I think I'll give this to Savage Worlds.
The basic mechanism is straightforward, additional Traits and other abilities, add to this, but they are all well explained and mostly intuitive.
There are some other games that may be simpler; some of the OSR retro-clones aim for this (though they often add some particular extra or conceit, which can increase complexity).
These simpler games tend to focus just on one aspect of roleplaying games, usually dungeon crawling. I have a series of PDFs that take the dungeon crawling game down to very simple levels, limiting profession just to warrior, and I'd one day like to run an open table using them, with the warriors employed by wizards to loot a mega dungeon (possibly Jennell Jaquays' awesome Caverns of Thracia).
One day.
But the reason I'm nominating Savage Worlds is the fact that once it's learnt, it's all you need for many, many different games. It fully supports many different play styles. So far I've dabbled with weird Westerns (Deadlands), Star Trek, folk horror, post apocalypse and traditional fantasy. All with the same set of rules.
If you're interested in trying Savage Worlds out, there's a free quick start on the Pinnacle Entertainment Group's website.
I have the Savage Worlds Rome game, totally brilliant game.
ReplyDeleteYes, there's loads of possibilities.
DeleteI haven't seen the Rome game.