sell me on a different system

[Jd Smith1]

In the words of Blain, "This game will make you a god damned sexual Tyrannosaurus just like me!" I haven't exactly played Zweihander, but you're right that it's not generic.

I never heard that quote before.

It isn't. I wouldn't say its a 'live large' game for PCs; We're 24 sessions into a campaign, and the players constantly worry about combat.

 

[GMMichael]

I never heard that quote before.

It isn't. I wouldn't say its a 'live large' game for PCs; We're 24 sessions into a campaign, and the players constantly worry about combat.

Have you heard "get to da choppa?"

@OP, what about Numenera's Ninth World? That's worth exploring.

 

[pogre]

I'll second Runequest. Skilled based. Setting is bronze age fantasy and you can play DUCKS!
It has an awesome starter set you can get a lot of hours of play from.

 

[MGibster]

I never heard that quote before.

It was a line uttered by Jesse Ventura in 1987's Predator. I quite enjoyed that movie.

 

[Jack Daniel]

OD&D (1974) is the right answer. Because it's always the right answer — except for those times when the right answer is HeroQuest.

 

[Jd Smith1]

It was a line uttered by Jesse Ventura in 1987's Predator. I quite enjoyed that movie.

I did too.

 

[Jd Smith1]

OD&D (1974) is the right answer. Because it's always the right answer — except for those times when the right answer is HeroQuest.

In the 70s I would have agreed with you.

 

[Blue]

little think like finding how to RP social scenario if you do not pick bard your basically a loser, the martial being to support for the casters little things like that, the setting is more a matter of selling me on it as I find 90% of setting dull as dishwater so crazy would help.

If you're still looking for high fantasy swords and sorcery but have soured on 5e, try 13th Age. It's a d20 system so the mechanics will be familiar, but it's got a lot going for it that will directly affect those picks. Like for example instead of multiple attacks, weapons do one die per level, and marital characters get bigger weapon dice. Plus a different resource recoery trigger than "we sleep" that keeps martials and casters on-par. And the Dragon Empire default setting is made of Adventure Hooks and Awesome. Oh, and the Background system (replacement for skills) will be a lot of encompassing while also a lot more granular for social as well as other types of interactions and challenges.

If you want something with more codified social interaction, I'd recommend a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game that zeros in on a genre you're interested in. Though truth be told I'm not as hugely fond of Dungeon World, the best known high fantasy one. If you don't mind Low Fantasy, try Ironsworn. Which you can download for free, but if you like it go buy a copy. Ironsworn - Tabletop RPG

PbtA have games that laser focus on just what you want to play. For example: Want to play a superhero game, but focus on building a teen team and all the drama and finding yourself that comes from that? With heavy mechanical support for discovering yourself, influence over people, and the like? Masks: A New Generation. As in find your exact niche and there's probably a PbtA to play for it. And it's more distant descendants, Forged in the Dark games. Those are based off of Blades in the Dark, a paranormal fantasy urban heist game where you play as a gang of criminals and your gang has it's own character sheet in addition to the player's having ones.

If you want something a little lot more narrative, there's Fate Core or FAE (Fate Accelerated Edition). Your character, and just about everything else in the world, is defined primarily by a number of tags called Aspects, that are positive, negative, or mixed. Playing to your flaws is mechanically just as important as playing to your strengths. Fate, even more than PbtA, has thousands of official or unofficial expansions for whatever genre you are interested in.

As a side note, none of the issues you mentioned in D&D 5e are inherent in the system. You may want to give it another try with a different group.

There are plenty of good options for your party "face", if you even have one. You don't need healers, you don't need a party face, you really can make any party work. And the background system can bring a lot more flexibility about what you can do. Martial classes definitely have their own strengths - they are secondary to casters at mid and high levels when DMs run too few encounters per day which unbalanced things in favor of long rest-recovery classes. But since both barbarian and paladin are hybrid at-will/long rest recovery classes even there that's not always try. There is no default setting of 5e, you can play in any. There are several officially published, even more 3rd party publisher, and uncountable homebrew that people share.

 

[aramis erak]

little think like finding how to RP social scenario if you do not pick bard your basically a loser, the martial being to support for the casters little things like that, the setting is more a matter of selling me on it as I find 90% of setting dull as dishwater so crazy would help.

I can provide several game options that provide social conflict systems as part of the core... but they're each different...

Mouse Guard - either edition - the conflict system is the same whether social, physical, or even ecological. What differs is which skills get used and the narration of the 4 moves (Attack, Defend, Feint, Maneuver).

Burning Wheel. Any edition. It's got one of the most realistic melee duels in print. It's also got Duel of Wits for social. And a ton of options. Note that Mouse Guard and BW are related; if you like BW, MG is going to be comfortable, and vice versa, but which is better is in how well one handles multiple subsystems.

Burning Empires is another BW variant - think Stargate's Goa'uld without the overt gloating, and hyperdrives but not gates.

Any of the 2d20 system games I've read have an extended task mechanic, and it's the basis for the physical combat. Use the combat methodology for social interactions, and it works fine. It's explicitly set up for social in STA and Dune, with very minor differences from physical combats in STA, and somewhat larger (but clearer) in Dune. Note that creating traits is one of the standard actions; this has been used for both informal and formal social encounters.

Most of the Year Zero Engine games can do social conflicts - but they don't make it explicit in most how. The basic idea is that one either does damage to mental attributes, or imposes conditions. Now, there are difficulties for such in the skills chapters, but it's not clearly labeled as social conflict.

There is social conflict in the FFG/Edge Star Wars system. It's not in the core, but the concepts are - damage is done to Stun, rather than wounds, and the victim run out first loses; the intent is for use in diplomacy, and it's in the Diplomat sourcebook for Age of Rebellion.

All editions of Legend of the Five Rings (which is a samurai fantasy) have abilities and skills to impose social effects; 5th (by FFG and now in the hands of Edge) actually has a stronger set, and it's nearly identical in concept to the one in Star Wars, given that it actually provides mechanics cogently. Still, many groups converged on the same proceses for social conflicts in 2nd and 3rd editions...

Cortex Plus and Cortex Prime games all have the ability to impose conditions upon foes... some flavors even have mental damage tracks... (MHR).

Likewise, all Fate games have the ability to create temporary aspects... these can be used to do social conflict as easily as physical... some flavors call this out.

Of those, which are a good fit for you is hard to predict.
Burning Wheel is robust... but it's also intimidating.
2d20 has large books... with lots of setting and fairly light rules.
Year Zero games vary widely, but basically all are count successes, with a risky reroll if the first throw on a task goes poorly but not horribly.
Cortex Prime is in print - the actual core is a construction set... adapted cores are being released. I've not seen those yet. Cortex Plus was largely the same as Prime, but each game was significantly adapted, and essentially incompatible.
L5R 5 is great, if one likes the custom dice. If not, well, then it's going to suck.
FFG/Edge Star Wars has the custom dice and difficulty as specific dice... you'll need two sets for more than starting characters...assuming one pool shared across a group. I keep 8 sets in my SW dice bag. (I'm currently running Edge at my FLGS.)

 

[Aldarc]

I'll recommend Zweihander again, as it avoids the issues you mention. 5e is the McDonalds of the RPG world; to find actual innovation and depth, you are going to have to go further afield.

Isn't Zweihander just WFRP with the serial numbers filed off and new upholstery?