If it’s a PbtA please expand on your system of choice!
I’ll start:
I really enjoyed Sexy Battle Wizards, but I think The Witch is Dead speaks to me more. I like player characters just being little weak dudes and struggling against normal stuff. (both of these are free by grant howitt and 1 page of rules)
I also enjoyed rude detectives, it has a surprisingly juicy dice system for a game that’s just 4-5 pages. It’s themed around child detective stories.
PbtA I like magpies stuff, like avatar and root, but my favorite until now was Fellowship 2e I think. Just so extremely versatile, and it’s a joy to give a lot of narrative control to players.
Last one is kinda cheating: my current favorite game is rules light within it’s genre. 13th Age is the easiest ‘dnd’ I’ve ever seen, and the amount of dumb rules and bookkeeping it prunes has reinvigorated 20f games for me! But compared to other games, it’s still a bunch of rules of course.
Lasers and Feelings is so rule-light the rules document is actually a single page. I played it once and had a blast with my character, who I named Beef McLargeHuge and who got into some weird situations, and mostly solved problems by seducing
whoeverwhatever was convenient.Don’t pre-plan outcomes—let the chips fall where they may. Use failures to push the action forward.
This bit should apply to most TTRPGs
Also had about a billion hacks https://writingalchemy.net/resources/lasers-and-feelings-hacks/
Cars and Family provided one of my favorite games I’ve ever run
I can’t visit that page, seems like their SSL certificate is dead?
Ah I’m an idiot, my browser warned me for the http-only page, that was all
I just read it, that looks like a lot of fun to do a one-shot in!
It’s my go to system for a quick one shot to introduce people to ttrpgs. Always fun, crazy, and simple to learn. And minimal work for the DM so long as you’re willing to bounce off whatever your players come up with.
I’ve run some one shots for more experienced players that have been really memorable and full of creative play, too. The simple mechanics don’t hold it back. It excels when you’re willing to “yes, and” pretty much everything.
That’s pretty cool. The only thing that would make me a little more comfortable is some guidance on how to set the DCs for some example actions.
There are no DCs. Each player chooses a number between 2 and 5 to represent their characters’ aptitudes. High means they’re better at Lasers “(technology; science; cold rationality; calm, precise action)”, and low means they’re better at Feelings “(intuition; diplomacy; seduction; wild, passionate action)”. The GM only needs to decide which of those two any action is (they need to roll under their number to succeed at Lasers, and over their number to succeed at Feelings), and also whether the character is prepared (based on the situation), or an expert at the subject (based on their characters’ chosen expertise), and for each one they get an extra die. The target number is always the player characters’ own chosen number.
My favorite little twist is that rolling your number results in “laser feelings”, which instructs the DM to reveal something important to the PC.
It’s basically a narrative shove forward every time it happens and keeps the game fast and fresh.
Ironsworn is one of the lightest systems I enjoy, it’s on the crunchy end of PbtA. Lots of moves so you don’t have to rely on Defy Danger that much when doing some perilous adventuring. Novel way of handling “clocks” with their own set of moves. And fully support Co-op and solo play which also ads some moves.
Blades in the Dark is lighter but I don’t quite make the setting work for me, its awesomeness have yet to click for me. Its mechanics though - chef’s kiss.
@tissek @GataZapata I don’t think you can call Blades (or Wicked Ones, mentioned below) rules light. It’s core mechanic is super simple, yes, and has inspired lots of lightweight hacks. But Blades has soooo much tacked onto it that it almost feels like a board game to me in the sense that there are just so many moving pieces, and stages of play, and faction play, etc: it feels like a collection of mini-games sometimes.
Blades is one of the most often hacked games… There is an entire section on drive thru rpgs for “forged in the dark” games with different settings. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?filters=100226_0_0_0_0&src=fid100226
I know… I just need to find the time and space to delve properly into it. Wicked Ones is already high on my reading list, Band of Blades sure does interest me. Time though…
Wicked ones is excellent! I had a lot of fun with it. Have the hardback physical and love the game.
@GataZapata @tissek @rhythmicotter although IT feels to me that Wicked Ones is a crunchier FitD. Still a great Game. We had way too much fun with it.
I liked the magic system. I made like a haunted ghost spirit to keep the place we were going to raid up at night, just coming through the ceiling and bleating in the night. It gave me just enough guidance to be really fun for me while seeming super free form as the shaman (I think)
I played starforged, I think that’s the same in space. Been meaning to read and run it ever since but you know how it is…
Especially the solo play the intrigues me.
I steal from the roll tables for that for the games though hehe.Base ironsworn is free BTW as far as I know, for anyone reading
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Two I really enjoy are Index Card RPG by Runehammer, d20 done nice and light.
