Well, pretty much any game will allow you that, though some might give you some good tips and whatnot. For instance, I really like the Apocalypse World* game. Its rules are a bit weird, and they focus too much on the story aspect. Still, it has some very good ideas of how to deal with aspects that frequently are left out of the game, as well as good game mastering guidelines. The Dungeon Master's Guide in the 1st edition of AD&D has many good hints as well, and interesting tables and classifications to help you run the world. Hackmaster has a very good item list (though it can get a little silly) and pricing guidelines, something a lot of games nowadays forget about.
Well, whenever someone wants a simpler fantasy game, I like to suggest the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books. There is a new edition, but you can also find the old Dungeoneer, Blacksand!, Out of The Pit, Titan and The Riddling Reaver books around. These are all made using the world of those old Fighting Fantasy books, so if you happened to like those, it is a good option, I think. The system is very simplistic. But if you have played some of the old games, you will probably know how to make a cool game out of it.
Tunnels and Trolls is also a good option. The underlying game is simple, but can easily be extended with hard rules so as to make it more interesting. Basically, a skill in that game can do anything the GM decides it can do. But if you decide to lay down some more strict guidelines, you can add complexity to the game as you go along. There are several ready made adventures to support it too.
Burning Wheel is actually a bit complex, but its complexity is modularized. First, it presents the basic dice rolling mechanic. Then it adds some basic concepts, such as beliefs and skills. Finally, it adds complex systems such as the melee combat or the ranged combat system, or the spell casting rules. You can add in those systems as you like, so you can start the game simple and add more complexity later on. The systems presented in the game are pretty cool, though I would recommend you don't give it much of a thought when the book tells you that this must be done this or that way. One of its most interesting aspects is the lifepath character creation, where you determine your PC's life up to that point, and it gives you skills, attributes, resources and what not. It adds a lot of character to the PCs, and make them seem to actually have come from their cultures.
*This is a post apocalyptic game, not a fantasy one. Though its game mastering hints can be useful in any game, possibly with some adapting. There is a fantasy game based on it, called Dungeon World, but I wouldn't really recommend it.
I must admit that, aside from Advanced Fighting Fantasy, most of the other things you have mentioned here are completely new to me. Perhaps not completely, but largely.
Most of my knowledge of PnP pretty much boils down to a bit of home-modified DnD 3.5 which I've seen/played on an occasion and 4th edition. I was among the crowd of folks who rushed in and bought it when it came out, which wasn't the smartest thing to do, in hindsight. More on it later.
I did, however, read a bit from various rulebooks over the years, but most of those things are long-forgotten. I'll see if I can find some of the stuff you've mentioned here.
This is a pretty good ranked and comprehensive PnP list:
http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-pen-and-paper-rpg_s-v1
The only important game it's missing, which is damn fun, is:
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (1987, West End Games)
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-The-Roleplaying-Game/dp/0874310652
Quite an informative list, thank you. Most of the stuff there are new to me.
OSRIC or
Dungeon Crawl Classics*.
*Edit: At least try the 0-level funnel
Portal Under the Stars.
Again, thanks for the links.
I'd suggest something odd -
Lady Blackbird. It's a pretty light RPG with fun mechanis. It's pretty friendly to noobs and it's completely free. And it's focused on characters and their motivation, something I personally love in RPGs way more than searching for loot and fighting goblins.
http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/
I personally like to focus on story more, but most of the people I've played with are usually very interested in a lootfest too, so I'd nit to aim for a balance between those two. I will check out the link you've given me here.
You really need to tell us more, like what genres and aspects of different genres you like.
Fantasy PnP's are the only ones I've ever played...even though I'm personally quite bored with the setting, most of the players I know aren't, so I stick with it. I usually modify it a bit - nothing game-breaking, but in my eyes, somewhat refreshing. I usually make the setting a bit darker, and change some of the fantasy tropes from utterly typical to a little less typical. I.e. my last game I added some Slavic mythology into the mix, mostly for the cosmetics (somewhat inspired by the Witcher), based the background story of the whole world on Kalevala and put all that in a world that has a bit of post-apocalypse to it... It's hard to recall every detail. It wasn't anything special, but people didn't mind it.
Do you like detailed mechanics, or do you like just "doing stuff" and not being bogged down by rules?
The latter, for convenience's sake. I wouldn't mind the first either, but I know some of the players would, and I gotta take the middle ground.
Do you want to feel epic out of the gate, or have the feeling of a farmer's kid who has gone adventuring and has to earn his reputation in the world on top of the fallen bodies of his comrades?
I always preferred the second. Slow and bloody rise up towards greatness...or a long way down.
Why was your 4e game a failure?
Several reasons. First of all, 4e wasn't quite noob friendly, and at the time I had several people who weren't well-versed in the game join it. Second, it was...hard. IIRC, when it came to combat, it was quite brutal. Some of the basic encounters where quite problematic, both for players and for me as the GM - killing all of them in the first hour of game was not something I wanted, but the game more or less pushed me in that direction. Or at least, so it felt.
In the end it fell apart because several people got increasingly frustrated with the game's complexity (as I've mentioned, not quite noob friendly) and slowly lost their will. My GMing wasn't the best at it either - I had an okay, functional setting. I made them start small before going for the greater adventure. I gave them brothels. I gave them branching quests, as well as grinding through dungeons. But something was not right there.
In retrospect, some of the people whom I had brought to the table were idiots who shouldn't have been there. If that hadn't been the case, it could have been better and the game might have lasted longer, but I like to blame on the 4e most.
Do you want to GM or find a table to join?
Highly improbable for me to find a table, unless I make one - which usually makes me the GM.
Do you know what it means to GM a game?
That's a good question. I often ask myself that.
