The last four campaigns I ran were medieval fantasy. I'm kind of burnt out on that genre right now, but I want to run a tabletop RPG campaign for some people who have never played before.
What are some good light-medium weight systems (think OD&D level of complexity) for something completely different?
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Dungeon World
It's pretty much objectively one of the best currently out there. It has fast easy to use mechsnics and is perfect for beginners, it's a lot cheaper than most of these other rules bloated systems that cost fifty dollars. There is no reason for extra rules when it is he role playing that matters. Dungeon World is fast and innovative and still feels exactly like the spirit of ADND before DnD 3.5 destroyed the hobby and ruined a generation of role players.
You want fast, intuitive combat? Dungeon World does that.
You want real, deep roleplaying mechanics? Dungeon World does that.
You want great mechanics that reward diversity of play? Dungeon World does that as well.
My last session of Dungeon World my human fighter wrapped a vampire in a bear hug and wrestled him out a window. This is real roleplaying we are talking about here, not babby 3.5 shit. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Dungeon World today, it is an evolution and perfection of the half-formed ideas in Apocalypse World (the game it is derived from)
Shadow of Esteren. Perhaps not the simplest system ever, but it is the best explained one by the rulebook.
Also, Traveller has a nice system. net too complex, fun to roleplay.
As a GM of three DM campaigns and having played in two others, I think DW is good but has several flaws you need to know right out of the game.
1) Ranged characters are better than melee. The Volley move is superior to Hack and Slash because spending extra arrows is always better than taking damage.
2) Characters have almost no vertical growth. You start with a +2 in one stat and you can raise that to +3, the maximum, in maybe two sessions. Your class features can make your successes more impactful or lessen the consequences of failures but your odds of success won't really improve much.
3) Monsters (as written in the book) are very boring and don't have a lot going for them tactically. You won't see anything like 4E D&D where enemies have explicit, useful combat powers and roles to guide their usage. It's mostly just off the cuff rulings and arbitrarily asking for attribute checks that make sense. That can work for you but a lot of GMs will get frustrated having to ad-hoc all the time.
OP, I would recommend that you play Don't Rest Your Head. It's urban fantasy done right and very easy to learn and make characters for. Players are insomniacs who have stayed up so long they can perceive a whole new layer of reality called the Mad City, a crazy world made of nightmares and perhaps the collective unconscious of humanity. The PCs get supernatural powers based around their particular insanities and delusions, and it's super easy to invent new ones. The mechanics are very tight and characters get stronger as they get more 'injured' so things escalate very well. Check it out.
>OP, I would recommend that you play Don't Rest Your Head.
Actually, that game is total garbage, and Dungeon World can easily emulate it's mechanics. The moves mechanics can do absolutely anything, including completely obsoleting other RPGs. It is a flat out replacement for Dungeons and Dragons. Full-stop. It can also replace the mechanics of many sci-fi games such as Traveller and Savage Worlds.
If I ever get a time machine, the first thing I'm going to do is murder the creators of Dungeon World in their cribs. Not to prevent the system from being created, mind you, but just to prevent this meme from ever coming into existence.
I once played a short campaign on a D6 system based on the Resident Evil universe. It was pretty easy and also quite fun. The system really shows its limits if the game is dragging on though.
If you want some soft sci-fi, I'd recommend Stars Without Number. It's system is mostly AD&D with a bit of Traveller thrown for good measure, and it's really easy to use. Character creation takes like ten minutes, tops. Altough the world creation itself is a bit more tedious, there is pretty neat generator here: swn.emichron.com
It also has a free version that has basically all the rules in it, so if you don't want to be a scrub, you don't have to pirate it.
You do understand you can go to jail for threatening someone's life like that, right?
Fucking hilarious user. Even if Interpol was reading this very thread, I wouldn't have to worry about shit because
>If I ever get a time machine
>If I ever get a device which is, according to our modern understanding of science, impossible
It doesn't matter, because you have still expressed a desire to kill someone, which is illegal.
That generator is fairly good but Stars Without Number is a trash system based on outdated mechanics (AD&D) that have no place in an evolved roleplaying environment. Use the generator, but drop SWN and use modified Dunegon World instead. You can create your own moves in a matter of minutes and be ready to game.
>It doesn't matter, because you have still expressed a desire to kill someone, which is illegal.
Call the cops, see if they give a fuck about my thoughtcrime.
OP here. I said NOT medieval fantasy.
Also, Dungeon World is not that good.
