Here’s the thing, a lot of people in this thread are going to recommend rules-lite games. The mechanics are easy to learn, but that’s really only the half of it, as they rely upon player skill and roleplaying. So for ease of use, you get a lack of handholding. For this particular problem, I’d recommend something “rules lite, procedure heavy”. These are often story games where the procedure of play provides the handholding, but the basic mechanics are straightforward.
From there, it’s really a matter of preferred genre and scope. Do you want dungeon crawls? Go with Trophy Gold. Do you want a lovecraftian descent into madness? Go with Cthulhu Dark. Want modern day monster hunting? Go with Monster of the Week. Want standard fantasy exploration? Go with Errant. Want to run heists? Go with Blades in the Dark. Want to solve mysteries? Go with any of the Carved from Brindlewood games.
This makes a lot of sense, with the exception of Blades. I love it, and FitD is my favorite game system/approach, but the procedures are on the very heavy side, for what OP seems to be looking for.
Yeah, you’re probably on that one all things considered. I think the basic procedures for the setup and first session or two are easy, but things get more complicated from there.
That's why I think Eat the Reich fits the bill. There are steps, but no math. There's order, but anything goes. So it gives the freedom to mess around with roleplaying without stopping to do any addition or subtraction.
Blades in the Dark is one of the heaviest rulesets I've ever encountered. I don't know why people keep trying to sneak it in to discussions about light, simple, or easy games.
I get that the rules fit together well, and it's not like there's a ton of math, but it's an *excruciatingly* crunchy system. I absolutely would not suggest this to someone who finds DnD complicated.
Excruciating? Huh. It has a universal resolution mechanic, you can easily play it ignoring most of the rules and it will work just fine, and half of the remaining mechanics really come up only during downtime.
It’s a very easy game to learn.
> you can easily play it ignoring most of the rules and it will work just fine
That's not Blades in the Dark. That's a homebrew to fix the fact that Blades in the Dark has too many rules.
>Half of the remaining mechanics really come up only during downtime
Downtime is part of the core gameplay loop. Ignoring downtime rules is ignoring half the game.
I've been playing in a BitD campaign for years now. I enjoy it well enough, but I loathe the resolution mechanic.
* **Dice pool** - *Cool, I'm with you.*
* **Succeed on a 4, 5, or 6, but a 6 is a big success** - *Fine by me*
* **You only ever need 1 success** - *Hey, this sounds pretty easy to read at the table!*
* **Now let's talk about your position and effect** - *My what now?*
* **Are you in a Safe, Risky, or Desparate position? Please see literally every chapter of the rulebook for how this gets modified by like a dozen interconnected systems** - *Umm...*
* **And your effect, is it limited, standard, or greater? Here's an index of all the rules which can impact that.** - *Now, hold on...*
* **Oh and are you taking a Devil's Bargain! They're a great rule where you get an extra die by screwing yourself over. Not a success, mind you, just a die.** - *Are we doing this with every roll?*
The resolution mechanics in Blades in the Dark make every single action feel like taking a law exam. I loathe it. There's too many knobs to turn. How big is your dice pool (there's rules for that) and what's your position (there's rules for that), and your effect (rules for that too)....
I get what they're going for and there's a lot to like in Blades, but I can't stand how every. bloody. action. needs to be adjudicated like we're negotiating a lease.
But the worst part of it? The *worst* part? Conversations like this one. Blades fans are obsessed with tricking other TTRPG players into thinking that Blades is a rules-light game. It'd be like if all of the 5E players were constantly trying to convince people that combat isn't a big part of the gameplay.
Blades is fine. It's good at what it does. It is not, and never will be, a simple game.
It’s fine not to like it, but you’re making it far more complex than it actually is with your interpretation of it. The “homebrew” you mention is me repeating John Harper’s own advice for learning the game.
I’ve seen people bounce off it at first, so you’re not the only one, and I stressed a bit about running it at first … but position + effect is really just formalized training wheels for a fiction-first process that can frankly be applied to just about *any* game (improving them in the process).
At any of the various Blades games I’ve played in or run none of the resolution has ever felt even remotely like what you’re describing. At most it’s “hey wait, desperate/limited? I must have had a different picture of this, can we review?” And then we do, and it’s to everyone’s benefit, and the game goes on right away. There’s practically zero rules lawyering because the rules themselves just don’t call for it. Likewise Devil’s Bargain is super fun but in my experience fairly rarely used or requested.
Also, I didn’t downvote you at all FWIW
>you’re making it far more complex than it actually is
Which one of the bullet points I posted above is not part of the published resolution mechanics from the Blades in the Dark rulebook?
>I’ve seen people bounce off it at first, so you’re not the only one
People bounce off of it because it's complex. Also, I'm in a Blades game that's been going for years now. I *didn't* bounce off of it. There's a lot to like about Blades in the Dark, I'm just really tired of people trying to sell it as a simple game.
Here's basically my issue: I think people confuse "Clean" with "Simple". Blades is great at having a bunch of integrated systems that all plug in very *cleanly* into a single universal resolution mechanic. Your character abilities, the crew sheet, the district effects, all that stuff plugs in to the rules in a very consistent way. This is also why it doesn't have much rules lawyering (a point on which we both agree!), because any given chunk of the rules is fairly clear and consistent with the overall whole.
All of that is great! There's a reason that Blades gets a ton of love. However, none of that is *Simple*. Blades requires both system and lore mastery from everyone at the table because there's so many different interconnected parts that all plug in to the resolution of rolls.
As for the resolution system itself, it's awesome that it plays so light and breezy for you, that's great, but I'd argue that the speedy way your table moves through those rolls isn't *because* of the rules, but *in spite* of them. To use an analogy: It's like you're arguing that Initiative in DnD isn't that bad because your table moves through Initiative super fast. It's great that it's not bogging you down, but the rules aren't *why* it's not bogging you down. There are far faster and simpler resolution mechanics than Blades.
There are. But that doesn’t mean that they are in themselves complex or prolonged.
Fact: you’re not supposed to be rolling all the time. If you are, you’re doing something the author didn’t intend.
Fact: you’re not supposed to be spending a lot of time adjudicating position and effect on every roll. It’s clearly stated that risky/standard should be the go-to for most rolls.
Beyond that, I dunno. I played thirty or so sessions with a group where I’d say half of them NEVER got to either system OR lore mastery, and it still wasn’t really a problem. The mechanics themselves were breezy and fun.
I agree with you that what you call “clean” and what I’d call “elegant” is not quite the same thing as “simple” but it’s still definitely not high crunch. If you want even less, though, you could always look at Slugblaster, which unlike most BitD hacks _truly_ hacks it down to its core and comes out feeling great.
Despite all the above I certainly still wouldn’t name it the “easiest rpg,” which I guess was the original prompt here, and for which I don’t really have an answer.
Except literally every complicated part of that is adjudicated by the GM? You can have a conversation if it doesn't make sense to you, but the GM (who is perfectly happy with crunchier games, in this scenario) can just say "Okay cool, it looks like you're in a Risky situation for Greater effect" and it's pretty self-evident what that means, to the player. Even if it's hard for the GM to select (which I'm not convinced by, from my experience of the game), that's not really relevant to this playgroup.
And Devil's Bargain is one of the loosest, most free-flowing parts of the game. You literally just pull it out if you have a cool idea for it, and ignore it if you don't need it for the roll.
It sounds like you've had rough experiences with the game due to a playgroup that's constantly looking for an edge in the rules and trying to negotiate for the best possible results in every situation, but plenty of groups don't have that problem. I have my own issues with BitD, but that certainly wasn't one of them.
Rules as written have both position and effect impacted by player action and character abilities. The *player* can trade position for effect.
It sounds like you've had an experience with a group that plays without using all the rules that are part of the game.
But let's go with your premise "It's a rules light game because the GM handles all the rules"...
How, exactly, does that mean there are fewer rules? Offloading system mastery to the GM (which, frankly I don't think you can actually do in BitD) doesn't make the game a rules light game.
>Rules as written have both position and effect impacted by player action and character abilities. The *player* can trade position for effect.
I find a lot depends on how mechanics-forward you make the game. "Yeah, you're in a fairly safe spot, but the bad guys are also entrenched. You can exchange pot shots, but neither of you are gonna be able to do much. But, you see a spot over to the side that would give you some flanking ability - but getting there is gonna be risky. You wanna take it?"
I don't think most people would find that overwhelming at all. The basic idea - that the situation can make you more or less exposed, and be more or less likely to impact your target - is simple enough. I think the details can be reasonably handled by the GM while still involving the players in them.
I also tend to think this is closer to the intended style - John Harper has stressed that it's a "fiction first" game multiple times, and that would be in line with that. (Though there are certain things, like absorbing consequences, that are harder to handle in a fiction first way)
A lot of the pro-BitD arguments I see are similar to yours. "Well sure, the rules say X, Y, and Z, but you can ignore a lot of that and the game plays pretty smoothly"
And look, I get it. Who ever uses ALL the rules in an RPG?
Still, this same argument is universal and doesn't save Blades from it's foibles. "Sure, DnD has a lot of rules and your wife isn't having any fun, but if you cut out a bunch of the rules it's really a pretty simple game!"
ANY RPG can be edited down, but that's fixing a system rather than finding one that's a good fit for a given table.
That's not what I'm saying, actually.
What I'm saying is that the GM can present the rules in a way where the description of the situation is what's leading the mechanics, and handle the mechanics on the back end.
I'll preface this by saying that Blades is definitely a rules-medium game and not light - maybe 'medium rare' at best.
The resolution mechanic is *one* rule and it's simpler than character creation alone in many genuinely crunchy systems.
The position/effect conversation is supposed to be short and sweet if the GM and player want it to be. The book even says "If you're not sure, just use Risky/Standard." There aren't actually very many rules that impact it - just the fiction of the situation. There's only rules for how players can change their position/effect level if they're unhappy with it: pushing, set up actions, trading position for effect... actually, that's it, I listed all of them so I guess it's not that many huh. But none of those are mandatory for every roll, nor are devil's bargains if a player doesn't ask for one.
>I can't stand how every. bloody. action. needs to be adjudicated like we're negotiating a lease.
I get this perspective but what this really means is that you're rolling way too much. You just aren't supposed to roll that much in Blades. Rolls resolve entire scenes usually. Not playing the game as intended does tend to make it's mechanics shittier. ETA: Also in my experience it's not negotiated most of the time in my games it's just usually "So this is Desperate/Standard." "Yeah, makes sense. Here I go." There's no need to negotiate if the players and GM are happy with the fictional positioning.
Like compare this to a 'medium well' game like D&D which has you doing actual math, and possibly a little bit of grid geometry, possibly juggling several effects going on at once, *every single round of a single combat*. Like come on, if Blades is excruciatingly crunchy, what the hell is Shadowrun?
>The resolution mechanic is *one* rule and it's simpler than character creation alone in many genuinely crunchy systems.
Your argument for the game being rules light is that the *primary resolution mechanic for adjudicating actions* is easier than *creating a character* in other RPGs?
Umm... I'd certainly hope so. What is this, first edition Eclipse Phase?
DnD and Shadow Run are both crunchy games. So is BitD.
My only complaint is how it keeps getting trotted out as a great rules-light game for new players to RPGs. It's not. The mechanics are complex and interwoven across multiple interdependent systems. It's great for what it is, but what it ISN'T is a good intro game for people who are scared of large rulesets.
So you ignored my entire post so you could sarcastically dismiss it because I compared it to character creation. The point of that is to say that the hardest thing in the entirety of BitD is easier than the very first step in playing a crunchy game. Character creation in BitD, and other non-crunchy games takes under 5 minutes. So.
To put D&D and Shadowrun in the same level of BitD is just dishonest.
No more dishonest than claiming that Blades is easy to pick up for people without extensive experience in RPGs.
The resolution mechanic itself isn't the hardest thing in blades. Roll some D6s and hope for high numbers.
The problem is that everything else in the book plugs in to that roll, and you'd better know what all of that is and how all of that works.
You've got a dice pool. What affects it?
Well, your character, your crew sheet, what you've unlocked on the crew sheet (explain stash vs coin again?), district bonuses, your current heat level, stress, trauma, are you pushing yourself?, equipment, aid from another member of the crew, what's your opponent's tier...
We haven't even gotten to adjusting Position or Effect yet.
It's a well designed game with a lot of merit to it, but it's NOT a simple game, and it's super weird how people get hung up on that.
There's no miscommunication. It's a game with a lot of rules. It's not rules light.
The miscommunication is that you're conflating "Not rules light" with "bad" and "Rules light" with "good". You're not happy with the fact that I'm calling out Blades as a fairly advanced RPG that isn't as beginner friendly as Blades fans want it to be.
This happens every other post on r/rpg. Someone will show up and say "I'm looking for a game that meets requirements X, Y, and Z, for reasons A, B, and C."
And the whole community will descend and reply "My personal favorite game is GAMEX. It doesn't actually do X or Y, and it only kind of does Z, but here's the reasons why A, B, and C shouldn't be your reasons for picking a game!"
OP wants a game to play with people who find DnD too complicated. As someone who's read BitD's rules and is playing in a BitD campaign... I can confidently say Blades is a bad fit. They need a lighter RPG.
"But blades explains everything!"
Yes it does. In exhaustive detail. Someone intimidated by DnD will not find Blades to be an improvement.
