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Not at all, depending on the number of players. Apocalypse World and its many, many derivatives are perfect. e: for getting a group of about 4 people from 0 to an adventure in like 4 hours tops, without a lot of quibbling or rules knowledge Tulip fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 00:22
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100 degrees Calcium posted:I have been looking these games up and they all sound amazing. I had no idea so many interesting things were happening in the RPG space. From the outside it looks like D&D rules the world with Pathfinder nipping at its heels but I have a feeling the truth is there's a lot more going on than that. Do they want a game 'that feels like d&d' in the setting? Or something weirder? So far the stuff suggested has mostly been very good rules lite and based heavily on "We're all cooperating at a table to tell a story"/heavily based on GM ad-libbing. I've played or ran the games listed so far this past year and they were 100% my jam. However my groups also ran into problems where they weren't what some of the players wanted or enjoyed about RPGs. For example, one didn't like that there was no tactical combat, another didn't like that I wasn't GMing a story where they could figure out and beat the game based on proper table choices/I didn't have a fixed story, so much as the dice and narrative choices of the players determined what happened. There's also been a ton of good genre emulation and games that specifically capture the feel of 1 kind of story. The Alien RPG absolutely works great for 1 shots, if your group wants that. Blades in the Dark (or its sci-fi iteration Scum & Villainy) can work but require more considerations since the game's resource economy is based on ratcheting and trade offs. Heart and its progenitor Spire work amazingly well as 1 shots. World Wide Wrestling is also a great game for 1 shots, and while it really shines for folks who are fans of rpgs and wrestling, I've yet to find fans of one that weren't able to be won over to how this game implemented the other. You're right that D&D sucks up all the oxygen in terms of advertising and pop culture right now, but the past 5-10 years have been amazing for indie RPGs. Coolness Averted fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 00:27
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100 degrees Calcium posted:I have been looking these games up and they all sound amazing. I had no idea so many interesting things were happening in the RPG space. From the outside it looks like D&D rules the world with Pathfinder nipping at its heels but I have a feeling the truth is there's a lot more going on than that. Dungeon Crawl Classics might be a good choice
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Aug 13, 2021 00:35
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Into the Odd should be easy to get into and to play. Very beer & pretzels in tone. Edit: For Blades in the Dark I can tell you that it can have that tone, but it's a big book, conceptually a bit of a leap, and itself says you need to run it about three times to figure it out with some rereads, and my experience confirms that. Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 00:38
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Ai ai ai this is overwhelming. I'm not even sure what I like about RPGs. Back when I used to play more often, I'd burn out pretty quickly, often because I couldn't keep up the pace of preparing and running a game. This was mostly 3rd edition as a teenager and pathfinder a little later. Mostly I get excited about creating a little fantasy setting to explore and populating it with interesting characters and cool monsters for the players to meet and (attempt to) dispatch. I personally like the "feel" of D&D, but I mean that pretty loosely because again I've never had much luck running them. It's just that playing games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale as a kid pretty heavily informed my aesthetic preferences. The narrative stuff might be interesting. I'm pretty sure everyone in my potential group has, at one time or another, played more "tactical" RPGs, but I don't think they'd be opposed to trying something new. My thing is I don't want to give up a whole week to whatever game I run, but I want the experience to be robust and engaging for the players. Feels like mutually exclusive requirements.
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Aug 13, 2021 00:38
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100 degrees Calcium posted:I have been looking these games up and they all sound amazing. I had no idea so many interesting things were happening in the RPG space. From the outside it looks like D&D rules the world with Pathfinder nipping at its heels but I have a feeling the truth is there's a lot more going on than that. Between these needs and specifying fantasy adventure, I'd highly recommend Fellowship. Character creation is simple, but with a lot of variety. Worldbuilding isn't entirely on the GM - everyone Commands Lore about their character's society as the details come up, so it's spread out more evenly. There are a lot of premade "set pieces" that the GM can use right out of the box. Plus the GM gets their own character sheet too - Overlord, Horizon or Empire. Playing it is so much fun; it's very fast and loose, and the mechanics really encourage that. I could go on and on about it, I've just had a great time playing it with my group this year. Otherkinsey Scale fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 00:39
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Fellowship is good, and I second the recommendation for Ryuutama; you might want to look at Japanese tabletop games in general, because most of them are built around limited prep and run time.
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Aug 13, 2021 01:07
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People aren't kidding when they say that we're kind of in an RPG renaissance : outside of some total weirdos who hate that anyone has ever made another game after 1983 or whatever, everyone is kind of spoiled for choice. (Partially because even if you like the old school style of games, there are lots of good options for that too but with better organized rules and the like, hence the recommendation for Dungeon Crawl Classics above.)
