Looking for some System suggestions.

[Khaalis]

I wanted to pick the groups brain. Is there a game that people would suggest to support the following requirements, aside from:
-- GURPS (the group simply doesn't seem to like this systems when all is said and done)
-- FATE? (the group has looked at Dresden Files and it just didn't seem to sit well. A tad too rules light, or 'freeform' I guess you'd say, except for some things like a version of Aspects). Is Anglere any more rules robust or is Fate Core really more robust than Dresden?

If not, what systems do you think support each concept best as if you were willing to Frankenstein the systems together? I have over 200Gb of gaming files and probably around 100 systems. I'm in a bit of overload goig through everything looking for a match. Tuhs turning to some suggestions.

(Note: Preferrably not d20 as 70% of our group is burnt out on d20 of any flavor at the moment, but a good enough argument for a d20 system that would work could be made. For instance I like modding Fantasy Craft but its too d20/D&D and a few too many fidbly bits in combat than most care for at the moment.)

High Priority
* Race matters! A system that supports established races with distinct differences in fluff as well as mechanics, even if the Race has to be basically the primary "career" choice of the PC (like say a Vampire Drake, Giant or Changeling) but with some room for still having some choice in abilities beyond race. Also a way of differentiating between humans from culture to culture or some other thing that makes each "person" different (such as Cultures in RuneQuest and/or Human Talents in Fantasy craft).

* A system that allows for many types of "magic" that are distinct from one another yet balanced. System should be able to support such different magic as spellcasting, miralces, animism (spirits), psionics, powers (think of Dresden Files sorcerers - one trick "super powered" magicians), alchemy, something like a Mystborn's magic, etc. These however also have to be balanced against a typical "skilled" human (warriors, thieves, etc.).

* A Levelless system (ala D&D levels) so basically more point buy or organic growth of skills through use or downtime training (also supporting a downtime system). Preferrably if the system has various widgets to the PC such as skills, talents (or whatever name is used for a major "profession/careeer" related style ability - feats, stunts, etc.). Boons/Flaws (or virtues/vices, etc.) are good bonus too.

Medium Priority
* A system that either has, or could with a little effort support a form of Life/Career Path system for PC gen.

Low Priority
* A cinematic point system (Fate points, Karma, Bennies, Action Dice, etc.). {Edit: On reflection, this should be pretty easy to create from any said example as they are pretty unilateral across most systems in how they work and what they offer with only minor differences based on die mechanics usually.}

* Party Mechanics like the Fellowship rules in One Ring or Crew Rules in Blades in the Dark.

* Decent bestiary available.

Everything else is more negotiable. For instance non-round based combat would be nice, but not mandatory.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I can't think of anything that meets all of those criteria. Most generic systems (GURPS, BESM, Basic Roleplaying) lack a thorough bestiary, because it's just not practical unless you can narrow down the setting. To contrast, once you've narrowed down the setting, you limit yourself to only one or two distinct types of magic.

If you could prioritize these preferences, it would be easier to find something acceptable for you. I don't think any single game is going to meet every one of these.

 

[Khaalis]

For priority, pretty much assume in the order they are in, but I'd say the top 3 are neck and neck. I'll note it in the original post as well.

As for genre/setting - Fantasy ranging from Dark Fantasy to High Fantasy but, as above allowing for some of the points mentioned. As for the bestiary, so long as other bestiary critters could be adapted without having to completely recreate them, that would work (i.e. conversion is easier than writing from scratch).

Thanks.

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

Closest I can think of would be Savage Worlds.

It's level less, sort of. It has ranks but they aren't as drastic a jump as d20 levels are. No downtime rules by default, but the guys who make Shaintar put one out, it's on DriveThruRPG for a few dollars.

The magic is very flexible. There are tons of options already and it's very easy to add more by customizing arcane backgrounds and edges.

Not sure what you mean by a life/career path.

Bennies takes care of cinematic points. It's also very customizable.

Never played One Ring or Blades in the Dark, but SW does have leadership edges that can grant party benefits of a sort.

As to a bestiary, SWD has a decent sampling of beasties, with tons more in the Fantasy and Horror companions. Plus several of the settings have their own monster books.

 

[innerdude]

As @Saelorn mentioned, there's not a lot that comes to mind that's going to meet all of your criteria.

I do agree that Savage Worlds has potential, as suggested by @Lawngnome4hire. Savage Worlds Deluxe core rules along with the two Shaintar setting books (Shaintar: Legends Arise + Shaintar: Legends Unleashed) would probably get you 90% of what you're looking for.

