heroic Mortal game is pretty much the definition of grim and gritty.

Still, you have a good point. For games that are more or less devoted to grim and grit, Warhammer is the way to go. After all, no matter how much experience you get or how skilled your characters, you can still be torn to pieces by wild dogs. Tekumel also works in this regard.

 

[Crothian]

For even better response, try RPG.net. That's not tied to D20 as ENWorld is, so you'll find a wide diversity of opinions, tastes, etc, for the "Obscure" roleplaying crowd.

better is relative...they will promote Exalted till the end of time there. Ya, one will get more obscure and small press suggestions but those are really not always better either. :\