Change of pace, let's go for something that might feel a bit more old-school: Lex Arcana. Another game that came out first last millennium, I hadn't heard of it until a new edition was released a few years ago. Which might sound less surprising if you hear that it was also the first edition published in English, and not only in Italian. Which I do not speak.
Lex Arcana plays in an alternate universe, around ca. the year 470, or around 1200 AUC, as citizens of the empire count it. The Roman Empire has changed a lot less between Julius Caesar's times and then than it did in our world, generally speaking since the Empire here has access to actually working Divination magic. Yes, the Roman gods provide the Empire with -carefully obfuscated- advice, things like interpreting the flight of birds or reading animal entrails work. In recent years the empire has seen supernatural threats like evil cults, demons, or other monsters appear more and more often. So the emperor has sanctioned the founding of a new group of agents, picked without consideration of background, origin, really anything but their abilities, the Cohors Arcana. Its agents are highly trained and also undergo religious training that gives them a few special abilities, essentially small, last minutes prayers for assistance, a bit of extra luck, and access to some of the Divination rituals. Conveniently enough, the Cohors acts in small groups of agents, usually three to six... yep, RPG parties.
I feel 'Evil cults' needs explanation - the Empire tolerates most religions, but things like human sacrifice, or wanting to end the Empire shifts a religion from tolerated to banned. If they then actively commit acts like demon summoning, the Cohors might come for them. But if you are concerned that the setting might contain some problematic content - yes, it does. Slavery exists, for one. Equality between the genders is not ... optimal. And so on. But none of that is central to the setting, and in my opinion, all of it is easily excised.
The game itself does some really clever things with dice mechanics, and the setup (which I have seen described as Delta Green in ancient Rome) lends itself well to more old-school adventure gaming. It runs really, really fast as well, and similar to NBA PCs feel competent from the get-go.
Let's start. First I roll for Virtutes (think Attributes): Six times 2D6, which then get distributed. I think I want to make an Explorer, which means I need Coordinatio and Sensibilitas. so let's go with Vigor 7, Coordinatio 12, Sensibilitas 7, Ingenium 6, Ratio 5, and Auctoritas 3. Pretty good. Instead of rolling, I could have chosen a premade score panel as well, but as usual, rolling is more fun. In this case, it also gave a better result. Now we choose which province of the empire we come from. I feel like I want to make someone from Numidia, so let's call her Massinissa, after a quick look into the name lists in the core book. The origin gives some base score to our skills (Perititae), and we distribute the points from each attribute among two associated skills to reach the final skill score. As a Scout, Massinissa needs De Natura at 15. I get it to 16. De Magia will be 10, so some easier rituals will be doable. De Scientia 3, she has no clue how academia works. De Societate at 7, so she is maybe a bit rough around the edges, but sociable. De Bello of 12 means she is an ok fighter, and De Corpore 10, meaning she is athletic, but not massively so. Excellent.
Then I choose that she got the Explorer's cursus (training course) when she joined the Cohors. This means her tutelar deity is Diana, and she gets to call onto Diana if things in the wilderness go sideways. Remember how I said that she is an ok fighter? Well, as an explorer she also gets to use her De Nature as the relevant skill for ranged weapons up to a certain weapon power. Age-wise I think she should be rather young, 20 maybe? That adds a few points to the Virtutes for final scores, but crucially not to the Perititae. She has 27 Hitpoints and 18 Pietas points. The latter are used for asking the gods for help.
Now I want to choose Specializations, which add points to the skills when applicable. I can either choose two for De Natura at +1, two for any Peritia at +1, and one at +2, or roll on a table to see where she is from, and what would be a fitting specialization for someone from her provincial origin. I go with the latter. One D10 yields a 4, so looking at the list for Numidia that means that she is from a smaller colony. This gives me a small list of suggested Specialties, and I give her Favor of the Gods (belonging to De Magia), and Streetwise (De Societate). I feel I should note that Specialties can modify other skills if appropriate. For more choices I need to know what kind of environment she grew up in, so I roll a D6. A 3 means she is the daughter of a lenone, the owner of a house of pleasure. Of the offered choices I take Larceny at +2. This usually modifies De Corpore, but can also modify other skills where appropriate. The final two Specialties have to belong to De Natura, and come from her professional training. I go with Exploration and Hunting.
A quick detour to explain how to roll: Let us assume Massinissa tries to find game to hunt. This would mean De Natura (16) + Hunting (1) for a score of 17. Now I get to assemble a dice pool from up to three dice, and the maximum result has to be 17. I can choose D3, D4, D5, D6, D8, D10, D12. So, 1D5+2D6 works, so does 1D12+1D5, or 1D3+1D4+1D10. If I roll the maximum in all used dice, I get to roll again and add the two rolls. I need to beat a target number, and if I beat it by a multiple of three I get higher degrees of success. In combat, the DoS is a direct multiplier for your damage, meaning a big difference in skill or awful roll can easily lead to massive damage.
As finishing touches I get to choose some equipment, though it doesn't matter too much. PCs can waltz into any military camp of the empire and requisition what is needed, and the base rulebook does not even have a monetary system. Base equipment comes in 'Summer Gear' or 'Winter Gear', with differences in weight. Encumbrance is just the addition of weapons and armor weight, plus two if you carry Winter Gear. More than half of the current (!) HP means your heavy load makes skill rolls harder. That's it.
I give her a short bow (Arcus), which works beautifully with her skills and her special talents. She also gets a nasty curved dagger (Sica), and light armor (Corum Lorica), meaning she is traveling very light.
Done.
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