Hi everybody. I'm new.

The purpose of this post is to learn new stuff, and understand a bit better how things go in these forums. They seem definitely interesting and a place to learn and discuss a lot of RPG theory (which I find fascinating), so I gotta start somewhere. And I think the best way to start is to ask those of you who know a lot more about indie RPG systems than me suggestions about which to read given my preferences.

A bit about me and my play experiences. I've started playing seriously 12 years ago (I can't really count experiences prior to that as serious) with D&D 3.5. I've been mostly a DM ever since, and had to grow quite a bit before understanding how to run a game properly. Initially I played mostly meaningless and senseless dungeon crawls, which I now find very boring; I've had my fair share of CharOp occupying most of my time as a DM (seriously, 4 hours on average prepping a decent challenge for the party keeps your mind away from what parts of the game you actually enjoy) and only after 4E came out I've had the time and maturity to focus on what really makes a game worth my time. I've grown to understand that the most important aspect of gaming to me and my group is to tell a story together and see the direction it takes starting from their efforts. I've grown to accept DM flexibility as a virtue (in spite of CharOp experiences teaching me the opposite, and in spite of my early urges to micromanage spell components for further realism), and embrace the detatchment of rules from the game reality (I'm now thoroughly convinced that the rules do not represent the game reality at all, but rather just give tools to adjudicate the effects of player actions and decisions). I really appreciate 4E as a whole, and of all the systems I've read so far I think it is the best one. Which says a lot about the systems I've read since I do believe 4E comes short on a lot of things: the general unbalance and bloat of powers and feats and character options, which fail to provide characterization to a character and generally provide false variety; the ugly 4-encounters per day paradigm that makes my efforts of challenging the players in an adventure with months of time between fights much harder (encounters that challenge them are very swingy and end up being TPK material); the general sloppyness and length of encounters (still, I remember what having 1-round encounters in 3.5 was -.-); the absence of out-of-combat rules, options and structure apart from the underwhelming skill challenges and a couple utility powers (rituals are awesome but underdeveloped).

I've recently found out about 13th Age, and I'm very hopeful for that system to meet my needs, but I'd still like to see what you can tell me of other RPG systems (the obscure ones I never was able to hear about) that might be worth a try. I shall mention that I have already seen the FATE system, and love it except that I find it a bit lacking in the combat department. I like epic fights in my games, and I'm a firm believer that a solid rule structure helps the game to move in the right direction (that does not necessarily equal to being rules heavy: page 42 in 4E's DMG is absolutely awesome and yet very rules light): FATE combat system seems a bit swingy and doesn't provide many meaningful tactical choices (I might be wrong in that regard though, it's just the sense that the system gives to me).

One system you might benefit from reading is Burning Wheel. The designers worked hard to integrate character into action, and there are a wide variety of tactical choices to be made. They are abstracted more than in Dungeons & Dragons, but the workings of the game might be of interest to you.

Emily wrote:
One system you might benefit from reading is Burning Wheel. The designers worked hard to integrate character into action, and there are a wide variety of tactical choices to be made. They are abstracted more than in Dungeons & Dragons, but the workings of the game might be of interest to you.