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Raleel

Raleel

The Lemon LeCroix of Mythras
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This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
 
Maybe Spire? There are three PWYW scenarios you can grab from their site or Drivethru. Each of the three is different, and while none are railroads, two are more straightforward. One (Eidolon Sky) involves the hunt for a killer and learning what’s caused his killing spree; this is the most straightforward of the three. The second (Blood and Dust) is about rising violence in one district of the city and why it’s happening; it describes a few groups and individuals involved in the situation and leaves it up to the PCs how to get involved and investigate. The third (Kings of Silver) is much more open, where the PCs are given a target to takeout, a person of power in a district devoted to vice; they’re given a small casino to run as a cover op to gain intel on the target and his dealings. I’d not recommend this scenario to start based on your description.

The core mechanics fit on one page and are easily grasped. The complexity for players is in class abilities… there are a lot. But they’re mostly cool and don’t tend to punish players with trap options.

Combat is easy and quick and potentially brutal. So are encounters of other sorts; the PCs have five stress tracks, so consequences are not limited to physical harm. They can suffer mental or emotional damage, can lose rep, and also risk their cover.

The first fight of our campaign resulted in one PC with a broken leg and another who went temporarily insane and had to flee the scene.

The hardest part about GMing in play is assigning Fallouts, which are the consequences PCs take when they take too much stress. The broken leg and temp insanity mentioned above are examples.

NPCs consist of two stats, essentially, basically a damage stat and a health stat. The only rolls the GM makes are those to check for Fallout. NPCs basically act when the GM wants, and inflict stress on PCs based on the players’ rolls. So you don’t roll dice for the NPCs.

The other challenge with the game, and this may be an issue based on your description, but perhaps not, is that the setting is pretty big in scope. Like, it’s all one city made up of about a dozen or so districts… but there is a lot going on. Some people find it to be too much. I think it’s more a case of an abundance of details to use, and that you clearly won’t use most of it in any single game. The scenarios tend to primarily be limited to one district, so that helps narrow things down a lot.

Our first session was a bit of a learning experience, but by the second we were in good shape. It’s a solid game and often overlooked.
 
Pendragon? Combat isn't overly complicated but has enough variety to be interesting, and is usually over fairly quick. The Great Pendragon Campaign has years (literally) of adventures; the court events are loose, but the adventures themselves are pretty structured. It's not quite Dragonlance-epic, but it is Arthurian-epic.
 
Raleel said:
This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
I have D&D modules with Dungeon World and it hits all of your criteria above.
 
Confined to fantasy?

Tunnels & Trolls. Adventures of all qualities.

Savage Worlds. Older editions have more adventures. There’s a standard adventure format.

Cypher System. God forgive me.
 
Raleel said:
This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Honor+Intrigue.
 
Raleel said:
This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

The One Ring 2E might fit the bill. Not sure if you want PCs as casters (not really D&D style casting of course in the game. Magic is subtle). The combat can be run with no tactics at all really but still seem exciting (up to a point). It's Middle-earth but with wandering adventurers but you scale up or down how important the PCs are. Landmarks are easy adventures they just might want to go on, while Ruins of the Lost Realms has something more like a campaign with adventures along with the landmark options. Conflicts between Saruman and the surrounding rulers, so bigger level fantasy in that case.
 
I’ll second with The One Ring. It’s Perfectly operable in TOTM with it without the Stance “tactics”. The source material is well known. The included “adventure” is straightforward and all of the previously published ones are great. There’s a wealth of third party content in the Facebook groups and that includes some great rules for human wizardlings.

A Hobbit campaign would be a lot of fun even if all you’re doing is trying to liberate a stolen prize goat or perform a murder mystery with the giant carp in the river.
 
You're probably hoping for something newer, but if I can assume you want fantasy adventures, then RuneQuest comes to mind. Really in any version, but I actually quite liked the latest version's adventures, "The Smoking Ruin and Other Stories" and "Pegasus Plateau and Other Stories".
 
Fenris-77 said:
Swords of the Serpentine.

Edit: it doesn't have any published adventures and the baked in setting is a city so it would take some faffing. Everything else works though.
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Interesting idea, but no adventures is a no go.
hawkeyefan said:
Maybe Spire?
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I have it, and that’s an idea. I’ve not read it at all
SoManyRats said:
Pendragon? Combat isn't overly complicated but has enough variety to be interesting, and is usually over fairly quick. The Great Pendragon Campaign has years (literally) of adventures; the court events are loose, but the adventures themselves are pretty structured. It's not quite Dragonlance-epic, but it is Arthurian-epic.
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Yea, the court stuff will be a bit of a challenge, but that’s moving into a little more of the space.
SJB said:
Confined to fantasy?

Tunnels & Trolls. Adventures of all qualities.

Savage Worlds. Older editions have more adventures. There’s a standard adventure format.

