Light rules systems.

[Darklance]

I generally don't like them but I'm planning to run a new game for some friends/family and 3/6 have never RPed before. I don't want them to get bogged down by really hard rules and I'd just like to try a few creative/freeform settings.

Does anyone know any cheap/free over the internet really light RPing systems? I'm talking like maybe just a D20 or perhaps a D20 and one or two smaller dice or something...

 

[Darkness]

I rather like this one.

Easy to expand on later, too, if necessary.

 

[Sniktch]

I'd say look up 'Land of Og' on RPGNow. I believe its $6, a lot of fun, and I don't remember it being very complex at all. Basically all the players are cavemen and muck about making mistakes until a dinosaur eats them. The highlight for me is the RP - very party game atmosphere - everybody gets a list of words they know and those are the only ones they are allowed to speak, in game. Otherwise they have to grunt and pantomime.

 

[Sniktch]

I rather like this one.

Easy to expand on later, too, if necessary.

Well, free GURPS is great, too. Thanks for that link, Darkness, and welcome back

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm

RISUS is the rules-lightiest that I know of that still uses dice.

But you also may want to do a search for FUDGE.

 

[Crothian]

You can try QAGS from Hexgames

I'd post their site but it seems to be down right now

 

[DanMcS]

You could do d20 light. Just have them roll 4d6-drop-the-lowest for a strength score, give them chainmail and shields and whatever weapon they want, and send them out against the goblins. Wasn't it Fudge that just had a strength score?

Make them keep track of hp (give them all 10 to begin with, + their str bonus), and do the rolling for their attacks. They'll roll to-hit, and add their Str bonus, then tell you what that summed. They roll damage if you tell them they hit, again adding the str bonus.

Keep their ACs on a sheet for your own use, and keep track of rolling for all the bad guys versus those. Drop initiative, probably, just let the good guys go first. You should be able to puzzle it out in 10 minutes or so, and it's based off of the ruleset you'd like them to grow into

When they want to expand into playing spellcasters, give them an int score too. They'll be clamoring for more control over their characters before you know it, and then you can get into the nitty-gritty of character creation.

 

[Jeph]

The Window.

Erm . . . maybe it's a bit too rules light . . .

 

[kengar]

Chaosium makes a game called "Basic Role Playing" for about $6. It uses essentially the same BRP mechanic as all the Chaosium games like original CoC, Elric, etc. (D% skills, classless, etc.). It is only about 16pgs and is a full game system with -iirc- an introductory adventure to boot. There is a link to buy it on their site.

 

[Voneth]

There are lot of "Lite" versions of games that are out there. My two faves are those for White Wolf's Exalted and Lite BESM. Though you will have to whip up some monsters for the combat and both are downloadable from the net. With more work on your part, you could also use a template character version of Mutants and Masterminds

Exalted Home Page, Click on the downloads link to find the quickstart rules

BESM DL Page, Scroll down to find the fast play rules

The Exalted DL looks very nice and comes with some exotic background and encourages players to do outrageous stunts, which will avoid your neophyte players from hearing the dreaded "No." word. The classes are pretty well defined, the mechanics simple, and I think the game offered the GM the choice to use either d6s or d10s, but don't quote me.

The BESM Lite game will offer a lot options to the players, uses 2d6 and is also fairly loose. The sheer amount of options may turn some people off, however, may turn some people off and some of the powers are only listed, it's sort of in the GM's ball park to really define them.

If you have MnM, all your players need is one d20. While there will be more prep time, you players will never have to learn what hit points are about, one less mechanic out of the way. If you follow the MnM's lead in their core rule book, you could easily design some Level 5 templates and give people options to modifiy them, then you are off.

[edit: I just found out that BESM has also put up a FastPlay rules set for their superhero game, Silver Age Sentinels -- have fun]