I think the Dungeon world user is from yurope. Poor Germans can't even openly question the refugee problem without facing charges. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume he's facing similar Orwellian laws.
Well I can think of a couple of RPGs that are about as different from Fantasy as you can get.
1. Cyberpunk 2020: This is the original Cyberpunk RPG and I prefer it over Shadowrun. The setting has all the classic Cyberpunk tropes. Soulless megacorporations, cybernetics, hacking. Sure the setting can feel dated, and sure the rules aren't particularly well balanced, but the ruleset has real heart to it and really serves to re-inforce the feel and themes of the setting. The system itself is pretty simple. It boils down to roll 1d10 + Skill + Attribute +/- Modifiyer and should be easy for DnD players to pick up and play.
2. Deadlands (Classic or Reloaded): Deadlands is an awesome setting. Imagine a world where we took the gritty anti-heroes of Spaghetti Westerns, and pitted them against B-Movie Monsters. Both the original, classic Deadlands system and Reloaded which uses the Savage Worlds system are quite good and very different from DnD. I like Savage Worlds, but some players find that system to be overly simplistic. In which case, you can always use Deadlands Classic.
3. Mutant Chronicles 3rd edition: MC is a Dieselpunk sci-fi horror setting set in a terraformed solar system. Mutant Chronicles is overall a more interesting and coherent setting that Warhammer 40,000, and the Modiphius 2d20 system is quite easy to pick up and play. So I would recommend MC over Dark Heresy any day of the week for space horror.
4. Polaris: This is a new game that just got translated from French. It's about as different from your standard fantasy setting as its possible to get. It's set in a post apocalyptic future where nuclear war, climate change and the loss of the ozone layer have rendered the surface uninhabitable so Mankind have fled beneath the waves. This makes for an interesting kind of underwater space opera setting. The system is a fairly simple d20 roll under system.
No, Dungeon World is the best RPG available. Most of you have not read the game so your opinion is already false and unacceptable. You do not have the right to say shit about Dungeon World when you don't know the rules.
Start here. You can rejoin the discussion when you have familiarized yourself with the basic mechanics.
>No, Dungeon World is the best RPG available.
Nope. Now kill this meme.
Swords & Wizardry Complete is the best RPG available for dungeon crawl fantasy.
Dude, I have watched Dungeon World when it was GMd by one of its creators, and I've read the source book as well. I like the game, but it's not the best game out there. Hell, it's not even the best Apocalypse World hack that's out there. Even it's creators agree on the fact that it's good for beginners but it doesn't have much in the way of depth.
Nope, nope, nope, you little fuck, read the rules before you comment any further.
No, it is actually better than Apocalypse World, which was overly-lethal, full of swears, and full of overcomplicated mechanics. It also didn't have the bestiary and level of content that Dungeon World did.
>overly-lethal
A game about crawling into holes to steal from monsters who are as likely to kill you as talk to you SHOULD be lethal.
>No, Dungeon World is the best RPG available. Most of you have not read the game so your opinion is already false and unacceptable.
>Nope, nope, nope, you little fuck, read the rules before you comment any further.
I've played and run more than 50 sessions of Dungeon World and I do not think it is the best RPG available. Combat moves aren't well balanced. Non-combat moves are ambiguous to the point of being useless. The scaling is non-existent. It doesn't handle high-level adventuring well. There's no concept of difficulty ratings (Hack and Slash on a goblin is as likely to succeed as Hack and Slash on a dragon). Characters level up far too quickly. It uses the D&D-style six attributes, which are poorly defined and are confusing to new players. It suffers greatly from Quantum Bears syndrome. Armour of 2 or greater de-fangs all low-damage enemies and is completely worthless against high-damage enemies. Spells per day are retained despite there being no reason to include them other than nostalgia. Many class moves (in the core game, mind you) are broken to the point of making threats and enemies obsolete - Bard healing for one. Volley is strictly better than Hack and Slash. Monsters are boring. The game expects the GM to invent new Moves for anything and everything that isn't explicitly covered by the rules.
These are just some of the issues and complaints I've dealt with, often repeatedly, over the course of these games. Now go ahead, tell me I've been 'playing it wrong', that your system is perfect and that I'm just an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. It's easier than having to actually address my points.
>full of swears
Aw, did your mommy yell at you when she caught you reading material unsuitable for minors?
A pathetic ad-hominem? That's the best you can do? You're just adding credence to the assertion that anti-dungeon-world posters have no arguments.