Cypher System. God forgive me.
Click to expand...
The first two are options. I’m not a fan of savage worlds but I don’t hate it enough to not work with it in a defined setting. Bite your tongue on the cypher system. I don’t even know how many published adventures it has.
AsenRG said:
Honor+Intrigue.
Click to expand...
Does it have a bunch of adventures published?
soltakss said:
RuneQuest: Fights can be tactical but don't have to be. The Jonstown Compendium has hundreds of scenarios.
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This is more of an option than I’d think. I hadn’t considered it.
JAMUMU said:
OSE or DCC but remember IANAL so YMMV
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Right now, I actually think this is. It ticks a number of unmentioned boxes. I might suggest it.
Savage Schemer said:
You're probably hoping for something newer, but if I can assume you want fantasy adventures, then RuneQuest comes to mind. Really in any version, but I actually quite liked the latest version's adventures, "The Smoking Ruin and Other Stories" and "Pegasus Plateau and Other Stories".
Click to expand...
I’m actually not, just something different than what’s been going on. It has an advantage in that it might be a bit simpler than Mythras yet familiar

short of it - the problem is a person one, but I don’t think I can solve it with people skills. GM is a dungeon read out louder a bit and completely not tactically minded, not even when they are a player. I’d like to set them up/ask them to run stuff that is more in that wheel house and gives them some options other than d&d sandboxes which have a few encounters spelled out and you are supposed to fill in the gaps. What ends up happening is the gaps never get filled and it’s just a string of untactical encounters, which eliminates pretty much everything fun about the game :smile: It might be considered GM training in a way.

im also going to try the people skills side, of course. I really want the improvement, for everyone, even though it means I actually GM, which I like a lot, less
 
hawkeyefan said:
I never pass up a chance to recommend it, I love it. But I admit I somehow missed where you said mid to high fantasy. It’s not exactly that.
Click to expand...
Still, I don’t mind a little branching out. Said GM prefers classic epic fantasy and has some opinions ( was not happy with firearms in a d&d game, for example), but I don’t know that they are opposed.
 
Raleel said:
Interesting idea, but no adventures is a no go.

I have it, and that’s an idea. I’ve not read it at all

Yea, the court stuff will be a bit of a challenge, but that’s moving into a little more of the space.

The first two are options. I’m not a fan of savage worlds but I don’t hate it enough to not work with it in a defined setting. Bite your tongue on the cypher system. I don’t even know how many published adventures it has.

Does it have a bunch of adventures published?

This is more of an option than I’d think. I hadn’t considered it.

Right now, I actually think this is. It ticks a number of unmentioned boxes. I might suggest it.

I’m actually not, just something different than what’s been going on. It has an advantage in that it might be a bit simpler than Mythras yet familiar

short of it - the problem is a person one, but I don’t think I can solve it with people skills. GM is a dungeon read out louder a bit and completely not tactically minded, not even when they are a player. I’d like to set them up/ask them to run stuff that is more in that wheel house and gives them some options other than d&d sandboxes which have a few encounters spelled out and you are supposed to fill in the gaps. What ends up happening is the gaps never get filled and it’s just a string of untactical encounters, which eliminates pretty much everything fun about the game :smile: It might be considered GM training in a way.

im also going to try the people skills side, of course. I really want the improvement, for everyone, even though it means I actually GM, which I like a lot, less
Click to expand...
That really sounds like RQG with one of the longer adventures might really help. Then plenty to move on to if the game keeps going.
 
ffilz said:
That really sounds like RQG with one of the longer adventures might really help. Then plenty to move on to if the game keeps going.
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My only real concern with RQG is that it’s too close to Mythras and there will be confusion. However, it is still worth a look.
 
Raleel said:
My only real concern with RQG is that it’s too close to Mythras and there will be confusion. However, it is still worth a look.
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It sounds like you need the adventures a bit more than the system. Also maybe the somewhat simpler tactical combat will make it easier for the GM to make the combats more tactical.
 
Cypher isn't the worst for a newer GM. They don't do the rolling they do the difficulty setting. There are a number of adventures out for it. They can lob one use magic items out all the time which is fun.
 
One of the reasons I gravitate to various flavours of OSR is the general compatibility of adventures from one to the next. It keeps a lot of options open that way. My usual go-to there is the Black Hack 2E.
 
ffilz said:
It sounds like you need the adventures a bit more than the system. Also maybe the somewhat simpler tactical combat will make it easier for the GM to make the combats more tactical.
Click to expand...
That is not a horrible assessment, though I do feel like the combats being tactical is a long pole in the tent, so at least interesting would suit, or removing combat would be fine. One of my initial thoughts was actually straight investigation

Bunch said:
Cypher isn't the worst for a newer GM. They don't do the rolling they do the difficulty setting. There are a number of adventures out for it. They can lob one use magic items out all the time which is fun.
Click to expand...
I’ll be honest. I dislike cypher for a large number of reasons, even though I agree with you. One of those things is that the earlier versions have remarkably little consistent guidance on intrusions, and I distrust this with newer GMs. Later versions are a bit better, but I’m still concerned by a lack of guard rails.