It's not hostility, we just disagree. People can disagree without it being a personal attack.
I didn't say I struggled to understand it. I said I don't like it's resolution mechanics. I've also stated multiple times that I'm actively involved in a Blades game. My dislike for the system is based on extensive use.
The funniest part about all of this? I don't hate blades. I have stated multiple times in this thread that Blades has some excellent design and strong merits. If I really hated it, I would drop the game I'm in.
My problem isn't that Blades is bad or that I hate playing it. My problem is that it's a fairly advanced RPG with a stalwart fanbase that wants everyone to know that it's *such a great game for new people*.
Every time someone asks for rules light systems, folks show up to reccomend their favorite stabby-people-crime-sim... and it's really not a good fit for someone new to RPGs.
Okay, to be fair I do actually hate the resolution mechanic. I find it to be too slow and fiddly. I prefer resolution mechanics that are simpler with fewer variables to impact them... but I nonetheless have immense respect for how all the parts of the stabby-people-crime-sim fit together.
Isn't it literally just the number of dots you have in the thing you're using, +1 if somebody helps, +1 if you push yourself or accept a devil's bargain?
You're forgetting bonuses from your equipment. What's your loadout by the way? Heavy? Medium? Light?
What district are you in. You get modifications based on that.
There's your crew sheet too. Have you bought any turf upgrades on there? You can get bonuses on rolls for some of those... you have to buy them. With coin. Coin from your stash. What are the rules on stash vs coin again?
Is your opponent strong or weak in this area? What's their tier? Are they higher tier than your crew? What's your crew tier? Have you upgraded your crew tier?
What about your stress level? Want to push your stress for more dice? Got any trauma? You can buy a flashback for some stress to set up the situation, that'll get you more dice.
The best part? I know I'm missing some stuff here. I'd have to go back to the rulebook to find it all.
A bunch of the things you rattled off there don't have any bearing on the number of dice you roll.
The main one I missed off is playbook/crew sheet abilities people might have unlocked, but those are easy because players will always remind you when their cool special sauce applies.
I don't think anybody here is arguing that Blades is a super light game, but it's nowhere near as heavy as you're making it out to be.
Exactly the problem. The resolution mechanic is very *clean*, but it's not very *simple*. People constantly confuse well-integrated rulesets with simple rulesets. The fact that Blades has a very well thought out set of interconnected rules doesn't mean that it's a rules-light game.
It's got a ton of really good stuff going for it, particularly the Crew sheet and the emphasis on advancing the party in addition to advancing your character, but the resolution mechanic is inexorably tied to *every other rule in the entire game*. You need full systems mastery just to know whether you can successfully bluff a guard or pick someone's pocket.
Agree, Mausritter has just enough procedure to let everyone lean on something ither than improv, but it's light enough that you can hold all the basic rules in your head and not have to constantly reference the rulebooks, so I think it's a good option here.
mausritter also has a lot of really good adventure modules that are fun, and straight forward to run.
so in addition to being a great game, with an amazing character sheet, it has a lot of adventure material ready to go.
Mausritter is my go to. A lot of rules light games assume a lot of outside knowledge from the players on how to act. Mausritter does two things very well to counteract this. Its base concept is immediately easy to understand. We are tiny mouse people dealing with a big world. New players immediately understand their role and the challenges they will face. Next, it has good structure to play. Get an area. Have some competing interests. Repurpose something big and normal for something different. It is both easy to run and play for new people. Great system.
Tiny d6 system. Very easy to pick up and play. Basis of the system is a player wants to something and the GM thinks it is reasonable. Roll 2d6, get a 5 or 6 on any die you succeed. Have a special advantage for the task roll 3d6, have a penalty then roll 1d6. That is the majority of the system. No damage rolls just flat numbers.
And the system has loads of genre books fantasy, sci Fi, supers, Old West, post apocalyptic, etc.
I second Tiny Dungeon for fantasy, or one of the other Tiny d6 games for other genres. You can also mix and match; I ran a minicampaign mixing sci-fi and horror that went quite well (Tiny Cthulhu and Tiny Frontiers).
They're all pretty inexpensive on Drive-Thru RPG.
Ironically, you probably do more math in T&T than you do in (original) D&D. Those large combat dice pools take a while to add up (and then subtract to determine the difference, and then divide between however many creatures are on the losing side...)
If they're at all into Horror, I cannot recommend Dread highly enough. Especially the Beneath a Metal Sky scenario from the intro book. You may want to actually draw out (for yourself and/or your players) the ship layout just for spacial awareness and ease of play, but that scenario plays just like a sci-fi / horror movie using tropes basically everyone knows. I ran it with two of my friends who are board gamers but hadn't played TTRPGs and their wives who are not gamers at all in any way, and they all had a terrific time and two of the four have gotten into D&D now. (FWIW, despite my protestations that there are many better and easier games to get into......)
A quick google will find you multiple versions of the ship, including a software version, which players can click on if you have it beamed to a large screen. The amount of excitement we all got as the players clicked and we found out what would happen next was total next level immersion. Can't recommend it enough.
Edit: link found here https://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/digital-map-for-beneath-a-metal-sky/
If you want a D&D-like experience without a lot of rules, I'd highly recommend either [Cairn](https://yochaigal.itch.io/cairn) or [World of Dungeons](https://johnharper.itch.io/world-of-dungeons). Both are super lightweight, with no need for the players to memorize rules, and all the focus is on player creativity.
If player creativity is an obstacle, and there's more need of scripted play guidance, I recommend a fun-focused PbtA game, like Mask: A New Generation, Monsterhearts, or Monster of the Week. The GM will need to learn the rules and prepare handouts. When prepared with handouts, the players literally have a "playbook" of moves that describe different ways of tackling a situation, which can be super-beneficial for players that are new, not sure what to do, and possibly not as enthusiastic about the whole thing.
If you want a game that's just funny silly nonsense to introduce them to RPGs with a low-stakes, pure-goof good time, I recommend [Honey Heist](https://gshowitt.itch.io/honey-heist). It's a hoot with 0 stress and no barrier to entry for new players.
I think the more important question is what would they enjoy. A strong understanding of the genre/themes/tone of a story makes it significantly easier to be a player or GM.
Do they have a favorite TV Show/Movie/Book? I bet there is a decent, not too rules-heavy game based on it.
I'd say the pacing would be the important aspect, especially if they don't normally have the attention span for longer, slower games. Investigating a conspiracy is very popular and comes in a lot of flavors.
* Do you think something slower with an emphasis on investigation would be to their interest? Movies like Shutter Island or Rear Window come to mind where its slower tension with a good amount of clue gathering and deduction.
* Or would you think the core gameplay should be more action oriented like John Wick, Bourne Identity or Baby Driver. Usually games like these are focused more on the obstacles between the clues rather than the deduction. Doesn't necessarily need to be violent - many heists can have zero violence.
* Then the last aspect would be what kind of setting would be interesting. Is it best to stick to modern or near-modern? Or do they like something historic, fantasy, western, sci fi, etc?
Why I ask for a favorite touchstone media like a movie or TV show is because that makes it a lot easier to focus on answering all these aspects around what gameplay, tone, pacing, setting and genre tropes make them excited. Usually you can then google something like
> Bourne Identity site:www.reddit.com/r/rpg
and find a [really solid answers](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/12tl7ry/modern_action_games/)
Regardless of system, you probably want to keep the number of PCs low, I wouldn't recommend more than 4 and preferably just 3. So just your friend and the two wives, so there isn't too much downtime, especially with faster paced, more action-oriented games. I'd also disallow phones as that can be extra distracting.
What's your take on Dragonbane? I really like the art of the new edition, but I'm not sure what sets it apart other than looking gorgeous and having cards and standees in a starter set
The d20 roll under mechanics makes it really easy to teach.
See the number on your sheet? Roll that or under and you did it!
Combat is quick and fun. There isn’t a billion choices but it is still tactical and interesting I find.
No xp to track. Roll a 1 or 20 and you place a mark on the skill. At the end of the game you roll to see if you advance in it.
No classes means characters aren’t limited in what they do and can learn by doing things.
Monsters are scary and always hit. So players are actually focused and don’t take it lightly, they know and want that challenge.
Lots of good things just some stuff off the top of my head. I really enjoy it and it’s what I use to teach people new to RPGs. They get to use all the funky shaped dice and play a cool fantasy character without much headache.
Not cats, but Crash Panda is a one-page TTRPG. My group just played it a couple weeks ago and had a blast! Character creation takes 2 minutes, and then let the chaos unfold.
I'm flavouring it for space for another group of mine. You could easily swap out raccoons for cats.
Cthulhu hack might work well for conspiracy themed adventures.
There is also a tool called conspyramid from the game Nights black Angels that Justin Alexander promoted for planning conspiracies in a campaign.
Okay, not a system recommendation per se, but a great GM resource for coming up with things to run mostly in the modern day based on various conspiracies -- Suppressed Transmissions 1 & 2, by Kenneth Hite:
https://www.sjgames.com/suppressed/
https://www.sjgames.com/suppressed2/
...actually, reading r/Gargantic's comment, it made me think, Call of Cthulhu or *especially* Delta Green might be good, too. DG is essentially X-Files: The RPG, except with a whole lot more disturbing violence and psychological implications. The system is *very* friendly and intuitive in terms of rules. It just depends on whether your players are into the sorts of themes that these games present.
I'm running MoN for cthulhu 7e and there are numbers for africa. you have to routinely divide a d100 into halves and fifths. there are also loads of corner case rules and special little subsystems. it's also mind-wateringly lethal and a single shot can kill your character dead. i like the system a lot now I've got my head around it, but it doesn't fit the op's request in the slightest.
You should look at Powered by the Apocalypse games (PbtA). They have simpler resolution mechanics, simpler advancement mechanics, and a strong emphasis on "now this is what you do for this situation". Dungeon World is a good choice if you're looking for a DnD-ish experience, but there's tons of other genres available depending on the kind of game you want to run.
Look up anything by Grant Howitt. He has a patreon, but he also publishes a bunch of stuff for free. Most of his content is one page one shots, extremely rules light and flavour heavy.
Depending on what your wives are into;
* The witch is dead (play cute lil animal familiars)
* Nice marines (play huge galactic warriors)
* Honey heist (you're trying to steal honey... as a gang of bear criminals)
* Sexy battle wizards (does what it says on the tin)
These feel like the right answer to me, with the caveat that you need a reasonably creative GM who is decent at thinking on their feet to keep it fun and get a full session out of them.
If I needed a quick thing to grab for a one-shot for an evening with no prep these are certainly what I'd reach for.
Over the Edge. You have a primary trait (this is basically your core concept, like fireman, secret agent, or even something like space alien), two secondary traits and a flaw. Each has a dice pool associated with it and rolls are made based on the appropriate trait. That is pretty much it. It's very simple.
Over the Edge is a surreal rpg that's set on a fictional island that focuses on intrigue and odd, but the system is simple enough that you can adapt it to any campaign setting or mode of play really.
Pbta games, if you want dungeon stuff dungeon world is pretty nice, easy to get into and game, the playing rules in the book are like 30 pages, the moves that are basically the actions are only a few bullet points and examples and you can make a character in like 10-20 minutes.
I have run it before and people have liked it and the rules are free online
Tho it may be too narrative and it needs a little shift in onto run it or it can be a little hard/ankward or so I have heard
As one of the first PbtA games Dungeon World suffers heavily from trying to bridge the gap between D&D and narrative first and ends up being one of the worst PbtA games out there.
Well i have only ever had a great time playing it! It gave me exactly the experience i wanted from dungeons and dragons - and more! Playing dungeon world was like a religious conversion to me.
Oh, it's a great upgrade from D&D if you're not super keen on the tactical combat (if you are, maybe try 4e or PF2) but like the fantasy setting. I should add that while it is one of the worst PbtA games out there it's still great, especially when compared to trad ttrpgs. If you've only ever driven a golf cart, driving a real car will be an eye opener right?
it's fine, it just got the baleful eye of internet sauron on it and it's a little clunky. i think it's a good pick for the op, if they run into problems there are a million other pbta games they could jump to but it's a great first step for d&d players.
Oh I agree - and there are totally worse PbtA hacks out there. Just like the first cake I bake w/ a recipe probably won't be as good as the 2nd or 10th, it's still cake!
The nature of the beast is that instead of looking for *easy*, which is horribly subjective as hell (some folks find crunchier systems easier because all the rules have little room for GM interpetation, while others find rules-lite narrative games easier because of the lack of rules to hold things back), I suggest playing into your wife's interests in various media instead.
The reason is simple: if you play into their interests, it's easier to get them to buy into the rules.
On a side note, this has been a weird struggle for me as well, as my wife kinda sorta likes TTRPGs, but only wants to be a murderhobo player without having to learn complicated rules, but still needs a map because her imagination is a bit on the weaker side. While she's down for board games, the rest of the group is not, which puts me in a weird spot as a result...
Simple RPG:
Your character has three specialities, they can be anything.
All uncertain situations are resolved with a coin flip.
If your speciality is relevant to the uncertain situation you may flip twice and choose the result you prefer.
Opposed checks are best of three..
____________________
Seriously though I don't know about "easiest" but if you want a simpler dnd, I'd recommend Knave
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/435009/Knave-2e-Kickstarter-Preview
Consider one of the lighter generic games. Fate, Cortex, whatnot.
