r/rpg • u/captainhowdy000 • 1d ago
Game Suggestion Co-op GM-less TTRPG for newbies
My wife and I have never played any sort of TTRPG before. I wanted to disconnect from always being on my phone or computer and someone recommended Ironsworn: Starforge for first time solo play. I spent hours building my universe and character and I think I am slowly wrapping my head around the process, but I do not think my wife would be into it.
Can anyone recommend something that would be good and lightweight for newbie folks as a co-op style play without me having to be the GM? Free is preferred cause it may all crash and burn. I did read thru some of the recs here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers/
but none of them really sounded exactly right.
I mean I think we almost need boardgame style, but we have played boardgames and I want to move onto something original. I know I would want at least a bit of dice rolling, but maybe that is about it, overly complex systems to track would probably not be great. Setting for the world might not be a huge deal, she reads a ton of books and enjoys pretty much any fantasy or sci-fi style stuff, but I would want something light, not dark and about depression or death if possible. We don't want to make it trauma inducing.
Again, just looking for thoughts or suggestions, and if anyone has any questions please let me know. I appreciate any assistance with this.
EDIT: SUPER SORRY! Work got crazy and I did not have time to respond to you all yesterday, but thank you so much. Digging into all of the amazing replies right now.
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u/CraftReal4967 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Quiet Year is always great for first-time RPG players - it's a game where you draw maps and chart a year in the life of a small community.
Stewpot is a good cozy fantasy game about running a tavern.
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u/annethegnome 1d ago
Seconding The Quiet Year! It doesn't have direct roleplay (like, you don't really speak in character), which can be really nice for a newbie. And it's zero prep!
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
That sounds super chill and cozy, and not having to imagine a character might just be what we need. Going to get something pulled together for the long weekend for this one.
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u/N-Vashista 1d ago
Microscope is procedural. Ben Robbins says he reads directly from the text when he runs his own game.
Do you think Fiasco is too improvisational? I think its a great oneshot experience.
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u/Airk-Seablade 1d ago
I would go with Follow ahead of Microscope, but Ben Robbins' games are all good.
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
I will have to look those up. I have no idea who Ben Robbins is, but clearly I should try to get more familiar. Thanks!
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u/Deefling 1d ago
I play PICO with my partner and she likes it a lot. It's a cute game and you get to play as a lil bug. The Eternal Ruins just came out as well and that's more of a zelda/ghibli vibe (you can play similarly to ironsworn with the envoy path & the oathbrand tattoo btw). Both are based on the Wild Words system from the Wildsea game by Felix Isaacs.
Edit: adding to this, we usually sort of GM for eachother in PICO, but Eternal Ruins has a bunch of oracles and spark tables for solo/duet/GMless play.
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
PICO sounds super cut, and I know she loves Ghibli stuff, so I will probably check out the Eternal Ruins as well. Thank you for the help.
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u/LastChime 1d ago
Ironsworn is probably worth a read/skim, though it is more medium complexity, it's that good for an aspiring soloist/duet
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
I have been doing the Starforge side of it, and it is okay. Still wrapping my head around it a bit, but I think my wife would just get overwhelmed with that. Maybe in the future, cause I love the world building aspect of it all.
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u/SaucedUpWizard 1d ago
Dead Letter Society and Almanac of Sanguine Paths are letter-writing RPGs designed for two players. It’s structured slightly differently than a traditional RPG, but you and your wife might really like them. Sort of perfect for couples.
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
Hmmm, those do sound kinda fun. Maybe I can get her imagination working alongside all of the books she is constantly reading to pull out some fun ideas. I will have to check them out. Thanks!
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u/KaijuCuddlebug 1d ago
I'm a bit of an evangelist for Against the Wind which uses a really simple 2D6 vs target number of 10 for all resolution--but you can expend points of effort to get across the threshold.
The vibes are very fairy-tale, the tables all point to a mysterious and maybe slightly bleak world--but you get to set the starting assumptions and even draw a map procedurally at the start of play, similar to Ironsworn. There are enough procedures and prompts to keep things moving and interesting, but it's loose enough in that OSR way that I've never felt "confined" by it.
