Advice for chosing a system

[Roncorps]

Hi,

Normally, I play Pathfinder or Shadowrun (3th).

I'm a teacher and I rule (ok, not rule, supervise ;)) the Game Club (named "At the Playing Boar" (from Asterix "Au Rieur Sanglier")) in my school (in fact, more like a college slash university for my US reader) and I want to start a RPG with them. I have 25 guys and girls (4-5) in the group, from 18 to 22 (age). Not all will be playing, max 8 or 10 depending on the system.

I got 2 timeslot of 2 hours each in when they dine. So, I'm inquiring about a system that is soft so to not overloard the small time we got but not too soft to bore them because they are gamers (we play a lot of strategy/board games (Catan, Power Grid, Mouse and Mystic, Resistance, Lords of Waterdeep, etc.)).

Advice ?

Thanks !

[Amphetryon]

Hi,

Normally, I play Pathfinder or Shadowrun (3th).

I'm a teacher and I rule (ok, not rule, supervise ;)) the Game Club (named "At the Playing Boar" (from Asterix "Au Rieur Sanglier")) in my school (in fact, more like a college slash university for my US reader) and I want to start a RPG with them. I have 25 guys and girls (4-5) in the group, from 18 to 22 (age). Not all will be playing, max 8 or 10 depending on the system.

I got 2 timeslot of 2 hours each in when they dine. So, I'm inquiring about a system that is soft so to not overloard the small time we got but not too soft to bore them because they are gamers (we play a lot of strategy games (Catan, Power Grid, Mouse and Mystic, Resistance, Lords of Waterdeep, etc.)).

Advice ?

Thanks !

Is availability in French a significant factor in your choice of game?

[Roncorps]

Hey, you read between line for me and them being french speaker.

But no, they need to learn english when having fun ! (Maybe I could fine tune myself too hehe)

[Fri]

My perfect combination of simple rule and crunchy yet fluffy battle is Old School Hack.

I tried it for some boardgamer friend of mine who often play board games but never played pnp before, and they absolutely love it.

[Rockoe10]

Risus is a very light system and easy to pick up. If you like more crunch, you can always add some. I myself am in the middle of adding a little crunch to implement Risus with the use of miniatures

P.S.
Dungeon Crawl: Risus by: domino writing
Has done a pretty good job at this already

[Fri]

Except if you're using a more specific and ruled Risus system, Risus is WAAAAY too rule-light for actual tabletop games, especially games for people who are used to play board games and expecting something more tactical. Not that rule-light games are bad. But in my opinion Risus is more of a collaborative storytelling device. If you think your players would be interested in that, go for it though.

[Mechalich]

A 2 hour time slot with 8 to 10 people playing is a difficult setup for TTRPGs in general (splitting things into two groups might help), since you're going to need very fast action resolution to allow you to feel like anything got accomplished during that time period, especially given setup and tear-down constraints.

A relatively rules-light and low-powered approach is probably good.

[Arbane]

Dungeon World, maybe?

[Pilo]

Monster of the week may be an option.
If you are ready to try a french game, Icons is a super hero game which can fit.

[Nifft]

Have you tried 3:16 Carnage among the Stars? It's remarkably fun, and it allows both squad-combat and PvP in the same tiny system -- fragging the lieutenant is a supported action.

Dungeon World, maybe?

This is also a great choice.

[Eisenheim]

Fate Accelerated. Light, easy, still has strategy. Use popcorn initiative, where the person acting chooses who to pass to next for some added combat complexity, if needed.

[obryn]

If you want something light, fun, and pick-up-and-play, with some good tactical depth and long-term play potential, look no further than Feng Shui 2. It's fast, it's fun, and it's got a great genre mash-up with ninjas, sorcerers, maverick cops, and cybernetic apes.

[JAL_1138]

5e might be the easiest to get a handle on quickly for a 3.5/PF player and DM. Combats tend to go quicker--the longest I've ever been in was 30 minutes long when nobody brought anything but normal weapons and control-type spells to a fight against a half-dozen enemies that resisted normal weapons and had very high saving throws.

