What do I run?

[Goken100]

kindred sole

Eltern, I recently underwent a very similar quest (see my thread "D20 products with rule variations?" http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170377). I will impart what my search found as concerns each of your 3 desired rule variations.

1. The only D20 product that was recommended to me that had a similar way of dealing with experience and increasing powers was Mutants & Masterminds. It didn't appeal to me, because I LIKE have the narrowed focus of a class (hey... there's always multiclassing!). But you might want to check it out, it seems like a well made products and could certainly be used in a fantasy setting (instead of just a modern comic book setting).

2. True20 and Mutants & Masterminds each has its own unique magic system, and is much more free-form than D&D. I'd recommend them.

3. Combat is the toughy, and was my main concern as well. Grim-n-Gritty is not an entire system, as you've discovered, but is not too different from what you use. True20 is similar, but has statuses and tally marks instead of the small amount of HP that GnG uses. Each system has a second roll AFTER the attack roll. GnG has damage rolled like D&D, but is heavily modified (by armor and stuff). True20 has an invented saving throw that the target must roll to avoid being hurt. I should note that Mutants and Masterminds appears to have the same system.
I, like you, try to avoid having two rolls for each attack in my home-brew. Instead of dividing the result of a success by a damage variable, I use a damage chart with a row for each damage level, and a column for each success margin. I find it simpler than doing division each time, and recommend it.
In the end, I decided to stick with my own rules when it comes to battle. But I discovered a bevy of other good ideas in these products, so it was worth my time to learn about.

Since Mutands & Masterminds seems to fit each of your three criteria, that might be your closest candidate. It is a D20 product, so it won't be all that alien to your players. Good luck!

 

[Eltern]

I just checked out the Wikipedia entry on M&M, Gokken, and it seems stupidawesomegood, or at least stupidawesomeappropriate. The use of both AC -and- a toughness save is a little lame, but I might be able to handle it. I'll take a look at this the next time I got to my FLGS.

As for True20, I've heard much about it, and it could be good, but it is still classed. Not very classed, but classed. Does anyone know of a variant that has True20 without classes?

I've heard that the M&M and True20 system are quite related. Is this true? If so, maybe I could meld them in some way.

 

[Arkhandus]

You know, you could actually try Shadowrun 3rd Edition.....it pretty much fits the sort of stuff you posted initially. It may not be the smoothest system sometimes, but I at least think that it works reasonably enough. Main problems I've found are simply a lack of clarity regarding certain abilities and gear (such as some cyberware). I'm not very enthusiastic about the recently-released 4th Edition of SR, as it's a significant set of changes, and from what I understand it makes the common character archetypes into something like classes(?) rather than just a vague archetype, but I don't recall exactly; I just remember that there are several changes in terms and mechanics and setting for 4E that I really dislike.

Shadowrun is pseudo-cyberpunk mixed with fantasy (magic returns to the postmodern world in the Awakening, all hell breaks loose for a while, things settle down, people settle back into their little corporate-controlled lives and shadowrunners start doing business, handling whatever mercenary/freelance/black-ops work they can find between the megacorps and sometimes between the crippled governments).

Characters have the ability to dodge attacks, and can vary how much effort they put into it (at the expense of attacking less well, or whatever), while armor (and similar stuff, like certain spells, adept powers, and cyberware) serves to reduce damage. Shadowrun uses a dice pool mechanic; you roll a few or a bunch of d6's, depending on your character's skill, attribute, spell rating, equipment rating (for whatever gadget's being used, such as using a cyberdeck to hack into a system via the virtual Matrix and pitting that cyberdeck's attack utilities against the host system's Intrusion Countermeasures), or whatever. Weapons have an attack power and a damage rating, such as 9D (power 9, deadly wound); the power's what's used to boost the attack roll and oppose the target's dodging, while the damage rating is what sort of wound is dealt if successful; if the target dodges sorta well, they'll just take a lesser sort of wound (such as a light or moderate wound instead of a deadly wound, if they roll well).

