I've been considering running a game in a homebrew campaign setting of mine, but I find my usual D20 system to be unfitted to certain aspects of the setting.  I was planning on buying some GURPS books, because that seemed to be the best fit, but I have recently discovered that I can't ethically give money to Steve Jackson.

I'm going for a heroic fantasy concept, but I don't want D20's traditional Vancian casting.  I want an Arcane/Divine magic split like D20, but Arcane magic consists almost entirely of constructing and using enchanted items.  Divine magic is accessible to any character with knowledge of religious rituals which largely consist of things you wouldn't want to try doing in the middle of a fight.

Essentially, I'm looking for a classless system with some fleshed out costs for various abilities that I can modify to my needs.

So, if anyone has any suggestions/ideas, I would really appreciate them.

Paging tenbones to the white courtesy phone.

Honestly, Savage Worlds sounds like it'd work pretty well.

Something about Savage Worlds has always made me itch.  That isn't to say I couldn't make it work, and it's actually a decent suggestion on many levels, but I'm VERY OPEN to other suggestions.

That is a solid suggestion, Ghostmaker.  Thank you.

Quote from: Arturick on March 09, 2023, 03:17:14 PM
Something about Savage Worlds has always made me itch.  That isn't to say I couldn't make it work, and it's actually a decent suggestion on many levels, but I'm VERY OPEN to other suggestions.

If what you're looking for is something close to GURPS, Hero System is probably the closest. As the name implies, it tends towards a little more heroic than GURPS - a little less lethal, and more varied powers. Hero Games is rated at Yellow currently. For other systems, there's OpenD6 (currently unsupported) and Basic Roleplaying (supported by Chaosium - rated at Yellow). BRP is more gritty, while OpenD6 is more heroic.

https://www.herogames.com/hero_system_basics.html/

https://ogc.rpglibrary.org/index.php?title=OpenD6

https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying/

OpenCore, it's the Open Content Action! System with a few changes, and it's PWYW.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2727/Open-Core-Role-Playing-System-Classic

Agree with Hero/RQ suggestions as possibilities.

Hero would definitely work, right down to having built-in mechanics for having a magic system governed through items.  Whether you'd want to put in the effort to learn it and customize it, is another question.  It's not as complex as it looks at first glance, but it does have a steep, initial learning curve.  You've got to get a handle on the whole system to a certain extant before you can do anything with it.

Whether any of the various RQ versions will be a good fit is going to boil down, I think, to how heroic you mean with "heroic fantasy".  RQ can edge into the grittier end at times, though you can mitigate it (as with most games) by simply starting the characters more powerful than the defaults. The Divine magic will be a very good fit.

Here's a free RPG worth checking out (its got a ton of free support as well)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82643/Warrior-Rogue--Mage

Easy to modify, classless, heroic fantasy, GURP lite-ish (in my view).

I prefer it to D100, but equal to D6.

Well, now it seems that I have some research to do.  I know almost nothing about RQ, but am now curious.  I will do some reading on the other suggestions.

Sincere thanks to Spinachcat, Steven, GeekyBugle, and jhkim.

Quote from: Arturick on March 10, 2023, 01:12:32 AM
Well, now it seems that I have some research to do.  I know almost nothing about RQ, but am now curious.  I will do some reading on the other suggestions.

Sincere thanks to Spinachcat, Steven, GeekyBugle, and jhkim.

No problemo, seriously download OpenCore, it's 3d6, point buy (so classless) has a tone of skills, if you feel like you need more then download OpenAnime (Derived from OpenCore) to pilfer from, it's PWYW too.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/81232/Open-Anime

Quote from: jhkim on March 09, 2023, 05:19:20 PM

Quote from: Arturick on March 09, 2023, 03:17:14 PM
Something about Savage Worlds has always made me itch.  That isn't to say I couldn't make it work, and it's actually a decent suggestion on many levels, but I'm VERY OPEN to other suggestions.

