So for the past couple of years I've been working on this setting, which is basically a huge parasitic dimension that pulls in parts of other dimension to "feed" off of them, a la House of Many Doors, if anyone's ever played that. I've already got the lore, several adventures, locations, and a whole region map together. It's going to be a big, sandbox-y type world where there is a "main quest" of sorts, but its just there whenever the players want to go after it and there's plenty to tide them over in the mean time.
The problem is I don't have a system for it. Due to the very nature of the setting itself, I need a system that can handle magic, psionics, guns, swords, super powers, and pretty much every other thing a player or an NPC could conceivably own/encounter/wield.
Now before you all start writing GURPS - I've already looked and GURPS and it's just too darn crunchy. It has pretty much everything that I want, but I cannot afford to spend a decade learning the rules for every circumstance, nor can I afford to flip through a dozen different books when one of my players walks into a weapons shop and asks, "What are they selling?" And I feel like I can't just ignore most of these rules without also ignoring the reason I chose GURPS in the first place.
So, good people of theRPGsite, what I am looking for is a system that can handle a lot, and I mean a lot of different things, from combat to exploration to social situations. I'd like it to be far more cinematic than realistic, as well, because I want my players to be able to deal with threats ranging from Generic Sewer Rat, to Algaphaziel the Devourer of Fallen Stars.
This system needs to be able to accommodate characters from Tolkien-esque realms and gritty WWII-era worlds alike, allowing for characters as diverse as a superhero or a regular everyday mechanic. If my players want to get rich from carrying cargoes of valuable spices to a distant city, they should be able to, or if they want to be bounty hunters, they can do that too.
So does anybody have any sort of ideas for what would work with this?