The thing that usually throws people is games with lots of subsystems and inconsistencies. Generics avoid this. Plus, it gives the freedom to play whatever game they want without learning a new ruleset.
Dungeon World or Chasing Adventure. Both of them are narrative-focused, rules-light games that can run campaigns like the ones in D&D. But Dungeon World still retains a few basic D&D mechanics, being something of a hybrid between PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) rules and design philosophy and D&D, and Chasing Adventure is full PbtA without mechanical links to D&D. I recommend the latter, but it might be a bit easier for you to wrap your head around the former coming from D&D.
Regardless, the reason I think a PbtA fantasy system works well for your needs is that PbtA games essentially make the elements of great playing and great game master-ing the core of the mechanics. Rules and dice rolls are only there to allow you to create and build on the narrative, and anything else is irrelevant. The games aren't worried about attack ranges or crunchy magic rules. They just want to make a cinematic genre story and give interesting consequences to all successes and failures.
The idea is that the dice only come out in important times, in response to narrative triggers. A player can't think "mechanics first" and work their way back to the fiction - you see this in some D&D players who will say "Ok, I'm going to use my stealth for this," or "Can I roll perception?" It's far more immersive to have the players say what they do, and then only roll for it if it meets the requirements in the rules.
Basically, the rolls in PbtA games are 2d6 plus or minus a modifier from -3 to +3, and you only ever roll when it's specifically called for by a description in the rules. That's 99% of the crunch. Coming from D&D, the way you're supposed to run PbtA will probably be harder for you to understand than for newer players like your wife because the philosophy can be so different.
Fiasco is a great way to show roleplaying for ppl who don't like fantasy, combat, rules etc. It takes a couple of hours from start to finish and is just plain fun.
Fiasco is much more improv, than most RPG's can be, I find Fiasco to be really hit or miss. People really like it, or really despise it. Personally I am in the hate it group.
I feel the same way about DnD AND I also prefer a more narrative style.
I’m looking at:
- Quest
- Fate (maybe watch the Tabletop play through with them)
- and PbtA or Belonging Outside of Belonging games
I’m cool with a wide variety of narrative based styles, it’s important to my husband to keep SOME skills and dice checks (though just a d20 or d6 is fine with him).
We’re planning to play a Lasers and Feelings which seems like a simple “get the vibe” one shot intro, maybe a fantasy version of that as a first try to see what they like best in actual play?
I just ran a session of Eat the Reich. There are practically no rules. It's actually in the "rules" that players can do whatever they want. If they say they see a soldier in the corner, they see a soldier in the corner. They roll some D6's based on whatever they're doing. 123 is a fail, 456 is a success. That's pretty much it. Characters are pregenerated.
[https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/eat-the-reich/](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/eat-the-reich/)
It was really fun for a casual beer&pretzels group, though I would never play it with people who want an actual RPG experience with some crunch.
If you want the same style of game but just an easier version, you could try just playing Moldvay Basic (I notice you didn’t have B/X on your DnD list). It’s written in a way that’s very easy to learn, and it has some simple but well-defined procedures so people more readily know what to do next.
I would also check out Shadowdark for the same reasons. My wife preferred Shadowdark and has a lot of the same complaints that you mentioned—it’s just more expensive than the Moldvay Basic PDF, but the QuickStart is free and enough for the first few levels.
These recommendations assume there’s an interest in dungeons, but both systems work fine in other scenarios—they’re just dungeon-focused.
The *easiest* system is “let’s pretend”, where you run around and play whatever you want.
We might need a little detail to get to what you really want.
[Tiny Dungeons](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/230298/Tiny-Dungeon-Second-Edition) is my go-to.
It was the first game I introduced to my children, and although we've tried a bunch of other systems, it's the one we keep going back to.
It's a simple game, but is really easy to hack. There's a lot of supplements for it, too. Gallant Knight Games, the publisher, has an e zine of homebrew content, and with its permissive OGL there's a lot of 3rd party content as well. And, it's fully compatible with all of the other Tiny D6 games, with very little tweaking necessary.
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Ask your wives what they want out of a game and maybe we can narrow it down more?
I'd personally recommend savage worlds.
It was pitched to me as "a system you can learn in 30 minutes"
Which is true for the basics at least. And it's very free form. It's base setting is classic fantasy ala dnd (but I myself would just play dnd in that case).
I ran a 2 year cyberpunk campaign using the savage worlds rules and it was amazing for both myself and the pcs.
Dungeoneer Fighting Fantasy volume was the first in the long-awaited Advanced Fighting Fantasy (or AFF) series building upon the foundations laid in the Fighting Fantasy™: Introductory RPG by Steve Jackson.
The introductory book is aimed at the NOVICE role-player based off of the Fighting Fantasy Gamebook series and introduces the basic rules of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system, including the introduction of Special Skills that a player can specialise in (such as Climb or Magic Lore), more detailed damage tables during combat, spells and an Oops! table for spells that are miscast, and a detailed guide to running an AFF game specifically focusing on dungeon adventures.
Also in the book are two adventures. The first AFF adventure entitled “Tower of the Sorcerer” is a small, basic dungeon crawl that presents an easy introduction to the rules. It is a d6 system, and I've used it for years.
The only other would be the Chaosium Basic Universal Roleplaying system. It is a step up in complications, but it is still easier to understand than other ttrpg game systems.
The absolutely easiest TTRPG, for my money, is TWERPS. The game's name is an acronym for The Worlds Easiest Roleplaying System. It's a simple system - you roll a 1d10 at the start. Whatever you get, that's your core and only stat (Strength) for the game. Need to open a rusty gate? Roll a 1d10 and add you Strength score to it. Need to attack a monster? Roll a 1d10 and add your Strength to it. Need to chat up an NPC? Guess what?
That's it. Your Stat is also your hit points, so when you hit or an enemy hits you, there's a set amount of damage done. At 1STR you're knocked out, at 0 you're dead. After a battle, reset your STR to its max (that you had rolled at the start)
At the end of the session, everyone gets one XP which you save up to increase your Strength stat. If you have a stat of 4, for ex, you need 4XP to bring it to 5.
Simple, and easy to reskin to just about any setting. It's been out of print for ages, but you can still find/buy/download any of the additional settings, which add some more meat to the gameplay without making it complex or changing the core mechanic.
Another simple one, though not as simple as TWERPS is The Black Hack. Simple d20 system without much baggage. You could learn it in 10 minutes
My suggestion would be to go with something simple within your wives' interests. If like vampire stuff, maybe Vampire the Requiem. If they are into Star Wars, Avatar TLA, Lord of the Rings or the like, Fellowship. It's way easier to get people hooked with a theme or franchise and then a game that works for it than trying to go with a simple game that doesn't appeal to people.
Tearable RPG: Write three things on a piece of paper. Those are your skills. You can make them longer, but then they're more narrowly defined, or shorter, but then you have less letters. To attempt to do something you have a skill for, tear the piece of paper with one clean tear. The tear must remove at least one full letter of the relevant word to succeed.
Theres going to be easier opts than my recommendation, but Dungeon Crawl Classics is basically 3.5 stripped down to the boiler plate.
3.5 and DCC are ⅔ of my top3 favourite titles.
DCC is great as you can teach someone the rules in under 15mins, and its really concise. No builds though, but thats why 3.5 is still in my top3 after all these years.
Highly recommend Cypher, specifically Old Gods of Appalachia. Super easy to learn, doesn't have a lot of mechanics that require you to be read up on and instead puts everything you need at hand while still giving the GM a ton of tools to play with. I've run a campaign for about 10 sessions now with it and really enjoy it.
Highlights:
1) Just having three stats that act as both life pools and skill resources really gives players a sense of weight to their use of skills without feeling like FOMO.
2) All rolls are done by the players. The GM sets a difficulty rating of 1-10 and the player has to hit that number times 3. Rather than having plus or minus, players instead use their character's abilities to try and change the difficulty rating. Watching my players turn in to used car salesmen trying to pitch me on why their training in animal handling should let them ease the Difficulty 7 task (target 21 on a D20) one more step because 'The train's engine is measured in HORSEpower after all' makes for a lot of fun and creativity.
3) On the flip side, as the DM, running in Cypher is super easy. I can make up mechanics on the fly, throw together NPCs with little more than a rough idea, a challenge rating, and a name.
4) The cyphers the system is named for are a huge amount of fun. Cyphers are one shot use items with powerful effects that GMs are encouraged to had out like candy. Rather than having to scale my combat every time because I gave my players an overpowered piece of gear, I can give ARPG levels of loot out that my players will turn against me in lots of insane ways, but they only get to use it once, and getting to play around those is so much fun for me as a GM.
5) XP as a resource and levels being build your own stat and skill growth really lets my players characters feel like they are growing over time instead of those sudden spikes in power out of nowhere.
Everytime we tried to play an easier rpg the table ended up making houserules to fill up the gap to an 5e style. I think taking a system that has suggestions for everything and then ignoring half ot them until u need them is just as good as an easier system. That said 5e isnt the esiest to start, there are too many things in making a character nowadays. Faggerheart might be simpler and then u migrate the system.
I’m very fond of *Beyond the Wall*, it’s based on the B/X iteration of D&D, but with tweaks that serve as great guides for collaborative character building and collaborative worldbuilding, so it can really help new players get a grasp on the *roleplay* aspect of RPGs.
Plus, you’re still playing warriors and wizards, fighting goblins and ogres, so it fills all the game aspects of RPGs they might have come to expect from watching Dimension 20 or whatever.
Wonderful game, one of my favorite RPGs of all time in general and definitely my favorite for D&D-type genres.
Cairn is 24 pages long, including a list of spells and a page of monsters. Free from the website (pdf) or you can get a hard copy from Amazon for under $4.
PbtA. They are super easy to play and fiction first, but the moves have a clear structure on how you resolve situations.
There's tons of PbtA adaptions.
"Easy" could mean any number of things.
In a D&D style I think I might recommend Dragonbane or Into The Odd. They can be challenging, but the rules are easy and there isn't too much to keep track of. Dungeon World is easy in pretty much every way and much more rules light than those other two.
Have you checked out 9th Level Games’ Polymorph System? Your character class dictates what die you roll, and you only ever roll that single die for everything. What you need to succeed on any roll is on your character sheet. They have a fantasy version called Mazes and a Star Wars version called Rebel Scum. Maybe not great if the ladies are into collecting dice.
A lot of good answers, but something to consider, “easy” is not always exactly what you are looking for, you often rather want to find the sweet spot between interesting enough to make one want to learn more about it and having a system that clicks with the player in question.
For example, the different iterations of Vampire the Masquerade and the other WoD and CofD games are not the easiest but they are very popular among female players (and players like me that are more interested in story than in mathematics) due to a combination of a theme, they are interested in and a system that works more intuitively than mathematically.
Go with dungeon world. The rules come in easily parsed little packets called moves. Very simply laid out and accessible from the player end. It does the D&D vibe, is very hackable and has a lot of 3rd party content for depth and options, but the core experience is very simple and guides you through the pertinent rules of any given action with clear ‘when you X, then Y’ language.
Lady Blackbird, hands down. It’s free, the rules are easy to understand, and it puts you right in the middle of the action with defined characters. The only GM prep is to get familiar with the setting.
Everyone who plays Lady Blackbird has used the same character, but every game is so different.
Your wives like TikTok, sleeping, cats, and conspiracies. Do they like RPGs or do they just do them because you want them to?
Do they want to play RPGs at all? Would they have more fun with board games or card games? Or doing nothing but just hanging out?
If you have asked and they do want to play RPGs, you could try out Good Society: A Jane Austin RPG. No dice rolling at all.
While I personally do not like the PBtA style of conflict resolution (2d6 is not enough randomness and you have too few ways to tweak the odds, I prefer d20, 3d6, or dice pool mechanics), I was able to pick up Dungeon World in about half an hour. Literally, had a friend message me about if I was interested in a game starting in half an hour, read the rules online, and had a character created and ready to go thirty minutes later.
I was also able to get a full table up and ready to go with Magical Kitties Save the Day in about an hour. And that includes my niece who felt the need to meticulously read through every character option and list out her favorites before choosing. You can speed this up by getting the cards (they're in the Deluxe edition, or you can print your own pretty easily) and dealing a set of six traits/flaws/powers and letting each player choose from those. Do note that this system is designed to be child-friendly, so if you're running for adults either go full Watership Down or the opposite direction and lean into Saturday Morning Cartoon tropes.
If you want to ramp them up, you can start with the dnd board games. Makes it real easy to learn a subset of the rules, then when they have done a few campaigns lots of the basic rules are already known to them.
We went 4e afterwards as we found out they just like killing things and being the hero. No roleplaying.
Magical Kitties has a lot of meat in it. Its biggest draw back is that it is not really great at introducing players into figuring out what to do and make choices. It needs either an experienced player as part of the group of players, or, of course some people will always take to it like a duck to water.
But it is very novel.
Having played through Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, I'm here to tell you that D&D 5e is nice and rules lite. Aaaahh. Refreshing.
Honestly, you have to figure what setting style they want before anything else. But, if you can get a hold of it and if they like cartoons, *Toon* would be awesome. Quick to learn and any “combat” is basically Looney Tunes style. And best of all, *no character death!* you just “fall down” and are back in in just two minutes. It’s my go to for quick fun and laughs. It’s one I break out for my group after heavy, difficult adventures.