> Combat moves aren't well balanced.
Yes they are
> Non-combat moves are ambiguous to the point of being useless.
No, you just don't know how to run the system.
> The scaling is non-existent.
What the fuck does that even mean? It doesn't have to be like D&D you fucking cunt.
> It doesn't handle high-level adventuring well.
D&D doesn't handle high-level adventuring well, and it invented the fucking concept.
> There's no concept of difficulty ratings
That's the point.
> Hack and Slash on a goblin is as likely to succeed as Hack and Slash on a dragon
So? Dragon has armor so it takes less damage. Dragon should be easier to be hit to be honest. Your "argument gets BTFO yet again.
> Characters level up far too quickly.
To prevent grinding, a la D&D.
> It uses the D&D-style six attributes, which are poorly defined and are confusing to new players.
No they aren't. Certainly no worse than any other game.
> It suffers greatly from Quantum Bears syndrome.
So some meme that doesn't even exist.
> Many class moves (in the core game, mind you) are broken to the point of making threats and enemies obsolete
The game is about the players and their successes. Also that shit doesn't happen til higher levels.
> Volley is strictly better than Hack and Slash.
Well maybe that's because shooting arrows tends to be better since you can't get hit back.
> The game expects the GM to invent new Moves for anything and everything that isn't explicitly covered by the rules.
The core rules cover anything you would need for a heroic fantasy game.
ITT: People who hate DW false-flag to try and troll Veeky Forums
You want medium weight, relatable for newbies, non medieval?
On the storygames end try the Firefly RPG. Great pacing, narratives feel true to the show, v accessible if you've seen it.
On the simulationist sort of end, try AFMBE and get some zombies up in your business. Players love that cliche shit.
>Yes they are
You also say that it's fine for Volley to be better than Hack and Slash. You contradict yourself.
>What the fuck does that even mean?
If you don't understand the concept of scaling effectiveness in an RPG then I don't know what to say to you. Well, except maybe to read about game design so you're not quite so terribly misinformed.
>D&D doesn't handle high-level adventuring well, and it invented the fucking concept.
The fact that one product is bad at a function does not mean that your chosen product is good. Dungeon World is worse than 2E, 3E, 4E, and 5E high level play because dungeon world doesn't support high level play whatsoever. You are a low-to-mid-powered hero and you will never be anything more than that. This is enforced by how the game handles damage, health, and attribute modifiers.
>That's the point.
>Your "argument gets BTFO yet again.
Scaling a brick wall should be easier than scaling a sheer stone wall. In Dungeon World they're equally difficult. Shooting a slow-moving stone golem point-blank is just as difficult as hitting a hawk flying at top speed five-hundred feet away. Every other 'rules light' game takes the inherent difficulty of a task into account.
>To prevent grinding, a la D&D.
Grinding. I do not think that means what you think it means. You have no idea what you're talking about.
>So some meme that doesn't even exist.
Whatever you say.
>The game is about the players and their successes. Also that shit doesn't happen til higher levels.
Bards get infinite healing at level 1.
>The core rules cover anything you would need for a heroic fantasy game.
Cool. Show me the rules for crafting magical items, researching spells, grappling or disarming enemies in combat, breaking and repairing equipment, and how about the dozens of basic staples of spellcasting that aren't included as options for the Cleric and Wizard? It's a shallow skeleton of a system that relies heavily on the GM making it up as they go along.
He's trolling you, buddy. Leave it be. Nobody really believes DW is the best system ever, and I say this as a big fan of the system's good decisions.
Oh, I already figured that out. I enjoy engaging with them over game design because it helps me gain clarity on what specifically does and does not work in games. I love DW but arguing with fanboys (or pretend fanboys) helps me isolate its biggest flaws and thus avoid them in my own work.
Go to bed, Mr Koebel.
You might look at Savage Worlds, or Fate and it's variants. Currently I'm running a game of 'Mutant, Year Zero' and having a good time. Simple system and puts a different spin on the group dynamics rather than 'All Murder-hobo all the time'.
>To prevent grinding, a la D&D.
THE ENTIRE POINT OF CLASSIC D&D IS FEEDBACK LOOP OF STEALING TREASURE TO GET XP, SPENDING THAT GOLD ON TRAINING & OTHER FEES, AND GOING BACK TO THE DUNGEON TO LEVEL UP. REMOVING THAT IS TO REMOVE THE KEY SUBSYSTEM OF CLASSIC D&D DUNGEONCRAWLING.