Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
In the Grim and Dark Fantasy of Medieval Germany, you will roll up peasants and die of cholera, or be slain by creatures and demon lords vastly more powerful than your character can ever hope to become, no matter how much experience he gains.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has had a checkered past, having gone through more than one publisher, and sitting long in development limbo. It is an RPG based off of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the fantasy miniatures wargame that Warhammer 40,000 sprung from akin to Athena springing from the head of Zeus, if Athena was holding onto a chainaxe and Zeus was in poofy pants.
Though Tolkienesque (down to hobbits halflings being part of the Empire, and being awfully fond of food), it has several innovations that make it Not Just Another DnD Clone. Humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings are here to be played as, all cobbled together in a setting that takes more inspiration from medieval history than Tolkien. Facing them are beastmen, orcs, daemons, trolls, and all manner of other horrible things that may inflict loss of life and limb. To delay the inevitable, armaments ranging from simple swords to advanced muskets are available. Magic is also available, though it has a minor chance of raping you with eldritch energy.
Nearly every portion of character creation can be rolled leading to amusing tales of a peasant, a noble, a doctor, and a sailor getting together to claim a lost dwarven stronghold. The best class is ratcatcher, as it has the most important piece of equipment in the game, a small but vicious dog.
The system in general, especially in combat, is extremely (and often hilariously) lethal, and has many rules for crippling injuries and critical hits. This can cause, for example, a lowly badger bite to result in the loss of limbs, and turns attempting to mount a horse into a dangerous endeavour only undertaken by the most foolhardy of warriors.
Fantasy Flight Games have recently announced they are bringing out WFRP 3e, which has whipped /tg/ up into a storm of trolling and RAGE as it appears to have almost completely abandoned the 2e system and has begun using "Custom Dice", "Action Cards", and premade character sheets, leading many to comment it looks more like a board game than a true WFRP successor. It's also going to retail for almost a hundred dollars, which would be regarded as rather optimistic pricing even if the box set came with a free blowjob. Basically, for some retarded reason, they've think that 4e's shrinking of the player base from 6,000,000 to 1,500,000 was a great plan, and have done what they could to have WFRP follow in those fading footsteps.