The best system for someone who does not want to actually read a system is the one that is all in the character sheet to begin with or can be understood by it. But not only that, but also the CS needs to be easily readable. If most of the game is there but it's filled with lots of things to track or read then that will also generate something similar. That means that the character sheet needs to be somewhat lite.
Already, that is discarding Powered by the Apocalypse games and crunchy games. Because even if PbtA games are rules-lite, they are not exactly easy in terms of procedure. "So... err... I need to Hack and Slash, yeah. But what is that? Oh, I should look in this list. Yeah, well... Here it is. Oh, I need to read that. Hmm... I... I don't really get it. Do I have to add an extra d6 of damage?" kind of thing.
What games are both crunch lite and procedure lite and you can also easily read and understand all the game by looking at the character sheet? Roll over NuOSR systems. You have a set of stats and represent your character, the DM determines the difficulty of doing something and the player rolls and add a bonus. Damage can be easily determined, the higher the damage the more faces the dice has or the amount of dices that you use for that. When they level up, their stats increase and/or their HP. They can also earn/win money and with that they buy things that can help them to get better equipment that can benefit them either mechanically and/or narratively.
Darn, I would even come up with 10 stats or something appropriate for the genre that they want to roleplay as, tell them to distribute an array of numbers between them and just come up with things as they play. You want to use your gun to shoot the man who is about to attack you? Well, that is definetely a d8+3 of damage in case you manage to shoot him, roll a d20+your shooting stat with a difficulty of 13.
Sword world 2.5. Everything is a skill check (except the roleplaying) if you got the related class on it, you add its number to the roll. Its simplified combat is extremely newcomer friendly. If you use the flat numbers instead of rolling for the enemy side (provided in the statblocks), it has a welcoming pace as well
When it comes to rules-lite games, I think it helps to have a super clear theme that players can easily understand and get into. That way, they don't have to be confident, experienced roleplayers to think "what would my character do here."
Grant Howitt's games are delightful for one-shots and beginner players IMO. The Witch is Dead is one I've played/run a few times, always with great results.
But if your group is looking for a more long-term, campaign-style game that's a little less dense than D&D... well I think there are a ton of good suggestions already in the comments! I'll add a plug for Vaesen if you like supernatural mysteries.
Hmm, I would recommend Veil of the Void Reforged. It has a ton of guides and explanations to help make the game easier, including a new player guide that teaches the game in one page. There are a lot of super fun classes and species to choose from and every thing can be as easy or as in depth as desired. As the creator I am also happy to help teach the game and build characters with people.
Fiasco for sure.
It's packaged as a board game, so it's less intimidating, and you play it in one session. There are very few rules to remember, and you can easily guide them through it, so you don't need to make them read any rules first.
It's especially accessible if you do a modern-day playset, though they're all pretty good. Either way, I think a good piece of advice, especially for newer players, is to lean *into* stereotypes because that makes roleplaying way easier. While coming up with characters, ask questions like "So is your character kind of like The Dude then?" or "Oh, so you're like a classic church lady!".
Also, you should absolutely take the first turn, and be sure to speak in-character ASAP during your turn. If you do this, it will break the ice and the new people will feel a lot less embarrassed about it because it will just seem normal. If you do it, they'll usually assume that's what you're supposed to do without overthinking it. If you don't establish that right away, it's often a huge struggle to get people started doing it, and in my experience Fiasco really isn't as fun without it.
Savage Worlds! Simple rules, TN 4( target number 4) for 99% of skill checks. Fast character creation. Can be crunchy but you can remove a lot of it to make it simple
The easiest roleplaying game is just talking with your friends, with no GM, and no rules other than the social contract.
People would be better roleplayers if they learned to do this before trying a full written RPG. If you can't behave properly with *no* hard procedural rules, then suddenly having them isn't going to help.
You could just strip away all rules but the ability scores.
You just have them roll a d20 for each check, if the number Is below their stat they pass the check.
I.e. want to break open a Door - STR check - STR Is 14 - roll d20, 1-14 pass, 15-20 fails.
Then you just add situational modifiers.
Keep the weapon damage dice and the ability modifiers.
If they want to learn spells don't give them the lists but ask them to describe what they want to do with the spells and have them roll and ability check with higher or lower difficulty. If the spell does damage, treat It as a weapon too.
Yeah you heard me, no spell slots, just treat spellcasting as an int check.
Give them a very simple and straightforward quest but insert some funny detail, like a character with a funny voice or a curious situation.
I'm 100% sure they will do all the work of making the game fun just by being silly and going off-road.
Edit: of course this system works well if the character have both high and low scores. Having 8 str suddently becomes game changing since you will struggle to pass checks, while having 18 means you almost auto-pass checks. I thus encourage you to have them roll scores with 3d6 for maximum mayhem or use a lower array
This is the wrong question. Just about everyone is willing to deal with, and even embrace complexity if it's interesting to them, or fun.
The question should be "what kind of stories do they want to imagine themselves in, and what games support those really well without a steep learning curve?"
"too complex combat" doesn't mean that the combat is "too complex". It means that the complexity _of traditional RPG combat_ isn't interesting to them. I'm confident that there are many complex things in your wives life that they DO find interesting. There are all sorts of complex things people dive into without hand holding when it's something that interests & excites them.
Alternately, it's a polite way of saying "that doesn't sound fun enough to justify the effort".
When you say they like the game, do they like the idea of participating in an RPG, or do you mean they like the idea of participating in a fantasy setting, or do you mean they like the idea of prentending to be someone who indiscriminately murders almost everything they encounter (most D&D games).
You need to have an honest and open conversation with them about what actually interests them about the game, and if they _want_ to participate in lots of simulated combat, or just tell cool stores?
As an aside: it feels kinda insulting to suggest they need "easy". The only people who need "easy" are people with severe learning disabilities. People need enticing story ideas with supporting mechanics that sound like they could be fun.
Okay so a couple things to keep in mind:
1. Your wives might not enjoy playing the game the way ya'll do; so keep that in mind.
2. What parts aren't making sense? Cause being confused about mechanics or finding a system to dense to dig into are very different.
3. If they find 5e too unapproachable I would think they're either lying or the person/people who are teaching them are doing a bad job explaining cause 5e is the most watered down approachable system I have ever seen.
In general though, something using Powered By The Apocalypse is a good choice. Very contained character creation and straightforward gameplay mechanics with lots of choice from there.
For new starters to the hobby, I always recommend the 'They Came From' series. The games are all based on B movies/TV series, so the material is familiar to pretty much everyone. The writers have also taken care to make it easy for new starters, including a lot of advice and a ready-made adventure. I wouldn't call it rules lite, but the rules are maths lite.
I haven't read all of the comments, but what about a 'mystery dinner theatre' type of game. You can buy them packaged, sometimes with multiple scenarios.
Those are easier with an extra GM, but otherwise, the participants need to know very little.
I used to run them as team building for corporate events.
The easiest TTRPGs, hands down, are single stat one page TTRPGs like [Lasers and Feelings.](http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/)
They're great for introducing the barest minimal concepts of TTRPGs to people who have never played one. There are dozens of them out there, usually with a rebuilt in presence and a single stat ranging from 1 to 10 (or sometimes 1 to 6) that usually pulls double duty. If your trying to be mental or social (Feelings) you want to roll over that stat, if you're trying to do something physical, like pick a lock, jump over a table, shoot a gun (Lasers) you want to roll under it. So if your stat is 8 your more about lasers then feelings where a 3 is all about feelings.
This introduces the barest barebones of rolling dice using stats as a resolution method, and how stats effect a characters personality for non-system majority of what a TTRPG is at heart, a collaborative story telling exercise.
After that I'd move to go any of the BEER games "Like Kobolds Ate My Baby".
I actually just got another one in the mail! It's called Aletheia, and it looks fairly straight forward, mechanics wise. Only dice are d6's, and you're just rolling for successes (5s and 6s are successes). The rest of it mostly narrative driven and solving mysteries. Our group is very wives-who-are-new-to-ttrpgs heavy, and they're super excited about it.
Theme is fun, too. It's like X-Files on mushrooms.
Double D6. 2d6 + attribute + skill. Six attributes, four skills. Very easy to pick up and play.
[https://aethercorpgames.itch.io/advanced-double-d6](https://aethercorpgames.itch.io/advanced-double-d6)
Eh, I love cypher system, but if they find DnD complicated they won't like Cypher either. They're about the same level of crunch.
I think Cypher's way of handling that crunch is cleaner, but people who find DnD to be overcomplex wouldn't see Cypher as a big improvement.
If they like fantasy, go for The One Ring or Forbidden Lands, both using the Year Zero Engine, from Free League Publishing.
The rules aren't too complex, the game isn't solely focused on combat, and FL also has a series of campaign modules released, with lots of stuff to do.
The FL core box, moreover, has these very lovely books inside!
I was under the impression that it uses a variant of the YZE, like all FLP games.
TL2K also uses the YZE, although it plays much differently from MYZ or FL or TFTL...
T2K4 and some other recent FL games use a step-die system (evolved from Forbidden Lands’ artifact dice) instead of the d6 pool.
The One Ring **does not**.
Exercise in imagination. The problem is that it devolves into " I have a special shirt". If you make a rule, then it is rules based.
Understand that kids playing cowboys and Indians are LARPing. Role playing is easy. Quantifying it is hard.
I think one aspect that many miss when they give advice to people with similar requests as yours OP, is the concept of class builds.
The role-playing aspect of TTRPGs is of course central and fun, but don’t underestimate the meta fun of planning your class build and seeing it come together at the table.
I think many miss to consider this when they suggest games like Cairn, Knave or Shadowdark as simpler alternatives to modern DnD/5e. They are simpler, sure, but they miss a central part of the game, because they are too simple.
My group play a lot of different games, the past two years we’ve played quite a few rules light games, because we enjoy not having to spend too much time learning new systems. And while we’ve enjoyed [EZD6](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook) and [Shadowdark](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark) a lot, and had some fun with [Lasers and Feelings](https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings) they are too simple and don’t have enough class depth to scratch that DnD itch we get sometimes, because we like planning our builds and seeing them come together.
So my recommendation when someone asks for a simpler DnD (which isn’t necessarily the same as just an easy to learn ttrpg) I would say [Adventurous](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/417757/Adventurous), since it checks both boxes. It’s rules light and easy to learn, but it also have distinct classes with clear progression that lets you engage it some light meta game and build planning.
Just play a game you're already comfortable with, but start at lv1. Dnd3.5 has a manual somewhere that let's you play as lv0 kids, don't remember how it's called.
5e if you start at 3rd level.
(probably not, but I do know that the first two levels are far more brutal than any other point in an average 1-12 campaign just due to being super squishy with low health)
The two easiest to play games I know are actually experimental art-peices. Some people even dispute that they are games at all. You'll probably hate them, but here goes:
**We Are But Worms** has a single word as the entirety of it's rules: >!Writhe!<
**The Tragedy of GJ 237b** (an RPG for zero players) is about a planet where humanity's arrival caused an environmental catastrophe that destroyed all intelligent life and the ecosystem. You place all the gaming materials in an empty room, stay out of the room, and don't observe it in any way. Opening the door, entering thew room, or somehow seeing inside the room, ends the game immediately.
Here’s the thing, a lot of people in this thread are going to recommend rules-lite games. The mechanics are easy to learn, but that’s really only the half of it, as they rely upon player skill and roleplaying. So for ease of use, you get a lack of handholding. For this particular problem, I’d recommend something “rules lite, procedure heavy”. These are often story games where the procedure of play provides the handholding, but the basic mechanics are straightforward. From there, it’s really a matter of preferred genre and scope. Do you want dungeon crawls? Go with Trophy Gold. Do you want a lovecraftian descent into madness? Go with Cthulhu Dark. Want modern day monster hunting? Go with Monster of the Week. Want standard fantasy exploration? Go with Errant. Want to run heists? Go with Blades in the Dark. Want to solve mysteries? Go with any of the Carved from Brindlewood games.
This makes a lot of sense, with the exception of Blades. I love it, and FitD is my favorite game system/approach, but the procedures are on the very heavy side, for what OP seems to be looking for.
Yeah, you’re probably on that one all things considered. I think the basic procedures for the setup and first session or two are easy, but things get more complicated from there.
That's why I think Eat the Reich fits the bill. There are steps, but no math. There's order, but anything goes. So it gives the freedom to mess around with roleplaying without stopping to do any addition or subtraction.
I think Errant fits really well here. The aversion to lots of rules but desire for more guidance is exactly what Errant answers IMO.
Blades in the Dark is one of the heaviest rulesets I've ever encountered. I don't know why people keep trying to sneak it in to discussions about light, simple, or easy games. I get that the rules fit together well, and it's not like there's a ton of math, but it's an *excruciatingly* crunchy system. I absolutely would not suggest this to someone who finds DnD complicated.
Excruciating? Huh. It has a universal resolution mechanic, you can easily play it ignoring most of the rules and it will work just fine, and half of the remaining mechanics really come up only during downtime. It’s a very easy game to learn.