If what you're looking for is something close to GURPS, Hero System is probably the closest. As the name implies, it tends towards a little more heroic than GURPS - a little less lethal, and more varied powers. Hero Games is rated at Yellow currently. For other systems, there's OpenD6 (currently unsupported) and Basic Roleplaying (supported by Chaosium - rated at Yellow). BRP is more gritty, while OpenD6 is more heroic.

https://www.herogames.com/hero_system_basics.html/

https://ogc.rpglibrary.org/index.php?title=OpenD6

https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying/

Re OpenD6, I think Mini Six is a great iteration https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144558/Mini-Six-Bare-Bones-Edition? and there is a good amount of third party support https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=Mini+Six&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
A new edition of Mini Six may be coming soon.

Quote from: S'mon on March 10, 2023, 02:02:38 AM
Re OpenD6, I think Mini Six is a great iteration https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144558/Mini-Six-Bare-Bones-Edition? and there is a good amount of third party support https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=Mini+Six&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
A new edition of Mini Six may be coming soon.

Based on his thinking that GURPS was the best fit except for politics, so I leaned towards recommending more rules-heavy games rather than rules-light. My impression was that Mini Six was more rules-light than OpenD6, though I haven't played it.

Also, I'm reminded of his requirement for the magic system that's only arcane crafting and religious rituals for anyone. That's easy in Hero, but I'm not sure how well it's supported in other generic systems.

Quote from: jhkim on March 10, 2023, 02:31:21 AM
Based on his thinking that GURPS was the best fit except for politics, so I leaned towards recommending more rules-heavy games rather than rules-light. My impression was that Mini Six was more rules-light than OpenD6, though I haven't played it.

I think they're about the same really. Mini Six just crams vastly more content into a shorter page count. Also you can easily add OpenD6 systems into Mini Six; I think it makes a good frame to work from.

Edit: I don't think either has a developed crafting/ritual system as mentioned by the OP, but both (if they're even considered separate systems) provide a basis for creating your own. Mini Six does have the basics of a Crafting system (pg 10) and a bunch of spells pg 11-13, many or most would work as divine rituals if you make the casting time eg 10 minutes instead of 1 action. There are some combat spells but these could easily be omitted, or only be useable when crafted into an item.

Quote from: Arturick on March 09, 2023, 02:39:43 PM
I've been considering running a game in a homebrew campaign setting of mine, but I find my usual D20 system to be unfitted to certain aspects of the setting.  I was planning on buying some GURPS books, because that seemed to be the best fit, but I have recently discovered that I can't ethically give money to Steve Jackson.

I'm going for a heroic fantasy concept, but I don't want D20's traditional Vancian casting.  I want an Arcane/Divine magic split like D20, but Arcane magic consists almost entirely of constructing and using enchanted items.  Divine magic is accessible to any character with knowledge of religious rituals which largely consist of things you wouldn't want to try doing in the middle of a fight.

Essentially, I'm looking for a classless system with some fleshed out costs for various abilities that I can modify to my needs.

So, if anyone has any suggestions/ideas, I would really appreciate them.

Have you considered buying GURPS books used? It's still tough to find anything 4th edition for much cheaper than SJG's retail by way of eBay or Amazon but you can get 3rd Revised rules and most supplements in hardcopies for far cheaper. Maybe you can find some free conversion kits and adjust where necessary. Many copies are in decent condition.

Quote from: S'mon on March 10, 2023, 03:21:21 AM

Quote from: jhkim on March 10, 2023, 02:31:21 AM
Based on his thinking that GURPS was the best fit except for politics, so I leaned towards recommending more rules-heavy games rather than rules-light. My impression was that Mini Six was more rules-light than OpenD6, though I haven't played it.

I think they're about the same really. Mini Six just crams vastly more content into a shorter page count. Also you can easily add OpenD6 systems into Mini Six; I think it makes a good frame to work from.

Edit: I don't think either has a developed crafting/ritual system as mentioned by the OP, but both (if they're even considered separate systems) provide a basis for creating your own. Mini Six does have the basics of a Crafting system (pg 10) and a bunch of spells pg 11-13, many or most would work as divine rituals if you make the casting time eg 10 minutes instead of 1 action. There are some combat spells but these could easily be omitted, or only be useable when crafted into an item.

Thanks, S'mon. I just checked out Mini Six. I'm not sure it's my cup of tea, but it is crunchier than my impression of it as "D6 Lite".

Interesting request. Honestly I don't have anything better to add on the other recommendations, but if you find a game that meets all your criteria, particularly that magic system, I'd love to hear about it. Your criteria for a perfect fantasy game and mine are pretty close to each other.