Classless as in without character classes, I'm not talking about social mores or marxist utopias
Hard mode: preferably something that leans more narrativist if possible. Broader is generally better than more specific - if I had to choose, I'd prefer the 'Thief' was using 'Thievery' instead of having invested 100 of her skill schmeckles purely into Forgery: Coins and being handicapped in any campaign without a hardcore counterfeiting b-plot.
Other urls found in this thread:
dmsguild.com
twitter.com
For dungeon fantasy specifically or just any system?
I'd genuinely recommend FATE for broad narrativeness, I still need to convince some of my players to play a FATE game I'm planning on running.
Classless game that leans more narativist? Open legend.
Alternatively, if you're set on D&D, dmsguild.com
If you have the patience and a group of well read d20 enthusiast who actually want to tell a story instead of roll dice and slay monsters, Mutants and Masterminds is easily adapted to any setting provided your and your player can get over the name of the game and how easy it is to break.
You've got lots of options. I'll list the few that I know off hand.
>Mutants & Masterminds
Probably has more crunch than you want, however there's nothing stopping you from having a more narrative focused game. Easy to break, but in my opinion, not too bad.
>BESM
We even have a thread () if you want to talk about it more. The skills and powers are described broadly enough to lend itself to narrative games. It uses Tri- Stat, so even if you dont don't want to use the rest of the book, you can easily use tri- Stat as a base for a simple game.
>FUDGE
The whole idea of it boils down to "Roll your dice, move your mice". A simple dice system that you use for just about everything. Write skills and attributes to taste.
Or you can just make something up. It's not really that hard to find a resolution mechanic, add the skills you want, write up some powers and go from there. I've done it myself in an afternoon.
> For dungeon fantasy specifically
Well I wasn't thinking that, but now that you mention it, if I want to play anything else other than fantasy, I know what system I'd use (Traveler, Apocalypse World, SWRPG, etc)
I'd like flexibility to play 'fantasy' without necessarily needing to do 'dungeon' fantasy too (though that's fun too).
> I'd genuinely recommend FATE for broad narrativeness
Does anyone know where I can go to see this explained or played clearly?
> Mutants & Masterminds
Isn't this a superhero system?
ty for your replies btw, man I'm such a rude pos
Mutants & Masterminds is just packaged as a super hero system. At core, it's just classless d20. There's nothing stopping you from ignoring the capestuff and using it to run something else. Some people just can't see past the pictures and fluff.
Call of Cthulhu
I'd look at one of the many flavors of Runequest (Legend, Basic Roleplaying, RuneQuest, Mythras)
He asked about "dungeon fantasy" specifically, not fantasy in general.
There are plenty of systems that are of either this or that kind of fantasy but aren't about dungeon crawl or set in kitchen-sink world.
These are decent.
Get the fuck out. M&M is bad. I'm sorry but it just is. The damage mechanic pretends to be clever but it's just swingy bullshit and really doesn't reduce the bookkeeping of hit points at all.
Fudge is good but FATE is fucking terrible. BESM is anime shite. If you want something narrative play fucking Dungeon World or something.
OP you could try this game? It's a really shitty D&D clone but the core idea of it is really need.
I'm sure you meant to put CoC in the "these are decent" category
Classless games are trash. No pun intended, but they literally lack any kind of good style, theme, or 'class'.
Classless games are 'supposed' to allow players more freedom, but in reality all they do is weaken roles of the party, increase minmaxing, and everyone in the end will either become a jack of all trades or will play something resembling a normal class anyway.
Play with classes. Show off your worldbuilding through your class selection and their abilities. Do not play classless trash games.
CoC is a Runequest varient, so I imagine yes.
Though CoC's a little weak on the melee side (parries and attribute bonuses come to mind)
...
Burning Wheel seems to fit into what you're looking for, however it does have a pretty expansive skill list. It uses a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure style lifepath creation, no rolling involved.
To use your example, it only has one forgery skill, though it has about 16 social skills that might be covered under two or three in other systems (Persuasion, Falsehood, Intimidation, Oratory, Ugly Truth, Command, Conspicuous, Extortion, Etiquette, Haggling, Begging, Interrogation, Religious Diatribe Seduction).
In Burning Wheel's defense however, it has so many separate social skills so it a campaign not based around combat can survive and thrive. They system works best as a soft Slice of Medieval Life game, I think.
I would not recommend using that 5E supplement, it's not very good when you actually sit down and try to use it.
Savage Worlds or Shadow, Sword, & Spell
I've been wondering the same thing myself, so far my choices are Savage Worlds and Mini Six with the gear chapter from D6 Fantasy. Something without much cruft but still crunchy enough to do dungeon fantasy decently.
THEY'RE EATING THAT HIPPO ALIVE
You got a point, but only when talking about games that have strong incentives for a certain type of playing that requires roles.
If you want to play something like CoC or just fuck around in fantasy land, you don't need classes.