Looking for a Rules-Light 3.5 Replacement

[HFool]

Hey there, guys, I'm HFool and I would like to say that I just love Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition. Now I don't really love it for the rules, the fluff or even the amount of books Wizards of the Coast got me to buy. I love it because of things like Orc Double Axes, Warforged, The Incantrix, The Book of Exalted Deeds and the various percentages of dragon you can be. I love the craziness of the character options and monsters, the sheer Dungeonpunk-ness, as well how at the end of the 3.5 line, WotC tried to put together every option from as many books as they could in several books.

Thing I don't love, however, is the amount of number crunching and sheer unbalance amongst the options (sometimes, ironicly, made to balance against other options). So far I have looked to games like Microlite20, Legends of Anglree and Risus, but I don't feel that they are really doing it for me (although hacking M20 might be my way to craziness salvation). So ask you, Giants of the Playground, is there a system that will allow me to run a crazy 3.5 dungeonpunk game (possibly on these forums) while still being rule light?

[Knaight]

Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. It's made to be dungeonpunk, and while some homebrewing will be needed to have all of the style you want, there won't be much. Oh, and it's free and short, so checking it out is a minimal investment.

[Terazul]

Love the craziness of making all sorts of neat and interesting characters with a plethora of abilities without all the headache, you say?

Might I suggest looking into Legend?

And also checking out the thread?

...And this informative review?

[HFool]

Love the craziness of making all sorts of neat and interesting characters with a plethora of abilities without all the headache, you say?

Might I suggest looking into Legend?

And also checking out the thread?

...And this informative review?

What if I want specific things like psionics, incarnum and the Tome of Battle? Because if it can do or I can make all that, than sold (or, well downloaded with a donation).

[DoctorGlock]

What if I want specific things like psionics, incarnum and the Tome of Battle? Because if it can do or I can make all that, than sold (or, well downloaded with a donation).

It does not have those specific systems but it is very easy to fluff (in fact refluffing is explicitly recommended)

Melee and nonmagic get enough options to do any ToB stuff and the Iron Magi track is very ToB inspired.

Psionics... depends what. Blaster? Elementalist. Mindbending... doesn't exist as much in Legend. There are some feats that can give confusion effects, but that's about it.

Incarnum? Well, totemist can be a barbarian path of ancestors/serpent discipline/crane discipline, i don't know enough about incarnum to say other stuff.

[gkathellar]

In some ways, your request is a little unrealistic. Nothing has as much material released for it as D&D 3.5, and so only free-form games like FATE or Wushu will be able to express the sheer insane variety that it can. However, if you're comfortable with refluffing, let me be the second to nominate Legend, which at present can accommodate an extraordinarily expansive set of character archetypes and mechanical combinations.

What if I want specific things like psionics, incarnum and the Tome of Battle? Because if it can do or I can make all that, than sold (or, well downloaded with a donation).

At present, you can simulate all of those things via refluffing. Psionics proper don't exist yet, but you can get some psychic powers via feat, others through spells, and some things that look like psychic powers through Track features. ToB is sort of implicit in the way melee classes work, in that melee gets tons of nice things, but no ToB-esque maneuver system is presently in place. Incarnum is a little trickier, but you could probably cast a heavy self-buffer through its lens.

Homebrewing for Legend looks to be pretty easy, though. Imagine your track, create seven features for it, bam.

[Kurald Galain]

What if I want specific things like psionics, incarnum and the Tome of Battle?

...in a rules-light system? That sounds contradictory to me.

[HFool]

In some ways, your request is a little unrealistic. Nothing has as much material released for it as D&D 3.5, and so only free-form games like FATE or Wushu will be able to express the sheer insane variety that it can. However, if you're comfortable with refluffing, let me be the second to nominate Legend, which at present can accommodate an extraordinarily expansive set of character archetypes and mechanical combinations.

At present, you can simulate all of those things via refluffing. Psionics proper don't exist yet, but you can get some psychic powers via feat, others through spells, and some things that look like psychic powers through Track features. ToB is sort of implicit in the way melee classes work, in that melee gets tons of nice things, but no ToB-esque maneuver system is presently in place. Incarnum is a little trickier, but you could probably cast a heavy self-buffer through its lens.

Homebrewing for Legend looks to be pretty easy, though. Imagine your track, create seven features for it, bam.

Hey, refluffing is all I need. I just want give the option to say you can soulmeld, even if it work just likes a spell. So alright, I'll give Legend a look.

[paddyfool]

I'd say giving Fantasy Craft a look should be well worth it as well. Re your specific requirements:

On the plus side
- Class options are balanced (all are cool).
- things like Warforged (which in this game are among oodles of options available in the core book, being "Unborn" - the generic construct species - with a level 1 only feat called "Special Construction: Living Metal", to differentiate them from all the other constructs) are very well supported
- there are oodles and oodles of martial options

On the neutral side
- it really isn't rules-light, but it is all very playable out of just one book (it's more rules-heavy than D&D 3.5 core, but lighter than D&D 3.5 with all the trimmings)

On the minus side
- psionics only exists as a homebrew supplement at present (pdf here, discussion here).

[gkathellar]

I love Fantasy Craft dearly, but that game is anything but rules-light. Seriously, we're talking about a system in which each individual damage type has its own special effects.

[paddyfool]

True that. Post tweaked.

[DoctorGlock]

Note that while legend is still fairly rules heavy in the grand scheme of RPGs, it is far less so than 3.5 and still manages to do what you want best. So not sure how far you want to stretch rules light

[Riverdance]

I love it because of things like Orc Double Axes, Warforged, The Incantrix, The Book of Exalted Deeds and the various percentages of dragon you can be. I love the craziness of the character options and monsters...

If you want just a short fun game with heavy roleplaying try googling Old School Hack. It's a free download of about 20 pages.link to the site here

Pros: You can basically do whatever you want fluff-wise, i.e. if you can role-play it you can do it, so you can have awesome weapons and whatever you want if the DM's ok with it.

Cons: Doesn't go to very high levels. It can become massively ridiculous (although depending on your play style this could be a plus).

Either way it's a very fun game for casual play and I recommend checking it out.

[Yuki Akuma]

Rules-Light?

Well, here's my old standby...

Pros: You can be anything, and no one can tell you otherwise. It is very rules-light - the rules themselves fit on about two pages. You can be as broad or specific as you want with defining your character's abilities.

Cons: Everything is essentially the same, just with different fluff - clichés might be good at different things, but the mechanics are all the same in the end. It's very rules light - there are more optional rules than core rules, and it doesn't have any GM help unless you actually shell out for the Excessively Deluxe Edition. And it has no specific gearing towards heroic fantasy, although there's nothing stopping you either.

Yes, I can fit Risus into any "suggest an RPG" thread.

[SleepyShadow]

When you're looking for a rules-light fantasy RPG, my money is on Castles and Crusades.