Dustin Cooper
Explorer
Do you have any specifics about what it is with D&D or Pathfinder that's not working for you or what you're looking for that they don't have? Or is it more just that you feel like you've played them out and just want a new way to approach the same kind of game?
One game that might be worth looking into is Sword World 2.5. It's Japan's biggest fantasy TTRPG, and it's what I've been using for my fantasy fix lately. It's got your familiar things like dwarves and elves and fighters and mages, but also has a lot of it's own weird ideas, like a race of muscular people who are solar powered or an alchemist class that can use remains of defeated monsters for strong spell-like effects. And the "class" system is interesting, where the "classes" might be better thought of as skill packages, and you're supposed to take at least 2. Combat is also adjustable in such a way that you could have a simple front line/back line setup that feels like an old JRPG or use a map and have the more granular positioning you'd expect out of D&D.
A couple things that may or may not make you decide it wouldn't be for you before you look into it:
1. There's no official English release. There's extensive fan translations, but if you want physical books in English, you're going to have to get them custom printed.
2. Like most Japanese TTRPGs, it's designed for episodic play. In Japan, the way they usually organize games means they don't know who's going to be at the table on a given day or if any of them will ever come back, so it's normal to assume that every session has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You can easily make a traditional Western style campaign and run it with this, but it'll be best if you can divide it into digestible chunks when you're at the table. Like the big dungeons that exist for this system are designed under the assumption that each floor is a session, and that you're giving out XP and everything every time you run one of them.
One game that might be worth looking into is Sword World 2.5. It's Japan's biggest fantasy TTRPG, and it's what I've been using for my fantasy fix lately. It's got your familiar things like dwarves and elves and fighters and mages, but also has a lot of it's own weird ideas, like a race of muscular people who are solar powered or an alchemist class that can use remains of defeated monsters for strong spell-like effects. And the "class" system is interesting, where the "classes" might be better thought of as skill packages, and you're supposed to take at least 2. Combat is also adjustable in such a way that you could have a simple front line/back line setup that feels like an old JRPG or use a map and have the more granular positioning you'd expect out of D&D.
A couple things that may or may not make you decide it wouldn't be for you before you look into it:
1. There's no official English release. There's extensive fan translations, but if you want physical books in English, you're going to have to get them custom printed.
2. Like most Japanese TTRPGs, it's designed for episodic play. In Japan, the way they usually organize games means they don't know who's going to be at the table on a given day or if any of them will ever come back, so it's normal to assume that every session has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You can easily make a traditional Western style campaign and run it with this, but it'll be best if you can divide it into digestible chunks when you're at the table. Like the big dungeons that exist for this system are designed under the assumption that each floor is a session, and that you're giving out XP and everything every time you run one of them.