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Aug 13, 2021 01:11
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100 degrees Calcium posted:Hey folks. It's been a long time since I've dabbled in RPGs but I'm getting in the mood to play one or, more realistically, run one for other players. But I don't know which RPGs are good and which are bad. Which RPG should I run? Please only post good RPGs. Thank you. Greg Stafford's King Arthur Pendragon
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Aug 13, 2021 03:20
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Note: Dungeon Crawl Classics does not actually emulate classic dungeon crawls. It emulates something much closer to horror stories about Gygax modules with a side of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
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Aug 13, 2021 03:53
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fool of sound posted:Note: Dungeon Crawl Classics does not actually emulate classic dungeon crawls. It emulates something much closer to horror stories about Gygax modules with a side of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Anything past that is cool bong-wizard/van art fantasy by and large. Fun, slick weird fantasy adventures with a capable rule set.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:23
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if you want an easy game to get into look no further than the black hack 2.0
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Aug 13, 2021 04:32
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dwarf74 posted:That's really mostly the level 0 funnels. Which are still a good time for a crowd that appreciates that kind of high mortality fantasy meat-grinder. But it's really not what the game is about. Yeah I agree that it has some interesting rules and does it's own thing, but the name remains a misnomer even then; the magic item and magic corruption rules still scream warhammer fantasy.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:32
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The sad thing is that Costume Fairy Adventures would be the ideal game for one shot light sandbox games if only it wasn’t about costume fairy adventures. I wish he’d come up with a slightly less creepy sounding theme.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:59
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100 degrees Calcium posted:I have been looking these games up and they all sound amazing. I had no idea so many interesting things were happening in the RPG space. From the outside it looks like D&D rules the world with Pathfinder nipping at its heels but I have a feeling the truth is there's a lot more going on than that. One game I would suggest is Monster of the Week; it uses the same "Powered by the Apocalypse" ruleset as Fellowship, Apocalypse World, and it's about playing archetypes from "Monster of the week" style shows: the conspiracist, the chosen one, the divine, the spell-slinger, the professional, etc. What makes it I think suited to your needs is that the game itself is structured like the trope it is named after: there is no overarching plot needed (though you can create one if you want), just the literal "monster of the week" that the players need to defeat in that session(s). Session prep is defining the monster itself (either you make up one or steal from fiction), its strengths and weakness (it cannot be defeated unless the weakness is triggered), some NPCs and locations for the players to interact with, and a countdown track - basically "what would happen if players didn't intervene". From my experience, it's the best Apocalypse engine derived game as the rules and moves just click with the setting and get used to very fast by both players and keeper. You don't "Attack", you "Kick some rear end"; your Chosen has a move to "Make a big entrance"; the Expert doesn't research, he's "Read something about this sort of thing", and so on and so forth. canepazzo fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 08:53
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There was an I believe OSR adventure that started getting reviewed in the fatal and friends thread maybe a year or two ago. The review stopped abruptly due to the reviewer being offended by the content. It had a lot of bad advice for GMs about how important making your players uncomfortable was for this adventure. It required the PCs to do degrading, sexual things in front of mirrors in order to entertain the demons living in them, so they’ll be allowed to enter the main dungeon. I don’t expect anybody to continue the write up if it makes them uncomfortable, but I’m gifted/cursed with being impossible to offend or disgust, so I’d like to read it myself. If anybody knows what it’s called, I’d appreciate somebody letting me know. Thanks. 
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Aug 13, 2021 10:00
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Nigmaetcetera posted:There was an I believe OSR adventure that started getting reviewed in the fatal and friends thread maybe a year or two ago. The review stopped abruptly due to the reviewer being offended by the content. It had a lot of bad advice for GMs about how important making your players uncomfortable was for this adventure. It required the PCs to do degrading, sexual things in front of mirrors in order to entertain the demons living in them, so they’ll be allowed to enter the main dungeon. I don’t expect anybody to continue the write up if it makes them uncomfortable, but I’m gifted/cursed with being impossible to offend or disgust, so I’d like to read it myself. If anybody knows what it’s called, I’d appreciate somebody letting me know. Thanks. I don't recall reading anything like this, but it's probably a James Raggi module, lol.
