So my wife and I have been gaming for a collective bloody long time and although we love D&D we are looking to try something different. We want to play the following genre of RPG games and were wondering if the GRD freaks can give us any recommendations. We like the combat but the role playing is more important to us. We love dice too so a dice less system is not an option for us.

A Wild West game or game set in the USA of the 19th century

A Sci Fi game

A Modern game but in an alternate reality earth like as in with monsters, magic or the like.

Any recommendations?

It probably wouldn't hurt to take a look at Savage Worlds, from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. It's a pretty easy, but fairly crunchy little ruleset, designed for the more "mature" gamer (meaning, old farts with little free time ... like me ). It's been my favorite for some time, and there are genre and setting books for 2 out of the 3 options above (Western and Sci-Fi). The third one wouldn't be hard to make from the core book.

Check out their Downloads section for the Test Drive rules and for sample scenarios and PC's.

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT work for Pinnacle, but I am a raving fanboy of the company and their products.

Do you know Dogs in the Vineyard?
While I haven't tried it myself, it sounds like it mixes dice and narrative roleplaying in an interesting new way.

Deadlands can be a lot of fun. I like the mixture of dice, cards and poker chips.

Serenity RPG looks good. I own all the books but I've yet to run a game. The system looks simple enough, and the world is definitely rich enough in source material.

White Wolf Mage, the 2nd edition if you can find it used. A really fun system with a wealth of source material.

D20 modern is a good base system to start with. Like anything D20 it all comes down to a good DM.

Traveler has just released a new version as has Rifts and Shadowrun.

Lastly the first version of the Babylon 5 game is a lot of fun. The system is a little rough but I found it easy enough to run.

Lastly last if you can find the books used I liked the Torg system.

Yeah, go with Savage Worlds' Deadlands setting.

Thanks fellow geeks. Savage Worlds Deadlands is at the top of "to try" list adn is followed closely by Aces and Eights and then Dust Devils.

In the Sci Fi department I am keen on learning more about the Serenity RPG. I would like to find something like a Warhammer 40K RPG. Any further suggestions?

I would recommend Savage Worlds as well. As a roleplayer I like the fact that you can actually have a couple of large fights each session and still have time to roleplay.
And if you combine the rules of Savage Worlds with Serenity you got a winner. Actually if you look at the rules in the Serenity RPG you will notice a lot of similarities between the two (though Savage Worlds is a much more solid game system).

If you would like to go dark sci fi, there is nothing like Warhammer 40K. Some of my best games have been in the Warhammer 40K universe. If you are interested in fluff or advice you can PM me. I got some simple home brew rules based on the Necromunda rules with added RP elements, a GURPS conversion (4th ed) and a Savage Worlds conversion.

Magnus

PS: Regarding Dogs In the Vineyard... No.
If you want to go indie, try Spirit of the Century or Burning Empires both have interesting systems, or something like Grey Ranks which is just a brilliantly constructed one-shot campaign.