I spend a lot of time on a couple RPG forum sites and hear complaints about HPs, Vancian spell systems, level issues...

That's where my thinking was...but hey.  Ideas ideas ideas...without 'em where'd we be? *thinking* err...neber mind... :oops:  :twisted:

I think that a fantasy RPG done by MJ12 games would fall into the milleu of games that are 'cool', but don't have the backing of the mainstays (D&D).  Don't believe me, I have the rules for: 

FUDGE
Savage Worlds
Cyperpunk 2020
Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Melee/Wizard
Fuzion
GURPS

...and those are just the ones I can remember without looking at my 'collection' in a couple months.  It all comes back to the simple point: Which game can I find players easily for?  The resounding answer is D&D.  Heck, my wife loved 4e over 3/3.5 e and that pretty much sums up why I'd play 4e in a heartbeat.

-Bren

Another potential idea:  a sci-fi RPG centered around Iron Stars, Starmada, AC,  or Wardogs (not that i need anything more to do these days) Not too happy with stuff that's out there right now...despite having the original black box traveller stuff.

*ducks back into the kevlar lined closet* 

On this note, I would recommend the latest iteration of Runequest, though you may want to do some armor houseruling, as apparently characters get automatically herniated as soon as they put on a suit of armor.

I'd rather see the SIEGE Engine system used if going with an existing type set up. MUCH simpler and cleaner.

I'm running two 4th ed games and play in a 3rd (they're twice a month rather than weekly, so it's doable).

So far I like it.  It's really, really easy to DM.  I couldn't quite find a monster that had the right rules and description, so I just reskinned one.  It worked really well.  Things are well defined, but not over defined like 3.x was. 

I also like how I can gun for the players a bit more.  The monsters can fight pretty dirty and if you use the encounter design rules in the DMG, you'll never accidentally kill them off (this happened a lot to everyone in my old gaming group with older editions).  It's nice that when combat starts, I can actually play a little game myself rather than having to worry about running the combat in a way that won't either wipe everyone out or just fall apart because of how powerful the players are.

The game is definitely designed for dungeon type settings.  Right now one group is in a wilderness setting with a combined political and military thing going on (they're trying to unseat a dragon who rules a collection of towns and settlements without directly confronting the dragon because they're not yet strong enough to do that).  This means that the players can "nova" and use all their daily encounters without fear of needing them for another fight as they'll probably have time to rest.  At the end of the last session, I told all the players to keep track of what abilities they used as they may have another encounter before they can rest and get all their spells back and whatnot.

Experience points are not that same as they were.  Instead of being a reward, they are more like a pacing mechanic.  To set the pace from being a starting hero to becoming more of a demigod.  Leveling up is nice, but all the difficulties for things like skill challenges and encounters scale up as well, so it's more about setting a pace in a larger overall story arc than anything else.