Other D&D-like RPGs

[Yora]

I know probably dozens of RPGs, but except for all its retro-clones, the only other games of adventurers in a fantasy world that I can think of are RuneQuest, The Dark Eye, and Dragon Age.
Pretty much everything else that comes to mind is sci-fi or modern-day fantasy.

Any other games I should look into to broaden my horizon for planning fantasy campaigns?

[Grinner]

I've heard good things about Dungeon World.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Never played it, but True20 looks good.

[Elderand]

Warhammer fantasy RP
Dragon warrior
Ars Magica
Burning wheel
Talislanta
Blue rose

Universal systems can do fantasy, things like GURPS or true 20, there was a supplement for mutanats and masterminds 2nd ed to do sword and sorcery.

I believe there was a series of books for the old world of darkness set during the dark ages

And then there is of course the lesser known settings for dnd like conan, thieves world, black company

[sailor_grenoble]

your question is quite misleading: do you want D&D-like games, or Heroic Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery/similar genres games? because the answer will be quite different based on what you want.

anyway, assuming you mean Fantasy games:
on top of those mentionned above:
Legends of Anglerre
Pendragon
Artesia
Riddle of Steel (good luck finding it, it's OOP)
Earthdawn
Tékumel
Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2
Barbarians of Lemuria
On Mighty Thews
Rolemaster
HARP
Anima
Stormbringer/Elric
The One Ring
Ironclaws
Palladium RPG
REIGN
Yggdrasil
Keltia
Shadows of Esteren

if you want to broaden a bit more:
Qin
Legends of the Wulin
Weapons of the Gods


Plus all the various generic systems can do fantasy:
GURPS (Fantasy and the Dungeon Fantasy line - aka GURPS Diablo)
Savage Worlds
Mutants and Masterminds
HERO
BESM (OOP)
the BRP monograph can be used as is for fantasy
there isn't to my knowledge a dedicated fantasy game using Unisystem, but it can be done very easily starting either from WitchCraft (Classic Unisystem) or Buffy/Angel (Cinematic Unisystem)


this from what comes to mind. I'll look at my collection of games to see if I can find other games (hopefully not OOP)

[LibraryOgre]

It really depends on what you're looking for. Since you say "Broaden your horizons for planning", I'd suggest looking at Earthdawn, which goes a long way to justify the buckets-o-magic style that is common in D&D. Conversely, I'd also look at MERP... many of the various races are quickly and completely sketched out, giving you some ideas for world creation.

If you can find them cheap, it's worth going through Rifts and Palladium Fantasy books to pull out the good ideas. There's usually a lot of them in there, but I seldom suggest using the whole setting (even if you're playing in those games).

Mechanically? Look at Hackmaster and Castles and Crusades. Hackmaster is complex and elegant; Castles and Crusades is elegant and simple. They're not perfect... HM is heavily slanted towards a certain style of play, and C&C's numbers are a touch off, IMO... but they're great systems for D&D-like play, and relatively compatible.

[Grinner]

Hackmaster is complex and elegant;

Would you elaborate on this, please? In my mind, the words "complex" and "elegant" never cross paths, unless emergent complexity is involved.

[LibraryOgre]

Would you elaborate on this, please? In my mind, the words "complex" and "elegant" never cross paths, unless emergent complexity is involved.

In this case, it is that the rules fit together very well. Honor encourages role-playing while giving a concrete benefit to it. The purchase system for classes encourages certain tropes, without forbidding more exotic characters. The bonus BPs for keeping your character as-rolled works to discourage min/maxing of attributes, but the bonus BP themselves can be used to buy attributes.

[Xefas]

Gonna second Dungeon World and Burning Wheel.

Also, 'In a Wicked Age', and 'Shadows of Yesterday'. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, I have no experience with, but I hear is good and harkens to D&D quite strongly, without it being a direct clone/adaptation/etc.

