[+] Rules light RPGs

[Rogerd1]

Lords of Gossamer and Shadow and with the accompanying companion in, The Long Walk you are basically set. It is a narrative run game so absolutely no dice are harmed during the playing of this.

There are a few setting books, which are kept basic, and just detail essential setting info. You could easily import any setting you want into this, its essential flavour is very Magic the Gathering planeswalking only you are using the Eternal Stair.

You can pick up, bring with you items from other planes, some may or may not work depending upon that planes rules. It is remarkably easy to hack too.

 

[overgeeked]

All right. So this seems like a great time to talk about rules-light games.

Over on Facebook Runehammer announced that EZD6 was the #4 best-selling game on DriveThruRPG this year. Which is wild considering it came out at the end of May.

So what other rules-light games are people looking at lately?

 

[aramis erak]

My favorite rules light game is FGU's Starships and Spacemen. 1d20, handful of d6.

Second favorite is Firefly (MWP)... just about the lightest and most traditional of the Cortex Plus/Cortex Prime flavors. (Leverage is lighter still, but I've not run it.)

Then into a minimalist handling of WEG d6 SW 1E... ignore the force and it's pretty light.
And then, 4th, the GW Judge Dredd.

No rule set can protect players from a bad or malicious referee. They will just ignore the bits of the rules that tell them not to do those things. The only constraints on a referee is what they place on themselves and what the table is willing to put up with.

While the ruleset can't, rulesets with strongly pro-player elements tend to not get chosen by the malicious referees in the first place, and even if they buy them, tend not to use them.

 

[Aldarc]

All right. So this seems like a great time to talk about rules-light games.

Over on Facebook Runehammer announced that EZD6 was the #4 best-selling game on DriveThruRPG this year. Which is wild considering it came out at the end of May.

Since I know we both have praised it, I would also mention that Fabula Ultima also did well this year in DriveThruRPG sales, and it came out in October 2022!

So what other rules-light games are people looking at lately?

Heroes of Cerulea: a pixelated Zelda-inspired TTRPG that uses a lighter resolution system inspired by BitD. Version 0.9 was sent to backers. The Introduction, Rules, Hero Creation, and GM section total to twenty pages, with the remaining 30 pages being monsters, loot, dungeons, and cheat sheets.

 

[John R Davis]

Barbarians of Lumeria is light. Makeup characters in 5 minutes and you are ready to play. The book includes a pseudo-hyperborean setting.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Absolutely. My go to game to play star wars with. It is a very hackable rules set and is fast to play.

 

[SeaJay]

This is one of those things about rules light games that kinda grates on me. They don't have mechanical support for long-term play, that's true. But that doesn't mean they're limited to one-shots or short campaigns. Most of the advancement in rules light games can easily be handled diegetically, that is with in-fiction rewards and advancement. Things like titles, resources, allies, contacts, land, castles, ships, soldiers, mines, fictional positioning, etc. It's all still up for grabs. These games only lack extra +1s to throw at PCs to show "progress"...while pretending that the math on the monsters' side doesn't also improve.

Love this post. Well done. It's made me look at rules-light RPGs in a whole new lite (see what I did there?)

 

[jdrakeh]

@overgeeked I've written a number of fairly well received simple RPGs that I sell over on Itch. Also, I've just celebrated my birthday AND come into a small amount of money. SO, if you'd like my entire Itch catalog for free, send me a PM and let me know the best place to send you a bunch of Itch download keys (it may take a day or two for me to get around to sending them).

 

[overgeeked]

Love this post. Well done. It's made me look at rules-light RPGs in a whole new lite (see what I did there?)

I see it.

@overgeeked I've written a number of fairly well received simple RPGs that I sell over on Itch. Also, I've just celebrated my birthday AND come into a small amount of money. SO, if you'd like my entire Itch catalog for free, send me a PM and let me know the best place to send you a bunch of Itch download keys (it may take a day or two for me to get around to sending them).

Happy birthday.

Thank you. That’s very generous. But if they are rules light RPGs on itch, chances are good I already have them. Maybe instead set up a few community copies and link them here.