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Aug 13, 2021 10:41
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Nigmaetcetera posted:There was an I believe OSR adventure that started getting reviewed in the fatal and friends thread maybe a year or two ago. The review stopped abruptly due to the reviewer being offended by the content. It had a lot of bad advice for GMs about how important making your players uncomfortable was for this adventure. It required the PCs to do degrading, sexual things in front of mirrors in order to entertain the demons living in them, so they’ll be allowed to enter the main dungeon. I don’t expect anybody to continue the write up if it makes them uncomfortable, but I’m gifted/cursed with being impossible to offend or disgust, so I’d like to read it myself. If anybody knows what it’s called, I’d appreciate somebody letting me know. Thanks. I believe that was Beneath the Inverted Church.
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Aug 13, 2021 10:42
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senrath posted:I believe that was Beneath the Inverted Church. Never heard of this one. https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/17/17197.phtml Huh!
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Aug 13, 2021 10:45
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Megazver posted:I don't recall reading anything like this, but it's probably a James Raggi module, lol. I specifically remember it wasn’t him. senrath posted:I believe that was Beneath the Inverted Church. Thanks!
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Aug 13, 2021 10:49
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D&D may be hot garbage, but at least it's a clean, easy answer for new players. Goon wanders in to the general RPG thread looking for a nice, simple on ramp, and gets overwhelmed with suggestions of everything from Pendragon to Wanderhome.
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Aug 13, 2021 12:08
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Yeah it turns out when you ask "Hey what's a good game" you get a lot of answers because there are a lot of good games. Imagine asking for restaurant recommendations for a new city, getting a bunch of answers and people asking you what you like to eat, and then someone says "Well, McDonalds is bad but why hasn't anyone mentioned that yet".
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Aug 13, 2021 12:19
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CitizenKeen posted:D&D may be hot garbage, but at least it's a clean, easy answer for new players. Goon wanders in to the general RPG thread looking for a nice, simple on ramp, and gets overwhelmed with suggestions of everything from Pendragon to Wanderhome. Oh man, what a loving shame that there are multiple good games that people are suggesting, instead of a pile of loving garbage. 
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Aug 13, 2021 12:34
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CitizenKeen posted:D&D may be hot garbage, but at least it's a clean, easy answer for new players. Goon wanders in to the general RPG thread looking for a nice, simple on ramp, and gets overwhelmed with suggestions of everything from Pendragon to Wanderhome. i could teach a group to play the black hack in under 3 minutes, dnd is fun, and most of the games people suggested are easy to get into. games are specialized to their niche genres by design and therefore there are going to be a lot of different recommendations. warning issued E: the reason i suggested black hack 2.0 is because it is a very classic dnd adventuring experience but phenomenally rules light and easy to onboard people in
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Aug 13, 2021 12:51
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pog boyfriend posted:i could teach a group to play the black hack in under 3 minutes, dnd is fun, and most of the games people suggested are easy to get into. games are specialized to their niche genres by design and therefore there are going to be a lot of different recommendations. warning issued https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/the-black-hack-second-edition-redux
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Aug 13, 2021 12:54
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drrockso20 posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics might be a good choice This is what first came to my mind as well. Play through some 0-level funnels Edit: Oops, looks like DCC was already discussed so I’ll give a shout out to excellent 3rd-party DCC publishers like Purple Sorcerer best bale fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 14:09
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pog boyfriend posted:E: the reason i suggested black hack 2.0 is because it is a very classic dnd adventuring experience but phenomenally rules light and easy to onboard people in Read this, might be my favorite dnd now (excluding e.g. Dungeon World, things that look like dnd but are definitely not dnd) I've also onramped multiple people with Wanderhome at this point. It's honestly a really great game, especially for first timers who are kind of violence-averse (one person who's about to take up GMing, which makes me feel very proud, mostly plays building games like Sims and Dwarf Fortress).
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Aug 13, 2021 14:19
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CitizenKeen posted:D&D may be hot garbage, but at least it's a clean, easy answer for new players. Goon wanders in to the general RPG thread looking for a nice, simple on ramp, and gets overwhelmed with suggestions of everything from Pendragon to Wanderhome. It's not, a clean, easy answer for new GMs, though.
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Aug 13, 2021 14:40
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pog boyfriend posted:E: the reason i suggested black hack 2.0 is because it is a very classic dnd adventuring experience but phenomenally rules light and easy to onboard people in My favourite variants are Black Sword Hack (Michael Moorcock style fantasy) and Furies of the Barrens (whimsical post-apoc with a lot of silly mutant types you can play).
