I haven't DMed in 2 years and I was thinking of running a one-shot game for some friends to see if they like. They never played any system, not even D&D. I was thinking something easy, like Knave or Maze Rats (I never ran those but have interest)... Thoughts?

>>96030519 (OP)
Traveller.

>>96030519 (OP)
Also I should add, easy to prep system? Not much free time lately

>>96030622
OD&D

>>96030519 (OP)
Eh. If you wanna win them over, run some old edition of D&D. People new to the hobby have an easier time if you've got a signpost for them. Just giving them the books that say "dungeons & dragons" will actually go a long way.

I introduced a group of coworkers to D&D about 4 years ago, for folks 20s to 40s. Went over really well. That group didn't stick, but one of them joined my regular group, one of them formed her his own table, and the others at least had fun.

But sure, knave is fine. Isn't Maze Rats a solo RPG? I've never played it.

>>96030628
anon we all have interest in games here, but imagine explaining thac0 to your average normie

>>96030662
I think maze rats is just a very rules light system, have to look that up

>>96030519 (OP)
PbtA is shit, but it is easy to understand, run, and play. Grabbing one of the better games that use that ruleset is a good option and it handles one-shots well. Monster of the Week would be my recommendation as the theme is something normies understand and it is pretty easy to prep (mainly just think up a monster or use a pre-con one and improv the locals and such steering your group to said monster).

Mothership, it's super simple to roll a character, all rolls are player facing and the rules are very light. I'm suggesting it over Knaves and Maze because it is especially good at the one shot format

>>96031173
hey looks cool I'll check it thanks! But what about something fantasy so they can say "we played d&d"?

>>96031593
NTA but Zozer games has Clash on drive thru rpg and I'm pretty sure you can get it via usual sources, I'm suggesting it cause it's basically Traveler but with sword and sorcery setting and has enough stuff to help you quickly generate a setting.

>>96030519 (OP)
Rifts !
>>96030524
Yeah but its gotta be tbe GDW version

>>96031848
Isn't Rifts rules byzantine? It looks cool though, I always had an interest in the palladium fantasy one

>>96031920
The rules feel antiquated and clunky, yes. It's in a charming way, but prolly only to people who already love ttrpgs. It's like experimental music. Until you know pop music well enough to understand why it sounds that way? It's fucking annoying.

>>96030519 (OP)
Never played either of those. If you want something easy to set up and run, as well as easy to play, I usually suggest Barbarians of Lemuria. Mythic is the latest edition.

>>96030519 (OP)
The game Barbarians of Lemuria and its spin-offs are pretty fun and easy 2d6 games (with the occasional third d6 for boons and flaws) that allow for emphasis on story over number crunching. I'm currently GM-ing Dicey Tales, part of the system.

>>96030519 (OP)

What about asking them for what they would like, as far as genre/style goes?

>>96030519 (OP)
Fina, I'll say it, unless you personally don't like running 5e, you should use 5e.

>>96033759
I've ran enough 5e.. I kind of want to make an experiment and see how non-players become when they're not exposed to 5e at first

>>96032013
maybe when I get more time in my hands... but what's nice about Rifts?

I had a nice experience running Mothership after a long time not GMing for people with little to no experience. I felt like it got the mood going and the mechanics pushed them into playing it as intended. This isn't everyone's experience so ymmv.

I heard great things about Cairn both for GMs and new players, losing stats instead of HP feels intuitive for some people, but I think you'll be fine with MR or Knave or Tunel Goons or any OSR-lite. At the end of the day it's all about the real people having fun, if anything picking a good dungeon would be more important.

>>96031593
If you end up checking Mothership and like it for yourself, there's Cloud Empress which uses the same engine for a light but still very deadly pastoral adventure. More talking and walking around, but mechanically the same. Consider letting them re-roll spells tho.

>>96030519 (OP)
Call of Cthulhu. Everyone understands "it's like you are the characters in a horror movie," you can find a scenario that takes place in modern times so you don't need to explain any kind of lore, and percentile systems require zero math (CoC even has 1/2 and 1/5 scores on the sheet for hard and very hard rolls.)

>>96030622
Mothership has lots of prewritten adventures and the character sheets are basically designed to be easy to fill in.

>>96036169
Nothing if you don't already wanna enjoy wonky old ttrpgs that get autistic about things like armor location per body part. It's not bad, but it's definitely not good. Also the balance ranges from street rats killed with a sharp spoon to yes, there's a starting race for literal gods.

>>96030519 (OP)
OP here. Is Stars WIthout Number or the fantasy version of that good for this case?

>>96037562
not really all that plug and play and begginer friendly. I feel that your first picks were better.
But read it if you have the time, run the game you feel best with and they'll have a better experience than anything randos online like.

>>96037562
The main feature of the X Without Number range is the DM tools for making and running campaigns. It shouldn't be particularly awful for a one-shot, but that's not really its strength.
I'd suggest Barbarians of Lemuria as simple enough. Or if you want to go really light and encourage them to engage with the fiction rather than rules, Tricube Tales was built to be played with kids and has two page splats in a load of different genres, while being (intentionally) free.

>>96037641
>>96038034
I see, thanks. I'm interested in Barbarians now, anything I should know about it? Also did someone ever run Knave? The 2nd edition looks good and I wonder how the inventory system actually feels.

>>96038404
I also want to run BoL for my family, get out of my walls.

>>96038404
It seems like you really want to run Knave. Why don't you just do that?

