#5--4th Edition Dungeons and DragonsThis is the game I play the most these days. There's a good reason for it, and it's the same reason that gets it on this list: 4th edition is simple to pick up, easy to understand, and fun to play. The mechanics can largely be boiled down to the one core rule: roll a d20, high is good. If you can grasp that basic principle, you can get started playing. Especially with the release of recent products in the 'Essentials' line which are formatted specifically to be easy to use for new players, you can get almost anyone into this game with little to no preamble. It's also easy for people to pick up because its default setting type is pretty well-known; anyone who might have an interest in playing has probably read the Lord of the Rings or at least seen the movies, and you can more or less describe it as "like playing a game where you control one member of the fellowship".
D&D isn't without its faults, though. The large volume of material means power creep and imbalance are inevitable, something Wizards of the Coast has been working hard to crack down on lately. The system doesn't give a lot of pointers on coming up with your own classes or powers if you want to strike out on your own. Lastly, the setting is rather limited--while you can play in many different flavors of heroic fantasy, D&D doesn't work as well outside of that mold or something close to it.
Despite its flaws, D&D is still an excellent RPG that's continually evolving and being made better. It's good for long campaigns, one-off modules or adventures, and even just for one-shots. You can put it down for a year and you'll still remember the rules when you pick it up again. Finally, the fact that it's well-known and played just about everywhere means it won't be as hard to find a game. Give it a chance if by some contrivance you haven't yet.
This system is much less well known than the previous entry, although it's also a fantasy(primarily medieval) RPG. Burning Wheel has a very different 'feel' to it than D&D, however--while D&D has lots of mechanics, powers, rules, new crunch in all its books, and the like, Burning Wheel is about one thing: the story. Your characters will not be mechanically balanced, but if their interactions create dramatic roleplaying, you're doing it right. Burning Wheel also encourages you much more to make up your own things instead of relying on the company to produce book after book of new powers and spells; the books are more of guides to making your own stuff with some new examples instead of just new material to use in your game. This means that the game system is very adaptable to any setting, with enough work--as proof, there are setting books available for three new locales that all vary widely from the norm as presented in the basic books. Also, though Burning Wheel does emphasize story and roleplaying over all else, it has some very robust systems for resolving conflicts when necessary. The 'Fight!' mechanics in particular are detailed, realistic, and a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
So if Burning Wheel has solid mechanics, emphasizes story and character immensely(as any good RPG should), and is very adaptable, why isn't it higher up this list? A few reasons, sadly. The first being that it's very complicated. Even if you use the basic material as presented in the books to get started with, character generation(while very fun) takes quite a while, and thinking up core beliefs and instincts for your character can be hard the first few times around. The basic rules are pretty easy to explain(it's a d6 system where you count the successes you roll on your dice), but remembering all the little nit-picky mechanics like helping rolls, noting down tests for advancement, and any various bonuses and penalties can be taxing. Remember when I said fights were fun once you got the hang of the rules? They're pretty complex, and getting the hang of them can take a while. Lastly, because the game totally throws mechanics behind story, you MUST have a group of experienced role-players to have a successful game of Burning Wheel. Anything less and people will either metagame, take advantage of quirks in the game, be confused, or just fall flat.
Despite this, if you've got the right group for it--an experienced group of dedicated role-players who want to tell a great story together--Burning Wheel is a fantastically designed system. The whole thing is very organic and really makes a lot of sense once you wrap your head around it. If you've got an experienced group and you can get a hold of the core books, give it a shot. If you can get the Adventure Burner as well, even better--it's got 3 pre-made scenarios designed to introduce people to the rules and the way the game is supposed to be played. I just got the last copy of the Adventure Burner I saw available on Amazon.com, though, so you might have to wait.
Another older game that veterans might remember, L5R's latest edition is a great joy to play. The first of two d10-based systems on this list, it's worth noting that it is NOT actually a percentile system(in fact, neither is the other one--more on that when I get to #2). I generally don't like percentile systems, but L5R reinvigorated my faith that a d10 system can still work in other ways. The basic mechanic is very simple to understand--roll X number of dice, keep the results of Y number and add them up--and it's used for EVERYTHING. Attacks, skills, damage, initiative, everything uses 'roll and keep'. This keeps the system clean and easy to understand for the most part, though sometimes with various bonuses, penalties, and special abilities, figuring out your actual totals can be a mite confusing. For those who don't know, L5R is set in the land of Rokugan--picture a fantasy version of feudal Japan and you won't be far off. The setting is insanely well detailed; even the core book goes into quite an impressive amount of detail on the world and its denizens. There's also another book, Emerald Empire, that is 95% fluff fleshing out even more details on the setting. The immense amount of available material may take a while to familiarize yourself with, but it allows players to really get into the setting and create characters that fit perfectly with lots of detail themselves.
This leads me to L5R's greatest flaw, however--the setting is a bit TOO constraining. If you want to use the system for something other than Rokugan(or something very, VERY much like it), it would require a mind-numbing amount of work. While the basic 'roll and keep' system doesn't need much changing, the skill list, all of the character schools, and many other core mechanics such as honor, glory, and even the basic stats being organized into the five rings are very much tied to the setting itself. It's really more work than it's worth to try to run the L5R system in anything but its own world--another reason to be thankful that that world is so wonderfully fleshed out. The only other real problem with the system is that the rolls can be very 'swingy'. Since 10s explode(roll again and add to the total), if you get really lucky, you can do some extraordinary things. While this can be fun, it can also lead to weird unexpected events and can make it hard to plan and balance things appropriately from the GM's side. If you don't know if the characters will roll a total of 10 or 56, what do you plan for?
