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veovius
2010-08-03, 12:15 AM
Thread inspired by reading the Paranoia thread.....I have a friend coming in from out of town for a day or two, and I was thinking of maybe playing a one-shot with him and a few friends with a new system that none of us have played before. We've played a lot of 3.5, Starwars d20, d20 Modern, Star Wars d6 and Palladium/Robotech/Rifts and some Cyberpunk. I'm looking for a system that's really easy to pick up, with a good deal of combat. We always joke about the time that my friend strapped fire extinguishers to a hobo and shot off the regulators....and his answer to everything usually involves explosives. "When in Doubt, Grenade It Out" isn't just a motto for him, more like a mantra/way of life.

Something light-hearted, not rules-heavy (aka won't get bogged down with rules like grappling...ugh), would be nice. I guess as an extra to this, could someone explain what Paranoia's like?

Thanks all!

mabriss lethe
2010-08-03, 12:34 AM
Risus (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm)

It may be exactly what you're looking for

Kylarra
2010-08-03, 12:35 AM
Maid RPG (http://maidrpg.com/). :smallbiggrin:

Vangor
2010-08-03, 01:37 AM
Chimeras and Citadels, also known as Giants and Garrisons, also known as Krakens and Keeps, also known as Flumphs and Fortresses, otherwise known as Improvised D&D. Characters select what they want to play being as specific or broad as they care, and the DM throws them into a situation completely improvised. Effectiveness of whatever action, as specific as you want to be, is determined by d20 rolling and however effective the DM decides you would be with your chosen character at whatever action you wanted to do plus the roll.

Throw a fireball as a Wizard with a 20? Piles of ash are left. Attempt to turn aside the undead as a Cleric with a 15? Enough scatter, the weaker are destroyed, but the strongest still come on. Want to barge through the door as a Rogue with a 10? You collided, fortunately not damaging yourself in the process. Try to decipher ancient runes as a Fighter with a 5? Misinformation involving fiendish crabs trying to corner the global gold markets. Innuendo to the fair princess as a Barbarian with a 1? Feel fortunate you are not to be executed...

Simple, honestly. Just distilled adventuring with a d20.

arrowhen
2010-08-03, 05:01 AM
Otherwise known as Haiku D&D...

Describe your action,
roll a twenty-sided die,
DM interprets.

pasko77
2010-08-03, 05:05 AM
Otherwise known as Haiku D&D...

Describe your action,
roll a twenty-sided die,
DM interprets.

I love this one. I just forwarded it to my group's mailin' list. :)

arrowhen
2010-08-03, 05:08 AM
Dungeon Squad (http://livingfree.wikidot.com/dungeon-squad-game) describes itself as "a role-playing game designed expressly for young players with short attention spans who demand action and fun. There is a lot of die rolling and some amusing shopping and number-crunching. Characters can be generated in 30 seconds."

Evard
2010-08-03, 05:47 AM
Swords and Wizardry

Beelzebub1111
2010-08-03, 05:49 AM
Mutants and Masterminds 2e.

All you need is one die.

Tengu_temp
2010-08-03, 06:02 AM
Mutants and Masterminds 2e.

All you need is one die.

M&M might be easy in the gameplay, but character creation takes ages. Definitely not for one-shot games.

Satyr
2010-08-03, 06:16 AM
I would suggest cinematic Unisystem. It's fast, it's fun, it's quite intuitive and at the same time it is not that simple that the rules are basically superfluous.

Kaje
2010-08-03, 06:37 AM
Super Awesome Action Heroes.

It's available online.

Beelzebub1111
2010-08-03, 07:39 AM
M&M might be easy in the gameplay, but character creation takes ages. Definitely not for one-shot games.

That's why you just use the archetypes in the front of the book, they're pretty easy to modify to suit your gaming needs.