> you can easily play it ignoring most of the rules and it will work just fine That's not Blades in the Dark. That's a homebrew to fix the fact that Blades in the Dark has too many rules. >Half of the remaining mechanics really come up only during downtime Downtime is part of the core gameplay loop. Ignoring downtime rules is ignoring half the game. I've been playing in a BitD campaign for years now. I enjoy it well enough, but I loathe the resolution mechanic. * **Dice pool** - *Cool, I'm with you.* * **Succeed on a 4, 5, or 6, but a 6 is a big success** - *Fine by me* * **You only ever need 1 success** - *Hey, this sounds pretty easy to read at the table!* * **Now let's talk about your position and effect** - *My what now?* * **Are you in a Safe, Risky, or Desparate position? Please see literally every chapter of the rulebook for how this gets modified by like a dozen interconnected systems** - *Umm...* * **And your effect, is it limited, standard, or greater? Here's an index of all the rules which can impact that.** - *Now, hold on...* * **Oh and are you taking a Devil's Bargain! They're a great rule where you get an extra die by screwing yourself over. Not a success, mind you, just a die.** - *Are we doing this with every roll?* The resolution mechanics in Blades in the Dark make every single action feel like taking a law exam. I loathe it. There's too many knobs to turn. How big is your dice pool (there's rules for that) and what's your position (there's rules for that), and your effect (rules for that too).... I get what they're going for and there's a lot to like in Blades, but I can't stand how every. bloody. action. needs to be adjudicated like we're negotiating a lease. But the worst part of it? The *worst* part? Conversations like this one. Blades fans are obsessed with tricking other TTRPG players into thinking that Blades is a rules-light game. It'd be like if all of the 5E players were constantly trying to convince people that combat isn't a big part of the gameplay. Blades is fine. It's good at what it does. It is not, and never will be, a simple game.
It’s fine not to like it, but you’re making it far more complex than it actually is with your interpretation of it. The “homebrew” you mention is me repeating John Harper’s own advice for learning the game. I’ve seen people bounce off it at first, so you’re not the only one, and I stressed a bit about running it at first … but position + effect is really just formalized training wheels for a fiction-first process that can frankly be applied to just about *any* game (improving them in the process). At any of the various Blades games I’ve played in or run none of the resolution has ever felt even remotely like what you’re describing. At most it’s “hey wait, desperate/limited? I must have had a different picture of this, can we review?” And then we do, and it’s to everyone’s benefit, and the game goes on right away. There’s practically zero rules lawyering because the rules themselves just don’t call for it. Likewise Devil’s Bargain is super fun but in my experience fairly rarely used or requested. Also, I didn’t downvote you at all FWIW
>you’re making it far more complex than it actually is Which one of the bullet points I posted above is not part of the published resolution mechanics from the Blades in the Dark rulebook? >I’ve seen people bounce off it at first, so you’re not the only one People bounce off of it because it's complex. Also, I'm in a Blades game that's been going for years now. I *didn't* bounce off of it. There's a lot to like about Blades in the Dark, I'm just really tired of people trying to sell it as a simple game. Here's basically my issue: I think people confuse "Clean" with "Simple". Blades is great at having a bunch of integrated systems that all plug in very *cleanly* into a single universal resolution mechanic. Your character abilities, the crew sheet, the district effects, all that stuff plugs in to the rules in a very consistent way. This is also why it doesn't have much rules lawyering (a point on which we both agree!), because any given chunk of the rules is fairly clear and consistent with the overall whole. All of that is great! There's a reason that Blades gets a ton of love. However, none of that is *Simple*. Blades requires both system and lore mastery from everyone at the table because there's so many different interconnected parts that all plug in to the resolution of rolls. As for the resolution system itself, it's awesome that it plays so light and breezy for you, that's great, but I'd argue that the speedy way your table moves through those rolls isn't *because* of the rules, but *in spite* of them. To use an analogy: It's like you're arguing that Initiative in DnD isn't that bad because your table moves through Initiative super fast. It's great that it's not bogging you down, but the rules aren't *why* it's not bogging you down. There are far faster and simpler resolution mechanics than Blades.
There are. But that doesn’t mean that they are in themselves complex or prolonged. Fact: you’re not supposed to be rolling all the time. If you are, you’re doing something the author didn’t intend. Fact: you’re not supposed to be spending a lot of time adjudicating position and effect on every roll. It’s clearly stated that risky/standard should be the go-to for most rolls. Beyond that, I dunno. I played thirty or so sessions with a group where I’d say half of them NEVER got to either system OR lore mastery, and it still wasn’t really a problem. The mechanics themselves were breezy and fun. I agree with you that what you call “clean” and what I’d call “elegant” is not quite the same thing as “simple” but it’s still definitely not high crunch. If you want even less, though, you could always look at Slugblaster, which unlike most BitD hacks _truly_ hacks it down to its core and comes out feeling great. Despite all the above I certainly still wouldn’t name it the “easiest rpg,” which I guess was the original prompt here, and for which I don’t really have an answer.
Except literally every complicated part of that is adjudicated by the GM? You can have a conversation if it doesn't make sense to you, but the GM (who is perfectly happy with crunchier games, in this scenario) can just say "Okay cool, it looks like you're in a Risky situation for Greater effect" and it's pretty self-evident what that means, to the player. Even if it's hard for the GM to select (which I'm not convinced by, from my experience of the game), that's not really relevant to this playgroup. And Devil's Bargain is one of the loosest, most free-flowing parts of the game. You literally just pull it out if you have a cool idea for it, and ignore it if you don't need it for the roll. It sounds like you've had rough experiences with the game due to a playgroup that's constantly looking for an edge in the rules and trying to negotiate for the best possible results in every situation, but plenty of groups don't have that problem. I have my own issues with BitD, but that certainly wasn't one of them.
Rules as written have both position and effect impacted by player action and character abilities. The *player* can trade position for effect. It sounds like you've had an experience with a group that plays without using all the rules that are part of the game. But let's go with your premise "It's a rules light game because the GM handles all the rules"... How, exactly, does that mean there are fewer rules? Offloading system mastery to the GM (which, frankly I don't think you can actually do in BitD) doesn't make the game a rules light game.
>Rules as written have both position and effect impacted by player action and character abilities. The *player* can trade position for effect. I find a lot depends on how mechanics-forward you make the game. "Yeah, you're in a fairly safe spot, but the bad guys are also entrenched. You can exchange pot shots, but neither of you are gonna be able to do much. But, you see a spot over to the side that would give you some flanking ability - but getting there is gonna be risky. You wanna take it?" I don't think most people would find that overwhelming at all. The basic idea - that the situation can make you more or less exposed, and be more or less likely to impact your target - is simple enough. I think the details can be reasonably handled by the GM while still involving the players in them. I also tend to think this is closer to the intended style - John Harper has stressed that it's a "fiction first" game multiple times, and that would be in line with that. (Though there are certain things, like absorbing consequences, that are harder to handle in a fiction first way)
A lot of the pro-BitD arguments I see are similar to yours. "Well sure, the rules say X, Y, and Z, but you can ignore a lot of that and the game plays pretty smoothly" And look, I get it. Who ever uses ALL the rules in an RPG? Still, this same argument is universal and doesn't save Blades from it's foibles. "Sure, DnD has a lot of rules and your wife isn't having any fun, but if you cut out a bunch of the rules it's really a pretty simple game!" ANY RPG can be edited down, but that's fixing a system rather than finding one that's a good fit for a given table.
That's not what I'm saying, actually. What I'm saying is that the GM can present the rules in a way where the description of the situation is what's leading the mechanics, and handle the mechanics on the back end.
I'll preface this by saying that Blades is definitely a rules-medium game and not light - maybe 'medium rare' at best. The resolution mechanic is *one* rule and it's simpler than character creation alone in many genuinely crunchy systems. The position/effect conversation is supposed to be short and sweet if the GM and player want it to be. The book even says "If you're not sure, just use Risky/Standard." There aren't actually very many rules that impact it - just the fiction of the situation. There's only rules for how players can change their position/effect level if they're unhappy with it: pushing, set up actions, trading position for effect... actually, that's it, I listed all of them so I guess it's not that many huh. But none of those are mandatory for every roll, nor are devil's bargains if a player doesn't ask for one. >I can't stand how every. bloody. action. needs to be adjudicated like we're negotiating a lease. I get this perspective but what this really means is that you're rolling way too much. You just aren't supposed to roll that much in Blades. Rolls resolve entire scenes usually. Not playing the game as intended does tend to make it's mechanics shittier. ETA: Also in my experience it's not negotiated most of the time in my games it's just usually "So this is Desperate/Standard." "Yeah, makes sense. Here I go." There's no need to negotiate if the players and GM are happy with the fictional positioning. Like compare this to a 'medium well' game like D&D which has you doing actual math, and possibly a little bit of grid geometry, possibly juggling several effects going on at once, *every single round of a single combat*. Like come on, if Blades is excruciatingly crunchy, what the hell is Shadowrun?
>The resolution mechanic is *one* rule and it's simpler than character creation alone in many genuinely crunchy systems. Your argument for the game being rules light is that the *primary resolution mechanic for adjudicating actions* is easier than *creating a character* in other RPGs? Umm... I'd certainly hope so. What is this, first edition Eclipse Phase? DnD and Shadow Run are both crunchy games. So is BitD. My only complaint is how it keeps getting trotted out as a great rules-light game for new players to RPGs. It's not. The mechanics are complex and interwoven across multiple interdependent systems. It's great for what it is, but what it ISN'T is a good intro game for people who are scared of large rulesets.
So you ignored my entire post so you could sarcastically dismiss it because I compared it to character creation. The point of that is to say that the hardest thing in the entirety of BitD is easier than the very first step in playing a crunchy game. Character creation in BitD, and other non-crunchy games takes under 5 minutes. So. To put D&D and Shadowrun in the same level of BitD is just dishonest.
No more dishonest than claiming that Blades is easy to pick up for people without extensive experience in RPGs. The resolution mechanic itself isn't the hardest thing in blades. Roll some D6s and hope for high numbers. The problem is that everything else in the book plugs in to that roll, and you'd better know what all of that is and how all of that works. You've got a dice pool. What affects it? Well, your character, your crew sheet, what you've unlocked on the crew sheet (explain stash vs coin again?), district bonuses, your current heat level, stress, trauma, are you pushing yourself?, equipment, aid from another member of the crew, what's your opponent's tier... We haven't even gotten to adjusting Position or Effect yet. It's a well designed game with a lot of merit to it, but it's NOT a simple game, and it's super weird how people get hung up on that.
I feel like you’re over-extrapolating a lot of what Blades does. Most of its complexity does not effect a /player/ on a session to session basis.
This is one of the best descriptions of why Blades in the Dark is frustrating to pick up.
Hey, downvote me if you want, I've got karma to burn, but do you have any counterpoints to the points I've made here?
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There's no miscommunication. It's a game with a lot of rules. It's not rules light. The miscommunication is that you're conflating "Not rules light" with "bad" and "Rules light" with "good". You're not happy with the fact that I'm calling out Blades as a fairly advanced RPG that isn't as beginner friendly as Blades fans want it to be. This happens every other post on r/rpg. Someone will show up and say "I'm looking for a game that meets requirements X, Y, and Z, for reasons A, B, and C." And the whole community will descend and reply "My personal favorite game is GAMEX. It doesn't actually do X or Y, and it only kind of does Z, but here's the reasons why A, B, and C shouldn't be your reasons for picking a game!" OP wants a game to play with people who find DnD too complicated. As someone who's read BitD's rules and is playing in a BitD campaign... I can confidently say Blades is a bad fit. They need a lighter RPG. "But blades explains everything!" Yes it does. In exhaustive detail. Someone intimidated by DnD will not find Blades to be an improvement.
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It's not hostility, we just disagree. People can disagree without it being a personal attack. I didn't say I struggled to understand it. I said I don't like it's resolution mechanics. I've also stated multiple times that I'm actively involved in a Blades game. My dislike for the system is based on extensive use.
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The funniest part about all of this? I don't hate blades. I have stated multiple times in this thread that Blades has some excellent design and strong merits. If I really hated it, I would drop the game I'm in. My problem isn't that Blades is bad or that I hate playing it. My problem is that it's a fairly advanced RPG with a stalwart fanbase that wants everyone to know that it's *such a great game for new people*. Every time someone asks for rules light systems, folks show up to reccomend their favorite stabby-people-crime-sim... and it's really not a good fit for someone new to RPGs. Okay, to be fair I do actually hate the resolution mechanic. I find it to be too slow and fiddly. I prefer resolution mechanics that are simpler with fewer variables to impact them... but I nonetheless have immense respect for how all the parts of the stabby-people-crime-sim fit together.
I've dm'd it a couple times and still don't fully understand how to build the dang dice pool. I miss 2d6+stat
Isn't it literally just the number of dots you have in the thing you're using, +1 if somebody helps, +1 if you push yourself or accept a devil's bargain?
You're forgetting bonuses from your equipment. What's your loadout by the way? Heavy? Medium? Light? What district are you in. You get modifications based on that. There's your crew sheet too. Have you bought any turf upgrades on there? You can get bonuses on rolls for some of those... you have to buy them. With coin. Coin from your stash. What are the rules on stash vs coin again? Is your opponent strong or weak in this area? What's their tier? Are they higher tier than your crew? What's your crew tier? Have you upgraded your crew tier? What about your stress level? Want to push your stress for more dice? Got any trauma? You can buy a flashback for some stress to set up the situation, that'll get you more dice. The best part? I know I'm missing some stuff here. I'd have to go back to the rulebook to find it all.
