On crunch, fluff, and system necromancy

We're starting playing RPGs again this week - and I for one can't wait! It seems I've been handed the reins, although Dave has FantasyCraft ready to roll "whenever," but I've been struck by a thought:

My group likes crunch. We love rules, and stats, and rolling on tables. This may well be why the rules-light games (PDQ# etc) we've played have tailed off. I think this could also be why people don't seem too keen on Savage Worlds...


I also love crunch - I can't help it. I thoroughly enjoyed the crunchiness of 4e DnD, the character twinking and the tactical combat. And I'm planning on running Mouse/Realm Guard tomorrow, which is not crunchy - it's not meant to be offensive, but Guard is definitely a fluffy game. I know people aren't going to like it. But sod it.

I want to run something to get back into the swing - to get the ball rolling again. Guard's low prep, and I want to see how the mechanics work out. We can play for a few sessions and then dive into FantasyCraft, or whatever, and then play something else. Something nice and crunchy. I like the idea of everyone running their own game for a few sessions, a four week (or whatever) mini adventure path - one of the things that broke the DnD experience for me was that we changed DMs but kept the characters and narrative running, in hindsight that was a pretty bad idea...

So: We'll play Guard for a couple of weeks - Dave's not here next week, so no point in starting FantasyCraft now - and then when I get rotated back in to DM, we can switch to one of:

+ Savage Worlds, in the Deadlands setting - the one I've been running previously. I like the setting, I just need to enforce more structure. Pump the PCs up a tier and throw some more stuff at them... it could be good.

+ Burning Wheel, possibly using the Harn world for geography to let me build the society more easily. Not sure about this one, I'll look into the system more.

+ 4e DnD, in the upcoming Dark Sun setting. The more I think about it, the more I think we should give it another go. Dark Sun is a great post-apocalyptic setting - but post-apocalyptic fantasy - and I love the grittiness, worship of the elements over gods, and the fact that magic use has consequences. I unknowingly played in the world, over telnet (!), on Armageddon before I even got into MMORPGS and tabletop games - and I really liked it. I miss the tactical combat options from 4e, positioning and power coordination don't seem to apply in other games we've played, and I think I've learned enough to try to skim over its (many) faults. We just need players to play their roles, which I think my current group will.

Controversial? Maybe. I'll run the idea past people while I'm blasting their fleets to dust tonight...

Thoughts??