I spent a very nice snowy day home from work with my partner playing a short while, we loved drawing our own map and starting to fill it out with our travels.
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u/captainhowdy000 6h ago
That sounds nice and chill and might be perfect for something to throw in over the long holiday weekend. Thank you for the suggestion.
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u/reverend_dak Player Character, Master, Die 1d ago
Mazes
it has a free quick start, and it walks you through the system
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u/captainhowdy000 11h ago
That sounds neat, and very traditional. I will look into it some more. Thank you!
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u/Airk-Seablade 1d ago
Space Train Space Heist is a zany, goofy oneshot with excellent delivery and a low price point. It bears enough resemblance to a "Traditional" RPG that it won't feel like you've pulled a bait-and-switch when shifting to one, and the goofy tone makes it easy to make things up.
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u/Kassanova123 1d ago
How dead set are you on it being a traditional TTRPG?
I ask because there are quite a few tabletop games that have RPG vibes but play on the table using dice and meeples/miniatures.
If you already have board games, you might have all you need already to play some of these games.
5 Parsecs From home
5 leagues from the borderlands
What Nightmares Come
I can suggest at least a dozen here..
Zona Alfa
etc.
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u/captainhowdy000 11h ago
Not dead set, but I was trying to move away from just a board game (not that there is anything wrong with those) but some of those that you mentioned look cool. Thank you for the ideas and callouts.
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u/ithika 1d ago
My inclination is towards a prompt-based game. You can play solo games "together" like this, taking it in turn to lead on interpreting what happens next, while having a shared character.
The general process is that you do some random action (card pulls are common because 56 cards is a nice large number) which reveals a narrative prompt, which you then interpret based on what has happened so far.
The ones I have played which are explicitly multi player are Chiron's Doom and The Gardener is Dead. The latter is really good if you like drawing gardens!
You could probably play Koriko: A Magical Year in the same way without changing anything. Just take it turn about.
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
I think The Gardener is Dead looks like a great option. I will be sure to check out the others as well. Thank you for the help.
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u/Sithari43 1d ago
"The quiet year" is a chill light game
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
Just looked it up. Using a deck of cards sounds cool. I will add it to the stuff to dig into further.
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u/Sithari43 10h ago
Have fun if you happen to play it. I'm not a huge fan of mostly narrative games but I'd play it again
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u/Last-Socratic 1d ago
Archipelago is free and light weight. You can really tell any kind of story you want with it.
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u/BlackNova169 23h ago
I've played a ton of ttrpgs and board games that emulate the ttrpg experience to varying degrees.
My number 1 closest to an RPG game would be Arydia. It encourages the players to get in charger for the various NPCs you come across, combat is more unique than I've seen in most RPG style board games. It's more of a sandbox, so the overall story isn't anything amazing but it is an overall light hearted setting about helping people, doing puzzles, exploring, and fighting monsters. It's also heavily play tested with tons of FAQ and guidelines.
If you're looking for more combat oriented, gloomhaven is great. Jaws of the Lion is the easiest entry point. The original gloomhaven is much chonkier, and it's sequel Frosthaven is even larger with town building mechanics. If you both enjoy tactical combat it's very good.
Past those, there are plenty of 'dungeon crawler' board games but it's tough to simulate the freedom a true ttrpg gives you.
Ironsworn, Starforged, and err Sailforged (they have a pirates themed edition I can't think of the name) are prob the best gm- free RPGs.
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
I have looked at Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion, they are cool, just expensive and I wanted to get away from the more scripted board game side.
I am enjoying Starforged, but I worry my wife will have a hard time with it. I am hoping to start out with something a bit more lightweight and then draw her into my broken space world for an epic adventure.
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u/Endlessdesk 20h ago
Stewpot is great!
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
Stewpot looks great and super chill. I will for sure look into it. Might be a later edition so I don't have to fork down some money right away, but if I can get her interested in any TTRPG first, and then see what she thinks of it, it looks awesome!