The one thing Savage Worlds doesn't do well is make races very mechanically different. There's a few minor differences during initial character gen, but the rest is generally fluff/world building. Someone on this site posted something several years ago that I firmly agreed with (was it @Morrus ?), which was that race should either A) have dramatic mechanical differences in gameplay, really pushing PCs into the role, or B) should have almost no mechanical effect, basically just be "fluff," and let the GM and players decide how much "racial background" matters within the game world. Savage Worlds is solidly in Camp B.

Other than that, Savage is definitely hitting all of the other notes you've listed. Also, if your group is used to "traditional"/D&D style play, moving to Savage Worlds isn't a huge leap. Savage does a lot differently than d20, but it's still aiming for a fairly "traditional" play experience, just with greater speed, elegance, and streamlining.

Anything in the Runequest/BRP family at least meets the bare minimum requirements of being level-less, and support multiple modes of magic within the core rules.

It's not classless, per se, but Novus is a well-regarded rules-medium system that seems to hit a lot of the notes you've described. If I wasn't firmly enmeshed in Savage Worlds, I'd probably give it a serious look myself. Even though Novus uses "classes," they're more akin to "templates" than a firm dividing line. It's about as close to being "classless" as a class-based system can manage.

The other one that comes to mind, weirdly enough, is Burning Wheel. But if your group is very entrenched in d20, making the switch would be......interesting, to say the least. BW comes from a totally different play and design angle than D&D, and it shows in pretty much every aspect of the system. But it meets most of your requirements.

 

[ShadowAssassin]

I'd go for Runequest 6. Level-less, classless, tons of magic systems, decent chargen system, fate points and you can get the cut down version Essentials for PWYW to see if it fits your needs.

There are settings for Greek-type city states/S&S, Plane hopping with Luther Arkwright, Mythic Britain, the Griffin Island campaign setting. Rules are available for gunpowder weapons and blasters so you can do just about everything setting-wise.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Exalted may fit your needs, thought I've only read about ti rather than played, so I may be misremembering details like no levels. It's not really a D&Dish system or setting though.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

This is a tough one in all honesty, mainly because it sounds like you want different subsystems for different flavors of power sources (Magic types) that work functionally different yet are "balanced" against non-powered people to an extent. That alone can be in games like Runequest 6, Anima: Beyond Fantasy, conceptually many of the Palladium Books games are known to have vastly different power sources that work on different systems, and if you want to put in the work than may of the generic games can be done like this, but you'd have to build the different magic/power systems yourself (speaking of games like Gurps, Hero System, Mutants and Masterminds and games of this ilk).

Then the rules for having mechanically different races... most games seem to handwave this to an extent for ease of play I'd say.

Then, going levelless and classless...

How much crunch do you want in the combat system? I think what makes this kind of hard is that you don't mention combat as any kind of requirement, and combat is probably one of the most time consuming elements of rpgs.

If WOIN (O.L.D. and N.E.W. by Morrus himself) was available I'd say this would probably meet all your requirements... BUT it won't be out for a while still.

 

[Matchstick]

My first thought is Savage Worlds as well. And for races there's a pretty hefty number of them available, just not necessarily in the core book. 50 Fathoms, for example, has a great selection of races, ranging from the more general like humans or masaquani to specific (like in the OP) like Atani, Doreen, or Grael. There are also race design tools to make your own races. Ultimately the potential issues that might arise in Savage Worlds regarding races might be removed by the setting you choose. Melior Via's Accursed might be a good setting to check out based on the admittedly pretty wide description you gave of what you're looking for.

Otherwise I think Savage Worlds pretty much checks off all the points, though I'm a little vague on the career one. Just not sure I understand it. If it has to do with long term planning for a character SW certainly allows for that.

 

[Bluenose]

I'd go for Runequest 6. Level-less, classless, tons of magic systems, decent chargen system, fate points and you can get the cut down version Essentials for PWYW to see if it fits your needs.

There are settings for Greek-type city states/S&S, Plane hopping with Luther Arkwright, Mythic Britain, the Griffin Island campaign setting. Rules are available for gunpowder weapons and blasters so you can do just about everything setting-wise.

Runequest was my thought too, although you could try Chaosium's Basic Role Playing system. There's several games based on the system, some more complex than others - RQ6 is rather on the complicated end in that respect.