[Arbane]

Also Exalted, and Dresden Files ('Urban Fantasy' is FANTASY, consarnit!)

[Yora]

But I specifically excluded those.

[Dienekes]

FantasyCraft is a more complex d20 clone that almost surprisingly, once you get a hang of it, all just seems to work to make every character powerful and interesting.

Iron Heroes, I'm not sure if it's counted as a full game more of a 3.5 hack with a more martial focus.

Warrior, Rogue, and Mage is a very simplistic system that was designed for D&D style fantasy, but honestly anyone half imaginative can use the system to do whatever they wanted. Also, it's free.

There are two games based off of the Song of Ice and Fire series. The second, and better one, is a bit less focused on the "let's go out and have an adventure in the wild" type games that D&D focuses on.

[vartan]

Mutants and Masterminds

Actually has a supplement called Warriors and Warlocks for a fantasy setting

[Lapak]

Gonna second Dungeon World and Burning Wheel.

Also, 'In a Wicked Age', and 'Shadows of Yesterday'. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, I have no experience with, but I hear is good and harkens to D&D quite strongly, without it being a direct clone/adaptation/etc.

I've played and enjoyed both Dungeon World and IAWA. One thing worth noting is that Dungeon World lends itself exceptionally well to Play-by-Post and IAWA can be problematic in that environment (in case this is at all a factor.)

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is most definitely an adaptation of OD&D. A reasonably heavily modified adaptation, but unquestionably based on it.

EDIT: To expand on the PbP thing: both DW and IAWA are systems that encourage player narrative. (That's part of what makes them enjoyable!) The PbP breakpoint comes, in my experience, from the fact that IAWA requires a lot of back-and-forth between players to negotiate the result of a conflict in many cases. It's a lot of fun in a face-to-face environment, but having one player go absent for a few hours or a couple of days can stall out a story in midstream.

[Arbane]

But I specifically excluded those.

Fair enough on Dresden Files, but Exalted is very much not modern-day. More like post-apocalyspses (yes, plural) Iron Age.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think the term for Exalted is "Bronze Age." It's very much about larger-than-life god-heroes, and (to a more subtle extent) magic returning to a world long deprived of it. You fight gods and make vast sweeping changes to the world from the very beginning-- sort of like starting at near-epic levels in D&D, but marginally more functional.

Dresden Files would actually work quite well for a medieval fantasy with very little work, to be honest-- change Driving to Riding and Guns to Bows and you're pretty much there. You could also ditch the White Council/Laws of Magic thing without too much trouble.

[Joe the Rat]

It really depends on what you're looking for. Since you say "Broaden your horizons for planning", I'd suggest looking at Earthdawn, which goes a long way to justify the buckets-o-magic style that is common in D&D. Conversely, I'd also look at MERP... many of the various races are quickly and completely sketched out, giving you some ideas for world creation.

Man, the culture and world details they pulled together.... and the greater setting details. The system can be a little heavy (RoleMaster lite, basically), but what they threw in here works nicely.

I'm gonna shill Mazes and Minotaurs, which skirts the topic be being an Alternate Universe Retro-clone. It's a little different mechanically, but not so much you couldn't adapt to it quickly. Alternately, it gives you some fun setting material for a Mythic Greek setting and its surrounds.

No Tunnels and Trolls? It's not on my recommend list, but the combat system makes an interesting comparison point.

[Magic Myrmidon]

There's Rule of Cool's Legend system. It's in a sort of open beta right now, but I hear the first official version is coming soon. I'm doing a trial campaign with the current rules, and it's super cool so far, as the name suggests.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Iron Heroes, I'm not sure if it's counted as a full game more of a 3.5 hack with a more martial focus.

As much as I enjoy Iron Heroes, I wouldn't really suggest it to somebody wanting to broaden their horizons, since it's pretty much just 3.5 with new classes to try and work off the fact that there's no (almost no, that is) magic anymore. I do like the token pool idea that pretty much every class works with, though.