Recommendations

Hi everyone,

I’m new here and new to Roleplaying in general. I don’t know much about the systems but I was wondering if you could tell me about the games you play and like to make and so I can learn some more.

Thank you.

I exclusively play Dungeons and Dragons, fifth edition - usually abbreviated to DnD 5e and sometimes to just 5e. It's the most played RPG in the world.

As a game for people new to RPGs?
* Character creation is complex and a little bit painful.
* There are more rules than necessary (or comprehensible).
* If you want all the extra books then it can be expensive to play (although the free basic rules are perfectly adequate).
* It's supposed to be a fantasy trope - but it's not much like LotR/Witcher/Game of Thrones or pretty much any other fantasy settings people are familiar with.
* There are too many acronyms.
* Some RPG aficionados look down on you a bit for playing the "vanilla" RPG.
* ...but you'll always find a game.

I'd recommend choosing genres you're interested in playing and then asking around for a game.

This :D

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I have a feeling there's a lot of fantasy, horror and post-apocalyptic games around, but you can find anything from super heroes to ... well... cats (this last one less common though...)

If you are unsure what you like, I'd keep my eyes open to what is advertised here. Most people were welcome and encourage new players, so don't be shy :D

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Since it may take some time to find a game you like, I'd suggest @bowlofspinach introduction game which is not 5e and it's a quick, tried and tested, easy one-shot.

Being an ancient role-player, ok fine, just old role-player. I gravitate between two points of view- rules-lite (too old to memorize tables anymore) and old school feel (back in my gaming hay day- the 70's & 80's).

Along those lines I have never played 5e, never played anything that you have to pay more than what I paid when I was a kid. The lighter the better, the freer the better.

To that end I am running a Whitebox FMAG adventure that is a simplified throwback to the Original Dungeons & Dragons game from 1974. Recently, we have been stunned how fast character creation is, everything does 1d6 damage, descending AC (or ascending if we wish) and best of all bare-bones. This means if the book doesn't have a rule for it, the GM rules- simple as that.

Now let me get back to finishing my Reader's Digest. Matlock reruns come on soon.

I thought Bowlofspinach was taking a break from running intro games.

I believe other members are looking at running some intros though.

Hello and welcome!

Yes, my tutorial game is paused for the moment, sorry.

The suggestion to think about genre is a good one. I could tell you about some of my favorite games but without knowing whether that's even the type of game you're interested in, that might not be very useful

What kind of stuff are you interested in? I'd suggest you start by finding a game that matches your own interests. There are options that correspond to any genre of literature you could think of, for example. Not everything is action-oriented either.

Do you have a preferred series of novels, films, or something similar?

Thank you for your answers. Really I don’t know much about different settings. I know stuff like fantasy, sci fi, etc but they are all so different I wanted to see if people really liked a system and wanted to tell me of it. Like recommending a show or something like that.

Thank you for your advice.

The games I play the most on here are Tales from the Loop and its sequel Things from the Flood. I don't find the system itself especially strong but it's very easy to learn and works well enough. But the setting is really fun.
Tales from the Loop is set in an alternative 1980s with some cool technologies. Characters are kids solving mysteries.
Things from the Flood is set in the 1990s in that same world. There's been a disaster, parts of the area the game is set in are uninhabitable, technology is starting to go haywire and generally, things are getting worse. Characters are a bit older, teenagers, but still solving mysteries.

I think the best selling point is the art.

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If you're into Superheroes, I really like the Smallville RPG. The selling point I would go to for that is that you can have one player be Superman and another be Lois Lane and it's completely balanced.

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Savage Worlds might also be a good thing to get into. It's a universal system, so you can use it for pretty much any setting you're interested in. It's fairly simple on the surface and it's pretty popular on GP, so you should be able to find a game of it come up sooner rather than later.

Hi LauraChiGio :) Welcome to GP!

It's a tough question. Even though most of us have our preferred systems, we've played enough to realize that this is a personal choice. Different people enjoy different things. If there is a game that everyone loves, I haven't heard of it yet. That makes it difficult to recommend something without knowing your interests ;)

Personally I think PbtA-style (Powered by the Apocalypse) games are pretty easy to pick up for players who are new to RP, especially the ones that are light on the amount of rules. Those games tend to revolve around creativity. So if you're a creative person with a lot of imagination, that might be something to research. You can find lots of info on the internet about it. YouTube has tons of good videos for that stuff. If you're into that, maybe check out Dungeon World, Apocalypse World, or any of the derivatives and hacks (there are a million of them) or maybe Monster of the Week.

