I love the setting of Brancalonia. I love the humor, I love the folklore, and I am currently learning Italian in evening classes to boot, so this is basically a perfect mix.
But I do not love that the authors picked D&D 5E as the rule system for this setting. Don’t get me wrong, I find D&D 5E perfectly acceptable for heroic fantasy campaigns (and, in fact, I am running such a campaign right now). And I can understand this choice from a business perspective - it makes a lot of sense to tie your setting to the most popular RPG system out there.
However, Brancalonia PCs are not supposed to be great heroes, but fairly unimpressive never-do-wells. The rules deal with this by capping character level at 6, but I feel that this leaves the PCs with too little room to grow and removes much of the proper D&D experience. I’d rather use a rule system that was intended for weaker protagonists, rather than trying to distort D&D into something that is not.
So, what alternate system would you use for Brancalonia?
Maybe use some GURPs, or FFG’s system might actually work really well here.
I’d maybe go the other way and embrace the comedy. Use Powered by the Apocalypse in the same way Pasion de las Pasiones does. Replace the soap opera elements with whips made out of spaghetti or something.
Probably start by forking from WFRP 2nd edition. You’d have to strip out the Warhammer setting specifics, but it works well for a game of underdog antihero adventurers in a late mediaeval/early modern setting.
@juergen_hubert Fire Ruby’s Warlock! which is a WHFRP retroclone. The style matches Brancalonia much better.
Cortex Prime. Extremely hackable, nearly impossible to break. Powerful to reinforce flavor with mechanics (which is what I think you’re going after). Simple mechanics (if you don’t go ham with the Mods).
I’d recommend Pathfinder 2e’s combat then, though I haven’t played Brancalonia to know if it’s a perfect fit.
Pathfinder 2E has a very similar power curve as D&D 5E. In fact, it might even be worse for Brancalonia as characters basically get their level as a flat bonus on everything.
If your bonis flat, talk to your doctor.
PF2e has proficiency without level for a grittier experience, but even then I don’t think it’s the best option for low lives and ne’er-do-wells unless you limit it to about level 3. Might be worth looking at Hopefinder, which is a PF2e hack, but the default setting is a zombie apocalypse and I think it relies a lot on short stories.
There’s a rule variant called proficiency without level which removes the flat bonus.
Check out legend in the mist, new system that just dropped recently. Seems like this would mesh well with the rustic fantasy motif it has going on and its also easily adaptable
