I know this has been asked a million times before but...Good Starter RPG

[Mark]

Here's two very good starter RPGs -

The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men

Squirrel Attack

 

[MichaelSomething]

Microlite D20 may also be worth checking out. It's super simple and its free!

 

[Wik]

Serenity RPG = Awesome. I have it, and I love it. It helps that I'm a browncoat.

From what I've read, it can be deadly, but it also has a lot of very good things going for it - relatively simple to learn, it encourages multiple types of play (very useful for a newbie game, in my opinion - basic D&D dungeon crawls were never just about combat, which I think a lot of people can forget), and is remarkably well researched. Plus it was written with newbie players in mind, it seems - which a lot of licensed properties do (since it's a safe bet that at least a few fans of the franchise will buy the book, having never played an RPG before).

 

[Guy Srinivasan]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Guard-Roleplaying-Game-Crane/dp/1932386882/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251611229&sr=8-3"]Mouse Guard[/ame]! Players are mice with swords! The guard protects the mouse territories from wild animals, weasels, weather, etc. and it's a challenge for the little things just to deliver the mail. That's the scenario our group started with, Deliver the Mail. It's got very good GMing advice, some generally good and some specific to playing Mouse Guard, and is in general very newbie friendly.

(Also, new players won't be confused and scared and run away like a tiny confused scared mice when they read the GM Turn/Player Turn structure!)

 

[Glyfair]

The best starter RPG I have ever seen is the Prince Valiant RPG by Greg Stafford (of Runequest and Pendragon fame). It's very simple (instead of dice you toss coins in sort of a dice pool system). There are only two stats, and a few skills.

The "advanced" rules even suggested a reward system for having players temporarily take over as GM for some sub-adventures in the game.

The only real catch is that it is long out of print. Even so, you can usually get a copy for $20 or so when you find it.

 

[S'mon]

I would highly recommend Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy RPG, both of which are OGL games that riff off Moldvay-Cook/Marsh Basic-Expert D&D, a very good time-proven introductory RPG. They are free to download, you can buy printed copies from lulu.com, and Labyrinth Lord can also be bought at amazon.com -
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth-Lord-Daniel-Proctor/dp/0615150314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251621794&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Labyrinth Lord (9780615150314): Daniel Proctor: Books[/ame]

 

[Robin_D_Laws]

The reason I ask about age and gender is there is fantastic game called Faerie's Tale Deluxe. It is designed for kids and the material is a bit more girl oriented. Green Ronin publisdhes and Robin Laws designed it.

Patrick Sweeney designed it; I wrote the interstitial fiction.

Take care >>> Robin

 

[Primal]

Faery's Tale Deluxe, Mouse Guard (and if you pick this one, order the brilliant graphic novels as well!) and Princes' Kingdom (based on the same mechanics as 'Dogs in the Vineyard') would be my top three candidates.

 

[darjr]

Faery's Tale is an excellent choice. I don't have the 'deluxe' but the original which is part of the deluxe...

It's an excellent game, very simple yet it is intriguing enough for older sensibilities.

 

[Cam Banks]

Serenity doesn't require rolling lots of dice, but it does use dice of all sizes other than 20-sided dice. I think for newcomers that's kind of a novelty, though.

Our Cortex system is very quick to learn and all that you need is on the character sheets. You might try grabbing the BSG Quickstart or Demon Hunters quickstart from DriveThruRPG, since they include basic rules, characters, and an adventure. Of course, they're not Serenity products.

Cheers,
Cam