My current obsession is Lancer.
It's a far-future (flexible-setting) sci-fi mech-focused TTRPG (with fantastic art) that, in my opinion, solves the ancient problem of trying to get one system to do everything. D&D and its ilk are combat games that a lot of people also use for narrative-heavy RP, even though the mechanical support for that often feels extremely limited (I've grown to hate non-combat D&D sessions because we'll often sit there without rolling a die more than once or twice an entire session, or a streak of bad rolls means you just fail or get bad results over and over for what feels like flimsy reasoning - very unsatisfying). But a lot of the more narrative-focused games (PbtA system as I understand it) don't get quite as satisfying to some people with things like combat and strategy and character building - they excel at building satisfying systems around flexible freeform roleplaying, where D&D lacks, with systems that encourage failing forward or succeeding with consequences, things like that; but being less intricately specialized for one thing (like, say, D&D-style strategic combat and building & optimizing your characters), they often don't scratch that same itch that the more traditional war-game descendants do.
Lancer basically just goes "OK, have both - here are a bunch of mechs with crunchy combat, like D&D and its ilk. But also, here's a whole different set of freeform versatile rules for out-of-mech play." Instead of trying to cram the square peg of combat systems into the round hole of narrative RP, it just gives you two pegs and two holes.
In combat, it's a complex hex-map mech-combat game with a lot of cool character building options that reward engagement with the systems and optimization. You can mix and match your mech licenses as you level up to customize your build, with a wide range of weapon, skill, and talent options to get deep into. You've got what amount to multiple HP bars so your mech starts losing structural integrity as it takes damage, engine heat to manage (or use to your advantage for some builds), tech attacks like hacking or jamming which kinda fill the role of magical effects; melee weapons, guns, sniping, missiles, drones, all of it. Despite all that, it only needs a d20 and a couple d6. (It also has an app to manage your mech with that frankly puts every other character-sheet program I've ever seen to shame.)
But then, its downtime/character-RP sessions are basically an entirely different system. They're pretty freeform, with up-or-down rolls modified by a couple broad skill categories you build into - roll a d20 to scavenge for spare parts, +X if you put skill points into "acquire things," over 10 succeeds, over 20 "criticals" (iirc, don't quote me on that). I haven't played Blades in the Dark but I've read the book, and the narrative sections of Lancer reminded me a lot of a slightly-less-intricate BitD. You have a small range of gear and stats but it's essentially the bare minimum so you can still get through fights without completely winging everything; you have downtime mechanics, personal character-related triggers, all that jazz. A lot of "if you can convince the GM that this item helps on your roll, they may give you a bonus to the roll" kind of freeform stuff.
ALSO it was included in the itch.io social justice bundle so there's a good chance that a lot of people own it already even if they don't realize it.
Um sorry I took this opportunity to word-vomit all over here but I've played it twice and I very much want to play it a lot more and haven't been able to find an opportunity to do so. Does... does anyone wanna play Lancer with me
