Riverbend:
We have played it so much we have made a ton of modifications to make the currency and fishing math more even because we play with kids. Roll dice to create the lands, lots of random tables, the player group has a boat with fishing tools and is looking to fish and trade, some monster encounters, and location encounters. Fun to create together and play. We re-themed it to a Polynesian style setting with islands instead of a river, added in the idea of "elders" and "Family Treasures" as well.
In the Light of the Ghost Star:
A dead earth style hexcrawl, quick easy tables, You to go on expeditions back on a destroyed earth to find and gather "Artifacts".
3 classes/Jobs. Due to the many dice rolls for things and providing opportunity for many failures we did up all the stats to D6, D8, D10. Also read a recommendation to use Bastionlands Chris McDowells "Decisive Combat" damage system (ala into the odd) to reduce the dice failure outcomes, which did help a lot, and we incorporated this (roll for damage essentially).
This game is for a couple of short expeditions no long campaign advancement. We created custom encounter tables for it. Have created "Planet of the Apes", "Death Stranding", "Remnant" themed tables/gear/encounters. We have moved on from this on to the Hex Kits from Andre Novoa, Undying Sands, Bottled Sea, etc... but have gone back to it a couple of times because it fast and easy to fill time.
Heartseeker:
From Scott Malthouse an 2page OSR style game. Simple D20 system quick to get up and going good for running 1 page or short adventures, spell system is simple but flat. Each character has just three abilities: Physical, Aura and Mental. These also double up as saves, with a roll under mechanic. Easy to modify and hack which we do. Currently we have moved to Mazes and Cairn, which have replaced it.
Tunnel Goons:
Another take on the OSR DIY put in what you want style quick game. 2d6 + Stat roll-over mechanic. There is a bunch of community theme content like Ghost Busters, TMT, Mobsters, etc.. Its like a Maze Rats style game, but we like it better. Again no campaign play here, lots of room for theme. One shots, 1 page or pamphlet adventures etc.. We run a lot of one page dungeons with this as well.
Streets of Karuzan
from Grant Howitt, A simple pamphlet game written as if on a napkin. quick easy prompts, its a good challenge for players to come up with story here, its not built out and more abstract. not as hackable as the rest, memorable in its presentation, but there is a right time and right player requirement for this game. Players are vagabonds in a city roaming around for opportunities.
should also add "Exclusion Zone Botanist" has also been really fun and great, especially with kids, as you can ask them to come up with their own plants to find, and its a good activity, we usually have lots of index cards around and drawing items for that game. its a solo game but we play it cooperatively mostly. we have hacked this up a bunch as well.
We also play a lot of Wardensaga in the last year, and that's been great.