The other is Breathless by Fari Games, it has a free SRD and tons of games for it released under the Breathless Jam https://itch.io/jam/breathless-jam/entries
Seconded for ICRPG. The way it handles exploration and the whole tension die thing is great.
This is great! The is also a kinda fantasy version in we are champion or sth like that. Great game, the one linked especially!
Dread is fairly unique and I had a blast running it
I’m yet to play it, but I’ve been looking at it and it seems really good!
I like to introduce new players to RPGs with Cairn. Bare-bones medieval fantasy RPG.
I heard of that recently! Thanks for reminding me
Shadowdark! Everything I love about 5e, none of the cruft.
I mean, Amber Diceless is pretty light on the rules. If you know the source material, it’s pretty intuitive as well.
Yes, 100% this! There is so much fun to be had with this system.
I just played Shadowdark and my players and I found it refreshingly simple to play. I did a video about it here:
I’ve only played 10-15 or so systems with a a few forays into extremely niche systems, but I’ve really enjoyed Fate Condensed, far more than I thought I would. My regular group are the ideal audience for it too as we all have a very ‘writers room’ approach to storytelling.
“Only” 10-15… That is a good healthy number. When really thinking I got to 18 (I think), but that includes campaigns lasting but a session or two.
Unfortunately it’s paired with 100+ 5e sessions and no others have lasted more than 5, which is probably where my cynicism about it comes from. Plenty of mine were also one-shots.
That sounds way too similar. DnD being the staple game that I’m for some reason always in one. Finding groups for more niche games is hard, even filling groups for the games I run can be hard. So much that have to fit - schedules, tastes etc.
Finding players for the stuff I run, yes. Finding anyone else that invites you to play a game that is not 5e is unreasonably hard.
Here in Germany you can get black eye groups too, and sometimes cthulu, but those are the main ones
Is fate intended for a certain kind of setting (fantasy, sci-fi etc) or is it more freeform/fits all?
Fate is probably about as freeform / fits all as you can get, and compared to other similar systems like GURPS, making the kind of alterations to make it fit Fantasy Vs apocalyptic Vs cyberpunk etc is really easy, but the system remains evocative as you chop and change it.
I’d absolutely recommend it as a one-shot system, although it’s also good for campaigns too. Players are encouraged to leave some parts of their character sheet blank and fill it out in the session as they discover who they are, which I think really helps players have satisfying characters for one-shots as they don’t get stuck not knowing their characters.
I really like Fate but I’ve struggled to find a good group for it. I tried to run it for my DND group and it didn’t really go well. I think partly because they didn’t know the system well and approached it more like DND - very zoomed in on their character rather than the more “writer’s room” style that fate can do well.
I had a lucky group to play it, where we often try to shoehorn writers room style play into 5e to it’s detriment.
Tricube Tales. It’s the easiest game I’ve run, and strikes a perfect balance between rules lite narrative shenanigans and a traditional roleplaying game. Uses an easy to manage 1-3 pool of d6s, and all the GM has to do is pick a Trait (Agile/Brawny/Crafty) and assign a difficulty to the challenge (most of the time it’s 5). Character creation is pretty freeform, with PCs getting Fate aspect-style Perks and Quirks. You can run just about anything in Tricube Tales. It’s a real joy.
I’m also big into FIST ULTRA Edition, a game about paranormal mercenaries set during the cold war. Inspired by Metal Gear Solid and Doom Patrol, FIST is based on World of Dungeons, so it’s a 2d6 system, sort of like PbtA with only a “defy danger” move. The heart and soul of the game are the 200+ Traits, which are a sort of combination half-class, feat, starting gear, and attribute score adjustment. When you make your mercenary, you get to pick two Traits, and the ensuing combination is always fun.
Lately I read Trophy Gold. Very simple system.
I love a good rules lite system. Knave and it’s hacks, Mork Borg and it’s hacks, The Black Hack and it’s derivatives are faves but The Black Sword Hack is my #1. Deadly, classless, magic and tech are strange and dangerous. While keeping the rules minimal and easy to grok.
Broken Compass came into my life recently and it’s a shame how CMOM fucked up the release, but the game itself is great. Dice mechanics are basically looking for n-of-a-kind where n is between 2 and 5, which is neat because you can use literally any six sided dice that have unique sides. My friend is running some old CoC modules using it and it’s been fun so far.
Does Forbidden Lands count as “rules light”? I feel it does (apart from Index Card RPG it’s probably the most rules-light game on my bookshelf). Its cousin game, Dragonbane releases soon (and it is a lovely little game, artistically) and it’s pretty damn light.
