Best Diceless Tabletop RPG

Hi, I'm an extremely experience GM (over 20 years experience) and I've run a ton of systems.

My favorite system these days is Dungeon World (or anything pbta) because of it's great narrative mechanic built right into the die rolls.

I can use it to run basically anything and have a great time.

But recently I was wondering about exploring diceless games that people might actually like. Most of my experience trying diceless is people don't like it because of that lack of chance, or perhaps it takes away the illusion that they have autonomous control, or I don't know.

What I'm wondering is, are there any diceless systems that could work to run a NORMAL (i.e. catch-all) game.

Not a specialized game like Microscope, or a game where only a specific kind of setting and goal works (Like Amber Diceless) but a diceless system where you can literally run a regular campaign, with GM, and group, and combat and regular old roleplay.

Like a genuinely satisfying conflict resolution mechanic. Strongly preferable one that isn't just pass-fail.

Anyone have any suggestions, have you played it? How did it work out?

Other urls found in this thread:

evilhat.com/pace/)
gregstolze.com/space.html),
drivethrurpg.com/product/210174/Diceless-Dungeons).
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Nobilis' resolution system (bet X tokens in secret, compare tokens bet at end) sounded interesting but that setting and theme were extremely unattractive so I don't know how it would actually play.

I didn't actually played it but Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine i think is supposed to be kinda catch-all game. You can choose any "genre" and entourage, and if you play a type of scene that is supported by chosen genre (every have 3-4 assigned) you get XP. You chose freeform "skills" that are kinda of like fate aspects given numerical value and spend resources to up your result, witch is pretty common mechanic in diceless games i think. There is also degrees of success iirc, you can distribute your final result over several success descriptors or something like that.
Wouldn't call a genuinely satisfying conflict resolution mechanic though. But maybe in play it feels right and good, dunno.

Stalker the scifi RPG has fully diceless system.

none of them, play an actual ttrpg you fucking castrato.

That game has basically no system. It's just "tell something to your GM and he arbitrarily decides if you pass or not", with a sort of mechanic to alleviate failures in a limited fashion. It's in the top 5 of worst games I've ever seen. It's unplayable trash.

Adding to this, Sherpa (which is an ultra light generic system from the guy who made Fudge) had a diceless option, which was basically to convert rolls into comparison of static numbers. Players have a Fate point like resource to spend to improve their odds. But that's very thin of a game.

what's the pic from? google gives me nothing.

It gives you nothing cause that drawing is a copy.

It's from a chapter cover of gunsmith cats, but the image you're looking at is just me copying that chapter drawing, for drawing practice.

Also,

Thanks for answering

It's a very good copy.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

>what's the pic from? google gives me nothing.

As a bit of advice - if you can't figure out where a black and white manga image comes from after using iqdb, make use of the saucenao link on that page. It often will point you in the right direction, giving you the manga name/chapter to search for on google.

Good to know. (Not person you're replying to, but am OP.)

I love a good dicelss system and have played a number of them. My top three suggestions would be Pace (evilhat.com/pace/) , ...In Spaaace! (gregstolze.com/space.html), and Diceless Risus (attached)

Pace and ...In Spaaace! both use token bidding systems where you earn and spend as the game progresses. Both are rules lite and narratively focused and do an excellent job of giving the feel of the ebb and flow of a well told story. Diceless Risus is a bit more traditional in appearance, although still quite lite, with the basic mechanic being compare numerical totals, with the higher one winning. You can earn modifiers to increase your total through game play and cleverness, but that's most of the system right there. It's pretty much pass/fail, which I know you said you weren't all that interested in, but it works well.

For the record, the setting for ...In Spaaace! is comedic in nature, but the system itself is not. To use it for serious games you merely need to adjust your assumptions about game play rather than doing anything to the rules themselves. The same goes for Pace, which is more lighthearted than comedic. The rules for it work just fine for more dramatic games, too.

Also, let me give a shoutout to Diceless Dungeons (drivethrurpg.com/product/210174/Diceless-Dungeons). This is a really interesting little system that lets you do diceless dungeon crawling. The primary mechanic is based on hit points. That party has a finite amount of them and every trap or encounter they have chips away at them. There are things you can do to help mitigate this, like surprise attacks, trap checks, negotiating for passage and so on, but its all about husbanding those points and knowing just how far to push it. The only randomness is that the damage potential of encounters can vary slightly, either positively or negatively, so the players can have a good idea about how many HP they'll lose for facing it, but they'll never know exactly.
The game definitely isn't going to be to everyone's taste but I heartily recommend people checking it out.

bmp

One more

Just wanted to come into this thread and say that you have impeccable taste in manga, OP.

Thanks a lot for your replies they were really good, and I appreciate the like to the diceless Risus, am definitely checking it out.

I knew about Diceless Dungeons by name but didn't now the mechanic behind it.

Thanks for the kindness!

You are both obviously men of good taste.

This is technically a very good copy but I feel that you're probably just not a big enough pedo to copy Sonoda effectively, user.

Oh wow

I lol'd