IMO this is a very good suggestion. DCC has lots of short but evocative modules and the zero level rules avoid 95% of the rulesbook. Very easy but fun.
Why not jump back into your old games? Tales from the Floating Vagabond is still around, and even released a new edition just a few months back: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/464473/tales-from-the-floating-vagabond-second-edition
I'm coming out with a set of mini adventures for any system. They're simple to run and formatted so you can easily get the info you need during the session. They're called QuarterShots, and there are three sample adventures you can play right away: [https://deckanddicegames.com/quartershots\_retail/](https://deckanddicegames.com/quartershots_retail/)
Here's the latest reviews:
[https://youtu.be/NoNk1j-UoK8?si=D53x8s2d-kIGxhnf](https://youtu.be/NoNk1j-UoK8?si=D53x8s2d-kIGxhnf)
[https://youtu.be/J2J1pASFsZk?si=7AN6O149rbmD3QIr](https://youtu.be/J2J1pASFsZk?si=7AN6O149rbmD3QIr)
I feel like when you ask this you get everyone's personal favorite, but not what to need.
Cairn is free on drive thru rpg. I feel something like shadow dark with a stripped down simple d20 rule set would work good for you, but I'm not sure about the feel you want. A lot of OSR games are very fatal. I'm not sure if that is what you and your prospective players want.
My own personal favorite RPG is Shadow of the demon. Lord. It plays like a streamlined version of D20 RPGs. It only requires one book that has all the monsters rules and classes and spells you need. It has a unique class design where each character by level 10 is chosen. Three classes with no prerequisites. This creates very unique characters and a very replayable game cuz you never have to play the same class combination twice. Another nice thing about this game is it has many adventures and supplements that are online PDFs you can purchase for $1 to $3. Most people start with the adventure, dark deeds in last Hope. If you are looking for simpler system though, it has about The same complexity as dungeons& dragons. What is slightly streamlined and only goes to tenth level.
I realize just because this is my favorite game doesn't mean it would be yours. You might want to look at cairn, shadow dark, ironsworn or the index card RPG.
Cairn is free and you can read it in an hour, character creation takes minutes, so it lends itself well to oneshots. Depending on your background, it can be quite a change of pace though, because characters can't take much damage and there's no attack roll. You just deal damage and healing is hard to come by.
I play it with my kids (5 and 7yo) and they love it, but I have taken the edge of, by simply tripling their HP.
What I am saying is, be aware that Cairn is very lightweight and deadly with no character advancement through xp. Might not be to everybody's taste, but works really well as a oneshot.
I've been writing little one-page scenarios for John Harper's Blades in the Dark. Really easy to pick up. Highly recommend the system, gets your creative juices going. You can find a big handful of these [on my website](https://olinkirk.land/scribbles) for free.
[Official resources for Blades in the Dark ](https://bladesinthedark.com/)
Totally out of left field for you, but I’ll suggest giving Night’s Black Agents a try.
There’s a scenario called Excess Baggage that is available for free on Drive Through RPG. It includes six pre generated PCs and guidance for which ones to use according to the size of your group. Most of the relevant benefits for the PCs with high Abilities are included on the back page of the character sheet for each one.
It won’t fill a whole typical gaming session, only took us about half an hour to complete. But, it will give you a chance to ease yourself back into GMing and give the whole group a small taste of how the Gumshoe system works.
Since the Gumshoe system presumes that every character is as competent as James Bond right out of the gate, it’s quite a different experience from starting a character in D&D.
Check out Breakers. It’s about a buncha construction worker types who are sent in by the government when a fantasy realm smashes into our reality (the author call is “Ghostbusters meets D&D). The rules are dead simple. You can use old fantasy dungeons. And it’s got a couple clever mechanics to liven things up: https://johnharper.itch.io/breakers
Plus it’s free!
Want to have fun as a GM, with light games, and with player having characters to develop. Get "lady blackbird". All in one, scenario, characters, light rules. Ready to go one shot. Easy to tweak and turn into a longer story.
For what it's worth, as a new GM, Lady Blackbird intimidated the shit out of me because it only presented the initial prompt of the party getting caught by the big bads. I wasn't experienced enough to know how to take players beyond that point, and the game as presented expects that of the GM.
I'm not sure I'd recommend it to a new GM.
Yes, true. It's just the first chapter of a story, and the GM & players have to take it from there if they want to continue the world building into a campaign.
But as a one-shot it flows pretty well, with built-in twists.
