Does anyone have suggestions for TTRPG games that are beginner-friendly and are either one-shots or maybe four sessions or less? I am open to indie systems/games (I would love to play Monsterhearts for example but am not sure if they are the right group for it). I would also say my feeling about this group is that they are way more invested in creative world-building than fighting and/or number crunching. Someone recommended Lasers & Feelings, too.
Also, what are good ways to play virtually? Someone suggested Roll 20, is that any good? Any other good websites? Otherwise, I might just use zoom.
backstory: Recently I joined a lady’s group that wanted to start a virtual table top role playing game (TTRPG) subgroup (like D&D). When I joined I didn’t realize that none of them had any experience and were basically looking for someone to lead. I have a lot of D&D experience from 2nd edition to 5 edition, and I’ve DM’d some BESM games (but it has been a while). But I don’t have the time to create and lead a full campaign right now.
I’d probably stick with D&D for two reasons: You’re already familiar with it and it’s pretty much the default game for most of the population so new players can find a variety of places online to figure out the rules, how to play, etc., etc. You could always pick up the Lost Mine of Phandelver that came with one of the D&D starter sets. The starter sets even come with pre-generated characters.
I’ve never used Roll 20 but a lot of people like it. My group has been using Table Top Simulator for the last year but now that we’ve all gotten our vaccinations we’ll be meeting face-to-face next week. TTS isn’t really a dedicated D&D simulator, but there’s a robust community of people who create content for the game including fantasy miniatures, spell effects, dungeon tiles, etc., etc. if that’s what you’re in to. I much prefer face-to-face gaming but I had some good times over the last year playing online.
I know you’re right, haha. Lost Mine is probably good since I think at least one of these people are Adventure Zone fans.
Thanks for the TTS rec! I’ll check it out. But I’d definitely prefer if we could be in person, it seems like it is easier to feed off other’s energy/enthusiasm that way.
I’ve used Roll20 extensively since the plague years began. It’s probably better for D&D than for other systems, just because there’s so much material for it, but it’s a really solid VTT option. The basic level is free (I personally think the premium tiers just add options that are more trouble than they’re worth to manage), and it runs in a standard browser instead of proprietary software, which are huge advantages for first time/casual gamers. One caveat: the chat function sucks. My online groups either use Discord or even conference calls for talking.
As far as RPGs, there are a number of games that seem to fit your criteria.
Powered by the Apocalypse is a game system that is specifically designed for pick-up-and-play. It uses “playbooks”, which are basically your entire character and all the rules to play them in a four page packet. It’s more narrative than D&D, which can be a bit of learning curve for gamers more used to traditional games, but for newbies, it might actually be easier. Monster of the Week is one of my favorites, and it also has robust Roll20 implementation.
At work, have to go, will be back with more recommendations if I have time
I’m currently in two online games, one using Roll20 and the other using Fantasy Grounds. I definitely prefer Roll20 for the mechanics; at this point I basically just use FG for character placement on the map and rolling dice but track everything else on my own. We use the Roll20 voice function (which I admit isn’t great) and Discord for Fantasy Grounds. If you can get everyone together in person though, God bless ya.
If you’re doing D&D, there’s a ton of “Tier 1” Adventurer’s League material intended as one-shots for levels 1-4. They’re designed to be played in a single 2-4hr session (closer to 2 but often have optional material to pad it) and can either be chained together into 3-episode arcs or just played on their own. Just a thought in case you didn’t want to get involved in the Lost Mine arc and wanted to keep it closer to a single night.
I’m not a big fan of Roll20, but it has definitely become the default standard VTT.
As you note, while it has voice (and video) chat, it’s a massive bandwidth hog; we discovered this when one of our groups tried to use it to play remotely last year. One of the guys in the group is on rural broadband, and it simply would not work for him. Like you, our group, when we play D&D, uses Roll20 for the combat grid, and Discord for voice chat, video chat (sometimes), and dice rolling. (Our group also plays other games, primarily Fate, and for that, we only use Discord.)
I’ve also found that Roll20 can work reasonably well, for players who are pretty comfortable with fiddling with settings, and are just generally facile with using their computers. It’s often a finicky program, and the answer to “how do I do this?” isn’t always intuitively obvious. I’ve been in several groups on Roll20 in which one or more of the players aren’t terribly computer-savvy, or don’t have great internet, and it’s always a struggle for them.
Also, a lot of the adventures which WotC has published have already been set up on Roll20, which takes a lot of the heavy lifting out of the equation for the GM. If you, as GM, are programming an adventure from scratch on Roll20, it’s not a small amount of work, and, IME, represents a big learning curve, especially if you’re not already really comfortable with computers.
You might also want to look into D&D Beyond which offers book sharing with your campaign and is obviously D&D-centric so the system is built around it. That said, I have no hands-on experience.
@kenobi_65 makes an excellent point the additional work involved into making an adventure in a virtual format (map creation or import, setting up NPCs and enemies, entering in new loot, etc) It’s not undoable since lots of people do it but it is more intensive than pencil and paper. If you decide to try an indie RPG or something more narrative, I’d recommend just using Discord and going Theater of the Mind. You can just post maps as you need as images and probably find some dice bots. Be better than investing a ton of hours into a game people might soon drop out of.
There are a number of dicebots available for Discord; I use one called “rollem,” which I like because the commands are simple, and its output doesn’t take up a lot of space in the text channel.
As a GM, if I need a map to help set the scene, I’ll either draw one, or take a photo of one of my battlemaps, then share it as a picture; we do tend to be more theater-of-the-mind with my group, but some games, like D&D, do lean more heavily on positioning, and it doesn’t work as well for that.
I’ve also seen people run live battle maps on Discord, though the way I’ve seen it done is to use a physical battle map and minis, then position a smartphone on a stand above the map – one then joins the Discord server using the smartphone, and uses the phone’s camera to share a live video feed with the group.
Thanks for all of the suggestions and discussion everyone, this is really helpful! I do have some Discord experience, but I might try to see if we are all vaccinated and can get together in person.
Like @Jophiel surmised, I’m not actually sure how serious these people are about playing and I don’t want to put in a lot of prep time for nothing. The older I get, the more I find people love to think about getting together and playing more than actually making time to do so.
In less jargon-y terms, it uses a variation of the early D&D rules, so if you’re familiar with those, it’s an easy game to learn. The basic premise is that Player Characters are all young adults in a village in a fantasy setting who grew up together, and go on adventures dealing with threats to their village.
It’s also very explicitly designed for low-prep, pick-up-and-play sessions. Players get playbooks, which walk them through character creation and generate a backstory for the character (one of my favorite RPG sub-systems of all time). It also includes collaborative elements, so that one of your character’s childhood adventures involved another character, and one of their childhood adventures involved another character, and so on, which organically creates a shared history between the party members. It’s a really cool system.
The main book and various supplements (many of them free or pay-what-you-want) also include “threat packs”, which are pre-made adventure outlines. They aren’t detailed, like old school dungeons, but are designed for improvisation and collaborative world building involving the DM and the players.
Ha! I love BESM, and have had some of the best campaigns I’ve ever played on that system. I think it’s a really fun one - I still have my Sailor Moon RPG book that is based on BESM and made my old gaming group play it a couple of years ago, and I still think it holds up.
Also, @gdave thanks for that suggestion! That does sound perfect and I’ll check it out. Now I’m back to the age-old problem of too many games to play and not enough time…