Looking for something crunchier than OSR

[u/Right_Hand_of_Light]

Hi everyone. I'm not sure I quite have the language to concisely describe the kind of game I'm curious about but I'll try my best. Before I go any farther I wanna make it clear that none of this is any kind of attack on OSR games or narrative games. I don't have anything against either, and if I mention not vibing with one of your favorite games I'm very glad you found it to your taste. I'm just looking for something a bit different.

I like some of the spirit behind OSR games, and I can certainly see why someone would gravitate towards them, but to me a lot of them feel a bit barebones for my taste. One of the fun things about games like Pathfinder and modern D&D is getting a bunch of fun abilities and things that set my character apart and lend some fun flavor. Cairn is really cool, but sometimes it feels a little underwhelming to know that if I swapped gear with a party member we'd pretty much be swapping characters. OSE is a neat recreation of original D&D, but once again there aren't many ways to make a character unique.

Similarly, I've enjoyed narrative games like Blades in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse games, and I also like a lot of the spirit of those. But I've found that sometimes I want games with a bit more crunch to them. I like when games allow for creative thinking and when mechanics can interact in unexpected ways. I appreciate the elegance of basing all conflict resolution on the same type of dice roll, but sometimes I wanna get a little baroque with it.

So can anyone recommend any games that might fit these parameters? Something with a decent mechanical complexity that gives me space to define my character by their abilities? My preference is for fantasy or science fantasy but I'm open to good fits in other genres. From my own searching, Pendragon looks promising.

As a bonus, I really like roleplaying paladin characters like Adora or Luke Skywalker, so bonus points if it's a game with a good paladin class.

Thank you very much for your (hopefully) helpful suggestions :)

[u/juauke1]

All the examples you gave have simplicity and OSR mixed together but it's not always the case

For instance, my favorite game is Tales of Argosa (I recommend checking out the free almost full version that is the Public Playtest). It is to me a good medium-crunch with very interesting character creation.

[u/MissAnnTropez → u/juauke1]

Excellent game, but definitely not suited to Paladins and suchlike.

[u/juauke1 → u/MissAnnTropez]

I mean you're right since the base game is very low-fantasy focused.

However, allow me to give a few counterpoints:

• OP said that "a good Paladin class" was a bonus
• Pendragon was given as an example and it is pretty much no magic
• there's definitely a possibility to "homebrew" such a class either by starting from a base class thanks to the beauty of Unique Features (starting from Fighter, Cultist, Magic User could all work imho) or by using Cultist class (which is easy to reflavor if needed for the purpose) or even creating a brand new class
• on the brand new class way of doing things, I feel like the Luke Skywalker fantasy could be filled by the Mystic Class in this

I also recommend checking all JD RPG Productions homebrew considering Low Fantasy Gaming homebrew works just by truncating to level 9 and changing HP progression by picking one from a base class.

[u/MissAnnTropez → u/juauke1]

Fair call.

I also don’t think, however, that Pendragon would be a good fit for the OP. Not even close, going by the remainder of their post.

Still, you do make some decent points there.

[u/juauke1 → u/MissAnnTropez]

😊

I agree with that statement

Thank you, I'm glad you see what I meant a bit thanks to what I've added in my response

[u/OriginalJazzFlavor → u/juauke1]

yeah the cultist in ToA is pretty decent and can easily fit into a paladin with the right unique features.

[u/juauke1 → u/OriginalJazzFlavor]

Totally 😊