Savage Worlds is not a terrible system, but I wouldn't mark it as good either. One of the most glaring flaws to me is the carry capacity problem that is highly unrealistic on the low side. Another problem wqith the system is how even a +1 or -1 is so ridiculously brutal to the point that even a single injury, point of fatigue or simply a point of encuberance can be a game ender for any character. Regarding character creation the starting stuff makes character feel rather incomplete. It feels like you are trying to make the best out of a bad scenario because you definitely do not have enough points to allocate to your starting stats, especially if your character is dependent on multiple. There is also a big inbalance between going magic, shooting or melee in both terms of what stats they require and what edges. The skills are about the only thing that receives a pass as the initial points are enough, however they also receive a negative in the sense that since everything is so dependent on edges and stats, you are expected to never buy skills past character creation and if you do, you are actually making your character much worse for it. I find that there is only 3 merits with the system in general. It's a classless system so you can theorically do whatever you want (you will still be restricted by what your stats let you do as well as by how many and how quickly you can aquire edges). There is no HP scaling which makes it easy on the GM to balance fights, a mook that is thrown against a starting character is just as good as a mook against a very experienced character for that reason. It's an easy to learn system which can indeed be adapted to anything. Going specifically over savage rifts. You lose the idea of it being a classless system, however classes are merely an addition to what was there already so you can still to some degree custimse how your class works. For example one of my favorite things to play in savage rifts is a melee mage. However here enters what is the problem with savage rifts. It is a system that in my view is meant specifically to be completely unbalanced and make players completely overpowered. Sure you enough you can put heavy restrictions to try and bring players more down to earth. But you look at things like the glitter boy which by default is already super powerful. Then you look at cyber knights which can be also ridiculously powerful or cyborgs. Even my melee mage can from level 1 deal average damage upwards of 40 which is to say, nothing is gonna survive a hit except maybe a wild card and even then they'll be hurting. Trying to restrict players into a more down to earth is possible if you in general say, only mars characters and even then restrict some of the mars options. But that is not what savage rifts is meant to be, it is meant to give players that much power and let them enjoy a bit of their power fantasy trope. I dunno anything that I'd specifically consider a good fantasy system. Certainly most fantasy systems seem to try and follow the RNG character creation and have this idea that character and NPCs should have around 50% chance to get things to work. Honestely I believe this is a wrong idea at it's core. If this was a good idea we don't need dice at all, we should just be fliping coins. As far as modern and sci-fi settings go there are a few that seem to break the mold. You got for a sci-fi the revised edition of stars without number. It's a bit OSR and quite simplistic but it at least allows players a higher degree of success which is good. You have Fate which allows for any kind of universe. Very simple rules but allows for a lot of creativity. You have the new upcoming wrath & glory if you are into warhammer 40k. I'm not sure on how much the system seems to be tailored to give player competency by not throwing him flip of the coin all the time, but we'll have to see about that. The system at least looks good outside that and even if you don't care about warhammer 40k, you can just strip those elements and use the system anyway. Then you have fallout pnp 2.0 which works well for the most part except for a few things. Ammo prices are too expensive, armor is way too inneficient and the abillity for armor and guns to break. Those would be the only problems but in general it is a very solid system and the small things can be easily homeruled. Last you have Call of Cthulhu. I'm personally not a fan of horror games. Sanity systems for me don't do anything at all. But if you grab that, strip the sanity and magic system, then put players into a setting where it's perfectly fine to walk around in armor and armed, I find this system works out pretty well, granted it can be very easy to get killed in it so investing into armor is very important.
