Playing Wasteland recently, it occurred to me that there's a certain style of RPG that I wish were more common.

Here are the traits I am looking for:
* Open world. Specifically, the game should not prevent a player from exploring most of the world with plot barriers or similar. Having areas open up new areas when cleared may be acceptable, provided that it's not done in a linear fashion.
* Dense. It must not take long to go from one point of interest to another. I'd rather have a smaller world map than a bigger one here. (In particular, I note that the Elder Scrolls games don't fit this criterion.)
* No level scaling. If the player reaches a high level area early on, the player should expect to be slaughtered, and if the player manages to acquire some treasure from that area, said treasure may be significantly more powerful than what the player has at that point.
* Strictly turn based. In other words, the *entire* game needs to be turn based. If I go AFK at any point in the game, there shouldn't be any consequences that could have been avoided had I not gone AFK. (I believe games like Fallout and Baldur's Gate 3 fail this criterion because only the battles are turn-based (although at least BG3 lets you "pause" by initiating fake combat).)

So, Wasteland and Dragon Wars are good examples of this style of RPG, but are there any other good examples?

Isn't Dwarf Fortress adventure mode like this? And Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead come to think of it. Both are 'turn-based' in the sense that something like Nethack is turn-based: time only moves forward when you move around or perform an action.

It would be a funny mod to condense one of the Elder Scrolls down into having minimal distance between NPCs / areas. Other than sparse scenery, some of the areas are completely empty: nothing can be interacted with.

I've been leaning toward "pen and paper" RPGs like D&D or Cyberpunk since they fit most of these criteria but also don't have the limits inherent in computer implementation, at the cost of not being as approachable to casually "pick up and play" as video games / CRPGs.

One main downside would be, without having another GM to create the content, you'd have to randomize the adventure somehow to possibly be surprised soloing, and a lot of the published content was not written with that in mind (that I've encountered). On the other hand, anyone could mod them, no hacking required :-)

Hello dtgreene!

I am not sure, if it really does fit your criteria of a "dense open world", but my first thought was the "Realms of Arkania" series (known as "Die Nordlandtrilogie" in its original German version) set in the pen and paper roleplaying world of "The Dark Eye" ("Das Schwarze Auge").
Especially the first one, "Blade of Destiny" ("Die Schicksalsklinge"), is recommendable.

You can go almost everywhere right from the start. Of course, you have to follow certain travel routes on the world map.
And it is filled with many towns and settlements to explore and events along your paths.

Although the second game in the series improved a lot in the user interface, mechanics and presentation, I still prefer the more open or freeform structure and world of the first one.

I agree with your accessment on the "Elder Scrolls" titles. I think in the realtime or action-oriented roleplaying games the first two "Gothic" titles managed well to represent a smaller world but with so much more density contentwise.

Kind regards,
foxgog

Do Avernum games fit this bill? They're turn-based and open world, though I'm not really sure if it's dense or not; The underworld prison setting do makes it feels more restricted and constrained.

Realmz fits your criteria. It was a 68k Macintosh RPG in the 90's similar to Exile / Avernum. It's a bit old though.
Official site.