Still, L5R is a very well-done system, if played properly. It's easy to learn, the world is excellently done and feels very alive, and if the players get into it, there are plenty of opportunities for all kinds of different games to be run. Political intrigue, war, adventuring, mystery, and more can all fit into the world. As a final note, the L5R books themselves are absolutely beautiful--you can tell a lot of care went into the artwork and formatting of the books themselves. They feel like they're just higher quality than almost all of the other books in my RPG collection. If you ever want to play a Japanese-style RPG, definitely check out L5R first.
The second d10-based system on this list, CthulhuTech is also among the relative newcomers to the gaming scene compared to juggernauts like D&D and L5R--but damned if it hasn't made a good showing. It has a highly unique dice pool mechanic(which I'll get to in a moment) a fantastic and interesting setting, and above all has a really high fun factor seemingly just built-in to the game. The default setting is a merging of many influences, the primary ones being HP Lovecraft(hence the 'Cthulhu') and giant mecha(hence the 'tech'). Though I'm not a fan of giant mecha in general, there are many other ways to play, even just presented in the core book itself. My favorite option is the Tager game(of which I'm playing one right now), where you all play members of a secret society who have bonded themselves with Eldritch horrors and can shapeshift into those forms at will. The dice pool mechanic takes a little more thought than usual, but it's fun to work with--you roll X number of d10s, and get a total based on one of three things. You either a) take the single highest number, b) take a 'set' of a single number(e.g. three 4s is a total of 12), or c) take a 'run' of at least three numbers(e.g. a 4, a 5, and a 6, which equals 15). Once you get used to looking for runs, it's not that hard to use. The system is skill-based and very free-form, which makes characters very easily expandable in whatever direction you want as the game goes on--something I like very much. As a last note, the system(called the 'Framewerk' system) is quite adaptable--you can run it in a different setting(though it should probably stay sci-fi) with very little in the way of changes; tweak some skills and positive or negative qualities and you can make it fit in pretty well. I myself am planning on running a game set in the Dead Space universe using this system, though that'll require a little more than average work.
So what's not so good about CthulhuTech? The first thing to come to mind is drama points. Like action points, artha, or void points from the first three systems on this list(respectively), drama points are a reserve your character has that they can draw from when they need to do something extraordinary. In this case, their most basic use is to add another d10 to your pool. Unfortunately, because of the way the dice work, adding another die might not help at all--you have to either roll a really high number if you didn't already, or another copy of a number you already rolled, or a number that will make a run. No guarantees, though the more drama you spend, the higher your chances get of doing something. Also, some of the mechanics are just... absurd. A couple of examples: automatic fire in CthulhuTech is stupidly powerful, able to one-shot almost any enemy on your own scale with even a moderate roll. Also, tasers take you out of action for 1d10 minutes. When a round in combat is 5 seconds, that pretty much means no matter what you're out of that combat for good--not so much fun for the player. Lastly, the game's experience and advancement system, while it works fine, is not intuitive at all--the costs for various things just seem like numbers the dev team just randomly made up.
These are really just nitpicks, though. If you houserule or avoid the wonky mechanics, the XP and drama point systems still work well enough. This leaves us with a very fun and unique system that can be applied to a broad variety of sci-fi games, even without leaving its own core material. A very well-done system indeed.
So what does that leave room for at the top? Believe it or not, it's not only an old game, it's one that's out of print. (Which is part of the reason why the logo image I was able to find is such lousy quality.)
An old gaming system made by TSR(remember them?), Alternity is my favorite RPG system of all time. Since it's unfortunately out of print, it's difficult to find these days, but if you get the chance, I highly recommend you try it out. It's primarily a sci-fi game, but you can actually run it in just about any setting--medieval heroic fantasy, modern day detective intrigue, near-future cyberpunk, or far-future space opera; any of these and more work equally well with the mechanics as presented, provided you do a little grunt work and flesh out your own world and refine the skill and equipment lists as appropriate. The basic system itself is a skill-based system that's just about as free-form as any other I've seen(save maybe CthulhuTech). It's easy enough to understand, yet detailed and specific enough to allow for a lot of control. The core mechanic uses a d20, but in an odd inversion of the norm, rolling low is good, not high. Instead of flat bonuses or penalties, you determine a 'situation die' modifier that you either add or subtract from your roll. So you might roll a d20 minus a d6 in a good situation, or a d20 plus a d8 in a tough one, based on the total modifiers applying to you. You compare your total to your score in an appropriate skill or attribute, and depending on how far below your base score you get, you end up with either an ordinary, good, or amazing success. Despite using a skill-based system, the game also has levels of advancement, rewarding you at each level with skill points. Higher levels also allow you to spend new skill points on different things, such as ability increases, new perks, or even cash if that's what you want. It blends the skill- and level-based systems in a brilliant way that I've never truly seen done before or since(though L5R does come close).
I can't really think of much negative to say about this system, which is why it still sits at the number one spot in my mind. It's a pretty easy system to pick up with a built-in dynamic level of play due to the varying grades of success, it's exceptionally free-form and adaptable to a broader range of things than any other system I've ever used, it can be as realistic or over-the-top as you want, and everything in the game just meshes together so well. It's also remarkably well-balanced if the GM monitors it properly, which shouldn't be too hard for any reasonable GM to do. What else can I say? It just works incredibly well overall. Should you ever see the Player's Handbook or Gamemaster Guide for sale, at the very least pick them up and give them a look over. You'd really be committing a crime against yourself if you did anything less.
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