Highly Roleplay, low "roll the dice" RPG

[Ednoc]

Hi, I hope this title make sense. In my mind it did, but you know, I'm french...

I played a lot of D&D in my life, but not much more. I don't have a lot of knowledge about other kind of role playing game. I'm a bit aware of a lot of other, but never have played them, like Cthulhu, Dark Sun, 13th, etc...

I have a friend of mine who play a lot of Cthulhu and is not into throwing die each time you need to do something. He is more into Roleplaying than saying that you want to do something, roll, success or fail etc...

I never played Cthulhu, but I'm going to with him soon. But, he waid to me that you need much more less roll than in Dungeon and Dragons. I explained him how it works and he said that there was, for him, too much caracteristics, too much options on your sheet, and too much roll.

I would like to know if there is some game who let the player more "free" like a Cthulhu but in a fantasy setting ? It's obvious that it exists, but it's not like there is plenty of games. I'm looking for something straightforward, not a cryptic overuled, like Star Wars D20 with multiple roll for everything with lot of numbers, (The crafting system is awful, for example) etc...

Can you guys guide me to something like that ?

Thanks,

 

[Lylandra]

I'm not sure whether my post will be helpful to you, but in my experience, (almost) every system can be either highly gamey and highly narrative-based. It just depends on your group of your DM, although I agree that some systems are more inviting to masses of die rolls than others (The one time I played Rolemaster, I had to throw a d100 for something as mundane as making fire. It was ridiculous.).

From my own perspective, D&D and its derivates can be played quite freely. In our two Pathfinder campaigns we roll most of our dice during combat (which we often avoid because we're avid diplmancers). Then there's the occasional perception, stealth, sense motive or diplomacy check. But that's it. If your DM likes to support more open RP and roleplaying solutions, then nothing stops him from doing so. Just because you *can* roll a die for something it doesn't mean that you *must* roll it in order to have your action be successful.

 

[CydKnight]

I have to agree with Lylandra. In general it's going to depend more on your group than it is the game system. If you want to see a good example of extensive role playing in 5E, watch an episode or two of Critical Role http://geekandsundry.com/shows/critical-role/ if you haven't previously.

 

[Ednoc]

Thank you for your answers.

It was more or less the one I was waiting for. I will try to convince my friend to give it a try.
I do not have a group of players who are really into "Roleplay" so I'm not used to. Let me know if there is another game that "reward" (Not the word I'm looking for but...) roleplaying.

I have to sell that to my friend : You can use Dungeons and dragons... Without rolling dice for walking, swimming in 10 cm of water or even breathing. (Roll for your breath. 1. You forgot to breath. You are dead.)

I think asking which version of D&D is best for that... 5E seems to be more light than 3.5 or even Pathfinder, which I'm not familiar with.

 

[Nagol]

It depends on what sort of freedom you're looking for and what sort of fantasy you'd like to engage. There are lots of options.

There are several fantasy RPGs that share a similar chassis to Call of Cthulhu:

• Pendragon is set in Arthurian British Isles
• Runequest is either generic fantasy or set in its own fantasy world of Glorantha
• Elric and Stormbringer are set in Michael Moorcock's books with that protagonist.

Other systems I'd suggest include Dungeon World. 13th Age, Ars Magica, Fantasy Hero, one of the FATE variants, and pretty much the entire OSR movement like Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Castles and Crusades.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I don't have a fantasy suggestion, but in case you're interested in SF, Ill offer LBB (original) Traveller as an idea. It fits that playstyle the best of anything I've tried.

 

[aramis erak]

There are systems that reduce the dice rolling considerably; the rolls resolve larger questions than in D&D.

Burning Wheel comes to mind.

 

[Campbell]

If you are looking for a simple fantasy role playing game that is relatively unstructured you could do a lot worse than Dungeon World, but where it is fairly simple to determine when the rules should come into play. Blades in the Dark might be another alternative. Both are incredibly low in prep.

He might also be interested in diceless games like Lords of Gossamer and Shadow or Nobilis.

Something else you might want to consider is that your friend might be interested in roleplaying, but not particularly interested in roleplaying games. You can totally sit down with a group of friends and just roleplay, sorting things out through consensus. As a group you might develop some general principles or bring dice in when necessary when consensus cannot be reached, but things like character sheets and the like are not like a required thing to roleplay. Your friend might also be interested in Nordic Larp.

 

[Jhaelen]

+1 for Dungeon World.
I think, it serves best as a first delve into RPGs that follow a 'narrative' style while staying thematically similar to D&D's main tropes.

 

[Imaculata]

I have even played 3rd edition and 2nd edition games in which there was hardly any dice rolling, and mostly just role playing. I have also ran a Call of Cthulhu campaign in which there was a lot of dice rolling.