D&D vs GURPS vs WarhammerFRP -- help!?

[Sonja]

I am a seasoned GM who is running an RPG session tomorrow with my group. We normally play Call of Cthulhu using a special set of rules I designed (www.kisa.ca/123.html), inspired from the White Wolf game system.

This time, we want to play a typical medieval fantasy setting. However I must say I am not fully satisfied with most of the systems out there. Many of my players are newbies and are not "administrative rules junkies". We want a simple and smooth game system that exploits the maximum potential of a full medieval fantasy world.

There are simply too many things to keep track of in D&D and most systems. And this takes away a lot of the fun of playing and scares away many imaginative and great players who are less mathematically inclined or experienced with systems mechanics.

For now I was thinking of using D&D 3.5 with a few modifications on my own.

Or can anybody please suggest some other smoother game systems I should consider?

I am very curious about the upcoming Chimaera system. It looks rather promising.  http://www.welshpiper.com/chimera/index.html

Hey, I might even use the old Advanced Fighting Fantasy system from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's "Dungeoneer"... why not! Or maybe adapt it with 6 D&D-type Attributes rather than one single Skill rating.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out here, or who wants to brainstorm with me.

Peace,

Sonja
www.kisa.ca

[JimmyB]

If you're worried about them picking up the rules, then I'd have to say d20, the rules are at least relatively simple.

However as a game, I've always thought that WFRP or CE are much better than D20.

[Brian Leybourne]

What about Clinton's own Donjon.

Brian.

[Minx]

Or maybe "The Window"? ( http://www.mimgames.com/window )

Nice and simple, with quite freeform chargen. Even if thats not your thing, take a look.

M

[Alan]

How about

The Questing Beast
http://www.randomordercreations.com/tqb.html

Or

The Riddle of Steel
http://www.theriddleofsteel.net/

[Mike Holmes]

Welcom to the Forge, Sonja,

If you're not interested in actually making your own system, then I think this post is going to get shunted off to the "Actual Play" forum. We'll see what the administrators think. Anyhow, just to be clear, were you thinking of designing a system or modifying one to suit? Or were you just looking for existing system ideas?

If the latter, then what would really help would be a list of criteria.

We want a simple and smooth game system that exploits the maximum potential of a full medieval fantasy world.

That's simply too little detail. With just that we could come up with a list of about a hundred games. Literally.

To get you started, here are some questions that you might want to answer:

1. What sort of adventures do you imagine the PCs being involved in?
2. What sort of characters would the PCs be? That is, what do they need to be inclined towards?
3. Do they need to be heroes? Should they be talented, or have the potential to be talented? Do you want to see characters of varying ability levels all together?
4. Do you want combat to be a focus of the game? Powering up?
5. How much detail do you want resolution to take care of? In what areas? Combat, magic, other skills, etc?
6. Do you want the "traditional" power spilt? That is, players control only their characters, and GM controls everything else?
7. How do you feel about mechanics like "Luck Points" that the player has, and can spend to get his character out of trouble?
8. Do you think that resoultion systems should be used to resolve social situations, or should they be "role-played out"? In general, what areas should the resolution system handle, and what should it stay out of? Relationships, for instance?
9. How do you see magic (if at all) playing a role in the world. How common? How powerful? How mysterious? How controlable? How formulaic?
10. How do you see "races" being varied in the game? That is, do they have "advantages", or bonuses to statistics? How deep do you want the cultural notes to go? How important is culture to play? Do you have a world in mind, or will you be looking for one to come with the game?

These are just some starters. Answer about 20 questions, total, and we should be able to narrow it down to just one or two games for you to try.

Mike