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Aug 13, 2021 14:41
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Is there anything that evokes hyperviolent van-wizard fantasy nonsense with a system that's appropriately lightweight and breezy to keep the fun coming? Some real "melt a skeleton's dick off" stuff?
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Aug 13, 2021 15:19
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Dungeon Crawl Classics is generally considered the standard-bearer of smoking-a-dragon-shaped-bong-and-staring-at-a-black-light-poster-of-a-wizard-in-a-van-with-a-barbarian-titty-princess-airbrushed-on-the-side fantasy.
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Aug 13, 2021 15:23
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Halloween Jack posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics is generally considered the standard-bearer of smoking-a-dragon-shaped-bong-and-staring-at-a-black-light-poster-of-a-wizard-in-a-van-with-a-barbarian-titty-princess-airbrushed-on-the-side fantasy. It's definitely the Erol Otus of the OSR.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:04
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Absurd Alhazred posted:It's not, a clean, easy answer for new GMs, though. Or a new player. I think people forget there's a lot of quirks and D&Disms that aren't entirely intuitive until you know the game. Folks also forget that if you extended the same "Just don't give the new player a complex class, help make their character for them, just ask them what they want to do and figure out what on their sheet does that" help any game becomes easy. Coolness Averted fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 16:21
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What D&D has over anything else is D&D Beyond. Having players create a character in 10-15 minutes (well, the numbers at least) and have all the formulas automatically calculated on the character sheet (rather than "I rolled a 15, which then added to my +2 proficiency, +2 from strength, and wait, did I calculate the +1 sword? Oh god") is incredibly time-saving. I am not debating the worth of the game itself, but accessibility is unparalleled due to D&DB.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:33
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canepazzo posted:What D&D has over anything else is D&D Beyond. Having players create a character in 10-15 minutes (well, the numbers at least) and have all the formulas automatically calculated on the character sheet (rather than "I rolled a 15, which then added to my +2 proficiency, +2 from strength, and wait, did I calculate the +1 sword? Oh god") is incredibly time-saving. I am not debating the worth of the game itself, but accessibility is unparalleled due to D&DB. "Anything else" doesn't totally hold true in a world with Lancer and Comp/Con (which imo is better than Beyond is at its job), but it definitely helps. Plus less niche.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:35
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canepazzo posted:What D&D has over anything else is D&D Beyond. Having players create a character in 10-15 minutes (well, the numbers at least) and have all the formulas automatically calculated on the character sheet (rather than "I rolled a 15, which then added to my +2 proficiency, +2 from strength, and wait, did I calculate the +1 sword? Oh god") is incredibly time-saving. I am not debating the worth of the game itself, but accessibility is unparalleled due to D&DB. D&D is far from the only game to have a quick automatic character generator. Lancer's is famously good.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:38
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I think D&D is definitely one of the easiest games to get into, and part of that is its support, along with its basic design. If i'm asked about someone who's new to DMing, i'd heartily recommend D&D because there's lots and lots of published material to run- it doesn't ask the table to be particularly good at improv, it handles larger tables without too much trouble. You lose a lot to do that(I prefer other systems for just about anything d&d can do), but I can't deny the advantages of D&D and its market position to a newcomer to the game type. Lancer's great, but i highly doubt a newfangled DM is going to know what to make of a highly complex tactical subgame combined with PBTA not-tactical stuff.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:41
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canepazzo posted:What D&D has over anything else is D&D Beyond. Having players create a character in 10-15 minutes (well, the numbers at least) and have all the formulas automatically calculated on the character sheet (rather than "I rolled a 15, which then added to my +2 proficiency, +2 from strength, and wait, did I calculate the +1 sword? Oh god") is incredibly time-saving. I am not debating the worth of the game itself, but accessibility is unparalleled due to D&DB. What's more, some of the more complicated games out there have free character generators available from either the publisher or the fan community.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:43
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You are right, I forgot about Comp/Con, which is amazing. And there's Pathbuilder for PF2. But I still think Beyond is king of the hill in regards to user experience and VTT integration (thanks to third party addons, in fairness); I've had complete newbies be up and running within 15-20 minutes with Beyond, and just have them focus on the character story, description, RP.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:43
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I think their point about not many games having such an easy onramp for accessible webtools is still valid, even if D&D is not the only game with them. Also being the big dog and having all of that stuff accessible from their website -and implemented in pretty much every major 3rd party VTT- is a total market advantage. I know my group and I got spoiled by say the roll20 module of blades in the dark so wound up disappointed when Spire really just had a character sheet you could fill out manually and basically no real rules implementation. Coolness Averted fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 16:49
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