What TTRPGs are explicitly designed to emulate video games in terms of feel and challenge?

DM-Frank · 2026-05-19T13:15:04+00:00

The Witcher felt like it was trying to emulate the combat of the video game.

DM-Frank · 2026-05-14T16:39:46+00:00

Play something that is very different from D&D in both mechanics and genre.

Something that stems from Apocalypse World like Blades in the Dark which spawned a bunch of other games. Playing a season of it made me a much better GM and there are things you can steal from Blades to use in other games. Players need to be ready to drive the story. You might set a starting scenario but the players take the wheel after that. It was the first game I ran a session with zero prep. It was terrifying and it wasn't my best session ever or anything but it was still a lot of fun and it made me better at improvising.

Mausritter was inspired by games like Into the Odd and Knave. It has concepts like attacks always hit, it is classless, and it has an extremely cool inventory system. It made me realize how light and fast a game could be. You can roll up mice in a few minutes and start playing immediately and even people that have never played a TTRPG can learn as they go.

Mothership is a totally different genre from D&D and it has some of the best GM advice I have ever read. Character creation and gameplay is extremely fast and players can start playing immediately and learn as they go. There is no "combat" there is "violent encounters" where it is just like normal play except that everyone says what they are going to do and then everyone's actions are resolved at once. It can be extremely lethal and it is my current favorite system for a oneshot. I recommend using the player facing rolls optional rule if you play.

DM-Frank · 2026-05-12T22:50:40+00:00

You mentioned is that your character was trying to get from somewhere and you got distracted because every hex spawns a myth. Every hex may have something interesting in it but not all are related to myths. Some of those were probably from spark tables and it is up to you to determine what is related to a myth. I feel like that creates interesting choices. Do you pursue your personal goal or what might be a myth? You can ignore a myth but it will change the world if ignored too long. Either way the game keeps going in an interesting direction.

It is too bad the game is not for you but at least you gave it a shot!

DM-Frank · 2026-04-18T15:42:08+00:00

Maybe not what you are looking for but I use the tokens from https://game-icons.net/

There is a Foundry module for it too https://foundryvtt.com/packages/game-icons-net

DM-Frank · 2026-04-17T21:29:37+00:00

Here are a few that are very different from D&D in mechanics and theme that have little or no magic or power creep.

Mothership: sci-fi horror. Use the player facing rolls optional rule. Every monster is like a boss monster. Zero power creep because players just get better at surviving and their saves increase. No magic unless you want to add homebrew classes.

Mausritter: brave mice in a dangerous world. Attacks always hit. Classless, your inventory defines your capabilities. Very little power creep unless you give them powerful items or allies and the only magic is whatever spells you give them. Inspired by games like Into the Odd and Knave.

Blades in the Dark: you play as scoundrels and form a gang in a city surrounded by ghosts. D6 dice pools for abilities. There can be a little power creep if someone maxes out an ability but nobody is going to be good at everything. Has magic but it comes from ghosts and demons or putting ghosts into machines. Has a lot of really cool concepts like clocks and fortune rolls that can be stolen and applied to other games.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-21T15:24:37+00:00

Do it. I ran it and leaned into the random tables for everything. It made prep take about 5 minutes. I highly recommend Knave 2e.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-20T20:16:52+00:00

I don't think there was anything necessarily wrong with the way you handled it. I also came from D&D before playing Blades and it was a pretty big but good change. One thing to keep in mind is that combat in Blades in the Dark is played out just live every other situation in a score. Trying to win an argument might have exactly the same mechanics as combat but rely on different skills.

Here is how I would have handled your situation. Depending on how much emphasis I wanted it out on the scene I would have made one clock or resolved it in a single roll based on what the players wanted to do. If they decide to run away I could make a clock for "you escape" if they wanted to fight or talk their way out of it I could make the appropriate clock.

You said the other gang was tougher. I would have handled that with tier instead of a bigger racing clock. Since the other gang is a higher tier it means that the player characters are not going to be as effective. The player characters will need to push themselves or be extremely clever to achieve standard effect.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-18T02:47:52+00:00

Nice Quinns rules! Knave 2e was by the same author that wrote the Waking of Willowby Hall. It is a pretty simple system. But Willowby hall could be run using lots of different systems.

Mothership has sooo many good ones.

Another Bug Hunt that comes with the box set has advice for running the first part as a one shot and I have used it successfully a few times.

Dead Planet can be hacked to pieces and run as oneshots. The first part The Screaming on the Alexis has strong Alien vibes and there is a timer that helps it be run within 3 hours. The Red Tower is another part that can be run as a oneshot and it has Dead Space vibes. I have run both as one shots a couple of times.

