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Message: <blockquote data-quote="yojimbouk" data-source="post: 6021689" data-attributes="member: 14836">D&D Retroclones:OSRIC, a retroclone of AD&D1e.Labyrinth Lord, a retronclone of B/X D&D.Swords and Wizardry, a retroclone of original (0e) D&D. There is a swords and sorcery variant, Crypts and Things, which is supposed to be quite good.Dark Dungeons, a retroclone of rules compendium BXCMI D&D (with some houserules).d20 games:Conan RPG. The Mongoose Conan RPG is out of print and now harder to find. Supposed to be an excellent treatment of the source material and a reasonable take on a d20 swords and sorcery game. The Hyperborea game is a old school style swords and sorcery game based on early edition D&D (0e).Arcana Evolved. Monte Cook's revision of 3e. Reworks the spellcasting mechanics but also makes spellcasters even more awesome.FantasyCraft. Excellent variant of Spycraft 2.0 for fantasy. Quite crunchy, the rulebook is quite dense but it manages to fix a number of problems with 3e.Games similar to D&D:Castles & Crusades is a d20-ised AD&D. The system has the attribute modifiers and DCs of d20 but different experience point tables for classes a la AD&D. The skill roll mechanic, the SIEGE engine, has been pinched for skills rolls in D&D Next.13th Age. A 3e/4e hybrid with some storygame mechanics thrown in as well. Looks good from the previews.Hackmaster. 4e was a houseruled AD&D1e written up as a parody of AD&D. 5e has the same system as Kenzer's Aces and Eights wild west game. It's a crunchy system but good. The 5e Hacklopedia of Beasts is supposed to be a thing of beauty.Dungeon Crawl Classics. Think Basic D&D with a bigger dose of swords and sorcery. The spell system is excellent. Spellcasting involves a skill role wirh a chance of mishap and corruption as the result of a badly failed roll as well as extraordinary result for a good roll. Also, incredibly cheap for a 500 page hardback. Goodman seems to be the Milo Minderbinder of RPGs.Lamentation of the Flame Princess. A 0e derived weird fantasy game.Non-D&D Fantasy:Dragon Age: based on the video game. Has a simple and elegant rules system, AGE. It seems to be quite popular although releases have been thin on the ground. Kobold Quarterly regularly support the AGE system.Exalted: a game of magical Kung Fu demigods. The Exalted setting, Creation, is equal parts Greek and Chinese/Japanese myth. The setting is excellent. However, the system is regarded as problematic. However, it's one of the few crunchy games to feature characters of this level of power.HARP Fantasy. Based on the classic Rolemaster system but with some refinements for speed.Rolemaster Classic. A remastered version of Rolemaster 2e.Iron Kingdoms 2e. The setting is well liked. Can't say anything about the system, though.Earthdawn. Excellent game that takes the conceits of D&D (dungeon bashing, classes, levels) and provides an in world rationale for them.Magic World. A generic non-Moorcock version of the great Elric!/Stormbringer 5e d100 system.Legend. Mongoose's d100 fantasy system (exactly the same sytem as their RuneQuest II). Can get the pdf for 1$. Has a gritty but exciting combat system.RuneQuest 6e. A refinement and expansion of RQII/Legend (very similar). Probably the best version of RuneQuest produced. The book is Pathfinder-like in its size and completeness.Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e. This one has a lot of nostalgia for me as WFRP1e was one of my favourite games when I was a lad. The system is d100 roll under. Some highlights are the brutal critical hits, the career system, the prosaic character types (rat catcher and labourer) and the risky spellcasting system. The primary setting is a late medieval/early Renaissance fantasy analogue of the Holy Roman Empire (medieval Germany).Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e. A completely different system from 1e/2e. However, it is supposed to be very good. As a warning this game is heavily dependent on components with rules appearing on power cards and cardboard tokens. I'm guessing that this makes play a lot easier as it avoids continually referencing the rulebook but does require quite a bit of space at the table.Legend of the Five Rings 4e. A fantasy game inspired by medieval Japanese and Chinese legend and history but with as much relation to it as D&D has to medieval Europe. A well developed Asian fantasy setting that is easy to get into.The One Ring is regarded as a great RPG for Middle Earth. Again, I can't offer an opinion.Ars Magica. Excellent freeform spellcasting system (based on combining a verb and a noun to produce an effect).For modern urban fantasy you have Dresden Files and the new World of Darkness systems.</blockquote>

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