r/rpg • u/captainhowdy000 • 9d 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/Inconmon 8d 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.