I have a small raft of other reasons for disliking it. I want to, but to make it how I’d want you would git rid of like 75% of it.

Fenris-77 said:
One of the reasons I gravitate to various flavours of OSR is the general compatibility of adventures from one to the next. It keeps a lot of options open that way. My usual go-to there is the Black Hack 2E.
Click to expand...
Nod, there is a certain simplicity there that is good. I noticed it running DCC. I had to do… well, almost nothing but read ahead a bit. I might ask to play DCC and see if he’d run it for a while. It was very popular with my group.
 
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Raleel said:
That is not a horrible assessment, though I do feel like the combats being tactical is a long pole in the tent, so at least interesting would suit, or removing combat would be fine. One of my initial thoughts was actually straight investigation


I’ll be honest. I dislike cypher for a large number of reasons, even though I agree with you. One of those things is that the earlier versions have remarkably little consistent guidance on intrusions, and I distrust this with newer GMs. Later versions are a bit better, but I’m still concerned by a lack of guard rails.

I have a small raft of other reasons for disliking it. I want to, but to make it how I’d want you would gif like 75% of it.


Nod, there is a certain simplicity there that is good. I noticed it running DCC. I had to do… well, almost nothing but read ahead a bit. I might ask to play DCC and see if he’d run it for a while. It was very popular with my group.
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I didn't like Numenara 1.0.
Playing No Thank You Evil! With my boys made me appreciate the system more.
 
Fenris-77 said:
One of the reasons I gravitate to various flavours of OSR is the general compatibility of adventures from one to the next. It keeps a lot of options open that way. My usual go-to there is the Black Hack 2E.
Click to expand...

Along those lines, you could also play World of Dungeons. It’s a 3 page game that’s meant to be used with old modules or newer OSR ones. It’s PWYW, suggested price is $2.

World of Dungeons

It’s a super simplified PbtA take on old school dungeon delving. But it allows you to use essentially any module, it’s got enough choices for players to he interesting without being too tactical, and it’s super simple to GM.

Might be worth a look Raleel Raleel
 
Bunch said:
I didn't like Numenara 1.0.
Playing No Thank You Evil! With my boys made me appreciate the system more.
Click to expand...

I’ve played No Thank You Evil with my kids, too. Hasn’t done anything to make me want to try Numenara, but I enjoy NTYE.
 
hawkeyefan said:
I’ve played No Thank You Evil with my kids, too. Hasn’t done anything to make me want to try Numenara, but I enjoy NTYE.
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It's simple. The kids (players) get to roll a lot. Gaming is easy. There isn't much tactical to it. It's just light storytelling exploration.
 
If you are looking to stay in Fantasy, I'd point you at HeroQuest, there's not a ton of support for it, but it plays to the style of game the GM seems to like and with a rules system that takes games down to minimal prep which may resolve the issues you're describing, unless I missed something.

If it needs to have a more rigorous structure, Burning Wheel might work for the table, you do need a degree of system mastery to get the game to play smoothly, and house rules before that point can cause unforeseen effects down stream.

Are you open to other genres?
 
Certified said:
If you are looking to stay in Fantasy, I'd point you at HeroQuest, there's not a ton of support for it, but it plays to the style of game the GM seems to like and with a rules system that takes games down to minimal prep which may resolve the issues you're describing, unless I missed something.

If it needs to have a more rigorous structure, Burning Wheel might work for the table, you do need a degree of system mastery to get the game to play smoothly, and house rules before that point can cause unforeseen effects down stream.

Are you open to other genres?
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I certainly am. I have another player who is working on this as well.
 
There’s no way I’d want to play Cypher; however it does meet the criteria.

Numenera Discovery comes with four adventures included.

Godforsaken (the D&D-alike) comes with two adventures and three “Cypher shorts”.

Other D&D alikes with a ton of material: The Dark Eye or WOIN/ Old.
 
Symbaroum also fits all of the criteria. I am currently running the campaign and adventures and I often use Dragonlance as a reference point. The system is much simpler than 5e but we find the combats to be fun given all the different ways the PCs can approach it. There is an extensive 150+ page Quickstart out there on DTRPG.
 
Of all the D&D a likes that could fit your requirements then I would seriously look at Dragon Warriors.
It's beginner friendly, has easy to run combat and The Elven Crystals book includes 3 solid adventures that can be run straight from the book with almost no prep.
 
Raleel said:
Does it have a bunch of adventures published?
Click to expand...
Several, though I suspect they're in different settings (haven't read them). Also, it's basically BoL+, so you can use adventures for BoL and Everywhen with some adaptations:thumbsup:!
 
