I'm feeling an urge to run a #ttrpg next semester, while I'm still on sabbatical and have the time to make this plausible.
Genre? Probably space opera or fantasy.
System? That's the question. I recently ran FATE and I think I want something a little crunchier, more on the "players face the challenge placed by the GM" end than "collaborative storytelling". I'm interested in a good pre-written adventure.
Candidates:
Savage Worlds. I like the level of detail, as well as the use of polyhedral dice, but the settings and adventures I've looked at (Seven Worlds, The Last Parsec) seem dry and vague.
GURPS. Maybe too heavy? The focused Dungeon Fantasy box is intriguing and has good reviews.
Traveller (Mongoose). Again, the adventures out there look very dry. It sounds like you might get through the first two Marches adventures without any combat. I'm not saying I want a mercenary campaign, but action/adventure works better than extended wandering.
D&D 5E. The obvious, easy answer, but overdone and a bit too Hasbro-y. All other things being equal, I prefer skills over classes.
Dungeon Crawl Classics. Fun to be had from the 0-level funnel and spell misfires, but the 1970s-era worldview is borderline problematic.
Nudge me, Mastodon!
@peterdrake for space opera, Scum & Villainy is great: a sci-fi take on Blades in the Dark, with its own setting that feels like a mash up of Firefly and Star Wars.
Fading Suns is a mix of fantasy and space opera in a new Dark Ages after humanity spreads among the stars. (I liked the old 2nd edition.)
Aeon: Trinity is pretty great, though I only played the old one. The current edition reads well!
And I’m keen to try Farflung, a light-heartedweird sci-fi using Powered by the Apocalypse rules.
@benmckenzie I have Scum & Villainy, but haven't played it. The notion is intriguing, but after FATE I'm looking for something crunchier. S&V probably isn't it, given that the index has no entry for "combat" and the "conflicts" section just has two sub-entries for "example of avoiding" and "PC vs PC".
I hadn't really explored the others -- thanks!
@peterdrake it’s crunchy in other ways, but not, it’s true, in terms of combat, which uses the same system as everything else. If that’s what you’re after then Aeon: Trinity might be more your style, or even Starfinder, though I’d probably wait for the second edition of that one.