RPGMemes

I enjoy playing D&D with friends but I hate the system and its strict focus on combat mechanics and hand waving of other ways to interact with the world. I vastly prefer the setting and perspective of Exalted (to be fair the setting isn't anything that couldn't be done in D&D), but the mechanics are super crunchy and reward min-maxing, and adjudicating combat rounds is really slow.

I prefer systems where social skills are first class mechanics, I don't love offloading part of progression onto loot, and I don't particularly enjoy the gold economy. Like I don't enjoy tracking wealth and rations and such. I also prefer systems that attempt to recreate the narrative arcs of stories, so things that affect pacing, drama, contacting the flow of the story to character flaws, etc.

So ultimately I enjoy things like Fate/Dresden Files, World of Darkness, and Dungeon World. I think I might enjoy Thirsty Sword Lesbians as well but I've only played it once so I'm not sure.

D&D is... fine. I've played every version going back to the red box. Fifth is my favorite version of it so far. But I definitely don't love it.