What's the "best" RPG to introduce to my normie friends? They're open to trying but they seem to lack overall enthusiasm towards it.
I was thinking The One Ring or Star Wars as those are very recognizable settings and enjoyable by most. However, from my own research, Star Wars looks convoluted with the dice and TOR has no "beginner set."
Ideally, I'd like to run them on some sort of beginner set to see if they like it.
Anyone have any recommendations?
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>They're open to trying
> they lack enthusiasm towards it
DON'T TRY PLAYING WITH NORMIES
I had the same parameters when looking for a game for my normie friends and my normie self. I suggest Betrayal on the House on the Hill. It's easy to pick up, not heavy on the rules, and plays 3-6 players for an hour avg play time. Starts co op until a game changer appears later pitting one of you against the rest.
Ryuutama is the overall most beginner-friendly RPG known to me.
That said, it's probably not for your group.
The deciding factors here are:
What RPGs are you familiar with (i.e. you've run or at the very least played them)?
What are the interests of your friends? Do they even have any in common?
That's no RPG.
End of the World series by FFG.
Super simple ruleset. Character creation takes two seconds because you play as yourself. Super fast paced. Everyone dies at the end so you just need a few hours, and everyone is familiar with the themes.
Tons of fun for everyone!
It has rpg elements, stats, items, events and the like. It's casual as fuck and proven a hit with the normies omg
Dnd is always a good start and there is a starters set with reasonable cost. (20 Bucks i think).
CoC could also be fun because your normie friends can create themself and be slaughtered by some shoggoth. also make the adventure in your hometown so there is less the characters dont know about the setting.
My party recently started with this two.
But end of the world is shit
Most video games have RPG elements these days.
That does not make Betrayal at House on Hill more than a board game.
Do they like Mad Max, Walking Dead, that sort of thing?
Have them download Apocalypse World for free.
They're normies, they won't care.
>They're open to trying but they seem to lack overall enthusiasm towards it.
Sorry OP but they're not open to try it if they can't be arsed to on their own volition. They are "open" to it because they're humouring you and don't want to hurt your feelings.
Why is it shit exactly? I was looking at one of the books at my FLGS and it looked pretty decent
OP here. Thanks for the suggestions.
D&D doesn't overly interest them because we do/play similar board games.
CoC seems fun be we play Mansions of Madness so it may be overkill.
How easy is Shadowrun for beginners? I'm fairly experienced with RPG'S, board games, wargaming, so I think I'll be able to handle most rules, but I'd like something they don't have to read 300 pages to understand.
Why not try Strike!
In my experience, there's D&D boardgames or cardgames that are actually the first part of an adventure path. If they've already picked out the game and which characters they like, then I think you can just print off the level 2 sheet and go.
as to Shadowrun, that was my first real RPG and I loved all the MegaCorps and the constant argument between it being a Utopian and Dystopian future. They don't need all 300 pages if you start them all as street sams or mercs, limit rigging to simplified driving tests, and hire someone to do your Decking for you. I'm a few editions behind, tho, I think.
>Star Wars looks convoluted with the dice
It's really not. It has a very well-written starter set that introduces the dice mechanics well, and most importantly *the dice mechanics encourage good roleplaying habits*. You get the opportunity to contribute to the narrative if you want by spending Advantage/Triumph but don't have to. 'You rolled a triumph; what do you think's the best way this could have gone?' is a good way to encourage newbies to contribute.
Except its not
I could see how sperglords give a shit because the whole system is very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. Everything is D6, its not very deep.
>Okay user you are running from a zombie horde, try jumping to the other roof, roll a D6!
That's the basis of the system. And there's no XP because it's really meant to last one fast and fun session as everyone dies while the world collapses around you.
So, if you take your RPGing very seriously, no. If you are willing to loosen up and have a fun session, you'll love it. That's why its great for normies, you can play over drinks and everyone laughs.
You guys need to go back and change your core mechanics so people will actually take you seriously.
I get that you're sad that so much work was wasted, but maybe you should've valued people's time a bit more by going with something actually useful instead of just trying to be contrarian about it.
The shilling thing is sad. It's turning into "install Gentoo" v2.0, and for good reason.
/thread
not OP but how's basic fantasy rpg?
I've been looking to try out PnP games with some friends and this looks like it could be a good and simple way to get into the hobby.
Isn't that pretty much just wholesale 3.5e with the serial numbers ever-so-slightly filed off? Or am i thinking of something else with a similar name?
It's an OSR game, so more like Basic D&D with the serial numbers filed off.
Oh. Well, I'm the type who can tell the difference so I suppose I must've been thinking of something else.
Does Basic Fantasy have the silly +% experience gained for a high prime prerequisite stat thing?
nWoD tends to be pretty fun and incredibly easy to learn. I should be very clear though: This is true primarily of 1e. The recently released "Chronicles of Darkness" / "God Machine Chronicle" / nWoD 2e / whatever the fuck you want to call it, while it has made some improvements to the game, has complicated it well beyond "A child could pick this up in 10 minutes if someone who knew how to play was teaching them". Also if you try and start out playing as supernaturals that's going to complicate things too.
As a modern setting it has the advantage of being unlike a lot of other fantasy shit you might have seen around. I would recommend rather than playing as yourselves, have everyone play as someone that they barely know. And then like, set it in your own city. Have some fuggen ghosts or vampires or whatever.