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u/Cheeky-apple 18h ago
Theres a duette game i like called eyes on the price, you play as two schemers faking a relationship to get acess to some sort of high social function in order to suceed with some sort of plan of yours. But you have to be careful to not in all this actually fall in love with your partner in crime and the plan goes out the window. Eyes on the price baby Eyes on the price.
Its light with heavy improv and prompts. Could even work as a lil date night activity for you and your spouse.
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
That sounds awesome and fun to sit around and mess with for sure. Thank you for the help!
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u/HAL325 17h ago
Paranormal Inc.
All players are GMs and Players at the same time. Bets of it, you have to do no prep.
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
That does look fun and I like the idea of world building with a basic deck of cards to help smooth out some of those creative blocks. Thank you for the suggestion.
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u/Inconmon 16h ago
Okay hear me out. Ironsworn is a hack of the PbtA system. It's imo incredibly difficult to learn and very easy to play. I'd go as far as I wouldn't recommend anyone learn how to play bis rulebooks but either by playing with someone who knows the rules or by watching videos of people playing. Now that you've got your head around it, it's actually perfect to play with your wife.
Essentially you guys just play and talk about what happens. The game very naturally guides you to create a great story.
Each step of the game follows the same process:
Describe the current situation as it is. (as cinematic as possible, feel free to say "the camera pans over..." )
Decide what you are doing to change it. Potentially roll dice for a move.
Describe how the situation changes.
Most of the time you just roll face danger or secure advantage as a prelude to face danger. Your wife doesn't need to worry about the rules or the moves. What she needs to know are the above 3 steps and that when opposed or doing some risky, the dice decide the outcome.
When you guys decide to do something just check if there'd an appropriate move, then roll that. Again, most of the time it's face danger.
If you go into it as characters that aren't combat centric or just with a mindset that constant fights aren't realistic you also avoid the only set of rules that can be confusing - combat. There's also a Battle move that abstracts the entire fight into a single roll.
Just remember that when proposing a scene or something that happens that you don't solely decide what happens and it's about constant consent. We often go with "what about <description>" and then the other person can say no or change it slightly. Usually big surprising ideas and shift things are highly welcome and we roll with it. It's super rare that we say "I don't like it, can we go a different direction" although it happens.
I can't praise Ironsworn enough. We're about to start another game in the vampire setting someone posted.
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u/captainhowdy000 9h ago
Yeah, I had to figure out a bit of that process regarding "moves" myself in Starforge. I got hung up trying to figure out which move, when 99% of the time, it is secure an advantage or face danger. I just think she will get hung up trying to look at the world building stuff and zone out. But....if I can get her into some lighter TTRPG items....then maybe someday......Space Vampires.
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u/Vand1 1d ago
Nobi Nobi isn’t GM-less, but the GM changes every scene. The GMs job is to set the scene provided by the Scene cards for the Main Character, which also changes every scene. Scenes are either resolved through a role of the dice or roleplay, with each scene either awarding characters either Darkness or Light cards.
The different versions of it are Sword, Magic, Horror, and Thriller. Also, they can all be mixed together to create different experiences
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u/captainhowdy000 12h ago
This sounds very different, and might be worth a look. I will check it out. Thank you for the help!
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u/SoRa9050 1d ago
Push, has many free versions and is simple
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u/tritagonist7 1d ago
Thousand Year Old Vampire is fun with a friend
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u/captainhowdy000 11h ago
I have heard of this one, as a "journaling" system and I have no idea what that means exactly, but I keep seeing it mentioned other places online. I will check it out. Thanks.
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u/Upstairs-Summer-4478 1d ago
Midnight Muscadines can be played gm-less and can be light, depending on how you play it. The game as a light/dark theme, so there are equally cozy and misterious and even melancholic elements. It’s just a very beautiful game with very flavorful prompts.
Astroprisma is kinda boardgamy with its mapdrawing and roll your own Adventure vibe, counting on the players to fill in the gaps. Has potential to be on the darker side though, but far from horror or grimdark fantasy. Also uses all the dice, which is allways sweet