I tried playing Runequest, and the world just did not click for me. The DM was a huge fan of it (and a good DM who was also a game designer with his own company) but I just wasn't interested in the setting at all.

Better Left Buried is my current favorite.  Light rules and pulls no punches.  Characters are not Big Damn Heroes and really are just kinda crazy for going where they aren't meant to go.  And if they aren't crazy when they start, there is a good chance they will be afterwards.  It encourages troop play where players have a pool of PCs they can pick from for any given venture while others are left back to heal up and recover their sanity.

Anima Prime is an older cinematic anime RPG with a pretty light system.  A good alternative to BESM if you find that one a little too complex.  Fairly flexible character creation and some good kit for making Final Fantasy-like abilities and weapons/spells.

Despite the usual hate for it, I find Dungeon World works fine.  It's easy to get a game up and running with little prep.  Unfortunately, if it's your first ever Powered by the Apocalypse game, the core book isn't the best at getting the ideas across.  If you do have experience though you'll catch on just fine.

For Coin & Blood, as someone else mentioned, is closer to traditional OSR (in rules and setting) but it embraces a "grimdark" tone.  PCs are all mercs, sell swords, etc seeking money and/or revenge. 

Syma checks a lot of my favorite boxes.  PCs are more traditional classes but the setting is closer to something like Elden Ring. Environments are harsh. The world is feudal, unequal, and unfair.  There are demonic influence is everywhere and magic is uncommon, terrifying, and powerful.  Violence is often the answer. The rules are fairly light and it uses a scaling die system where the better you are the larger die type you roll giving you a better chance of success.

Ryuutama was also previously mentioned.  I've run it a few times and it's been great fun each time but it is not your typical fantasy game.  It is very much a slice of life fantasy game, where the adventure of the journey is more the focus than dungeon crawling or murder hoboing for profit.

Quote from: Wasteland Sniper on April 11, 2023, 09:34:43 AM
I tried playing Runequest, and the world just did not click for me. The DM was a huge fan of it (and a good DM who was also a game designer with his own company) but I just wasn't interested in the setting at all.

I played Rune quest early in my gaming and while I have a good memory of it, who knows whether I was running it correctly or I was just having fun with the people I was gaming with and that's the memory I have.

Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic Editon.

Quote from: Batjon on April 11, 2023, 02:23:06 PM
Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic Editon.

Agreed.  Now if we could just your game going.....

Hopefully soon

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on April 11, 2023, 08:49:27 AM
    For more information on SAGA in Ravenloft, see DRAGON #240, #264, and the Kargatane's Book of Souls netbook.

Thank you very much for the references.

Quote from: GhostNinja on April 11, 2023, 02:30:07 PM

Quote from: Batjon on April 11, 2023, 02:23:06 PM
Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic Editon.

Agreed.  Now if we could just your game going.....

Hopefully soon

I'd love to get an online campaign going.  I also have the BoL game Dicey Tales for pulp action and would love to do something in the vein of Indiana Jones/The Mummy/Tomb Raider/Uncharted/King Solomon's Mines/Clive Cussler with it.

Maze Rats by Questing Beast was fun. The magic system is unique. The wizard's player rolls 2d6 and checks a chart to determine what the spell name is, then the player and the referee work out what the spell does. For example, a roll of "2" and "5", and the chart says "Ethereal Element + Ethereal Form", then the player picks out a description from each set. So "Harmony Blob", maybe. What does "Harmony Blob" do? Figure it out! Is the blob bigger than a breadbox? Is the harmony music or is it a feeing of camaraderie? Maybe the spell creates a small lump of magical material that can be put in someone's drink or food to make them react more favorably to the wizard. Maybe the blob is something one puts in one's ears to drown out dissonant sounds.

The spells are different every time, and no exact spell can be cast twice.

Quote from: Danger on April 08, 2023, 09:50:18 PM
Eh, call me a victim, but GURPS was the other system we went with when not saddled with D&D.  And yes, we did "Fantasy," at some point and my Minotaur Monk was fucking awesome.

Still a good call, but for fantasy, I prefer GURPS's parent, The Fantasy Trip. Was very excited to see it come back in print with it's one rough edge (advancement) sanded down.

