Looking for a non-D&D high fantasy roleplaying system

[Evenglare]

Ill throw my hat in and say Mutants and Masterminds. Though geared towards a super hero game, it really is genreless. You can run pretty much anything. It's easier to understand than HERO and a lot quicker to play. (I loves me some hero, dont get me wrong)

 

[Penthau]

+1

I can't recommend Dungeon Fantasy enough. It's built upon the extensive toolkit which GURPS provides, but with more focus on the style of fantasy which I was familiar with via d20 games. I've found that -for me- it strikes a pretty good middle ground between what I've come to enjoy from GURPS, and the elements of D&D and Pathfinder that I like. Thirdly, with the mentality that GURPS is built upon and leans toward, I've found that it's fairly easy to convert old D&D adventures to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy once you get the hang of the system; the mechanics are different, but some of the spirit behind the product is similar enough that it feels right in play.

There are some pretty good blogs about using Dungeon Fantasy. One is here: http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.co...00-04:00&max-results=7&start=35&by-date=false

This part links to session info: http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com/p/my-df-campaign.html

Here's a blog about running The Temple of Elemental Evil using GURPS: http://d20to3d6.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the pointers to the blog, that is helpful. I used to play a lot of GURPS in the past, but in general quit playing mostly because it feels so deadly. Even the biggest combat monsters live in fear of the crit from an orc goon. Eventually, orc goons should become speed bumps as players face cosmic forces.

 

[Penthau]

Ill throw my hat in and say Mutants and Masterminds. Though geared towards a super hero game, it really is genreless. You can run pretty much anything. It's easier to understand than HERO and a lot quicker to play. (I loves me some hero, dont get me wrong)

I forgot to mention that. I was recently introduced to 3e and it looks pretty good. The action has an appropriately heroic feel as far as I can tell, but I have only run a couple of short combat playtests.

 

[edemaitre]

Note that Mutants & Masterminds, now in its third edition, is derived from the D20 OGL, as are Green Ronin's Blue Rose and True 20. Warriors and Warlocks is the fantasy supplement for M&M2e: http://www.amazon.com/Mutants-Masterminds-Warriors-Warlocks-Sourcebook/dp/1934547190

Here are some threads on using White Wolf's Storyteller system for fantasy:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?298368-Patching-the-Storytelling-system-for-generic-fantasy
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?169870-Storyteller-with-D-amp-D-setting

There were also The Dark Ages supplements, now out of print: http://rpggeek.com/rpg/1076/dark-ages

 

[JoshDemers]

What about Mage, Dark Ages? I think it's one of the most engaging, creative magic systems out there, and you can use Bygone Bestiery to do all kinds of different races... of course, I'm pretty sure those are both out of print...

But they're great games!

 

[Evenglare]

Note that Mutants & Masterminds, now in its third edition, is derived from the D20 OGL, as are Green Ronin's Blue Rose and True 20. Warriors and Warlocks is the fantasy supplement for M&M2e: http://www.amazon.com/Mutants-Masterminds-Warriors-Warlocks-Sourcebook/dp/1934547190

While true, M&M (especially) 3rd edition is so far removed from how other d20 games work (D&D and its ilk) that its just about an entirely new system. There isnt any HP, powers are built to your specifications, there are 8 ability scores, and just a host of other things that completely distances itself from d20 games proper.

 

[Dethklok]

I forgot to mention that. I was recently introduced to 3e and it looks pretty good. The action has an appropriately heroic feel as far as I can tell, but I have only run a couple of short combat playtests.

Let us know if you decide to go that route; if not, I can make another suggestion or two.

 

[Penthau]

Let us know if you decide to go that route; if not, I can make another suggestion or two.

I think I am going to go with Fantasy Hero. It is a system I am very familiar with and can adapt to fit whatever campaign I like. There is a good bit of support, even though I worry about the company sometimes. Even if they fold though, it won't hurt my game.

M&M combats are what scare me away ultimately. There is too much reliance on minions to speed up combat and it is too random and swingy for my tastes. I have had PL5 nonminion orcs stay up through way too many rounds against a PL8 PC.

I will still probably wiffle waffle between those two systems for a while.

 

[Dethklok]

OK, good luck!

 

[RangerWickett]

For something more obscure, Talislanta (especially the 4th edition) has basic archetypes you start with, and you just incrementally improve as you level up. The setting is a weird cornucopia of odd races and crazy magic, but you could retool it pretty well. Magic can do a lot of things, but you're very limited in how often you can use it.

Out of print, but the owner of the rights has made the pdfs free. http://talislanta.com/?page_id=5#4th

There's a whole lot of nifty setting stuff too, if you're interested. The first monster book -- The Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta -- is the very first RPG book I ever got. Yeah, monster books are hard to use if you don't have the main rules, but I was a resourceful 8 year old. http://peedeepages.com/talislanta/pdf/1e/final/optimized/a_naturalists_guide_to_talislanta.pdf