I never played a lot of different d20, but much fun was hard with Darwins World

Quote from: Piestrio;672161Am I the only one who kind of liked d20 for everything except D&D?

I'd consider playing in just about any D20 game except for D&D.

Quote from: Piestrio;672161Am I the only one who kind of liked d20 for everything except D&D?

Well, seeing how I think the opposite, I doubt it.

I don't even need to discount 3.5 and PF because neither would be anywhere near my list.
I'll also ignore all games that use the OGL to recreate older, pre-d20/3.x versions of D&D (Swords & Wizardry, LotFP, Blood & Treasure).

But it is still a difficult question, depending on how far you draw the circle around "proper" d20 games.

Close to the d20 core:
Chroniques Oubliées
French reimagination of 3.x with much less crunch, merging skills, feats, and spells all into "feat paths". Level up, learn two feats from your class paths, done.
The game that I wish 3e had been from the start.

Closer to AD&D:
Kard és Mágia
Melan's stripped-down sword & sorcery variant, marrying 3e to a more B/X-like play feeling.

Stripped down to the barest rules:
Microlite 20
Any less, and it would be TWERPS...

While the above three games can be used with WotC's "The Sunless Citadel" with minimal adaption dK would need a lot of DM prep:

Barely recognisable as d20:
dK System
French class-less, feat-based attempt at a universal tool kit like GURPS.

Those four would make my list.



And it's ironic that the game that I played the longest before d20 even appeared could today be mistaken for a d20-inspired variant: Midgard.

Quote from: Piestrio;672161Am I the only one who kind of liked d20 for everything except D&D?

No, I guess you are not.

Seeing that my favorite d20 iterations all strayed (more or less) far from the 3.x core I am with you.
I soo wanted to like 3e when it appeared (all through the hype that started with the Big Announcement where WotC gave away those cool t-shirts) but I was just annoyed, and the more I looked into the PHB, even appaled. But WotC gave us the OGL and that led to some very interesting games that more than made up the "damage" (for me).

I heard very good things about A Game of Thrones d20, and Conan d20 (specially the Atlantean and 2nd editions). The only thing that puts me off is that they're too complex.

Conan D20 is definitely complex, and simplicity would not be a reason to move to it over D&D 3.x, but having said that, it's a great game, and captures a lot of the flavour of Howard's work. As you've gathered, avoid the 1st edition book.

Etherscope
Arcana Evolved
Iron Heroes Revised

Star Wars Saga edition was a very good game and I'm kind of inclined towards it as a choice.  It had some balance issues, at least partially related to the source material.  But it was a very well thought out game and did a lot to capture the feel of the source material.

Mutants and Masterminds
Stargate d20
D20 Modern
Arcana Evolved

Quote from: Frey;672180Oh, I forgot: the Pathfinder Beginner Box. A complete ruleset with many of d20 good things and none of the bad.

You're one of those guys who always got dinged on exams for failure to read the instructions, aren't yah.

Quote from: Votan;672507Star Wars Saga edition was a very good game and I'm kind of inclined towards it as a choice.  It had some balance issues, at least partially related to the source material.  But it was a very well thought out game and did a lot to capture the feel of the source material.

The only huge balance issue I found was the skill attacks vs. defense problem. It led to force powers being crazy powerful at low level, and pretty meh at high because of how skill growth was handled.

D20 Call of Cthulhu for me. It's the only d20 game I still enjoy running. I think it did a good job of bringing Lovecraftian horror into gaming the late twentieth century.  If you don't believe me go back and reread The Call of Cthulhu, the Horror at Redhook, and the Shadow Over Innsmouth. They read like d20 CoC adventures play.

My vote for the worst goes to Dragon Lords of Melnibone. It's only redeeming feature was getting to see the art from some of the other editions of the game.

Quote from: Piestrio;672161Am I the only one who kind of liked d20 for everything except D&D?

I actually rather like Pathfinder, but that's more the attitude of the creative team, than the mechanics or RAW.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;672537The only huge balance issue I found was the skill attacks vs. defense problem. It led to force powers being crazy powerful at low level, and pretty meh at high because of how skill growth was handled.

I found this to be true too. I would like to see a Fantasy Craft version of Star Wars... it would be interesting. I know someone did a conversion somewhere on Crafty.

My picks would be...

1. FantasyCraft
2. Arcana Evolved
3. Call of Cuthulu