Ah, I see what you mean. You’re exactly right about what play the mechanics support — there is nothing to support anything social. In fact, the mention in the rules is basically “uhhh roleplay?”, which is a little frustrating since, yes, the characters end up being centered around combat.
They do expand on exploration in books beyond the core rulebook, but that itself is a kind of red flag. The base mechanics, I think, are really wonderful, but they are certainly trapped within an older model.
I keep going back to Into the Odd. Something about it keeps drawing me back…
Also Sharp Swords and Sinister Spells 2E is looking very promising… Keep an eye out for that kickstarter…
InSpectres, but it just suits that kind of “anything goes” almost gonzo kind of play. Perfect for a 45 min session … and most groups (on conventions) wants to play it twice.
Trophy. Lasers and Feelings. Freebooting Venus. World of Mutants.
“Dream Factory,” by Catnap Capers.
It’s my favorite published RPG, full stop.
Complicated, i.e. non “Rules Lite,” games are something that I tolerate.
I hadn’t heard much about this one. Sounds similar to Fate.
Fiasco is my gold standard when it comes to rules-lite systems. If I want to play something loosey-goosey but with just enough steering to make it into a game, Fiasco is going to be my point of comparison.
I think there are quite a few gems out there, in terms of “rules-lite” games. Here are a few of my favourites, in very different genres/styles:
My favourite “rules-lite”, though, are my own. I like taking favourite bits of other games and making something simpler out of them. (I could share some here, if there is interest in it.)
Fate gives me a headache, but the aims seem similar, yes.
Suggestions of Lady Blackbird, Lasers & Feelings and Grant Howitt’s one-pagers are all good.
As far as small systems go, I adore Cthulhu Dark (progenitor to Trophy). It’s caused some incredibly interesting, intense and dark games with my group.
I go with player empathy to decide. I can’t enjoy a system if the player’s don’t like it.
I like Into the Odd because you’re up and running with rookie players in minutes. It could use a social mechanic, and I like to add in encumbrance based on their Strength score since the game is about looting and paying down debt.
I love Lady Blackbird for its skills-as-class system. A player can be literally anything and not be hindered by a class system.
Maze Rats I really did for all of the d36 tables it includes, though it’s really hard. It retains the PBtA 2d6 + STAT system but only 10+ are successes; there’s no recognition for partial success. Easy enough to add back in, but if someone picks it up and goes by RAW it can be tough. I feel bad for anyone who picks the mage class though, since they only get one spell per day. The other two classes get bonuses to all rolls in their domain.
Wildlings, a mostly forgotten John Harper RPG. You assign dice to your stats, from d4 to d12, and you’re trying to roll above a 3, with even higher rolls getting you bonus descriptors as to how you pull off the roll. I think as you gain harm you lose access to those descriptors one-by-one.
I like a lot of the games people already mentioned, especially Cthulhu Dark and World of Dungeons; I adapted Cthulhu Dark into a version for a Star Wars game, and lately a Star Trek game. I also want to mention Risus, by S. John Ross, which is very simple and can be a heck of a lot of fun.
I just played Girl Underground with my family this weekend. It is my new Favorite rules lite rpg by a mile! It is tremendously deep despite the simplicity. This is the height of elegance! I learned a bit about my daughter, and my sister, while improvising and laughing my ass off! It even had enough mechanics to keep my son engaged
I really like how much attention Girl Underground gives to its premise and procedures. Resolution is straight-forward, and it gives a lot of guidance on starting a game, pushing for the interesting stuff, and brining things to a conclusion.
I have read plenty of “rules llight” games that essentially only provide character creation and dice resolution, offloading the big questions of premise and pacing onto the GM. This is a reasonable streamlining (especially if the game can assume a lot of shared techniques with other systems) but I appreciate games like GU that are able to set clear procedures of play.
Wow! I’d never heard of Girl Underground, but it sounds quite fascinating. I’d love to hear more about it!
I second Spire.. The setting is extremely dense and almost adds its own layer of ‘crunch,’ but damn do the rules get out of the way and just let PCs GO. I’d love to see more hacks of the Resistance Toolbox in pared-down settings.
Nathan D. Paoletta’s Imp of the Perverse (which I’m hopefully running next week) has an extremely focused core mechanic, but with lots of little rules and procedures that encourage interesting narrative. I think you could play it very serious and research-heavy or (with the right group) as a very pulpy, gory pick-up-and-play game. Either way, the rules seem spare and elegant.
I’m one of the designers of Girl Underground – feel free to check out the original Kickstarter page and then DM me with any questions you have!
@Paul_T - I started to write so much here about Girl Underground that I decided I should create a new thread instead. I will add my thoughts there when I have time.
Ok, I’m excited! Drop a name mention of me when you post the thread, so I see it.
@jesseross, that Kickstarter page is very helpful, thank you! I’ll have some questions - perhaps the new thread would be a good place for them.