Simple Systems for a Starter Storyteller?

[ScriptKitty]

Greetings, y'all! I've been a pen & paper role-player (via D&D 3.5) for around a year now, and a free-form role player for about thirteen years. I'm a storyteller at heart, and my biggest problem with pen & paper RPGs is finding the proper vehicle to tell my story.

My goal that's been in my mind since I first picked up D&D 3.5 was to create a Japanese fantasy campaign for my friends, who are all Japanese culture enthusiasts like myself. Brief glances at Oriental Adventures only made me more starved for a properly Japanese setting. It quickly became apparent to me that this could be no simple task to undertake; I couldn't simply put a new coat of paint on existing 3.5 classes... 'Natural magic', 'familiar', 'mystical lineage', sure, those all sound about the same in terms of flavor, but simply calling a Sorcerer an Onmyoji does not an Onmyoji make. Likewise, 3.5 appears to be a rather difficult system to write totally new replacement classes for.

I've been looking into other systems to learn, such as D&D 4e, Anima, Pinwheels, even Big Eyes Small Mouth... But in the end, as a somewhat inexperienced role-player, I don't feel I know enough to accurately choose the best system. Essentially, I'm looking for a system with relatively relaxed or at least flexible mechanics and plenty of room for modification. So, I come to a forum of more experienced role-players, seeking advice. Does anyone have any suggestions, or at least a general direction to start looking?

I appreciate any tips you can offer! ^^

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

A bit of self promotion, Rite Publishing has a patronage project called Kaidan: A Japanese Ghost Story Setting for the Pathfinder RPG. Purchasing a patronage lets you have a say in how the development of the project goes so you can help make sure it fits what you are looking for. Full Disclosure: I'm the editor for Kaidan.

If not that, then there's also Legend of the Five Rings.

 

[ArghMark]

Well.. there's Legend of the Five Rings which is to oriental folk tales what D+D is to Western ones. I didn't mind it myself but we never did get into it too much. Lots of quick drawing and strange demons.

There's also Sengoku. Never played it myself but I've heard its more 'historically' based.

 

[ScriptKitty]

Crazy Monkey: Nice to meet you! I believe I met your coworker Gamerprinter over on the Cartographers Guild forum. ^^ I haven't looked very heavily into Kaidan or the Pathfinder system, but I do like the maps and artwork I've seen of it.

ArghMark: Thanks for the suggestions! Lot5R didn't totally drive me away like Oriental Adventures did, but there were some things that still irked me a bit... I dislike the portrayal of Samurai and Ninja as adventuring classes, when they're generally more like social classes in my perspective, but then my friends and I tend to get a little more antsy about that sort of thing than the general populace. ^^

I'm afraid I must've been a bit unclear in my first post... I'm not looking for an out-of-the-box Japanese RPG. The culture is something I want to set up myself, my own personal amalgamation of Heian Period, Sengoku Jidai, and classic fantasy elements. The mechanics of the system are what's stumping me. I'm really looking for suggestions of a mechanical system I could just yank the culture and flavor out of and rewrite with my own. Thank you for the tips though! ^^

 

[Diamond Cross]

Ninjas and Superspies from Palladium.
Oriental Handbook for 3.5e is mostly Japanese style.
I believe Gurps has a supplement for Japan as well.

 

[ScriptKitty]

Thanks, but again, not quiiite what I was looking for! n.n;;; I'm not looking for a Japanese RPG, I'm looking for a flexible RPG system that I can convert into a Japanese setting. I am going to take a glance at some of the core systems behind the stuff that's been mentioned here (Pathfinder, Palladium, GURPS, etc).

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Savage Worlds, as always, is high up on my recommendation of RPGs to look into. The system is very flexible and very awesome.

 

[Oni]

Take a look at Risus, PDQ, or PDQ#. These are light games with player defined traits and are available for free online (the various PDQs have several published versions with different tweaks for different genres if you find you like the base system). The openness of these games works really well as long as your group are all on the same page and have a good understanding of the tropes and feel of the genre/setting, which it sounds like your group probably does since you're all enthusiast of the source material.

Also the text of these games is short so it's not a huge investment of time to see if they are worth your while.

If you're looking for something a bit meatier you might check out one of the umpteen billion versions of Fate, but most those require a little more personal investment, of time if nothing else.

 

[Glyfair]

The simplest system I have seen is Greg Stafford's Prince Valiant RPG. There are two stats (one physical, one mental), a handful of skills and a system that uses coin tosses instead of dice. You could probably get the whole system on a page or two.

The trick is to find a copy. Usually you can find a copy or two on eBay for about $20.

 

[ScriptKitty]

Thank you so much for your suggestions! ^^

So, I called my boyfriend on his way home from work and we started talking about this game, and after about an hour and twenty minutes of over-excitedly bouncing ideas back and forth, we basically came to the conclusion that we're going to wind up making a homebrew system.

These "simple systems" you've suggested, though, are going to be a tremendous help to me... I plan to spend a lot of time reading over them and figuring out what elements I like, what elements I dislike, and so on. For example, I love the alignment system in Pinwheels, but that's the only part of Pinwheels I want to cannibalize for our homebrew game. Thank you so much for all of your helpful suggestions! ^^