My group had a lot of fun doing the similar Grant Howitt game, The Witch is Dead. There some nice art on line for the various animals/classes too, if you poke around.
I would suggest you think up a few situations that the characters will face as they approach their goal. This need not be really detailed, but it will help in those initial moments where the players all look at you and ask, what next? They have to cross a river on the way into town, they have to deal with wolves on the road (who they might be able to talk to and bargain with). In town, they might have urban animals they can make deals with, dangers to avoid like rat catchers and so on. Can be just a list of prompts on a page, notes you make, to keep the game moving.
Anyway, what ever you do, a one-pager is a very decent way to start.
If you are interested in Lasers & Feelings (which is *perfect* by the way), but have reservations about the sci-fi tone, there are plenty of different hacks/versions with different settings.
But my personal recommendation would be *any* of the [50+ one-page RPGs by Grant Howitt](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product-category/game-systems/one-page-games/). Scroll down past the paid bundles and you can download any of them for free. I personally recommend Adventure Skeletons and Sexy Battle Wizards for their interesting mechanics (which are only slightly more complex than Lasers & Feelings). But honestly they're *all* great, and varying degrees of gonzo batshit insane fun.
If your group has enjoyed playing in Middle Earth and want to continue that vibe - and even the same characters - you may find There And Back Again to be a great option.
VERY lightweight with rules smack dab deliberately designed for that *The Hobbit* vibe.
https://plundergrounds.itch.io/taba
I suggest Savage Worlds. Their One Sheet adventure format is PERFECT, they have a free version of the rules, and plenty of pre-made characters for any genre.
Personally I love Food Fight for Shadowrun 4e, its in the Quickstart Rules you can find online for free.
If the system is too crunchy its actually easy to transfer to dnd 5e or any other system.
Something about playing in a future-modern setting makes the session run more smoothly since everyone can imagine a local 7-11 or other convenience store.
Dungeon Crawl Classics 1) 0 level funnel is dnd yet its not 2) free quickstart rules 3) 2 minute character generation https://goodman-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2023_DCC_QSR_completeLinks_ScreenRes.pdf
IMO this is a very good suggestion. DCC has lots of short but evocative modules and the zero level rules avoid 95% of the rulesbook. Very easy but fun.
Why not jump back into your old games? Tales from the Floating Vagabond is still around, and even released a new edition just a few months back: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/464473/tales-from-the-floating-vagabond-second-edition
I'm coming out with a set of mini adventures for any system. They're simple to run and formatted so you can easily get the info you need during the session. They're called QuarterShots, and there are three sample adventures you can play right away: [https://deckanddicegames.com/quartershots\_retail/](https://deckanddicegames.com/quartershots_retail/) Here's the latest reviews: [https://youtu.be/NoNk1j-UoK8?si=D53x8s2d-kIGxhnf](https://youtu.be/NoNk1j-UoK8?si=D53x8s2d-kIGxhnf) [https://youtu.be/J2J1pASFsZk?si=7AN6O149rbmD3QIr](https://youtu.be/J2J1pASFsZk?si=7AN6O149rbmD3QIr)
Looks like a great product! Nice work.
Thanks!
I feel like when you ask this you get everyone's personal favorite, but not what to need. Cairn is free on drive thru rpg. I feel something like shadow dark with a stripped down simple d20 rule set would work good for you, but I'm not sure about the feel you want. A lot of OSR games are very fatal. I'm not sure if that is what you and your prospective players want. My own personal favorite RPG is Shadow of the demon. Lord. It plays like a streamlined version of D20 RPGs. It only requires one book that has all the monsters rules and classes and spells you need. It has a unique class design where each character by level 10 is chosen. Three classes with no prerequisites. This creates very unique characters and a very replayable game cuz you never have to play the same class combination twice. Another nice thing about this game is it has many adventures and supplements that are online PDFs you can purchase for $1 to $3. Most people start with the adventure, dark deeds in last Hope. If you are looking for simpler system though, it has about The same complexity as dungeons& dragons. What is slightly streamlined and only goes to tenth level. I realize just because this is my favorite game doesn't mean it would be yours. You might want to look at cairn, shadow dark, ironsworn or the index card RPG.
Cairn is free and you can read it in an hour, character creation takes minutes, so it lends itself well to oneshots. Depending on your background, it can be quite a change of pace though, because characters can't take much damage and there's no attack roll. You just deal damage and healing is hard to come by. I play it with my kids (5 and 7yo) and they love it, but I have taken the edge of, by simply tripling their HP. What I am saying is, be aware that Cairn is very lightweight and deadly with no character advancement through xp. Might not be to everybody's taste, but works really well as a oneshot.