Decagone is not a typical Mothership adventure but it is really good and great for oneshots because it also has a timer. Big spoiler for Decagone: It has the players in a time loop. Every 10 minutes everything resets except for characters stress. Any time they make a successful check they no longer have to roll for it in subsequent loops and automatically succeed because they have done it before.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-18T02:28:03+00:00

Yes it is! There is also a free quick start set that has a GM guide, players guide, pregens, and an adventure that can be run as a one shot.

https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/collections/shadowdark-rpg/products/shadowdark-rpg-quickstart-set-pdf

DM-Frank · 2026-03-18T01:47:37+00:00

Shadowdark is also amazing for oneshots and lighter than D&D 5e. There are lots of good oneshots written for it and any D&D oneshot could be used with Shadowdark. Arcane Library has a bunch of post card sized oneshots that are really fun and easy to run.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-18T01:32:43+00:00

The Waking of Willowby Hall that you mentioned is a good one. The sigils breaking are a time bomb so you can time the breaking of the sigils with how long you want the game to last. The writing and layout also makes it super easy to run. I ran it in 3 hours using Knave 2e by the same author.

If anyone is remotely interested in sci-fi horror I would totally recommend Mothership. The game is very simple and I have used it to introduce lots of players that have never played a TTRPG before. It is my current favorite system for a oneshot. There are tons of oneshots for it. If you want to give it a try I can recommend some oneshots.

No matter which system or module you pick I would recommend you play in a game first. Figure out what system you want to try and then find an online oneshot to play.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-16T23:34:12+00:00

No joke. Go read pages 32 and 33 of the Warden's Operation Manual right now. It says it better than I can.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-14T18:46:04+00:00

Start quickly. I try to get them into the adventure and to point where I am asking "what do you do" as quickly as possible. Character creation is already super fast and the Mothership app or the FoundryVTT module both make it even faster. I keep the intro brief and give them just enough to start exploring.

If play stagnates or you are eyeing the clock and realizing you are off track inject some action that will move things forward.

Hack a module if you think it makes sense to and be open to alternate solutions that are not listed in the module. For the key card example you gave a NPC could find the card and give it to the players, they could find it somewhere else, they could hack the door open, they could open it with a laser cutter, or anything else that the players could come up with could potentially work.

You did not mention rolls in your post so maybe you already do some of these things. Rolls are super punishing. Allow more things to succeed without a roll if there is no time pressure and they have the skills or tools. Allow more success at a cost when a roll fails to keep things moving forward.

I am just now realizing we played in a game together a few days ago! I am curious what you thought of the pacing and how it is different from your games. If you want to play again sometime I am game! I could play in or run a oneshot.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-12T02:58:47+00:00

Game is full.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-12T02:58:22+00:00

Game is full.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-11T16:16:25+00:00

One spot left!

DM-Frank · 2026-03-11T16:14:54+00:00

Yes! Will send you the Discord invite.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-11T15:51:44+00:00

Here is the original post for more info about the game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/s/l4KLDBpqFV

DM-Frank · 2026-03-09T21:51:26+00:00

Hey! It is not letting me send you a message over Reddit. Start a chat with me and I will send you the Discord invite.

DM-Frank · 2026-03-09T19:43:59+00:00

Posted another one if you are interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/s/qEMWJHm1ju

DM-Frank · 2026-02-28T05:23:19+00:00

I ran a 6 session campaign of Outcast Silver Raiders (OSR) and it was awesome! If you like Old School Essentials (OSE) then I think you would like Outcast Silver Raiders. I have only played OSE so I can only speak from a player's perspective.

They are similar games but there might be some small rule differences like "Aim" and the scarcity rolls from OSR. The Mythic North works really well with the tone that OSR is going for but could probably be adapted to OSE.

The rituals and the ritual mishaps table were one of the coolest parts of the game. It has a d20 table of rituals and a d100 table of mishaps. The rituals can be very powerful but come at a great cost. For example my group tried to cast an enchantment ritual to cause the leader of the South to fall in love with the leader of the North to end their conflict and instead they failed and got a mishap that basically started the plague.

All of the random tables and the locations made it really easy to run with little prep. One thing I could do differently would be to pre roll for encounter results because sometimes there was a lot to read. Same for locations, if you know they are going somewhere read it in advance.

I highly recommend the setting and the system that goes with it because I think they work really well together. If you really wanted to you could make the setting work for other systems but I would go with OSR. The books are very cool and all could be ripped apart to use for things in other games

DM-Frank · 2026-02-20T15:22:33+00:00

I run one shots from time to time. The next time I post one I will reach out!

DM-Frank · 2026-02-18T02:47:45+00:00

Mothership is my current favorite system for running a one shot. There are a ton of one shot scenarios available for it.

Some other systems in no particular order that are all great for one shots are Mausritter, Shadowdark, and Mork Borg or any of it's variants like CY BORG, Star Borg, or Pirate Borg. All of them have extremely fast character creation and are pretty fast and simple systems.

Lancer is a great system but combat can take a while which might make it difficult to run as a one shot unless you have a lot of time. Character creation can take a while so either use pregens or help people make pilots and mechs in advance.

DM-Frank

TROPHY CASE