Heya,
I am working on helping my partner approach the concept of TTRPGs. She is curious, but definitely not ready to try it with other players. As such, I am looking for a system which lets me DM for her, while making for a comfortable enough experience for a singular player.
Things I am looking for are: Should include combat that serves to support the narrative, not to slog down the pace There should be a way to include magic abilities to model a character who is a sorcerer or wizard or such. It should be open enough to help encourage her building a sense of “I can do anything as long as I can reasonably imagine it in the situation”, rather than just trying to stick to explicit options
I have started watching Me, Myself and Die recently and certainly have been enjoying the pacing, but the system used, at least in the first season, seems to be difficult to make work with a high fantasy character, which is quite important in this case.
Any recommendations? If need be, I am also happy to homebrew some stuff, as long as I feel like the balancing is easy enough to do.
Thanks for reading!
I know that Ironsworn is decent for this sort of thing, as that’s singleplayer and single GM capable. I’m not sure if it’s high fantasy, though. I think you could also do something with any old D&D game up to 3.5e if you change up the rules a bit to ensure it becomes single player and single DM capable, but I’d have to take a look at how people could do this.
I have really enjoyed Maze Rats for this sort of thing. It’s a very minimal OSR system, but gives enough structure that a dialogue between one player and one GM is really easy and natural in the framework of the game. Negotiating for spell effects also allows a bit of lawyering that isn’t per se about rules, if you like.
Dungeon Dive keeps telling me that Scarlet Heroes + Whitebox is a great solo experience (or one player and one GM) you can replace Whitebox with your preferred OSR theme setting.
You could use Fate. Fate is a generic system that can do high fantasy just fine. It doesn’t need a full party like D&D does. It handles social and physical conflict equally well. The way aspects work is very “As long as I can justify it in the story, it could happen”. You can spend fate points as a player to alter the story, too, which is fun. I also like that it’s generally “You can get what you want, if you’re lucky or pay the price”. “Succeed at a major cost” is almost always on the table.
The downside is it has big “tyranny of the blank page”. D&D-likes you can just point at “Human Fighter” and go. Fate asks you to come up with your high concept, trouble, and background on your own. If you’re creative and that excites you, it’s freeing and exhilarating. If you’re shy, it can be overwhelming.
The core rules don’t have a detailed magic system. It’s up to you to decide how you want it to work, or to buy a splatbook where someone else made a system. It’s pretty easy to tinker with.
It’s also up to the GM to make sure the threats are reasonable. There’s no “CR” system like D&D. But players also always have the power to concede, where they lose the immediate conflict but survive. You don’t have to worry about accidentally wiping the player(s) usually.
You could look for some PbtA games, which are extremely popular. I personally don’t like them much because playbooks feel more like mad libs than creative writing. I also don’t like the dice system, and often find it punishing to the point of not being fun. (I just played a PbtA game last night and don’t think I rolled even a success on like 6 rolls in a row. I felt incompetent and it sucked).
Heya, I have been looking into Fate and have to say, I am somewhere between intense intrigue and confusion. I have already heard of Fate before since I saw people like adapting it to all kinds of general contexts to supply freestyle roleplay with some degree of structure.
Now, as someone who is a DnD Forever DM trying to explore these options, I am feeling a little unsure in regards to how this ends up feeling in actual play. Do you think you have examples of any actual play series where the setting is a High Fantasy one? I looked it up, but I mainly find things in more modern settings, which is fine, but I feel like I’d have an easier time if I saw someone tackle something closer to my goals.
I’m very much “old man yells at cloud” so I don’t really watch actual plays or consume podcasts, but the fate site has a list: https://fate-srd.com/actual-play
I can’t speak to their quality, but there’s a bunch on that list.
The game should feel different than DND. Players have a lot more control, and that kind of affects every aspect of the game. DND tends to put everything on the DM, and players can only do stuff in character. a fate player can be like “I want to spend a fate point to say the king is in fact looking for a witch to hire” or “I wanna declare a story detail: the farm is run by a family of loyalists, so I’m a loyalist they will hopefully see me as a friend”. That plus the ways to change rolls and outcomes makes for a different game. And the lack of focus on minutia like distance and spells per day.
Happy to go on about fate if you have questions!
Seconding Fate, the rules do a good job of supporting the fiction rather than encumbering it. I felt it very much supported that feeling of “I can do anything I can reasonably imagine.”
To help with the tyranny of the blank page, I’d recommend coming up with a pregenerated character to demo how it all works. Then, encourage her to change or adjust anything she wants to on the sheet. My players initially found it easier to modify something to their liking than to come up with something from scratch.
Magic can be as simple as “Roll your Lore skill” if you want or you can look up several more detailed add-ons that are out there, like Fate High Fantasy magic.
The rules are freely available here: https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed.
A note, if you pursue this: There’s fate core and fate condensed that are very similar, but have a few minor changes. Stress (similar to HP) is handled slightly differently between them. I prefer core’s method, but some people like condensed.
There’s also fate accelerated which is even lighter weight.
They’re all free on the website linked above - https://fate-srd.com/ - rules drop down has all the options