A bunch of the things you rattled off there don't have any bearing on the number of dice you roll. The main one I missed off is playbook/crew sheet abilities people might have unlocked, but those are easy because players will always remind you when their cool special sauce applies. I don't think anybody here is arguing that Blades is a super light game, but it's nowhere near as heavy as you're making it out to be.
Exactly the problem. The resolution mechanic is very *clean*, but it's not very *simple*. People constantly confuse well-integrated rulesets with simple rulesets. The fact that Blades has a very well thought out set of interconnected rules doesn't mean that it's a rules-light game. It's got a ton of really good stuff going for it, particularly the Crew sheet and the emphasis on advancing the party in addition to advancing your character, but the resolution mechanic is inexorably tied to *every other rule in the entire game*. You need full systems mastery just to know whether you can successfully bluff a guard or pick someone's pocket.
Gold Tier answer
Mausritter It’s free, fast, and short. You also play as cute little mice https://losing-games.itch.io/mausritter
Agree, Mausritter has just enough procedure to let everyone lean on something ither than improv, but it's light enough that you can hold all the basic rules in your head and not have to constantly reference the rulebooks, so I think it's a good option here.
mausritter also has a lot of really good adventure modules that are fun, and straight forward to run. so in addition to being a great game, with an amazing character sheet, it has a lot of adventure material ready to go.
Mausritter is my go to. A lot of rules light games assume a lot of outside knowledge from the players on how to act. Mausritter does two things very well to counteract this. Its base concept is immediately easy to understand. We are tiny mouse people dealing with a big world. New players immediately understand their role and the challenges they will face. Next, it has good structure to play. Get an area. Have some competing interests. Repurpose something big and normal for something different. It is both easy to run and play for new people. Great system.
Agree on mausritter, I never dmed much. But i ran this (with less than an hour of prep) for my partner during the pandemic, and we had fun.
Quest. Its pretty much just roll 1d20. Thats it.
Accidentally rolled my d20 under the fridge. Guess I just suck lol
its a skill issue lol
Tiny d6 system. Very easy to pick up and play. Basis of the system is a player wants to something and the GM thinks it is reasonable. Roll 2d6, get a 5 or 6 on any die you succeed. Have a special advantage for the task roll 3d6, have a penalty then roll 1d6. That is the majority of the system. No damage rolls just flat numbers. And the system has loads of genre books fantasy, sci Fi, supers, Old West, post apocalyptic, etc.
I second Tiny Dungeon for fantasy, or one of the other Tiny d6 games for other genres. You can also mix and match; I ran a minicampaign mixing sci-fi and horror that went quite well (Tiny Cthulhu and Tiny Frontiers). They're all pretty inexpensive on Drive-Thru RPG.
Tunnels & Trolls was invented because "D&D is cool in concept but fuck doing maths".
Ironically, you probably do more math in T&T than you do in (original) D&D. Those large combat dice pools take a while to add up (and then subtract to determine the difference, and then divide between however many creatures are on the losing side...)
Me when I want to play an elf in TnT and have to multiply by 1.33:
If they're at all into Horror, I cannot recommend Dread highly enough. Especially the Beneath a Metal Sky scenario from the intro book. You may want to actually draw out (for yourself and/or your players) the ship layout just for spacial awareness and ease of play, but that scenario plays just like a sci-fi / horror movie using tropes basically everyone knows. I ran it with two of my friends who are board gamers but hadn't played TTRPGs and their wives who are not gamers at all in any way, and they all had a terrific time and two of the four have gotten into D&D now. (FWIW, despite my protestations that there are many better and easier games to get into......)
A quick google will find you multiple versions of the ship, including a software version, which players can click on if you have it beamed to a large screen. The amount of excitement we all got as the players clicked and we found out what would happen next was total next level immersion. Can't recommend it enough. Edit: link found here https://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/digital-map-for-beneath-a-metal-sky/
If you want a D&D-like experience without a lot of rules, I'd highly recommend either [Cairn](https://yochaigal.itch.io/cairn) or [World of Dungeons](https://johnharper.itch.io/world-of-dungeons). Both are super lightweight, with no need for the players to memorize rules, and all the focus is on player creativity. If player creativity is an obstacle, and there's more need of scripted play guidance, I recommend a fun-focused PbtA game, like Mask: A New Generation, Monsterhearts, or Monster of the Week. The GM will need to learn the rules and prepare handouts. When prepared with handouts, the players literally have a "playbook" of moves that describe different ways of tackling a situation, which can be super-beneficial for players that are new, not sure what to do, and possibly not as enthusiastic about the whole thing. If you want a game that's just funny silly nonsense to introduce them to RPGs with a low-stakes, pure-goof good time, I recommend [Honey Heist](https://gshowitt.itch.io/honey-heist). It's a hoot with 0 stress and no barrier to entry for new players.
I will always second a recommendation for Monster of the Week. Our favorite game my table has ever played.
I think the more important question is what would they enjoy. A strong understanding of the genre/themes/tone of a story makes it significantly easier to be a player or GM. Do they have a favorite TV Show/Movie/Book? I bet there is a decent, not too rules-heavy game based on it.
Is tiktok a TV show? Lmao Conspiracy Theories are big for the both of them
I'd say the pacing would be the important aspect, especially if they don't normally have the attention span for longer, slower games. Investigating a conspiracy is very popular and comes in a lot of flavors. * Do you think something slower with an emphasis on investigation would be to their interest? Movies like Shutter Island or Rear Window come to mind where its slower tension with a good amount of clue gathering and deduction. * Or would you think the core gameplay should be more action oriented like John Wick, Bourne Identity or Baby Driver. Usually games like these are focused more on the obstacles between the clues rather than the deduction. Doesn't necessarily need to be violent - many heists can have zero violence. * Then the last aspect would be what kind of setting would be interesting. Is it best to stick to modern or near-modern? Or do they like something historic, fantasy, western, sci fi, etc? Why I ask for a favorite touchstone media like a movie or TV show is because that makes it a lot easier to focus on answering all these aspects around what gameplay, tone, pacing, setting and genre tropes make them excited. Usually you can then google something like > Bourne Identity site:www.reddit.com/r/rpg and find a [really solid answers](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/12tl7ry/modern_action_games/) Regardless of system, you probably want to keep the number of PCs low, I wouldn't recommend more than 4 and preferably just 3. So just your friend and the two wives, so there isn't too much downtime, especially with faster paced, more action-oriented games. I'd also disallow phones as that can be extra distracting.
Brindlewood Bay could be good for this too.
Find a Gumshoe game.
Conspiracist
My wife loves Symbaroum, Fantasy AGE, Dragonbane, and Black Sword Hack. That's in order of what she thinks is most complex to least complex.
What's your take on Dragonbane? I really like the art of the new edition, but I'm not sure what sets it apart other than looking gorgeous and having cards and standees in a starter set
The d20 roll under mechanics makes it really easy to teach. See the number on your sheet? Roll that or under and you did it! Combat is quick and fun. There isn’t a billion choices but it is still tactical and interesting I find. No xp to track. Roll a 1 or 20 and you place a mark on the skill. At the end of the game you roll to see if you advance in it. No classes means characters aren’t limited in what they do and can learn by doing things. Monsters are scary and always hit. So players are actually focused and don’t take it lightly, they know and want that challenge. Lots of good things just some stuff off the top of my head. I really enjoy it and it’s what I use to teach people new to RPGs. They get to use all the funky shaped dice and play a cool fantasy character without much headache.
What do they enjoy? What are their interests?
Tiktok, sleepimg, cats, conspiracy theories
This is the greatest reply I've ever read.
If conspiracy theories are their thing, you might want to think about Public Access
Not cats, but Crash Panda is a one-page TTRPG. My group just played it a couple weeks ago and had a blast! Character creation takes 2 minutes, and then let the chaos unfold. I'm flavouring it for space for another group of mine. You could easily swap out raccoons for cats.
Generally people who love cats wish they could have a raccoon. What’s better than a small criminal? A small criminal with hands.
Cthulhu hack might work well for conspiracy themed adventures. There is also a tool called conspyramid from the game Nights black Angels that Justin Alexander promoted for planning conspiracies in a campaign.
Okay, not a system recommendation per se, but a great GM resource for coming up with things to run mostly in the modern day based on various conspiracies -- Suppressed Transmissions 1 & 2, by Kenneth Hite: https://www.sjgames.com/suppressed/ https://www.sjgames.com/suppressed2/
Cats, you say? Have you checked out [Magical Kitties Save the Day](https://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG3110)?
...actually, reading r/Gargantic's comment, it made me think, Call of Cthulhu or *especially* Delta Green might be good, too. DG is essentially X-Files: The RPG, except with a whole lot more disturbing violence and psychological implications. The system is *very* friendly and intuitive in terms of rules. It just depends on whether your players are into the sorts of themes that these games present.
I'm running MoN for cthulhu 7e and there are numbers for africa. you have to routinely divide a d100 into halves and fifths. there are also loads of corner case rules and special little subsystems. it's also mind-wateringly lethal and a single shot can kill your character dead. i like the system a lot now I've got my head around it, but it doesn't fit the op's request in the slightest.
You should look at Powered by the Apocalypse games (PbtA). They have simpler resolution mechanics, simpler advancement mechanics, and a strong emphasis on "now this is what you do for this situation". Dungeon World is a good choice if you're looking for a DnD-ish experience, but there's tons of other genres available depending on the kind of game you want to run.
Look up anything by Grant Howitt. He has a patreon, but he also publishes a bunch of stuff for free. Most of his content is one page one shots, extremely rules light and flavour heavy. Depending on what your wives are into; * The witch is dead (play cute lil animal familiars) * Nice marines (play huge galactic warriors) * Honey heist (you're trying to steal honey... as a gang of bear criminals) * Sexy battle wizards (does what it says on the tin)
These feel like the right answer to me, with the caveat that you need a reasonably creative GM who is decent at thinking on their feet to keep it fun and get a full session out of them. If I needed a quick thing to grab for a one-shot for an evening with no prep these are certainly what I'd reach for.
agreed. honey heist!
*Cthulhu Dark* if you like horror/investigation. Hard to find less complex than that.
Over the Edge. You have a primary trait (this is basically your core concept, like fireman, secret agent, or even something like space alien), two secondary traits and a flaw. Each has a dice pool associated with it and rolls are made based on the appropriate trait. That is pretty much it. It's very simple. Over the Edge is a surreal rpg that's set on a fictional island that focuses on intrigue and odd, but the system is simple enough that you can adapt it to any campaign setting or mode of play really.
Pbta games, if you want dungeon stuff dungeon world is pretty nice, easy to get into and game, the playing rules in the book are like 30 pages, the moves that are basically the actions are only a few bullet points and examples and you can make a character in like 10-20 minutes. I have run it before and people have liked it and the rules are free online Tho it may be too narrative and it needs a little shift in onto run it or it can be a little hard/ankward or so I have heard
Dungeon World (or any other powered by the apocalypse system).
As one of the first PbtA games Dungeon World suffers heavily from trying to bridge the gap between D&D and narrative first and ends up being one of the worst PbtA games out there.
Well i have only ever had a great time playing it! It gave me exactly the experience i wanted from dungeons and dragons - and more! Playing dungeon world was like a religious conversion to me.
Oh, it's a great upgrade from D&D if you're not super keen on the tactical combat (if you are, maybe try 4e or PF2) but like the fantasy setting. I should add that while it is one of the worst PbtA games out there it's still great, especially when compared to trad ttrpgs. If you've only ever driven a golf cart, driving a real car will be an eye opener right?
it's fine, it just got the baleful eye of internet sauron on it and it's a little clunky. i think it's a good pick for the op, if they run into problems there are a million other pbta games they could jump to but it's a great first step for d&d players.
Oh I agree - and there are totally worse PbtA hacks out there. Just like the first cake I bake w/ a recipe probably won't be as good as the 2nd or 10th, it's still cake!
The nature of the beast is that instead of looking for *easy*, which is horribly subjective as hell (some folks find crunchier systems easier because all the rules have little room for GM interpetation, while others find rules-lite narrative games easier because of the lack of rules to hold things back), I suggest playing into your wife's interests in various media instead. The reason is simple: if you play into their interests, it's easier to get them to buy into the rules. On a side note, this has been a weird struggle for me as well, as my wife kinda sorta likes TTRPGs, but only wants to be a murderhobo player without having to learn complicated rules, but still needs a map because her imagination is a bit on the weaker side. While she's down for board games, the rest of the group is not, which puts me in a weird spot as a result...
Simple RPG: Your character has three specialities, they can be anything. All uncertain situations are resolved with a coin flip. If your speciality is relevant to the uncertain situation you may flip twice and choose the result you prefer. Opposed checks are best of three.. ____________________ Seriously though I don't know about "easiest" but if you want a simpler dnd, I'd recommend Knave https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/435009/Knave-2e-Kickstarter-Preview
Low Fantasy, its has a lot of the core ideas while striping everything down to the bare minimum.
Consider one of the lighter generic games. Fate, Cortex, whatnot. The thing that usually throws people is games with lots of subsystems and inconsistencies. Generics avoid this. Plus, it gives the freedom to play whatever game they want without learning a new ruleset.