The slightly PCed main book was a mild disappointment, but I have the original for the few things cleaned.

Quote from: Malaky on April 10, 2023, 03:51:48 PM
Time to be a bit of an odd ball...Palladium Fantasy.

That's not too odd ball round these parts.

Quote from: Batjon on April 11, 2023, 07:57:17 PM
I'd love to get an online campaign going.  I also have the BoL game Dicey Tales for pulp action and would love to do something in the vein of Indiana Jones/The Mummy/Tomb Raider/Uncharted/King Solomon's Mines/Clive Cussler with it.

I know.  I am on your discord server waiting for people to get their act together so we can play.

I would love to play either one/all of the above.

Quote from: Wasteland Sniper on April 11, 2023, 09:34:43 AM
I tried playing Runequest, and the world just did not click for me. The DM was a huge fan of it (and a good DM who was also a game designer with his own company) but I just wasn't interested in the setting at all.

For me it was the opposite; I'm just not a fan of the BRP system, but Glorantha may honestly be my favorite ttrpg setting. Something about "high fantasy Bronze Age" just hits right.
I kinda hope, seeing as how Dragonbane has a lot of BRP/ RuneQuest DNA already, we'll eventually get a Glorantha source book for it.

Quote from: Tasty_Wind on April 12, 2023, 10:22:54 PM

Quote from: Wasteland Sniper on April 11, 2023, 09:34:43 AM
I tried playing Runequest, and the world just did not click for me. The DM was a huge fan of it (and a good DM who was also a game designer with his own company) but I just wasn't interested in the setting at all.

For me it was the opposite; I'm just not a fan of the BRP system, but Glorantha may honestly be my favorite ttrpg setting. Something about "high fantasy Bronze Age" just hits right.
I kinda hope, seeing as how Dragonbane has a lot of BRP/ RuneQuest DNA already, we'll eventually get a Glorantha source book for it.

Who knows if that will happen, but it would be cool.  I recently picked up the massive Guide to Glorantha out of sheer curiosity about the setting.  As expected, it's pretty interesting and different from most bog standard pseudo-Medieval Western European settings.  I also flipped some other books to get the new Runequest core books & starter set.  They look great, but the rules just aren't my thing.  But I really like the Dragonbane rules.  So maybe I'll run DB in Glorantha.

Quote from: Wasteland Sniper on April 08, 2023, 06:24:03 PM
I'm very fond of Dragonbane. I ran it once at a con and really enjoyed how the system works. The book art is also beautiful, which certainly helps.

Dragonbane is definitely my favourite, I have two Dragonbane campaigns running now and it plays beautifully. The other game I like a lot is Mini Six, which is a multi-genre system I used for a Primeval Thule campaign for most of 2020. I think in future I'll be using mostly Dragonbane for fantasy campaigns, Mini Six for most non fantasy pulp/cinematic campaigns, and 2014 5e D&D for (mega)dungeon-based fantasy campaigns. I think D&D is in its element with the megadungeon play it was designed for, and that still goes for 3e & 5e D&D.

Quote from: rgalex on April 11, 2023, 10:36:57 AM
Syma checks a lot of my favorite boxes.  PCs are more traditional classes but the setting is closer to something like Elden Ring. Environments are harsh. The world is feudal, unequal, and unfair.  There are demonic influence is everywhere and magic is uncommon, terrifying, and powerful.  Violence is often the answer. The rules are fairly light and it uses a scaling die system where the better you are the larger die type you roll giving you a better chance of success.

I would not describe Elden Ring as a setting in which magic is uncommon (though it can be terrifying, and certainly is powerful). Even in Demon's Souls, which is the most grounded setting in any of the Fromsoft titles, I wouldn't exactly say that magic is rare. That said, this is super relevant to my interests, as I am an unapologetic fan of the way Souls games do their settings. I've actually been working on a souls-like homebrew setting for a few months now, which for lack of a better option, I've been stat-ing for Shadow of the Demon Lord.

It's a pity Syma that doesn't have a hard-copy option. I'm always reluctant to buy a game that's only available in pdf, partially just because I know I'll never be able to use it for live games, but also because not making a game available in hard copy always gives me the suspicion that the publisher has no faith or commitment in its longevity.