No clue, I haven't read it, but I wouldn't call it silly. In early D&D that was almost the only thing your stats did, most everything else was level-based, so having poor stats wasn't a big deal yet.
No, but Humans do get a 10% bonus to experience to compensate for not having special abilities.
>2e
>improvements
top kek m80
InSpectres is a super simple game and having played with some people who never played RPGs before, we had a great time.
Fiasco is another rules light game that's lots of fun.
Do they enjoy any competitive normie games?
Do you enjoy watching them try to backstab each other?
If you answered yes to both, Paranoia might be the game for you.
Call of Cthulhu has the best system for newbs, hands down.
Don't use One Ring, it's too much of a story-telling game and is not representative of classic rpging.
D&D can be too intimidating. If your friends like Star Wars, I seriously recommend Saga Edition, which uses a stripped down D&D D20 system. Watch out, force users are overpowered though. The new star wars game uses funny dice, not so good for beginners (imho). Also Saga Edition is ideal as springboard into D&D.
Dungeon World worked well for me for introducing some normie friends to roleplaying. It helped that there isn't a lot of mechanical weight on the players--from their perspective, it's basically "just say what you do and the GM tells you when and what to roll when you trigger a move."
A couple of them got really into it, like the girl who played a Dashing Hero. She loved making big, inspiring speeches before trying (and failing) some big, showy stunt.
It might not be a great introduction to more mechanically-heavy systems and it isn't good for quiet or unenthusiastic players, but if your goal is just to get some normal-types roleplaying, DW works pretty well.
Let me reiterate my above point: Star Wars Saga Edition uses a simplified D&D system. Therefore it's superior in moving the players further into the hobby, if they like it. They will surely want to try D&D at some point and as such everyone will have developed a better grasp at its concepts.
>that said, I hate that every normie only knows D&D. if they catch onto the hobby, move them away from D&D after a while.
CoC quickstart
5e Starter set
LOTFP (run Tower of the Stargazer)
>it isn't good for quiet or unenthusiastic players
Is ANY system good for those guys?
Nah, I think it's just that Dungeon World can feel extra punishing for that kind of player unless the GM is *really* good at involving people. There's no initiative/turns in combat so it's possible for quiet players to just never even get to do anything. I had a couple players like that who I really had to work to actively involve.
I was surprised to find that the most "normie" of my normie friends were the ones who got most into the game, though.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
In that case, couldn't you just threaten their characters form time to time, or separate them during a fight, or put 'em in a bind so they get a bit of spotlight now and then? I mean, with no initiative or turns, the "camera" goes where the GM points it, right?
Yep, that's basically what you have to do. Separate them, put the spotlight on them, tee up an enemy to give them an easy shot at doing something cool and getting into the fight, that kind of thing.
Towards the end of the campaign the two quieter players started getting more involved and taking the initiative both in and out of action scenes. I should probably run it for that group again.
Most of them went on to play 13th Age with me and now one of them is running his own D&D 5e game so it worked out well overall.
Right on, I wish my players would step it up and run something now and then.
Why would you try to push them towards D&D? Fuck that noise - playing with newbs is possibly the best chance you'll ever get to play those cool systems you've read about but your regular group is too set in their ways to try.
>not so good for beginners
>recommends fucking Saga Edition with its trap options and bullshit Jedi over "these are good dice and bad dice, these symbols cancel each other out, whatever's left after you've rolled them all is your result"
Get out.
the simplest of all Star Wars games to get into is d6, though
Depends on the kind of uninvolved player you have, really.
Some do want to be involved but don't want to rock the boat/ have trouble speaking up/whatever, and that's probably the good way to go about it.
However some of them are really just there to hang out with their buddies, and watch the game unfold and don't WANT the spotlight and feel uncomfortable when they are put on the spot.
A traditional initiative system however kinda tricks these types of players. They don't feel quite as put on the spot when their turn comes up, because, they understand how games work, and so when their turn comes up they take it generally pretty easily (even if it is only a "uhhhh, I attack") because that is what you do in games when it is your turn.
Yeah, one of the quieter players in that DW game went on to play a Ranger in 13th Age because that class makes it really easy to just go "I shoot" or "I shoot twice" and still contribute.
She turned out to be a pretty good roleplayer outside of combat, though. Combat just wasn't her thing and that's what the simpler classes are for.
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D6 Star Wars Revised, Expanded, and Updated
Unless this is the version you thought would be too confusing "with all the dice" - I'm not sure how that can really be, though, you literally just roll the number of dice on the character sheet, sometimes with +1 or +2 pips.
REUP D6SW also has a pretty cool droid creation system included, entirely new as far as I can tell. (I only collected the D6SW books, though, so it could be copied from post-WEG versions)
Everyone is John?
As mentioned, I hate the fact that D&D is the only famous RPG but I also acknowledge the fact that gamers will want to have it played at least a couple times.
So I recommend getting it out of your system early and then moving to the real deal. CoC, 40K Roleplay, Shadowrun, WoD, etc.
>because you play as yourself.
That doesn't sound like fun to me. I have to play an obese guy who gets winded in ~5 minutes of being chased?
Show them this and then do Star Wars
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