If you like a more mechanics and number-crunchy kinda game with the option to optimize builds, maybe D&D would be a good fit for you. It's probably not the best game ever for those things, but it's a very popular choice and one where you can easily find games to start playing in. Most GMs don't mind taking a new player along.

It all depends on what you think you'd enjoy. So feel free to tell us more about what types of stories you are interested in.

Very interesting. I like lots of different types of stories. I like Star Wars movies, Legend of Korra, Final Fantasy games, Kingdom Hearts. I do not know much superhero stuff really. I think heroic stories and things like that are most appealing to me but I get stuck on genre because heroes come from everywhere. Interesting worlds with unique things excite me most. I watched once a movie called Interview with a Vampire and that was a fun sort of horror film. Some horror is too much for me but if it is monsters it is not so bad.

Maybe Call of Cthulhu if you're into horror. It's also pretty popular on here

There's an upcoming Avatar rpg. It's PbtA, the system Generator mentioned

I won't be a big help in picking a great system, because I like many different kinds of games.

I really like crunchy systems (the rules are lengthy with lots of special situations and edge cases) because it's a kind of fun to learn the system and apply it appropriately. D&D 5e, Shadowrun* , Savage Worlds, and Pathfinder are examples of great crunchy systems, which is why people like to try different 'builds'.

I also really like rules-lite systems (the rules are minimal and easily mastered) because the rules stay out of the way and you can focus on role-playing. Laser & Feelings (the whole thing is one page), 2400 (four pages, the first page is just art, and the last two are just random tables), or even Tales from the Loop are examples of rules-lite systems.

* Calling Shadowrun a great system is fighting words in some circles. Be warned, haha.

Asking on the GP Discord might generate a good discussion on this topic as well.

It's hard to recommend first games since playstyle and genre can vary so much. There are two main kinds of games: simulationist and narrative. Simulationist being heavier on rules and trying to simulate real life as close as possible, and narrative is more focused on storytelling. My recommendation is to try one of each to see if you have a preference.

Simulationist games are more rules heavy. This is your D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, Rifts, etc.

Narrative games would be Powered by the Apocalypse games (PbtA), Fate, and similar games.

One of my personal favorites that is also pretty easy to learn is Savage Worlds. This is a very rules-light system that encourages fast and furious play in a tabletop environment. The card-driven initiative system is unique to itself and the game is designed to be very easy to both learn and play. The lastest incarnation is Savage Worlds Adventure Edition or SWADE. The base mechanic is simple. Roll a die type based on your skill or attribute and if you get a 4 or higher, you succeed. There are a few other details, but that's pretty much it. Roll higher than a 4 and you succeed really well, getting what are called Raises. Oh, and dice Ace in SWADE, which means that if you roll the maximum number possible, you roll again and add the results, ad infinitum. So with a little luck, that single d6 roll could generate a roll of 22 (6+6+6+4)!

Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars is pretty popular, but it uses some really funky dice and the system can be a little intimidating. One of the appealing things about Savage Worlds to me is that it is multi-genre. That is, it plays fantasy or science-fiction just as well as it plays horror or super-heroes. I'm working on a Savage Worlds steampunk campaign right now that I hope to playtest on here in the near future, as well as a modern setting in a world of anthropomorphic animal characters.

Thank you those are all very interesting suggestions. It seems Pathfinder is much like D&D. When I googled Savage Worlds I was a little confused. Which thing is it? But these are all very great suggestions and thank you all so much for helping me.

Savage worlds is a game system that can be used, with a few changes & tweaks, for a lot of different settings. It's one base system you can learn and play in a lot of different settings (Fantasy, sci-fi, post apocalyptic, horror, etc...) without having to learn a different system for each different type of game.

If I had time, I'd run Quest for LauraChiGio, or perhaps Tiny Dungeon. Quest, especially, is perfectly suited for new players. Anyone game to run it?

I'm in the final stretch of firing up a small introductory tutorial. It'll be on DnD5e, so if you're interested @LauraChiGio keep an eye out; I'll save you a spot if you want.

in terms of 'universal'/multi-genre systems like Savage Worlds, (i.e. game engines that lend themselves to any setting you throw at them) there are also the Cypher System and Genesys (the latter uses the same fancy dice that WhtKnt mentioned above for Star Wars) and many, more complex ones.