I want to run a game for some boys of mine, but I hate 5e. None of them know 5e very well, the one game I did run before was very loose on mechanics, so making this new game on a different system wouldn't be so hard.
I'm the type of autist who would learn something like GURPS, but none of them are; I need something simple enough for a new player to digest in a sitting, but complex enough to make a solid game. What's your favorite ttrpg that fits that description, /tg/? Genre is irrelevant.
Dungeon World is a really good narrative style system with only a few rules. Ran an elder scrolls campaign with my non-gamer friends and it went for several months. They loved it
>I need something else than DnD
>Have you tried DnD, but moronic?
>None of us are weebs.
Doesn't matter. It's an universal system that was simply marketed as "anime game", but this May I was using it to run a regular cyberpunk game with complete newbies and they didn't even know they are playing "anime game".
Pathfinder 2e might be your speed. It's similar to 5e in a lot of ways. I think it's better, despite its several problems.
PF2 has been on my radar for quite awhile, most specifically because I like how they structure combat and character building more. Do you think it's notably more complex for new players, or is it a wash compared to 5e?
Appreciate the recc, but I want some level of mechanical crunch too; combat is half the fun. Narrative style is something I think would bore me and my bros. None of them are the heavy roleplayer type.
There's combat rules and crunch. Signature weapons and spells etc. At least take a look is what I'd recommend
>. Do you think it's notably more complex for new players, or is it a wash compared to 5e?
What I like best is the action economy. You get 3 things to do that can be a combination of anything. It's modular and adds a level of complexity that is still rather simple, but much more satisfying than Action, Bonus, Move. Mostly because it's all interchangeable and there's no rulings like "no, you can't use your action to perform a bonus action".
There's also more fiddly little bonuses to stack as Pathfinder is want to do. Far better than advantage/disadvantage, and that alone makes it a better system in my book.
>I don't want DnD
>Have you tried Pathfinder?
Different name on the cover =/= different content.
Came here to post this. OVA is pretty much a go-to system when playing with both newbies and people who need to break a habit
OVA might be a good middleground. Lots of flexibility like GURPS, but minimal crunch and combat still has some good depth to it, though.
Damn, you pitch it well, but if I ask my boys to play "The Anime TTRPG" I am going to get beaten to death. None of us are weebs.
Would you describe it as a 'narrative game' like the other guy? Also, I play OSR, and I do enjoy the game system. It's just alot more crunchy and lethargic than my friends would be interested in.
>None of us are weebs.
That's a damned shame. It's not too heavy, mechanically, on weebshit, but the book is front to back weeb art.
>None of us are weebs.
>posts a VA11 HALL-A gif
No one believes you, tsundere-chan.
Use the system but remove all the art and the anime references in the text. Just get a PDF of OVA and start copy-pasting reams of rules text into a word document. Then you can make a new PDF from that or just print it out. If you think it looks empty without art you can just get art you like from the internet and insert that where it fits in the masses of text.
seconding Dungeon World
also ignore anyone who recommends B/X or anything related to the OSR
NTA but why do you say to ignore B/X or OSR?
Because it's garbage pushed into the discussion by nostalgic boomers. They'll talk about it in the same breath as things like Conan the Barbarian, meanwhile the gameplay involves spending hours breaking stuck doors, making search rolls in empty squares, and making saves against random traps that can only be found if you approach every single floor tile in every single room as if it's a bomb you're trying to defuse. All of that just so you can get enough gold to hire a bunch of expendable minions who explore the dungeon for you.
And that's aside from the braindead but ever-present combat where the best option for non-spellcasters is always rolling to attack.
It's very obvious you've never played an OSR game
Ironic, given he described all the flaws of OSR as experienced first-hand, but all you have to retort is "no, wrong".
Sure I'll go ahead and address it then. It's not by "nostalgic boomers" as it has only grown in popularity the increase of other OSR style games. Maybe boomers still play them but it's very much so not the entire audience.
It takes one turn to open a stuck door and in all my games I have played I have opened one stuck door by brute force. Usually there is some other easy way to do it if you look around or try to find a new path. Same with making searches in every square. I've never had the need to do this nor have I see a DM make it plan that way. Usually things that need searching are telegraphed or you can use the map you're making as a hint. This goes for traps as well. Idk why you're whining about gold to hire people. It sounds like you're just bad and have no understanding of retainers because you don't have to give them gold directly and they only take a small percentage of the gold you get. So if you get nothing you don't give them anything.
Finally, it is very obvious again you are a nogames moron who doesn't realize you can interact with the environment in a combat but avoiding combat on early levels is the easiest way to overcome this issue.
Please just play one game in your life and stop being a strange spiteful person who takes issues with other people having fun
Genesys is simply enough for a new player to digest in a sitting, but complex enough to give you and the players something to chew on.
Went through some summaries of dungeon world. I think the simplification of the rolls is a smart idea, since it doesn't reduce the scope and variety of moves a person could take, but I think it gets just a little bit too barebones for me; a half step more complex wouldn't bother me much. It reminded me of the star wars FFG games in how it resolved situations but pushed to a simplistic extreme.
Will look into it momentarily.
Have looked into it, I think I would prefer PF2 to this; it's pretty spiritually similar to OSR and that's something I want to avoid on a handful of levels for the group I'm trying to engage.
