What to play next? Help me solve my D&D(ilemma)

[mkill]

1) Within the D&D family ("d20 games")

The D&D family is HUGE by now...

2) Quick(ish) learning curve from 4E

Most d20 systems are fairly complex once you dig into them, because they're derived from the rather fiddly, system mastery happy D&D 3.0. Some derivates, like Fantasy Craft, heap even more complexity on it.

My recommendation here is 13th Age - I've playtested it twice. Both times, I just put pregen characters in the player's hands. With some basic familiarity with D&D (different editions for each player), they were easily able to find their way around.

3) A decent amount of published material, in particular adventures (or easy to convert to from other forms of D&D)

This points to Pathfinder. Or a subscription to the adventure paths available here on Enworld.

4) Quick but tactically rich combat

Again, this points to 13th Age. It has inherited some of the tactical features of 4E, but is less fiddly and exact about them, which makes combats faster.

Pelgrane did talk about a second, more open playtest round for April - I'd keep an eye open for announcements.

 

[blargney the second]

After we finished our 4e game, we started up our current game of E6 Pathfinder. It truly nails all the criteria you laid out there, Mercurius.

 

[S'mon]

One thought that came to mind is spending a bit of time "weeding" 4E of the less interesting elements of combat, namely conditions. We're already reducing monster HP by 20-30%, but I'm thinking more like 50% might be better, with an increase in damage by 20-30%. Any other ideas along this vein? Is there a paired down version of 4E out there, complete with powers but without all the extra stuff?

As a 4e DM I reduce monster hp by 50%, with consistently very good results IMO. If monsters have too many or too severe conditions I'll remove or lessen them, with increased damage instead. I'm willing if necessary to ban or nerf PC stuff that inflicts excessive or broken conditions, though I haven't found that to be an issue since I disallowed the Power splatbooks, and I think the reduced monster hp encourages players to focus on damage effects.

In general, I think the solution to 4e grind is to halve monster hp, use post-mm3 monster damage, and use mostly monsters that don't inflict conditions. Continuing damage can be turned into regular damage.