There are no hit points, just two wound meters (one for physical damage, one for stun), each with 10 points/boxes, imposing penalties as the character suffers moderate or significant damage, with a separate little physical overflow box to represent bleeding to death (with some chance of being stabilized, if good medical attention is applied quickly). It's classless and levelless, using accumulated Good Karma to slowly advance character skills, attributes, and spells/powers/spirits/elementals/foci/fetishes (for those who have them). A separate Karma Pool is used to re-roll dice sometimes, avoid critical failures sometimes, and improve the degree/chance of success sometimes. Karma gets burnt permanently sometimes, such as spending Good Karma to learn or improve stuff, or spending Karma Pool dice to save yourself from a horrible set of rolls. A character can also, at the GM's option, burn all of their Karma at once to save themselves from a bad mistake or situation, like getting shot at by a bunch of troll street samurai, but it's a one-time-only option, causing some trick of fate to narrowly save the character or give them a chance at survival.

There are a couple of races in the main book for SR3; humans, elves, dwarfs, orks, and trolls. A player assigns priority for a few factors, such as race, and that determines their initial points/resources/choices for each factor (frex, any priority allows the choice if human as the character's race, but priority C has to be chosen for an elf or troll; humans only have a minor Karma benefit, aside from being most-numerous and least-persecuted as the normal, dominant race on Earth). The Shadowrunner's Companion is a supplement that can be bought, which replaces the priorities with a point-buy mechanic for initial character stats/resources/choices, and the SC has additional, more-obscure races and other stuff, though I don't care for it myself.

The rules for magic are divided into a couple of things; frex, there's a Sorcery skill and a Conjuring skill, the former used with spellcasting and the latter used with summoning/binding/dismissing. There's also an Assensing skill, used to read auras on the Astral plane (which is only slightly analogous to the D&D Ethereal plane, the Astral is more of a spirit realm, which some magicians can peer into or project their souls into; but the latter, Astral projection, can be dangerous since the body dies after a bit if the soul doesn't return, and some spirits may manage to attack and destroy the magician's soul while Astrally projected, if he's not careful). Foci are magic items invested with power for a particular sort of use, such as weapon foci which provide a bonus on attacks and can be used to fight incorporeal/Astral spirits, and spell foci which improve the potency of spells or allow them to be maintained more easily. Fetishes are magic items attuned to specific spells, and are made to either reduce the drain from casting those spells, or to reduce the difficulty of learning and using them. Magicians are divided into Adepts (or physical adepts, physads), Full Magicians, and Specialist Magicians.

Adepts gain minor magical abilities that enhance their physical abilities, such as speed, physical-attribute-based skills, healing, strength, unarmed attacks, damage resistance, feigning death, resisting spells, and preternatural senses (including Astral perception, but it's expensive for an adept to gain). Specialist Magicians have to choose a specialty (such as conjuring, or sorcery, or a particular shaman totem, or one of the four elements), and only get to use magic appropriate to that specialty, but they know a few extra spells or control a few extra spirits/elementals initially, compared to Full Magicians. Full Magicians have Astral perception and projection, as well as full access to sorcery and conjuration magic of their chosen tradition.

Full/Specialist Magicians need to choose either the Hermetic Tradition or the Shamanic Tradition; hermetic Mages rely on a scientific study of magical forces and mana flow, and may summon elementals (provided they have an appropriate source of the element nearby, from which to summon the elemental); Shamans rely on a chosen animal-totem spirit to guide them and provide their magic, in the form of spells and nature spirits, with the spirits available being based on the environment (i.e. a Shaman in the sewers can summon urban spirits, while a Shaman traveling across a mountain can summon spirits of the mountains or sky). Elementals and spirits can be troublesome to control sometimes, and if the magician does something stupid, their bound minions may free themselves from control and attack the magician. But, they can do lots of useful things, not just fight for the magician; they can also assist with some activities, such as spellcasting, and they can handle other Astral foes when not materialized themselves; and some elementals/spirits have useful magic powers.

 

[librarius_arcana]

I just checked out the Wikipedia entry on M&M, Gokken, and it seems stupidawesomegood,

it is good, the best thing done with d20,

As for True20, I've heard much about it, and it could be good, but it is still classed. Not very classed, but classed. Does anyone know of a variant that has True20 without classes?

I've heard that the M&M and True20 system are quite related. Is this true? If so, maybe I could meld them in some way.

I think someone over at the True 20 boards worked out the M&M cost for the True 20 class's