A Good Game System

[tburdett]

Warning! Troll ahead!

If you're a True Role-Player (TM) the game system shouldn't matter.

There will be little or no combat, and the few dice that are rolled will only determine the color of the curtain fabric or carpeting.

You may also need to roll the occasional die to determine whether or not the quiche is edible, but that would be an extreme circumstance.

It's always handy to have those dice on had though, as you'll use them to throw at your players when they keep falling asleep!

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Nothing to see, move along, move along.

 

[Ron]

Go with FUDGE. You can't find any system less crunchy than this. Also, the rules are freely downloadable at the Internet, although some supplements, especially campaign settings were published as regular books.

 

[smetzger]

D&D3e

 

[Vaxalon]

Story Engine - it's free!

This is a very unique system, in that you roll the dice for the whole scene at the start, and then you figure out exactly how the action unfolds based on that result.

 

[Henry]

As you can see, Grifter, everyone has their "pet system." What's good for the goose is sometimes terrible for the gander. My favorite "crunch-lite" system is Continuum, from Aetherco. It has maybe ten pages devoted to actually rules of resolving combat or other physical actions. The other 250+ pages are devoted to the society the spanners (time-travellers) live in, the threats they face, and the philosophical discussion of "sentient force" on time versus what can best be described as free will.

In my opinion, it is the best time travel RPG ever devised, though it can blow your players' minds to run it.

 

[Vaxalon]

Oh, man, I would SO love to be in a Continuum game...

but I don't know anyone else besides me who could handle it.

 

[nsruf]

'Risus the Anything RPG' by S. John Ross is very rules light, but could be used for a serious game if you like. You can download it for free at http://www.io.com/~sjohn/blue.htm.

 

[Tsyr]

BESM, Feng Shui, Talislanta... any of those would be good.

 

[arwink]

Off the top of my head, Dragon Warriors (Which was basicly DnD fantasy with a lighter focus on rules), or Dungeoneer (Based on the fighting fantasy system, but with a lot of character. Even refers to adventures as the movie, and the Players as Actors).

Both are really easy to learn, opperate with a bare minimum of mechanics (especially Dungeoneer), and served as my "Intro to gaming" systems for years until DnD started making something that resembled sense.

 

[kobold]

I second Maldur’s Hero Wars suggestion. It can be hard to locate but its well worth the effort. It is my current favorite rules lite system. Heavy emphasis on character and player creativity and role-play. Very lite and extremely flexible rules- so much so that it is deceptively complex at first glance. It’s a rules set written by Robin D. Laws –the write of Feng Shui (also a really fun rules lite set of rules).
The system itself is easily portable if you read between the lines as Maldur has said.
It took almost a year to get my group of old stodgy set in their ways players to try it, but once they did I couldn’t hold them back. The depth of their characters and the really high level of fun and in-depth role-play was refreshing. Plus a vocal and creative group can have some really exciting combats.
I also would second someone else’s Fudge suggestion its free and it’s a good system