If we move beyond fantasy, and lets do that in steps, there is Monster of the Week which is a PBTA game with a lot of community love. There is also the Dresden Files which has a few adventures but I think the character and city creation should help to stand up a number of character driven stories.

Off to Spandex, you've got a number of options, Marvel Heroic has adventures where characters are ready for you, and the adventures are basically comics translated into modules complete with story beets. HERO 5e had a fair number of adventures, not so sure about 6e. Metahumans Rising, personal bias inbound, includes a starting adventure, a number of sample characters, and the website has a number of free one shots. Recently, I've been cleaning those one shots up and expanding on them when needed. All the expanded one shots are PWYW and I'm restructuring them so that any story arcs are clearer. That's to say you can play them individually, or in the larger arc, they work for both, and can be mixed together so different arcs are happening at the same time in campaign play. (Link)

Migrating out of this world, there is Eclipse Phase, transhumanist sci-fi with roots in Altered Carbon and the Hyperion Cantos. The setting is broad so you have a range of stories available, but I think 1e which is a bit crunchier has more support than 2e. However, the rules are mostly unchanged so it shouldn't be too hard to port over adventures.
 
Raleel said:
This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

precluding your stricture that D&D combat isn't fun, honestly my first thought was Lamentations of the Flame Princess - Vornheimort's regrettable contributions notwithstanding, their adventures are, on the whole, exceptional.

otherwise, if superhero games are on the table (since I saw someone recommending Marvel Heroic), Marvel Superheroes remains one of the best RPGs of all time, simple, elegant, and fun, with emergent properties, and thanks to Classic Marvel Forever you have instant access to the entire line of published adventures. (and if you did go this route, I have a sh#t-ton of advice to offer)
 
It is in the OSR vein, but Flatland has several related games that have been specifically written to be low entry (easy to teach, and low maintenance for the GM). Sort of between BD&D and AD&D but at the lower end of complexity. These are specifically intended for people that don't have loads of time to prep for games and want to just get to the actual play. I'd expect that they would also work quite well for GMs learning to GM. In addition to pre-written adventures there are lots of tables to help generate adventures for the creative impaired.


Chargen ties the PCs together to create bonds between them, and there are a fair number of adventure packs available that can easily be joined together to explore the local areas in a somewhat controlled sandbox.

I am primarily a HERO / GURPS / d100 fan, but I bought these this past summer and they really got a hold on me. Sadly no play time to get a real grasp on how they run, but I've really enjoyed reading through them and honestly they along with Ghastly Affair have done a lot to restore my interest in gaming.

Their three games are

Beyond the Wall and other adventures (focus is young adventurers leaving their homes for the first time)
Grizzled Adventurers (Older adventurers past their prime, but with much experience that are still at it).
Through Sunken Lands and other adventures (compatible with the two above but more of a traditional RPG in a S&S setting).

The games all use the same concepts so it would not be difficult to combine them, the differences are primarily in the tables used during chargen, so mix and match would not be terribly hard to do.


There is quite a bit of material for these on DTRPG that is either inexpensive, pay what you want or free. The games themselves are under $10 for pdf, or $25-30 in hard cover.
 
Raleel said:
This is a pretty specific one.
  • Game needs to have adventures that are well structured. A GM should be able to run the adventure out of the book. A railroad is not the worst idea here.
  • Being tactical and mini game savvy is unimportant at all. Game mastery should be fairly unimportant. Not being tactical should not be a handicap
  • Yet should have fun fights, at least one a night worth of fun. D&d doesn’t do this overly well, imo. They don’t have to be especially long.
  • Probably should support mid to high fantasy. Dragonlance kind of stuff. This doesn’t need to be the only thing
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay can fit this bill. Sure people always think of it as being mid to low fantasy but that's because most of the published adventures take place in the Empire and often urban settings. Move it out to the wilderness and emphasise the magic and strange monsters and elven comunities and it can easily accommodate mid to high fantasy. (The wars between the High Elves and Dark Elves or Wood Elves and Beastmen are pure high fantasy).

Death on the Reik in particular has a well put together but ultimately rail road (canal-barge actually) structure that increasingly becomes a mid to high fantasy adventure.
 
Zebraman said:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay can fit this bill. Sure people always think of it as being mid to low fantasy but that's because most of the published adventures take place in the Empire and often urban settings. Move it out to the wilderness and emphasise the magic and strange monsters and elven comunities and it can easily accommodate mid to high fantasy. (The wars between the High Elves and Dark Elves or Wood Elves and Beastmen are pure high fantasy).

Death on the Reik in particular has a well put together but ultimately rail road (canal-barge actually) structure that increasingly becomes a mid to high fantasy adventure.
Click to expand...
"Does it count as a railroad if you're travelling by canal barge?"
 
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