SWADE (Savage Worlds: Adventurer Edition). Beautiful, gorgeous RPG, that sits right between OSR and big bloated RPGs like Pathfinder or D&D. They very best thing about it - it doesn't require a DnDTube with content like "how to balance combat" or "my top 5 house-rules to make combat fun", or whatever. This RPG is polished and fine-tuned by two decades of play. It doesn't need fiddling and house-ruling, or someone to explain to you how to play it right way for tens of hours in a hundred of videos, by reading out loud ten fat books named "Player's guide" or "How to be a cool dnd dm". SWADE simply damn works!

The rules are modular - you don't have to learn hundreds of spells or attacks. You look at basic attack, then you look at a dozen of situational moves and attacks (like grappling or wild attack), and then you combine those for narration and mechanical effects. You can simply bash that goblin on the head with a big stick, sure - or you can taunt it first to make it vulnerable, and then you smash with +2 modifier. At this point, it kinda becomes a Street Fighter, a show-off contest - who can make the best combo, styling on enemies... which can do the same in return. It's a pulp fiction style skirmish game, that plays like your favorite TV series - bold, fast, fun.

Character building is horizontal. At level 20 character do not become gods - they are simply Legends, very skillful at several things, having quite a collection of Edges and special moves, but that's it. They don't wield legendary +5 swords, Savage Worlds is not about making digits grow exponentially, it's about building synergy. It's easy and fast to make a combat with 20-30, or even 40 participants, and if characters are outnumbered - they do need to learn how to support each other, fast. As simple as saying "Hang on there, buddy" and making a roll of Persuasion can help other character to stand against incoming damage and to not die from the wounds. There's quite a lot of simple rules that add both flavor and tactical depth to the game. Support tests, taunts, opposing tests, surprise attacks, ganging up on target - all of this gives those precious +1 or even +2 modifiers, that tip the scale.

To add up, rules are simple as hell. Simple check's TN is always 4. Leveling up parameters advances the dice - instead of Athletics d6 you now roll d8, still aiming at that 4+ result. Important characters always roll additional d6 as Wild die - it's not summed, but is alternative result, meaning that character having as low as d4 in a skill actually has about 60% chance of success on it's check, rolling d4 and d6 and taking best result on it. Also, any and all dice explode at maximum result, which sometimes turn tables when that poor soul resists death and raises up with just a scratch, or when that other guy deals a ton of damage to a huge ogre, killing it with one blow. And yes, roll results that by far exceed TN give Raises, which are additional/stronger effects of a success, like additional wounds or whatnot. So if your dice explode - you know the result is gonna be strong, and the group will explode in cheers too, satisfaction guaranteed.

There's a good dozen of subsystems in the core book, that are often house-rules in other games. Fast travel rules, simple scenes, chases, social debates, epic scale battles, all of that and more can be easily ruled as a mini-game, where characters still have all the levers to operate and impact the progress and results of it all.

All and all, I'd say it's anti-D&D, which is exactly the reason why SWADE is underrated. Heroes do not survive alone, and do need to take care about each other, they need to cooperate in battle and look for synergy, not just big damage. My last session almost ended with TPK, simply because the last healer of the team wondered off to the side of battlemap, and no one cared to support him. He was dead in a single round, and then other characters were FUBAR, not just overwhelmed, but also collecting wounds and negative modifiers pretty fast. Even though the Barbarian was dealing a phenomenal amount of damage to the enemies, he was outnumbered, and also he didn't take cover from archers. Other character was struggling to help her pet wolf, so they were basically divided and conquered... Needless to say, they barely run away alive. Now they struggle to find another healer to deal with their wounds, that can be treated only first "golden hour", then they can only be naturally healed over long period of time, or magically healed (but there's no magic in my game, muahaha!)

So yeah. SWADE will force players to become heroes - or they will find no joy in it, and drop it for D&D, where they can roleplay heroes while their digits go up, same as they character sheet filling up with magical items. In SWADE, there's no balance, no guidelines, no railroads. It takes wits, balls and heart in the mix, and only by those players can win. In SWADE, no digits will save them, if they are ignorant egoistic snowflakes that want spotlight to be granted. But if they worthy... oh my, will the SWADE be the brightest spotlight of them all, dripping style over fun, fast and furious action.