It's not like we don't watch anime from time to time, but it's not enough for me to pitch an anime system with a straight face. It's already going to be a hard sell to play a long campaign to begin with.
Hey, I love Cyberpunk as a genre, and the game is great. I ain't got nothing against anime, I like a lot of it, but for the most part, I just love art and animation. The anime that get deep into the cliches of the medium lose me quickly; usually, the less Anime(TM) an anime is, the more I enjoy it. My friends are even less anime-prone than I.
They aren't stupid (except one but I love that man like a brother), they just aren't TTRPG players. Asking them to commit one night weekly is already gonna be tough, so I have to make the starting point as easy as possible.
I've DMed once or twice before, and am generally comfortable in the role; I do bullshit rules a decent amount but nothing game breaking. I remember a time where my friend wanted to rip a weapon out of the enemy's hand, and I was pretty certain there wasn't a rule for that action, but I just rolled contesting strengths and let it play out. Cause it's fun.
>It's not like we don't watch anime from time to time, but it's not enough for me to pitch an anime system with a straight face. It's already going to be a hard sell to play a long campaign to begin with.
Give the system a look either way. You might like the mechanics enough to look past the art. If I recall correctly, most of the rules are contained in about 20 or so pages in the middle of the book.
>Anime? No thanks, I only like MANIME like Gurren Lagann and Beserk!
Like I thought, you're just a tsundere normie.
>i-it's not like I like anime or anything, b-baka!
Ah, my stupid ass. Genesys uses the FFG system, which I enjoyed a lot in the star wars RPGs; I never thought to look deeper into the publisher. This could be really promising, Anon, thanks!
Worlds Without Number. A lot of the complexity of the game is GM-facing, as there are tons of tools and rules for dungeon making, culture and faction making, faction actions, large scale projects, etc.
Hmm this is difficult since genre is unimportant. How stupid are your players? If you want the typical heroic fantasy, I'd recommend 13th Age, but I'm not sure if it's best for new GMs. ICRPG also not bad (it's incredibly simple so your players will have an easy time) and has good GMing recommendations if you're new to it all.
Call of Cthulhu is good too, but run one of the modules/premade adventures (it's hard getting atmosphere right your first time). If your friends are a lot of gays (one of my groups is literally just gay twinks) run vampire the masquerade.
Traveller
>I'm the type of autist who would learn something like GURPS, but none of them are; I need something simple enough for a new player to digest in a sitting, but complex enough to make a solid game. What's your favorite ttrpg that fits that description, /tg/? Genre is irrelevant.
Barbarians of Lemuria/Everywhen. The Honor + Intrigue branch is also good.
If you wanna learn something super fast you can try monster of the week, it’s a bit rules light but it’s solid.
Try 2400, it's cheap and stupidly light, or the free version 24XX. It's a sci-fi game but the site has a bunch of hacks and adaptations for other genres, some of them very niche. Also when I say it's stupidly light it's to the point where some groups will enjoy making up their own skills and powera while others may be turned off by the minimal structure, but the free version is a good way to have a look at what it's like.
I find the 2400/24xx/19xx games to be interesting, but my comfort zone with RPGs bucks wildly against the ultra simplified mechanics for reasons I can't fully articulate.
That's fair. It's a neat enough microsystem but hardly for everyone. I've been cobbling together rules from various splats that made tweaks to build a bit more structure bit even then it has a lot of making stuff up on the fly.
Something about the way that damage and danger are abstracted to being purely narrative aspects fries my brain and my first reflex is to start writing in an HP system and ascribing damage values and grafting more generic RPG concepts onto it.
A bit too lightweight for my tastes, I'm afraid.
Is the system REALLY so excellent that you think it's worth scalping and repackaging it?
Some I enjoyed were Ranking of Kings, Mushishi, Houseki No Kuni, Baccano, 91 Days. I like anime, it's not like I'm pulling niche titles here, I just don't really like the cliches that most fall into, especially shounen shit. The real point is just that billing something as 'anime' is moronic, since it's a visual medium; by referring to AnimeTM as a genre, all it brings to mind is cringe.
What hooked you on it? Is there a particular and notable mechanic example?
I like GURPS. It's just mammothlike to introduce to unenthusiastic comrades.
>Is the system REALLY so excellent that you think it's worth scalping and repackaging it?
OVA is okay. Like a solid 7/10 of a system. Simple enough that it doesn't take long to learn, but is fairly easy to homebrew for and if you want to make it crunchier, all the options are there.
You could just use some NuSR system like Mausritter.
Shadow of the Demon Lord would be my pick. It's got enough going on that it's not boring for people that like mechanics but it's all streamlined enough for the people that aren't into that. It's pretty easy to pick up and lay and the people who have a loose idea of what you do in 5e will find it fairly easy to get into. It's also better balanced, has more character options and meaningful choices.
Shadow of the Weird Wizard, it's sister game, would probably go over even better but that won't be out for a little while yet. Although the playtest is 98% complete and easy enough to find on the discord server if you don't mind a game that's not in trade dress.
The answer is GURPS.
Cortex, Savage, Sentinel. All are EZ die-step games.
Play Sword World 2.5.