Alternatives to GURPS? Other tabletop RPGs to try?

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Here're my tabletop RPG interests:

Spoiler:  

• Really, I like more generic/universal systems. I don't like character classes, but I do like characters to feel different from one another. I like flexibility. I like a good amount of support because (especially right now) I don't want to have to build too much of a world. I think I'm looking for medium-crunch, but I really like to be able to simulate things. The simulation doesn't have to be perfect, but, if I want to add a cool weapon or an awesome monster or something, I want the system to accommodate that without fuss. I think I like semi-gritty games, and I appreciate if scaling is done well enough—from the average person up to action heroes (up to superheroes and gods and all the way back down to Bunnies & Burrows, if possible). Oh, and I really like meta-game currencies like Fate Points, Destiny Points, Bennies, etc.—and I know my players definitely do too!
  • All of this is funny to me, really, because, if I were a player, I wouldn't care—I'd be happy just to be a player again. I'd play just about any system. Maybe I feel too much responsibility in GMing GURPS—and maybe creating too many problems for myself. I know it's me. The players aren't asking for all of these things—I just like to tinker with GURPS.
• Savage Worlds keeps coming up on the internet as the middle-ground between GURPS and Fate. I've read that half a dozen times already. And I've been playing Deadlands with my own cobbled-together GURPS rules, so why not play it the way it's meant to be played? I know a new edition recently came out (and a new edition for Deadlands is slowly coming out as well), so this really might be my best bet. There seems to be some decent homebrew rules for playing Eberron; and—don't tell Douglas Cole—it has a nice viking setting of its own, so I was thinking of using the Norðlond setting with Savage Worlds (as I feel that converting 'down' to a less-crunchy system might prove easier than me converting Deadlands 'up' to a more-crunchy system while converting 'sideways' with my own homebrew BS—and, yes, I know that GURPS Deadlands exists for 3e).
• Cortex also seems interesting, and Cortex Prime is on its way. It handles Firefly, which I love. From what I can tell, it seems between Savage Worlds and Fate, but I could be totally wrong about that.
• Basic Roleplaying System (BRP) keeps coming up as well, but I've heard a lot more mixed feelings about it, and it doesn't seem to have a lot of current support. It seems to get compared to GURPS a lot, though. Of course, that might mean it's too crunchy for what I want.
• Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM) has also been compared to GURPS a lot. It seems interesting, and I sure do like anime! But I'm worried that it's still going to be too crunchy.
• Powered by the Apocalypse seems interesting, and it has a great amount of support, but it seems almost too narrative-focused like Fate.
• The Fantasy Trip is something I've been hearing more and more about lately. I don't know too much about it, but I'm happy to be sold on it.
• Small mentions go to Numenera and the Cypher system, Monsters and Other Childish Things, and Iron Kingdoms as other tabletop RPGs that I've heard good things about but haven't really looked into. There's also Pathfinder, which is a lot like D&D 3.5e, I believe. I've heard about the generic d6 and d20 systems, but I know little about them.
• Oh, and a huge amount of bonus points to any system that has support for something like Avatar: The Last Airbender. I've always been meaning to do something like that.

It may take some digging to find a copy, but there's the old Fuzion system that was partially based on Mekton Zeta and... BTRC? I think? It's interesting to take a look at.

Big Eyes, Small Mouth, aka Tri-Stat, is another solid lighter-weight generic system. It should be able to handle Avatar quite well. If you want the lowest level of crunch, track down the first edition; it is a very short book.

Savage Worlds is what I'm playing right now. I don't like the dice mechanic, but it's still a good system that works well for what I'm doing with it (classic D&D style fantasy)