Warlock has become my go-to gritty fantasy game ... okay, I've only played two sessions with it as of yet, but I'm pretty sure it will keep its promise of greatness in the long run, too. Like another great recent rpg, Daniel Sell's Troika!, the rules are in the tradition of a venerable series of British solo game books, and if you've ever been to Firetop Mountain or to the City of Thieves, you know what I'm talking about. The setting is inspired by another great classic of British roleplaying, Peacefeather FRP or whatever it was called. So, in terms of rules we get a very simple d20+skill value roll high system, that turns into an d20+skill value opposed check in combat, with the punchline being that whoever roles higher does damage, even if she or he didn't initiate the exchange. That means that on pretty much every exchange, someone takes damage, which makes for fast and furious combat. There's some additional stuff like the person who initiated an attack getting a bonus, but that is pretty much it, and if you think about it a little closer, you'll notice how this already takes care of things like multiple attacks, two-weapons fighting and all of these other things that tend to need spot rules in other systems. Setting-wise, the meat is in the character careers with their short, darkly humorous fluff texts and two mal tables each to roll background events on. It's perfect for just sitting your players down, having them roll up characters and then see where everything goes from there. Magic might take a little getting used to, with spells being actual physical scrolls that a wizard or priest needs at hand to perform them. The pay what you want Grimoire for Warlock expands on the context and also provides some fluff that makes this notion ring more true. Your wizards will have no choice but to go adventuring to get their hands on new spells ... If you need something traditional and rules-lite that covers you for all kinds of more or less gritty low-fantasy and isn't mired in D&D-type levelling, class restricitions, HP creep and "featism", definitely check this one out.