[Friv]

Throwing in another vote for Dungeon World. If they're kind of used to D&D, there are enough similarities of assumptions that they won't be confused, the rules are a lot simpler, and it rewards idea-tactics over mechanical-tactics while still allowing tactics to be a thing.

[Lord Torath]

Basic/Expert or Rulescyclopedia could be a great system also. Combat is quick and easy, but still fun.

Edit: Assuming finding Out of Print rulebooks is not an issue.

[obryn]

Yeah, in addition to Feng Shui, I have a ton of respect for both Dungeon World and the Basic D&D line. Check Dark Dungeons for a quick and well-made retro-clone of the BECMI Rules Cyclopedia.

[Roncorps]

I've cheked very rapidly Dungeon World. It seem kind of fast, but not so simple. Will look at it more. I could run some old stuff with it (I have like 80% of all AD&D books (no kidding, I'm crazy)).

Some students told me about D&D 5th, worth the buy-and-try ? I have a budget so I could start buying the books and the one that will come out.

[JAL_1138]

I've cheked very rapidly Dungeon World. It seem kind of fast, but not so simple. Will look at it more. I could run some old stuff with it (I have like 80% of all AD&D books (no kidding, I'm crazy)).

Some students told me about D&D 5th, worth the buy-and-try ? I have a budget so I could start buying the books and the one that will come out.

There's a very slimmed-down "basic" version of 5e available as free pdfs (four classes, no feats, relatively few monsters was all the free version had, last time I checked), if you want to just test the system out. It's missing a lot of content but the system basics are all there.

[Fri]

I still think you should at least check out Old School Hack that I linked before, but if you're interested in 5e I agree with the person above me. Get a quickstart "book" with pregen characters, and go do a field test if it's simple enough and/or interesting enough for your purpose.

[Roncorps]

Old School Hack seem more complex than Dungeon World, I am right ? This could be interesting.

[Nifft]

I've cheked very rapidly Dungeon World. It seem kind of fast, but not so simple. Will look at it more. I could run some old stuff with it (I have like 80% of all AD&D books (no kidding, I'm crazy)).

The neat thing about Dungeon World is that all the complexity falls directly on you, the DM.

This means that it's very, VERY easy for a new player to get into the game.

It also seems to build good RP habits, in my limited experience.

[Rockoe10]

Check out Warriors, Rouges and Mages (WR&M). It's very easy and simple. Has a tiny bit of crunch and some example items. Generic classes.

[Roncorps]

Lot's of choice ! I'm gonna look more thoughtfully into each of them and decide, but for the new is shiny, D&D 5th gonna be first.

[Princess]

D&D 5th is a faster and easier game to pick up than any prior version of D&D, but it's still more complicated than Changeling:The Lost, which is still more complicated than Fate. (Fate is probably one of the best "First RPG Ever" choices out there.)

That said, any of those seems like they could work for what you've described.

[Nifft]

Lot's of choice ! I'm gonna look more thoughtfully into each of them and decide, but for the new is shiny, D&D 5th gonna be first.

Seems like a fine choice.

Very n00b-friendly.

D&D 5th is a faster and easier game to pick up than any prior version of D&D, but it's still more complicated than Changeling:The Lost, which is still more complicated than Fate. (Fate is probably one of the best "First RPG Ever" choices out there.)

That said, any of those seems like they could work for what you've described.

I'm not sure about FATE. It's a fun game, but it kinda throws players into the wind in terms of giving total freedom with no particular guidance as to what their decisions actually mean.

Also, Aspect-farming can lead to some bad RP habits.

If you're in an established group, and everyone already has good RP habits, then FATE can be great.

[Enran]

For something that's both old-school and easier to comprehend than actually old games (I must admit, the original forms of D&D are haphazard to the point of unreadability from my perspective), and which has the added benefit of being free as a PDF and sold at-cost in physical form, I can't recommend anything more highly than Basic Fantasy RPG. Really easy to learn and play (especially since they're already used to the occasional 3.5-reminiscent elements), very old-school in feel, and a ton of fun.

[goto124]

What does very old-school in feel mean in this context?