Newbie RPG Meetup - Looking for system/game ideas

[falisa]

Hey everyone! I'm part of a "Geek Girl" meetup group in my area and I just started a regular monthly meetup to introduce girls to the world of tabletop RPGs. The idea is to have a once a month get together that people can sign up for or bail on as they please. Each session will serve as a place for people to see if they actually want to get into the world of tabletop RPGs or if it's just not their cup of tea. Ideally, I'd like to use a system that isn't too complex to start with and do one night only sessions. I might throw in nights dedicated to showing people the concept of creating their characters, or general "teaching" nights for specific things when I can think of more.

Coming here hoping to get some ideas on maybe some pre-existing one off adventures, or simple ongoing campaigns that would be easy for people to show up as they like. Or maybe something I'm not thinking of at all that you think would be a good fit for this kind of thing. I'm hoping for pre-made adventures to be honest because I already run my own game, plus play in another. Thank you!

[Firest Kathon]

I'll split my reply into two parts, which are actually a bit contradicting...

For an easy system, I have made good experiences with Fudge, which is easy enough to learn in 10 minutes, and take another 10 minutes to make your characters (if the GM limits the options appropriately).

For the ongoing campaigns, I would like to point you to Pathfinder Society (PFS). It's the basic premise behind it that you have an ongoing "campaign" (in reality it's more a series of one-shot adventures, though there is an overarching campaign arc which some tie into) where people can join whenever they like. Each official adventure ("scenario") is designed to run four hours. You can read through the free Roleplaying Guild Guide (available on the site I linked) if you want to look into it. The same concept exists for other systems (e.g. Adventurer's League for D&D 5). Of course, Pathfinder is not the easiest system for beginners, but you can opt to use pregenerated characters or at least steal be inspired by the concept for whatever system you choose to use.

[kyoryu]

FUDGE would be fine. So would an appropriate PbtA game - including Dungeon World.

Unless you have a specific reason... I'd probably avoid Pathfinder in favor of 5e if you want to go that route. (Note - "everyone around here plays PFS and nobody plays 5e" is a valid reason)

Really, the question is what kind of thing the players want to do. That's a great first step.

[Knaight]

For an easy system, I have made good experiences with Fudge, which is easy enough to learn in 10 minutes, and take another 10 minutes to make your characters (if the GM limits the options appropriately).

Fudge is by far the game I've played the most and done the most homebrew work for, and I'd mostly second this. There's one big caveat: It's a hard game to GM for people new to the hobby. Whether the newness factor extends to GM(s) is unclear here, but that's worth making a note of.

[kyoryu]

Fudge is by far the game I've played the most and done the most homebrew work for, and I'd mostly second this. There's one big caveat: It's a hard game to GM for people new to the hobby. Whether the newness factor extends to GM(s) is unclear here, but that's worth making a note of.

Kind of also why I didn't include Fate.

But really, Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Monster of the Week - great games for both new players and new GMs, so long as you're okay with playing Not D&D.

[Algeh]

There's a series of articles here: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/...our-game-table about running an "open table" OD&D game with a large group of different drop-in players coming on different nights to play through a hexcrawl with various dungeons.

I've never done anything like that (I have it bookmarked for "things I might try to get going after I buy a house and my life settles down a bit"), bit might be a model to look at for what you want to do if you wanted to consider old school games.

[Knaight]

But really, Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Monster of the Week - great games for both new players and new GMs, so long as you're okay with playing Not D&D.

In my experience the vast majority of new people are fine with playing Not D&D (it was all, but I discovered an exception). It's the people who started there who refuse to ever try anything else.

[kyoryu]

There's a series of articles here: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/...our-game-table about running an "open table" OD&D game with a large group of different drop-in players coming on different nights to play through a hexcrawl with various dungeons.

I've never done anything like that (I have it bookmarked for "things I might try to get going after I buy a house and my life settles down a bit"), bit might be a model to look at for what you want to do if you wanted to consider old school games.

I'm a big fan of open table games, especially if you're using old rules. It's kind of what they were designed around.

Open table + megadungeon = win.

[marycrook]

Thanks for the information.