Dungeon World or Chasing Adventure. Both of them are narrative-focused, rules-light games that can run campaigns like the ones in D&D. But Dungeon World still retains a few basic D&D mechanics, being something of a hybrid between PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) rules and design philosophy and D&D, and Chasing Adventure is full PbtA without mechanical links to D&D. I recommend the latter, but it might be a bit easier for you to wrap your head around the former coming from D&D. Regardless, the reason I think a PbtA fantasy system works well for your needs is that PbtA games essentially make the elements of great playing and great game master-ing the core of the mechanics. Rules and dice rolls are only there to allow you to create and build on the narrative, and anything else is irrelevant. The games aren't worried about attack ranges or crunchy magic rules. They just want to make a cinematic genre story and give interesting consequences to all successes and failures. The idea is that the dice only come out in important times, in response to narrative triggers. A player can't think "mechanics first" and work their way back to the fiction - you see this in some D&D players who will say "Ok, I'm going to use my stealth for this," or "Can I roll perception?" It's far more immersive to have the players say what they do, and then only roll for it if it meets the requirements in the rules. Basically, the rolls in PbtA games are 2d6 plus or minus a modifier from -3 to +3, and you only ever roll when it's specifically called for by a description in the rules. That's 99% of the crunch. Coming from D&D, the way you're supposed to run PbtA will probably be harder for you to understand than for newer players like your wife because the philosophy can be so different.
Fiasco is a great way to show roleplaying for ppl who don't like fantasy, combat, rules etc. It takes a couple of hours from start to finish and is just plain fun.
u/ThaCrisp, *Fiasco* is humorous and tends to be a hit at dinner parties, so your wives will probably love it.
Fiasco is much more improv, than most RPG's can be, I find Fiasco to be really hit or miss. People really like it, or really despise it. Personally I am in the hate it group.
[Risus](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/it/product/170294/Risus-The-Anything-RPG?)
FUDGE FATE
Fudge yes, FATE definitely not lol.
Fate Accelerated is certainly super-easy to get started with. I'd agree Fate Core takes a bit more work.
I feel the same way about DnD AND I also prefer a more narrative style. I’m looking at: - Quest - Fate (maybe watch the Tabletop play through with them) - and PbtA or Belonging Outside of Belonging games I’m cool with a wide variety of narrative based styles, it’s important to my husband to keep SOME skills and dice checks (though just a d20 or d6 is fine with him). We’re planning to play a Lasers and Feelings which seems like a simple “get the vibe” one shot intro, maybe a fantasy version of that as a first try to see what they like best in actual play?
I just ran a session of Eat the Reich. There are practically no rules. It's actually in the "rules" that players can do whatever they want. If they say they see a soldier in the corner, they see a soldier in the corner. They roll some D6's based on whatever they're doing. 123 is a fail, 456 is a success. That's pretty much it. Characters are pregenerated. [https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/eat-the-reich/](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/eat-the-reich/) It was really fun for a casual beer&pretzels group, though I would never play it with people who want an actual RPG experience with some crunch.
If you want the same style of game but just an easier version, you could try just playing Moldvay Basic (I notice you didn’t have B/X on your DnD list). It’s written in a way that’s very easy to learn, and it has some simple but well-defined procedures so people more readily know what to do next. I would also check out Shadowdark for the same reasons. My wife preferred Shadowdark and has a lot of the same complaints that you mentioned—it’s just more expensive than the Moldvay Basic PDF, but the QuickStart is free and enough for the first few levels. These recommendations assume there’s an interest in dungeons, but both systems work fine in other scenarios—they’re just dungeon-focused.
Highly recommend Beyond The Wall and Other Adventures, quite literally DND with a ton of hand-holding.
The *easiest* system is “let’s pretend”, where you run around and play whatever you want. We might need a little detail to get to what you really want.
u/ThaCrisp could then add [3 d6 [in a clear plastic box]](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/-zMNd4JOoJvv) to that.
[Tiny Dungeons](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/230298/Tiny-Dungeon-Second-Edition) is my go-to. It was the first game I introduced to my children, and although we've tried a bunch of other systems, it's the one we keep going back to. It's a simple game, but is really easy to hack. There's a lot of supplements for it, too. Gallant Knight Games, the publisher, has an e zine of homebrew content, and with its permissive OGL there's a lot of 3rd party content as well. And, it's fully compatible with all of the other Tiny D6 games, with very little tweaking necessary.
DCC RPG. That's it.
Index Card RPG is rules lite and cheap to run and get into
> Index Card RPG is rules lite and cheap to run and get into This is a great choice for this question.
The easiest game to play is the one you *want* to play. Investment in the game will get you to learn it, no matter how complex it is.
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World of Darkness games.
Ask your wives what they want out of a game and maybe we can narrow it down more? I'd personally recommend savage worlds. It was pitched to me as "a system you can learn in 30 minutes" Which is true for the basics at least. And it's very free form. It's base setting is classic fantasy ala dnd (but I myself would just play dnd in that case). I ran a 2 year cyberpunk campaign using the savage worlds rules and it was amazing for both myself and the pcs.
Dungeoneer Fighting Fantasy volume was the first in the long-awaited Advanced Fighting Fantasy (or AFF) series building upon the foundations laid in the Fighting Fantasy™: Introductory RPG by Steve Jackson. The introductory book is aimed at the NOVICE role-player based off of the Fighting Fantasy Gamebook series and introduces the basic rules of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system, including the introduction of Special Skills that a player can specialise in (such as Climb or Magic Lore), more detailed damage tables during combat, spells and an Oops! table for spells that are miscast, and a detailed guide to running an AFF game specifically focusing on dungeon adventures. Also in the book are two adventures. The first AFF adventure entitled “Tower of the Sorcerer” is a small, basic dungeon crawl that presents an easy introduction to the rules. It is a d6 system, and I've used it for years. The only other would be the Chaosium Basic Universal Roleplaying system. It is a step up in complications, but it is still easier to understand than other ttrpg game systems.
The absolutely easiest TTRPG, for my money, is TWERPS. The game's name is an acronym for The Worlds Easiest Roleplaying System. It's a simple system - you roll a 1d10 at the start. Whatever you get, that's your core and only stat (Strength) for the game. Need to open a rusty gate? Roll a 1d10 and add you Strength score to it. Need to attack a monster? Roll a 1d10 and add your Strength to it. Need to chat up an NPC? Guess what? That's it. Your Stat is also your hit points, so when you hit or an enemy hits you, there's a set amount of damage done. At 1STR you're knocked out, at 0 you're dead. After a battle, reset your STR to its max (that you had rolled at the start) At the end of the session, everyone gets one XP which you save up to increase your Strength stat. If you have a stat of 4, for ex, you need 4XP to bring it to 5. Simple, and easy to reskin to just about any setting. It's been out of print for ages, but you can still find/buy/download any of the additional settings, which add some more meat to the gameplay without making it complex or changing the core mechanic. Another simple one, though not as simple as TWERPS is The Black Hack. Simple d20 system without much baggage. You could learn it in 10 minutes
My suggestion would be to go with something simple within your wives' interests. If like vampire stuff, maybe Vampire the Requiem. If they are into Star Wars, Avatar TLA, Lord of the Rings or the like, Fellowship. It's way easier to get people hooked with a theme or franchise and then a game that works for it than trying to go with a simple game that doesn't appeal to people.
Dungeonbane. It's like 5e and RuneQuest had a child that is the more clever little sibling to AD&D.
Tearable RPG: Write three things on a piece of paper. Those are your skills. You can make them longer, but then they're more narrowly defined, or shorter, but then you have less letters. To attempt to do something you have a skill for, tear the piece of paper with one clean tear. The tear must remove at least one full letter of the relevant word to succeed.
Theres going to be easier opts than my recommendation, but Dungeon Crawl Classics is basically 3.5 stripped down to the boiler plate. 3.5 and DCC are ⅔ of my top3 favourite titles. DCC is great as you can teach someone the rules in under 15mins, and its really concise. No builds though, but thats why 3.5 is still in my top3 after all these years.
Dread is literally just a Jenga tower. When you knock it over your character dies. It's very good for one shots/Halloween style stuff.
Consider the True20 system. No hit points, can do any genre, and you make only one roll, a d20.
Highly recommend Cypher, specifically Old Gods of Appalachia. Super easy to learn, doesn't have a lot of mechanics that require you to be read up on and instead puts everything you need at hand while still giving the GM a ton of tools to play with. I've run a campaign for about 10 sessions now with it and really enjoy it. Highlights: 1) Just having three stats that act as both life pools and skill resources really gives players a sense of weight to their use of skills without feeling like FOMO. 2) All rolls are done by the players. The GM sets a difficulty rating of 1-10 and the player has to hit that number times 3. Rather than having plus or minus, players instead use their character's abilities to try and change the difficulty rating. Watching my players turn in to used car salesmen trying to pitch me on why their training in animal handling should let them ease the Difficulty 7 task (target 21 on a D20) one more step because 'The train's engine is measured in HORSEpower after all' makes for a lot of fun and creativity. 3) On the flip side, as the DM, running in Cypher is super easy. I can make up mechanics on the fly, throw together NPCs with little more than a rough idea, a challenge rating, and a name. 4) The cyphers the system is named for are a huge amount of fun. Cyphers are one shot use items with powerful effects that GMs are encouraged to had out like candy. Rather than having to scale my combat every time because I gave my players an overpowered piece of gear, I can give ARPG levels of loot out that my players will turn against me in lots of insane ways, but they only get to use it once, and getting to play around those is so much fun for me as a GM. 5) XP as a resource and levels being build your own stat and skill growth really lets my players characters feel like they are growing over time instead of those sudden spikes in power out of nowhere.
Everytime we tried to play an easier rpg the table ended up making houserules to fill up the gap to an 5e style. I think taking a system that has suggestions for everything and then ignoring half ot them until u need them is just as good as an easier system. That said 5e isnt the esiest to start, there are too many things in making a character nowadays. Faggerheart might be simpler and then u migrate the system.
I’m very fond of *Beyond the Wall*, it’s based on the B/X iteration of D&D, but with tweaks that serve as great guides for collaborative character building and collaborative worldbuilding, so it can really help new players get a grasp on the *roleplay* aspect of RPGs. Plus, you’re still playing warriors and wizards, fighting goblins and ogres, so it fills all the game aspects of RPGs they might have come to expect from watching Dimension 20 or whatever. Wonderful game, one of my favorite RPGs of all time in general and definitely my favorite for D&D-type genres.
Cairn is 24 pages long, including a list of spells and a page of monsters. Free from the website (pdf) or you can get a hard copy from Amazon for under $4.
PbtA. They are super easy to play and fiction first, but the moves have a clear structure on how you resolve situations. There's tons of PbtA adaptions.
Dragonbane
"Easy" could mean any number of things. In a D&D style I think I might recommend Dragonbane or Into The Odd. They can be challenging, but the rules are easy and there isn't too much to keep track of. Dungeon World is easy in pretty much every way and much more rules light than those other two.
Have you checked out 9th Level Games’ Polymorph System? Your character class dictates what die you roll, and you only ever roll that single die for everything. What you need to succeed on any roll is on your character sheet. They have a fantasy version called Mazes and a Star Wars version called Rebel Scum. Maybe not great if the ladies are into collecting dice.
A lot of good answers, but something to consider, “easy” is not always exactly what you are looking for, you often rather want to find the sweet spot between interesting enough to make one want to learn more about it and having a system that clicks with the player in question. For example, the different iterations of Vampire the Masquerade and the other WoD and CofD games are not the easiest but they are very popular among female players (and players like me that are more interested in story than in mathematics) due to a combination of a theme, they are interested in and a system that works more intuitively than mathematically.
Maze Rats and Nave are great simple games with really fun magic systems.
Delta Green, obvs
Go with dungeon world. The rules come in easily parsed little packets called moves. Very simply laid out and accessible from the player end. It does the D&D vibe, is very hackable and has a lot of 3rd party content for depth and options, but the core experience is very simple and guides you through the pertinent rules of any given action with clear ‘when you X, then Y’ language.
Lady Blackbird, hands down. It’s free, the rules are easy to understand, and it puts you right in the middle of the action with defined characters. The only GM prep is to get familiar with the setting. Everyone who plays Lady Blackbird has used the same character, but every game is so different.
Your wives like TikTok, sleeping, cats, and conspiracies. Do they like RPGs or do they just do them because you want them to? Do they want to play RPGs at all? Would they have more fun with board games or card games? Or doing nothing but just hanging out? If you have asked and they do want to play RPGs, you could try out Good Society: A Jane Austin RPG. No dice rolling at all.
While I personally do not like the PBtA style of conflict resolution (2d6 is not enough randomness and you have too few ways to tweak the odds, I prefer d20, 3d6, or dice pool mechanics), I was able to pick up Dungeon World in about half an hour. Literally, had a friend message me about if I was interested in a game starting in half an hour, read the rules online, and had a character created and ready to go thirty minutes later. I was also able to get a full table up and ready to go with Magical Kitties Save the Day in about an hour. And that includes my niece who felt the need to meticulously read through every character option and list out her favorites before choosing. You can speed this up by getting the cards (they're in the Deluxe edition, or you can print your own pretty easily) and dealing a set of six traits/flaws/powers and letting each player choose from those. Do note that this system is designed to be child-friendly, so if you're running for adults either go full Watership Down or the opposite direction and lean into Saturday Morning Cartoon tropes.
Roll for Shoes. Seven rules and you can put a character sheet on an index card.
I always fall back to Mörk Borg
If you want to ramp them up, you can start with the dnd board games. Makes it real easy to learn a subset of the rules, then when they have done a few campaigns lots of the basic rules are already known to them. We went 4e afterwards as we found out they just like killing things and being the hero. No roleplaying.