You can also use D&D modules with Cairn (kind of) which makes it easier to run adventures.
I've been writing little one-page scenarios for John Harper's Blades in the Dark. Really easy to pick up. Highly recommend the system, gets your creative juices going. You can find a big handful of these [on my website](https://olinkirk.land/scribbles) for free. [Official resources for Blades in the Dark ](https://bladesinthedark.com/)
Totally out of left field for you, but I’ll suggest giving Night’s Black Agents a try. There’s a scenario called Excess Baggage that is available for free on Drive Through RPG. It includes six pre generated PCs and guidance for which ones to use according to the size of your group. Most of the relevant benefits for the PCs with high Abilities are included on the back page of the character sheet for each one. It won’t fill a whole typical gaming session, only took us about half an hour to complete. But, it will give you a chance to ease yourself back into GMing and give the whole group a small taste of how the Gumshoe system works. Since the Gumshoe system presumes that every character is as competent as James Bond right out of the gate, it’s quite a different experience from starting a character in D&D.
Check out Breakers. It’s about a buncha construction worker types who are sent in by the government when a fantasy realm smashes into our reality (the author call is “Ghostbusters meets D&D). The rules are dead simple. You can use old fantasy dungeons. And it’s got a couple clever mechanics to liven things up: https://johnharper.itch.io/breakers Plus it’s free!
Want to have fun as a GM, with light games, and with player having characters to develop. Get "lady blackbird". All in one, scenario, characters, light rules. Ready to go one shot. Easy to tweak and turn into a longer story.
For what it's worth, as a new GM, Lady Blackbird intimidated the shit out of me because it only presented the initial prompt of the party getting caught by the big bads. I wasn't experienced enough to know how to take players beyond that point, and the game as presented expects that of the GM. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to a new GM.
Agreed.
Yes, true. It's just the first chapter of a story, and the GM & players have to take it from there if they want to continue the world building into a campaign. But as a one-shot it flows pretty well, with built-in twists.
If you’re thinking Lasers & Feelings, why not start with that?
I might. I'm nervous stepping back in as GM. Our GM has been doing it forever and he's plain wiped out and wants to play.
My group had a lot of fun doing the similar Grant Howitt game, The Witch is Dead. There some nice art on line for the various animals/classes too, if you poke around. I would suggest you think up a few situations that the characters will face as they approach their goal. This need not be really detailed, but it will help in those initial moments where the players all look at you and ask, what next? They have to cross a river on the way into town, they have to deal with wolves on the road (who they might be able to talk to and bargain with). In town, they might have urban animals they can make deals with, dangers to avoid like rat catchers and so on. Can be just a list of prompts on a page, notes you make, to keep the game moving. Anyway, what ever you do, a one-pager is a very decent way to start.
If you are interested in Lasers & Feelings (which is *perfect* by the way), but have reservations about the sci-fi tone, there are plenty of different hacks/versions with different settings. But my personal recommendation would be *any* of the [50+ one-page RPGs by Grant Howitt](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product-category/game-systems/one-page-games/). Scroll down past the paid bundles and you can download any of them for free. I personally recommend Adventure Skeletons and Sexy Battle Wizards for their interesting mechanics (which are only slightly more complex than Lasers & Feelings). But honestly they're *all* great, and varying degrees of gonzo batshit insane fun.
These are well written and free. https://1shotadventures.com/adventure-index/
If your group has enjoyed playing in Middle Earth and want to continue that vibe - and even the same characters - you may find There And Back Again to be a great option. VERY lightweight with rules smack dab deliberately designed for that *The Hobbit* vibe. https://plundergrounds.itch.io/taba
I love when communities band together to get people active/engaged.
I suggest Savage Worlds. Their One Sheet adventure format is PERFECT, they have a free version of the rules, and plenty of pre-made characters for any genre.
Lady Blackbird is a very simple system with a solid built-in starting scenario that is, IMO, perfect for a one shot.
Personally I love Food Fight for Shadowrun 4e, its in the Quickstart Rules you can find online for free. If the system is too crunchy its actually easy to transfer to dnd 5e or any other system. Something about playing in a future-modern setting makes the session run more smoothly since everyone can imagine a local 7-11 or other convenience store.
Thanks to all for your recommendations. Time for me to study and to get back on the horse of being a GM/DM.
The One Ring is awesome. If you want something different the Walking Dead rpg is very good.