Recommend me a RPG with Board Game Sensibilites

So I'm looking to do a little old school hack n slash role playing. Tried it a few years back with original AD&D and quickly remembered why I switched to anything but D&D back in the day.

Looking for ruleset suggestions. Must be relatively cheap, interesting combat, not too complex.
I don't mind mapped combat, in fact I prefer it (hex based) I want something that gives difficult decisions in combat, like good boardgames do. Most modern rpgs abstract combat too much for my tastes. The old "Roll a die and see what happens" is not interesting anymore. I don't want "Well my axe is my best weapons so I hit it with my axe. Just like I always do. Hope I roll a 20!" That's not acceptable any longer.

Seems like good boardgame designers understand that, haven't seen it in an rpg yet. Looked at 4th edition D&D because I heard it was heavy on the combat options. And while it had some good ideas, was waaaay to complex for the DM. I can't handle 4 different monster types each with 3 different attack types for one encounter!

Tempted to make my own, kinda based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Each PC has their own deck that will let them move, attack, cast spells, heal, boost attacks, etc. But would rather find something premade.

Savage Worlds is what you're looking for.

In fact it was designed off of a minis skirmish game chassis.

The explorer's edition of the rulebook is only $10 and combat is very board game like. It's easy playing and uses various (cheap to obtain) components to play. For example, drawing from a regular deck of cards to determine initiative, or using different colored poker chips for bennies.

This is exactly what you seem to want.

Empire of Dust.

Indie RPG that uses a square grid for combat. It's Sci-Fi kind of Dune-ish but it's fucking stellar. Lots of random encounters/events kind of reminding me of Fallout. You travel between locations and can run into an enemy force anywhere from a scouting party to an armored convoy (there are vehicle rules as well). Combat is pretty interesting and the equipment options are lovely.

D&D 4.0 was an rpg with video game sensibilities. I would recommend GURPS as an RPG with board game sensibilities, but it might be heavy on the rules. Then again, you could just choose to skip over some of the complexity, like the hit locations or some of the numerous combat roll modifiers. It offers hex-based combat on the map, as well as extreme customization across a whole multiverse of options. You could play vanilla science fiction or swords and sorcery, or with the proper mix of sourcebooks, some wild mix of cyberpunk/kung-fu/vampires/black ops.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed was designed explicitly to do what you are describing. In addition to the character sheet you have a deck of cards, you tap em to do certain actions/abilities and they take a number of rounds to refresh. Also you have a load of custom dice. It is loaded with boardgame type tactical decisions. Not that cheap though.

edit.

Also @Charlest, Empire of Dust looks interesting, but it appears to be unavailable bar a very expensive second hand set at nobleknight. any ideas on where you can get it?

That's right, forgot about 3rd ed WFRPG! evilgit, if you want a copy of my fantasy roleplay, let me know. If you want to trade, it would not take much to get it out of my hands.

Everybody has made good suggestions. Mr. White's Savage World was the first thing that came to my mind. Shellhead mentioned GURPS but I was thinking about GURPS pappy Steve Jackson's The Fantasy Trip. If you don't have the original or Melee and Wizard Dark City games have adapted them to space and Old West along with fantasy

www.thefantasytrip.org/adventures.php

www.darkcitygames.com/

I'll recommend Mongoose's Legend. Per your criteria:

• Not D&D. Yup; it's a descendent of the venerable Basic Roleplaying System. Percentile based, skill based. No classes or levels.
• Relatively cheap. The PDF is normally $1, currently on sale for $0.85.
• Interesting combat. Yes. Different styles give different advantages. 2-handed helps with reach and parrying; 1-handed give you extra defense with a shield, dual wielding gives you an extra attack. Weapons have various advantages and disadvantages depending on their characteristics. On a critical hit, you get to choose from a small list of special effects, from breaking armor to making your opponent bleed out. Not every weapon has access to every special effect, so weapon choice matters. You get a certain number of actions per round (about 2-4) that you have to allocate carefully -- you use actions for everything, and if you run out then you can no longer defend yourself until the next round (since dodges/blocks/parries use actions). Combat has hit locations, so you can target opponents' limbs and stuff. And combat is fairly deadly, so stakes are high, which keeps people involved and engaged.
• Not too complex. Nope, everything is on the character sheet. And it's all percentages.
• Maps. Not required, but you could do it easily. Character movement is in meters. 1m/hex would be best.

You can get the PDF here . Hard copy is $20 from the publisher, mongoosepublishing.com.

Any questions, please ask!

I love GURPS but it might be a little too much for this group. And honestly I thought the combat system was lacking in much real choice. Sure there were rules for parry and hit location and such but it normally always made sense to just default to your basic attack.

I have the basic Savage Worlds book, never played. Didn't wow me on the first read through. Will give it a closer look.

WFRP 3rd edition looks interesting. Honestly a little scared of the FFG RPG model. They put out a lot of product.

Legend also looks interesting. That will get a closer look as well.

I really like Song of Blades and Heroes miniatures game. They put out an RPG, Tales of Blades and Heroes. Any opinions on that?

If you're looking for some competition between players, take a look at Agon and Rune.

I'll pile on and add a third recommendation for Savage Worlds. The rules are not complex but have enough options and depth to keep players and GM engaged. I've recently kicked off a new campaign with this system and I am loving the minimal bookkeeping on the GM side of the screen and the players seem to be happy with it as well. It's very streamlined and supports tactical/map based skirmishes and has a system that can handle large scale battles as well.

As Mr. White mentioned the book is less than $10 and Pinnacle offers a PDF version as well if that's your preference. If you're really wanting to save on materials host the game in Roll20 and you don't even have to spring for minis or maps.

quozl wrote: If you're looking for some competition between players, take a look at Agon and Rune.

Oh man, haven't played Agon in years but that is an excellent game that's pretty unique.

I'd recommend taking a look at Gamma World...the most recent edition from WotC. It's based on a simplified 4th Edition ruleset. It's very easy to get players involved and to learn. Can be as story driven or battle heavy as you'd like. Plus you can play as plasma sword wielding sentient apes, pulse rifle firing birdmen or just a guy made entirely of energy. I enjoyed it.