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I literally DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to download the Ironsworn PDF for the price of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING---literally $0.00, free, gratis. Then read the rules from page 1 through 109, and then sit down and play a solo session of the game for 90 minutes. What you will experience, if you approach it...

This statement is quite obviously coming from a place of ignorance with regards to PbtA adjacent gaming, particularly my favorite iteration, Ironsworn. With the help of my players and a small set of prompts, we could build a "six competing noble houses" game together, in session, in about 45...

My group is actively playing Edge of the Empire as we speak. Just in the last 2-4 months, Edge Studios issued reprints of all of the core 3 books (EotE, AoE, FaD). They are available on Amazon now with the Edge Studio imprint, and 3 different local FLGSes in my area (I just moved from Seattle...

My two favorite initiative systems, both already mentioned: Savage Worlds: Using a standard 52-card deck + Jokers, deal a card to each player + NPC or NPC group. Highest card goes first. Discard all cards at the end of the round and continue dealing from top of the deck. Special: Jokers are...

Thank you for this. You totally captured what I was trying to say in my response much more succinctly. :)

@Retreater I've read through this thread a couple of times, and it really does sound like CRPGs are the answer for this group. Their preferences all seem to point significantly away from what tabletop RPGs offer as their core value proposition. The whole point of a human GM is to create those...

A) That sounds like my own personal RPG hell. I don't think I'd last more than 2 sessions trying to run a game for a group with that particular set of preferences. If there's a far opposite end of the spectrum for what I want from RPGs, that bullet list is pretty much it. B) You already tried...

This is such a good question! So, I found with Ironsworn that it was still okay to do some prep. I had no issue prepping maps, names of places/locales, NPC names, things to find (weapons, artifacts, etc.). The thing I had to keep reminding myself was that I needed to keep some options /...

Ironsworn is also 4 years younger than DW. But just in the last 2 years, Ironsworn had a $347k Kickstarter in 2023 for Starforged, and a $200k Kickstarter for Sundered Isles this year. Dungeon World's kickstarter didn't even crack 6 figures ($82k). Sundered Isles by itself is nearly 3x the...

All true; can't disagree with this general sentiment. Having more, improved choices for RPG is certainly preferable to the alternative. I guess I'm just skeptical that there's really any significant latent audience just waiting in the wings for DW 2.0. But I suppose even it's just say, 1,000...

This is sort of a head scratcher, to be honest. It's now 10+ years since initial release. It's been saddled with a massive black eye from one of its original creators. There's now a long line of successors / add ons in the same creative space (Stonetop, Perilous Wilds, Freebooters on the...

The answer to the question of "The Most Useful Spell" is now, and always will be, Fireball. Don't argue with me, just accept it. :) "Hey, we need to get through this locked door in the 4th level apartment building--" "I cast Fireball." "No wait---!!" ** BOOM ** "Hey, we need to convince...

The real standout for me would have been Fantasy Craft. If the crunchy goodness of 3.x is your thing, FC was/is bar none the absolute best reincarnation of the 3.x chassis, completely broken down to its foundation and rebuilt from the ground up. It is objectively a better system in terms of...

First non-D&D game I actively played, rather than just read or brainstormed content for, was GURPS in 2011.

Based on these requirements, I think the top 3 or 4 most likely candidates have already been brought up. If it were me, I'd rank possibilities in this order: Savage Worlds --- I love Savage Worlds to death. From the player perspective, it fits your requirements nearly perfectly. From the GM...

There are outliers, obviously, but I think spending years, possibly even decades safely ensconced in the d20 / D&D cocoon is pretty normal. I played BECMI / Rules Cyclopedia as a kid in the late '80s through early teen-ager-hood in the mid-'90s. Then took a long break, then picked up playing...

So I'm going to plug Ironsworn one more time as a better gateway to PbtA-style fantasy gaming than Dungeon World for a few reasons. The two games are very much kith-and-kin in terms of the type/style of gameplay they're trying to emulate, but Ironsworn just does it better. The explanations of...

Delve is excellent for those times when you want to do a "dungeon crawl" like area in Ironsworn. It adds some additional moves for dungeon / site exploration, some new Oracles for twists and unique discoveries while staying true to the core game. Edit: it also has an excellent set of rules for...

My overall experience in a limited run (6 sessions) with Dungeon World was positive, but I later discovered Ironsworn, and Ironsworn was everything I had hoped Dungeon World to be and more. Ironsworn plus the Delve supplement is all I would ever need for awesome narrative fantasy gaming. If you...

It's nice to see someone else recognizes the potential of Ironsworn to do ASOIAF / GoT style gaming.