>>96039923
I'm just curious, wanted to know what other people here think of it. And better options maybe

>>96031058
Never once had trouble with it.
>roll the d20, add a bonus, beat a target number
But seriously, imagine explaining Difficulty Class to your average normie

>>96038404
>I'm interested in Barbarians now, anything I should know about it?
Not good for extended games unless you run the d10 variant. It has a more complex but still pretty simple swashbuckler daughter system called Honor++Intrigue. BoL has a bunch of free micro adventures on the Strange Stones blog. I think some were uploaded for free with some editing to Drive Thru RPG. Oh, and the Swords & Sorcery Codex is compatible with it and with Everywhen, another generic BoL spinoff which is also slightly more complex.

>>96033494
How is Dicey Tales? Every time it comes up some sperg finds the thread and chimps out over it.

>>96044258
americans anon
the issues you are having is not normies it's american normies

>>96045852
Obsessed.

>>96036212
I second this, it's a lot easier to RP humans in the modern world too

>>96031058
THAC0 - AC = target number or above

How is this hard?

OP here. I was checking out BoL (Mythic version) but the art and general layout is a bit off. That Mythic+ they're doing now is a huge improvement

>>96045852
I literally just said I've never had trouble explaining THAC0.
Because it's just a TN. It's exactly the same thing as a DC.
If you can explain a system that uses DCs or TNs, you can explain THAC0, and literally anyone will understand, even a supposed "normie."

>>96051920
but you have to see that 'big number=good" and rolling over feel more intuitive than looking up a matrix or subtracting or whatever. I'm not against thac0 and I've yet to try it but I see why they changed

>>96030519 (OP)
If you haven't DMed in years and you have players who have never played RPGs before, do not go with a rules light system. Rules light systems are for people who already have a firm grasp of RPGs, they are not designed for beginners nor are they good for beginners. I say this as a person who loves rules light systems and plays Cairn regularly. The reason why is because it relies on the DMs "muscle memory" for running games. you'll find that if you run knave and maze rats, you'll be trying to pull from what you already know when it comes to certain situations as those games do not cover them, wasting time at the table and frustrating yourself and the players.

The best system for newbies is the one that you, the DM, is most familiar with. Take that system you are familiar with, use pre-made characters for the players, and take them for a ride. my very first RPG was Shadowrun and i had a blast because the DM was confident in the rules and helped guide me, but that game sucks when it comes to rules. the difference was the DM.

>>96052399
4th level fighter with base THAC0 17, Str bonus +2, magic sword +1, so adjusted melee THAC0 14.
Attacks a dude with leather and a shield, AC 6.
1d20 + 6, hit on a total of 14 or better.
No lookups, no matrices; a THAC0 is literally just a DC.

>>96052399
4th level fighter with base THAC0 17, Str bonus +2, magic sword +1, so adjusted melee THAC0 14.
Attacks a dude with leather and a shield, AC 6.
1d20 + 6, hit on a total of 14 or better.
No lookups; no matrices; minimal subtraction that you only ever have to do when adjusting your own THAC0 or AC down for bonuses, not when you actually make attack rolls; because a THAC0 is literally just a DC.

>>96051461
The French one? Yeah. Art is way better and much more important, the layout is improved. The pdf for it is easily found in English now, too.

>>96045600
Checked, and the system is simple, but a mix of homebrew with improv can help add flavor. Plus, it doesn't hurt to research the 1920s and 1930s setting, as seen in Pulp Cthulhu or Fists and .45s (Hollow Earth Expedition is technically set in that era, but is mostly situated in the fantastic Hollow Earth setting). I've already done an African adventure complete with stereotypical natives and uptight aristocrats getting theirs, as well as a supernatural Middle Eastern setting with lost ruins and djinn. My next one will be a one-shot loosely based around the in-book campaign Pirates of Bonaga Bay, but set on the Yangtze River in China during the Warlord Era. Think along the lines of The Sand Pebbles.

>>96030519 (OP)
Knave 2E and Maze Rats are both perfect for what you want, I'm actually about to run a game of Knave for some friends who haven't played ttrpgs before either

>>96052663
You just did the math wrong. Thac0 17 +2 +1 vs AC 6 is 17-2-1-6= 8+ to hit. Not 14+

Here's perhaps a longshot, but, what about the 2010 D&D basic set?

>>96060565
"Natural 8+ on 1d20" is the same thing as "Total 14+ on 1d20+6", Einstein.

>>96061394
That's not how people ever did Thac0. You subtract all positive modifiers and AC from your Thac0. That's literally the whole point of using it as a short-hand.

>>96052663
>>96060565
>>96061394
>>96061539
This confusion proves my previous point. Still not hating on thac0, I want to use it if I ever get back wih my experienced players

>>96053822
It is? I tried looking for it but couldn't... Thought it was too new so nobody pirated it yet.
I'm not asking to spoonfeed me, but please.

>>96060976
which edition is that? 4th?

>>96061539
My thirty-year old D&D rulebook from when I was a kid says otherwise. See also Dragon #177.

>>96061539
Jesus fucking Christ. Adding a number to the die roll is the same thing as subtracting it from the target number.

>>96061689
No idea what your point was. But it's irrelevant. Thac0 was adopted officially in 2nd edition. But it began being used in 1979 because it was easier and was the natural result of everyone having memorized the to-hit tables.

>>96062231
And Thac0 is the exact same thing as the to-hit tables of B/X, oD&D and 1e. It's just shorthand so that you don't have to flip to them. You clearly never actually played old editions.

>>96062972
My point was that while it isn't as hard as they say, thac0 is less intuitive than the simple 'add+roll over' of later editions. The context is explaining the game to people who never played ttrpgs

>>96062972
>Thac0 is the exact same thing as the to-hit tables
Poser. You started with 5e after discovering Critical Role.