My group started with pathfinder, and while we love our characters, the systems felt too cumbersome and restricting and it really burnt out our (first time) GM
We did Lasers and Feelings recently and had a lot of fun with it, but I think its a little too free form to support a long running campaign.
Is there anything closer to Lasers and Feelings on the complexity spectrum, but with a little more structure and long term viability we could transplant our characters to?
I really like Shadows of the Demon Lord. It's a pretty simple system. You roll a d20 and add your modifier from one of the four stats (modifier= stat-10) and if you beat 10, you succeed. You can get bane (bad) or boon (good) dice added to the roll for difficulty or other modifiers. The way they work is you roll a number of d6s equal to high many bane/boons your dm says you get for the roll, take the highest result from those dice and add/subtract it to the result (based on whether you rolled boons or banes). They also cancel eachother out.
And that's pretty much it. The leveling system is kind of cool too. There are 10 levels and you start at level 0. After your first adventure you pick a novice career (warrior, magician, priest, rogue) and get stuff from that. Then as you level up you pick another career in a new tier based on your first one (so a magician can specialize into a warlock, wizard, witch, or sorcerer). Then later there is one more (so your magician-warlock might become a Demon binder or some shit)
The setting is a generic grimdark fantasy setting, but it's kind of in the background and not too important. It wouldn't be hard to swap it for just about anything else.
I'm a little drunk, so sorry if that description sucked.
Aiden Hughes
Truth told, no. The things that are going to make a game hold together long-term all cost complexity. You're going to have to take the hit on one side or the other.
If you want to roll your own look at Fudge/Fate. If you want to bounce from simple system to simple system changing them as they get stale look into indy games like Dogs in the Vineyard and Microscope. If you want a playable but limited d20 get the free 5e Basic Rules/SRD stuff and play it. If you find you need more options than that get the PHB.
Rules are simple and cross-compatible, plus you have everything from fighting dragons in dungeons to piloting starfighters in space.
Jaxon Davis
Sounds like garbage to be honest.
> playing 5e
It's complete shit. Bounded accuracy means your character only improved by 20% at what he is supposed to do. Fighters only get 20% better at hitting by 20th level. Why? Because Merals cannot balance for crap. The fun of a low-level monster hitting you is quickly replaced by the ""fun"" of never improving, being essentially stuck in one archetype, boring feats and lack of interesting builds outside multiclassing. It doesn't even have the old school feel of D&D. It is essentially 4e with hit dice and smaller numbers. Oh and hit dice make you heal now because apparently that's easier than debuffing / removing wands of cure light wounds, now healing has to be overly structured like the crappy video game that D&D has become.
Nolan Lee
>It is essentially 4e with hit dice and smaller numbers. Okay, that's a new one.
Juan Gomez
The 5e shills are misleading you. The game isn't as complex as Pathfinder, but is VASTLY closer to Pathfinder than it is to Lasers and Feelings.
If you're looking for something less complex than DnD you could try Savage Worlds. It's still more complex than L&F though.
Charles Peterson
So long as it can be engaging for multiple sessions, and isn't going to overwhelm or burn out our still newish DM and some of our equally newish players, that's my main concern
Luke Martinez
> second wind > fighters spend resources because LMAO EVERYONE SHOULD BE A CASTER > healing surges are back > action surge for fighters because martials should only be able to do cool things once per day > everything is damage damage damage > monsters have way too many fucking hit points
Yeah sounds a lot like 4e to me. Except with shitty hit dice and shitty vancian casting.
Fuck 5e, and 4e. And 3.5 for that matter but the difference is that people still advise 5e as a good system when it's a pile of horse crap.
Carson Phillips
What's your favorite edition and why?
Evan Lopez
I recommend Savage Worlds, although Veeky Forums seems to like shitting on it. There's a lot you can do with it, it's relatively rules light, and it's fun. You may have to homebrew some stuff since it's really modular, but that's again relatively simple.
Anthony Hughes
What ever you do, don't fall for the 5e meme.
Kevin Sullivan
Yeah, none of this shit is even remotely accurate. But it does remind me of something recent.
Gabriel Johnson
Just play a TSR edition and become a better human being.
Also Stars Without Number is sci-fi d20 that is very good. And Mutant Future is d20 and is post-apoc except 80s movie and not fallout-cloney.
Caleb Bailey
As we all know, Barbarians are spellcasters in 3.5.
Elijah Clark
>Savage Worlds That looks pretty promising, is there a mega link for it?
Jack White
Yeah rage is shit but at least it makes sense because you get tired as fuck after raging. Rage should have been a straight + to strength and - to AC, maybe a -4. Fuck this marking off bookkeeping shit. If a martial has a 1/day ability it better be fucking interesting because otherwise there is no fucking excuse for me to mark up my character sheet.
> which piece of shit out of the pile of shit is your favorite.
Jeremiah Sanders
> savage worlds > exploding dice > le dagger oneshots a dragon meme > aiming a shotgun auto-hits > bennies so no one has to fail a roll > ending sessions early to hack bennies > basically the 15 minute adventuring day on steroids > scoped 3 round burst rifle aimed gets +6 to hit > wild die tacked on because core mechanic is bullshit
Nope, Savage Worlds is crap.
> There's a lot you can do with it
This is also true of GURPS.
> it's relatively rules light,
This is also true of Dungeon World.
> and it's fun
This means nothing. Fun is meaningless in the context of game design, or choosing a system. It's a nonce word.
> You may have to homebrew some stuff since it's really modular, but that's again relatively simple.
Translation: the system is shit and you have to houserule stuff just for it to function. Also bullshit like an AK-47 dealing more damage than an M1 Garand despite firing a far less powerful cartridge. Go fuck yourself Savage Worlds. Not to mention armor that literally negates the armor penetration of a FUCKING .50 CAL RIFLE and makes the wearer unkillable except via headshot.
The game is such garbage I cannot believe they chose to use it to reboot Rifts. Such a great setting wasted on a fucking TRAINWRECK of a game.
William Long
> le dagger oneshots a dragon meme There is no creature alive that can't be brought down with a well placed stab of a dagger. It happens, get over it. > aiming a shotgun auto-hits Not strictly true. > bennies so no one has to fail a roll > ending sessions early to hack bennies > basically the 15 minute adventuring day on steroids There is literally nothing wrong with bennies > scoped 3 round burst rifle aimed gets +6 to hit Yes. And? > wild die tacked on because core mechanic is bullshit Literally what? That's like saying attack bonus is tacked on attack rolls, because the base mechanic is shit. Of course any system falls apart if you're going to arbitarily remove mechanics from it. >This means nothing. Fun is meaningless in the context of game design, or choosing a system. It's a nonce word. Pic related. Reminded me of that. >Translation: the system is shit and you have to houserule stuff just for it to function. No you colossal moron, where the hell did you pull that one out of? Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with you people.
