my ideal system

[Dlsharrock]

With regard to D&D you might find the Rules Compendium useful in cutting down the sheer bookage and page turning. It covers most core issues in lesser detail, so once you're familiar with the fundamentals you can keep it around and refer to it very quickly. At 160 pages its a featherweight.

Page turning is bad during a game, especially during combat, but the good thing about RC is categories tend to span one double spread making it easier to refer to without thumbing through for the relevant text or table, and if you know what's coming you can open the book to the right spot prior to things getting busy. Shame WotC wasted so much space with the 'how the rules were dreamed up' splash pages. I'd have prefered they swap this for references on variant rules and classes from things like UA and Complete Adventurer, but that's beside the point and this is turning into a review

 

[ekb]

Well, back to the OP...

Why not work from the SRD and use the implied setting outlined? Cost: $0. That's how I decided to invest in D&D3.5 and D20 Modern...

If you'd like things a bit less DIY, I'd actually recommend Blue Rose/True20 - it's a bit different from std D20 fantasy gaming with much less kill and loot feel. The mechanics are familiar if you know d20 D&D - I was able to GM a game pretty effectively with only 30 minutes of prep because the rules were so familiar.

I've not tried it, but Greg Stolze's Reign sounds really really interesting. The mechanics, however, are very different but still pretty easy to pick up. My group grasped ORE in about 15 minutes with a couple of roll demos... YMMV.

 

[joethelawyer]

i just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to read and respond to my post. i spent a lot of time last week looking over all of the suggested material and it gave me a lot of good ideas. this board kicks ass.

take care...

joe