A Change of Pace...

[Snarf Zagyg]

Run a rules-lite FKR one-shot.

Lasers & Feelings.
Honey Heist.
Quiet Year (if you don't want a DM).

There are so many! Look around, have fun.

 

[Retreater]

How do you feel about post-apocalypse games? There's some good ones to be had with Savage Worlds.

I guess it depends on the feel of it. Dark tales of gritty survival probably wouldn't fit the group's interests. Gonzo mutations and laser rifles (like Gamma World) would certainly work.

 

[DevL]

Not that it in any way would make your life as a DM/GM that much easier, but I can personally vouch for the D6 system that came out of Westend Games. It’s certainly not D&D!

 

[dbm]

I get the feeling that Savage Worlds is just a toolkit - not really a system - without a Savage Setting attached.

You can do huge amounts with just the core book, and making stuff is very easy once you get a bit of familiarity with the rules. It is fantastically broad and deep in that one book.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

As I was discussing in another thread, I am majorly burned out on 5e. I can handle PF2 because it handles the "heavy lifting" that 5e doesn't (which contributes to my burn out on that system.)
My group has 1-2 sessions left in its 5e campaign. Most players are teenagers with little gaming experience who barely know 5e. No one else wants to DM.
So ... where next?
I have the complexity of PF2 ... with basically the same feel as D&D.
I have Savage Pathfinder ... again with basically the same feel as D&D.
I have Call of Cthulhu ... but the themes are uncomfortable for younger players, who also like to joke around and kill stuff.
I have mountains of Free League stuff, but again, I don't see something like Twilight 2000 being a good fit.
My wife suggested I find a sci-fi game, but for the life of me, I can't think of anything that would have decent pacing and action that could hold their attention. (Starfinder would probably be too complex, not to mention I kinda hate the 3.x/PF1 chassis and it's a dying system after today's announcement.)
Anyone care to brainstorm with me?

Have you looked at 13th Age? If you are cool with PF2 because it doesn’t leave all the work on your lap, 13A also does that, and it’s got some great design bits.

For sci-fi, check out the Star Wars 5e website and see if it fixes those issues for you. It’s not like you can’t make a 5e based game that does that heavy lifting.

Also there is a fully sci-fi 5e-based game that I’m pretty sure is more codified than standard 5e, but I can’t recall what it’s called.

But the cypher system might be a great fit. It’s simple in character creation, and prettty DM friendly. Old Gods of Appalachia is looking really cool and the Kickstarter is currently fulfilling so it will be available outside that soon. We just got the players guide and the core book in the mail, but I haven’t opened it bc my wife is at work and she’d be sad if I opened it without her.

Pbta and fitd games also give pretty well defined characters, and some of them do a good job of letting you beat up stuff and advance in an adventure. Even Monster of The Week can be played in a more “kill stuff” manner, just by making PCs a little hardier, and helping players pick the archetypes that will let them do so more effectively.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I guess it depends on the feel of it. Dark tales of gritty survival probably wouldn't fit the group's interests. Gonzo mutations and laser rifles (like Gamma World) would certainly work.

Hmm. SW probably lands in the middle there, but you could push it more toward that end.

 

[Thomas Shey]

You can do huge amounts with just the core book, and making stuff is very easy once you get a bit of familiarity with the rules. It is fantastically broad and deep in that one book.

And at worst you might benefit from, say, one of the other books. You absolutely don't need a whole library. And its got a rather large number of optional campaign/setting rules that can tune it up, usually, again, just in the core book.

(I don't always use SW myself, but any problems I've had with campaigns I ran with it were almost always mistakes on my part, not problems with the system.)

 

[Thomas Shey]

My wife is recommending Savage Rifts, which I think is a little on the crunchy side for what this group can handle. I also have Deadlands: Lost Colony for a space western. It would be cool to use something that I already have - since I've already purchased these big, expensive boxed sets with all the nice components.

The only thing you need to know about Lost Colony is that said colony is descended from the Deadlands setting, so it does contain a fair number of dark fantasy tropes. If you want to stick with something you have, though you could do a lot worse.

 

[payn]

Carbon 2185 is a cyberpunk 5E reskin. Not sure if that system is out as an option, but its familiar and different enough to maybe be worth a glance?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My wife suggested I find a sci-fi game, but for the life of me, I can't think of anything that would have decent pacing and action that could hold their attention.

Coming back to this…

If you can think of a system you’d prefer, there’s lots of movie/TV plots that could work. Consider filing the serial numbers off of:

The Warriors
Southern Comfort
Planet of the Apes
Day of the Triffids
Wild, Wild West (TV show)
The Time Tunnel
LotR
Apocalypse Now
Almost any James Bond movie