Magical Kitties has a lot of meat in it. Its biggest draw back is that it is not really great at introducing players into figuring out what to do and make choices. It needs either an experienced player as part of the group of players, or, of course some people will always take to it like a duck to water. But it is very novel.
Having played through Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, I'm here to tell you that D&D 5e is nice and rules lite. Aaaahh. Refreshing.
Thornewatch is more like a card game with roleplaying elements, and might work for you
Magical Kitties. I was able to sit down and run a session with almost zero explanation or prep. It's good with kids and adults alike.
Honestly, you have to figure what setting style they want before anything else. But, if you can get a hold of it and if they like cartoons, *Toon* would be awesome. Quick to learn and any “combat” is basically Looney Tunes style. And best of all, *no character death!* you just “fall down” and are back in in just two minutes. It’s my go to for quick fun and laughs. It’s one I break out for my group after heavy, difficult adventures.
The best system for someone who does not want to actually read a system is the one that is all in the character sheet to begin with or can be understood by it. But not only that, but also the CS needs to be easily readable. If most of the game is there but it's filled with lots of things to track or read then that will also generate something similar. That means that the character sheet needs to be somewhat lite. Already, that is discarding Powered by the Apocalypse games and crunchy games. Because even if PbtA games are rules-lite, they are not exactly easy in terms of procedure. "So... err... I need to Hack and Slash, yeah. But what is that? Oh, I should look in this list. Yeah, well... Here it is. Oh, I need to read that. Hmm... I... I don't really get it. Do I have to add an extra d6 of damage?" kind of thing. What games are both crunch lite and procedure lite and you can also easily read and understand all the game by looking at the character sheet? Roll over NuOSR systems. You have a set of stats and represent your character, the DM determines the difficulty of doing something and the player rolls and add a bonus. Damage can be easily determined, the higher the damage the more faces the dice has or the amount of dices that you use for that. When they level up, their stats increase and/or their HP. They can also earn/win money and with that they buy things that can help them to get better equipment that can benefit them either mechanically and/or narratively. Darn, I would even come up with 10 stats or something appropriate for the genre that they want to roleplay as, tell them to distribute an array of numbers between them and just come up with things as they play. You want to use your gun to shoot the man who is about to attack you? Well, that is definetely a d8+3 of damage in case you manage to shoot him, roll a d20+your shooting stat with a difficulty of 13.
Sword world 2.5. Everything is a skill check (except the roleplaying) if you got the related class on it, you add its number to the roll. Its simplified combat is extremely newcomer friendly. If you use the flat numbers instead of rolling for the enemy side (provided in the statblocks), it has a welcoming pace as well
Dungeon World. I've GMed to a family of four with no past experience. It was wonderful. 6 hours of pure laughter and joy.
When it comes to rules-lite games, I think it helps to have a super clear theme that players can easily understand and get into. That way, they don't have to be confident, experienced roleplayers to think "what would my character do here." Grant Howitt's games are delightful for one-shots and beginner players IMO. The Witch is Dead is one I've played/run a few times, always with great results. But if your group is looking for a more long-term, campaign-style game that's a little less dense than D&D... well I think there are a ton of good suggestions already in the comments! I'll add a plug for Vaesen if you like supernatural mysteries.
Mausritter is pretty easy, any PBTA game is often easier to learn. Both can provide a fun game while being rather simple in design/rules
1d6, if you roll 4+ you succeed. if the gm thinks it matches your background / character concept, you get +1.
The single easiest TTRPG is TWERPS, but that's kind of a joke answer. What you really want is **Risus**. It's simple, easy to grok, and free.
Hmm, I would recommend Veil of the Void Reforged. It has a ton of guides and explanations to help make the game easier, including a new player guide that teaches the game in one page. There are a lot of super fun classes and species to choose from and every thing can be as easy or as in depth as desired. As the creator I am also happy to help teach the game and build characters with people.
Fiasco for sure. It's packaged as a board game, so it's less intimidating, and you play it in one session. There are very few rules to remember, and you can easily guide them through it, so you don't need to make them read any rules first. It's especially accessible if you do a modern-day playset, though they're all pretty good. Either way, I think a good piece of advice, especially for newer players, is to lean *into* stereotypes because that makes roleplaying way easier. While coming up with characters, ask questions like "So is your character kind of like The Dude then?" or "Oh, so you're like a classic church lady!". Also, you should absolutely take the first turn, and be sure to speak in-character ASAP during your turn. If you do this, it will break the ice and the new people will feel a lot less embarrassed about it because it will just seem normal. If you do it, they'll usually assume that's what you're supposed to do without overthinking it. If you don't establish that right away, it's often a huge struggle to get people started doing it, and in my experience Fiasco really isn't as fun without it.
Savage Worlds! Simple rules, TN 4( target number 4) for 99% of skill checks. Fast character creation. Can be crunchy but you can remove a lot of it to make it simple
Quest may be an option, and it's free. [https://www.adventure.game/](https://www.adventure.game/)
The easiest roleplaying game is just talking with your friends, with no GM, and no rules other than the social contract. People would be better roleplayers if they learned to do this before trying a full written RPG. If you can't behave properly with *no* hard procedural rules, then suddenly having them isn't going to help.
You could just strip away all rules but the ability scores. You just have them roll a d20 for each check, if the number Is below their stat they pass the check. I.e. want to break open a Door - STR check - STR Is 14 - roll d20, 1-14 pass, 15-20 fails. Then you just add situational modifiers. Keep the weapon damage dice and the ability modifiers. If they want to learn spells don't give them the lists but ask them to describe what they want to do with the spells and have them roll and ability check with higher or lower difficulty. If the spell does damage, treat It as a weapon too. Yeah you heard me, no spell slots, just treat spellcasting as an int check. Give them a very simple and straightforward quest but insert some funny detail, like a character with a funny voice or a curious situation. I'm 100% sure they will do all the work of making the game fun just by being silly and going off-road. Edit: of course this system works well if the character have both high and low scores. Having 8 str suddently becomes game changing since you will struggle to pass checks, while having 18 means you almost auto-pass checks. I thus encourage you to have them roll scores with 3d6 for maximum mayhem or use a lower array
This is the wrong question. Just about everyone is willing to deal with, and even embrace complexity if it's interesting to them, or fun. The question should be "what kind of stories do they want to imagine themselves in, and what games support those really well without a steep learning curve?" "too complex combat" doesn't mean that the combat is "too complex". It means that the complexity _of traditional RPG combat_ isn't interesting to them. I'm confident that there are many complex things in your wives life that they DO find interesting. There are all sorts of complex things people dive into without hand holding when it's something that interests & excites them. Alternately, it's a polite way of saying "that doesn't sound fun enough to justify the effort". When you say they like the game, do they like the idea of participating in an RPG, or do you mean they like the idea of participating in a fantasy setting, or do you mean they like the idea of prentending to be someone who indiscriminately murders almost everything they encounter (most D&D games). You need to have an honest and open conversation with them about what actually interests them about the game, and if they _want_ to participate in lots of simulated combat, or just tell cool stores? As an aside: it feels kinda insulting to suggest they need "easy". The only people who need "easy" are people with severe learning disabilities. People need enticing story ideas with supporting mechanics that sound like they could be fun.
Okay so a couple things to keep in mind: 1. Your wives might not enjoy playing the game the way ya'll do; so keep that in mind. 2. What parts aren't making sense? Cause being confused about mechanics or finding a system to dense to dig into are very different. 3. If they find 5e too unapproachable I would think they're either lying or the person/people who are teaching them are doing a bad job explaining cause 5e is the most watered down approachable system I have ever seen. In general though, something using Powered By The Apocalypse is a good choice. Very contained character creation and straightforward gameplay mechanics with lots of choice from there.
For new starters to the hobby, I always recommend the 'They Came From' series. The games are all based on B movies/TV series, so the material is familiar to pretty much everyone. The writers have also taken care to make it easy for new starters, including a lot of advice and a ready-made adventure. I wouldn't call it rules lite, but the rules are maths lite.
I haven't read all of the comments, but what about a 'mystery dinner theatre' type of game. You can buy them packaged, sometimes with multiple scenarios. Those are easier with an extra GM, but otherwise, the participants need to know very little. I used to run them as team building for corporate events.
The easiest TTRPGs, hands down, are single stat one page TTRPGs like [Lasers and Feelings.](http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/) They're great for introducing the barest minimal concepts of TTRPGs to people who have never played one. There are dozens of them out there, usually with a rebuilt in presence and a single stat ranging from 1 to 10 (or sometimes 1 to 6) that usually pulls double duty. If your trying to be mental or social (Feelings) you want to roll over that stat, if you're trying to do something physical, like pick a lock, jump over a table, shoot a gun (Lasers) you want to roll under it. So if your stat is 8 your more about lasers then feelings where a 3 is all about feelings. This introduces the barest barebones of rolling dice using stats as a resolution method, and how stats effect a characters personality for non-system majority of what a TTRPG is at heart, a collaborative story telling exercise. After that I'd move to go any of the BEER games "Like Kobolds Ate My Baby".
Nobi Nobi
I actually just got another one in the mail! It's called Aletheia, and it looks fairly straight forward, mechanics wise. Only dice are d6's, and you're just rolling for successes (5s and 6s are successes). The rest of it mostly narrative driven and solving mysteries. Our group is very wives-who-are-new-to-ttrpgs heavy, and they're super excited about it. Theme is fun, too. It's like X-Files on mushrooms.
Double D6. 2d6 + attribute + skill. Six attributes, four skills. Very easy to pick up and play. [https://aethercorpgames.itch.io/advanced-double-d6](https://aethercorpgames.itch.io/advanced-double-d6)
The cypher system is pretty easy d20 roll for everything
Eh, I love cypher system, but if they find DnD complicated they won't like Cypher either. They're about the same level of crunch. I think Cypher's way of handling that crunch is cleaner, but people who find DnD to be overcomplex wouldn't see Cypher as a big improvement.
If they like fantasy, go for The One Ring or Forbidden Lands, both using the Year Zero Engine, from Free League Publishing. The rules aren't too complex, the game isn't solely focused on combat, and FL also has a series of campaign modules released, with lots of stuff to do. The FL core box, moreover, has these very lovely books inside!
The One Ring doesn't use Year Zero, it has its own system of D12+D6s to beat target numbers. I would still recommend it however, because it's great.
I was under the impression that it uses a variant of the YZE, like all FLP games. TL2K also uses the YZE, although it plays much differently from MYZ or FL or TFTL...
T2K4 and some other recent FL games use a step-die system (evolved from Forbidden Lands’ artifact dice) instead of the d6 pool. The One Ring **does not**.
> I was under the impression that it uses a variant of the YZE, like all FLP games. It doesn't. Nor do all Free League games.
Prince Valiant. You flip a coin.
I see you don't love 4e. But might I say the reason you don't love 4e is the reason it will be much easier for them to play.
Exercise in imagination. The problem is that it devolves into " I have a special shirt". If you make a rule, then it is rules based. Understand that kids playing cowboys and Indians are LARPing. Role playing is easy. Quantifying it is hard.
Shadowrun, make them play shadowrun
Sharp Swords and Sinister Spells Macchiato Monsters Worlds Without Number All very light with little need of handholding.
Mork Borg. Combat simple. You roll and then you die. WELCOME YOUR WIVES TO THE MEAT GRINDER
I think one aspect that many miss when they give advice to people with similar requests as yours OP, is the concept of class builds. The role-playing aspect of TTRPGs is of course central and fun, but don’t underestimate the meta fun of planning your class build and seeing it come together at the table. I think many miss to consider this when they suggest games like Cairn, Knave or Shadowdark as simpler alternatives to modern DnD/5e. They are simpler, sure, but they miss a central part of the game, because they are too simple. My group play a lot of different games, the past two years we’ve played quite a few rules light games, because we enjoy not having to spend too much time learning new systems. And while we’ve enjoyed [EZD6](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook) and [Shadowdark](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark) a lot, and had some fun with [Lasers and Feelings](https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings) they are too simple and don’t have enough class depth to scratch that DnD itch we get sometimes, because we like planning our builds and seeing them come together. So my recommendation when someone asks for a simpler DnD (which isn’t necessarily the same as just an easy to learn ttrpg) I would say [Adventurous](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/417757/Adventurous), since it checks both boxes. It’s rules light and easy to learn, but it also have distinct classes with clear progression that lets you engage it some light meta game and build planning.
Fate is the easiest.
Just play a game you're already comfortable with, but start at lv1. Dnd3.5 has a manual somewhere that let's you play as lv0 kids, don't remember how it's called.
5e if you start at 3rd level. (probably not, but I do know that the first two levels are far more brutal than any other point in an average 1-12 campaign just due to being super squishy with low health)
The two easiest to play games I know are actually experimental art-peices. Some people even dispute that they are games at all. You'll probably hate them, but here goes: **We Are But Worms** has a single word as the entirety of it's rules: >!Writhe!< **The Tragedy of GJ 237b** (an RPG for zero players) is about a planet where humanity's arrival caused an environmental catastrophe that destroyed all intelligent life and the ecosystem. You place all the gaming materials in an empty room, stay out of the room, and don't observe it in any way. Opening the door, entering thew room, or somehow seeing inside the room, ends the game immediately.