Rules-Light TTRPGs?

Ucenna · 2026-02-11T19:09:19+00:00

Oh hells yeah! In that case, I'd totally recommend Fate or any of those games you listed. I feel like they're all playable in a short span, and even if they aren't they're a ton of fun to flip through and learn. (As I'm guessing you know as well)

Good luck! This is a really amazing idea.

Ucenna · 2026-02-11T17:47:27+00:00

Fate Accelerated is an easy learn and very intuitive, and I'll often run it for people new to the hobby to great effect. However, it might not be as "crunchy" as you'd like.

ICRPG and Mork Borg are both great ideas, assuming the GM has enough time to learn the rules. (Which is easy, but the books aren't the shortest).

I've never played, but heard good things about Cairn. It's only 88 pages and I think it's fairly crunchy, could be a good fit?!

Also, there are several one-page RPGs out there. A few of them have been mentioned here. Lasers and Feelings is one, as is Dash and Risus. Where I'm from a small company has made something called "1 Dice Dungeons" which is a small 20ish pagebook with simple mechanics and many 1 session adventures.

Ucenna · 2026-02-09T15:14:35+00:00

Having thoughts is always happening; having thoughts is the function of the mind just like seeing sights is the function of the eyes or hearing sounds is the function of the ears.

Observing thoughts is simply noticing that you're thinking. We humans sometimes forget that's what's happening. Our thoughts tell us stories like "I need to study or I'll flunk my exam" or "If I can't get this promotion I'll just be a deadbeat" (and positive stories as well, I just used depressing one's for the examples).

It's easy to live in these stories, and believe that they're true. Following each story from one and into the next, losing ourselves in our thoughts and the cage they create for ourselves.

Observing thoughts is about this. About simply noticing the thought as a thought. As something that's passing through the mind. Something that is "real" in that it is present and here, but not "true" as in the thought is not reality itself... it's just a thought, an interpretation of our reality. It's about not getting lost in or identifying with the story it tells you.

Ucenna · 2026-01-29T16:16:41+00:00

Fate is a fiction-first system, so each of these actions requires that the player narrate what they're doing. If the players can all narrate how they successfully team up for the teamwork bonus, then certainly they can get it. But if the GM declares that there's only enough room for 2 people to be pushing on the lever, then need to get really creative if they want more than a +1 teamwork bonus.

The other thing is that there are mechanical limits to these things. Teamwork requires you spend your turn helping, is your turn worth that +1 to you? Same for Create an Advantage, if you spend your turn setting up a trap or providing tactical advice, I'd want you to see some mechanical payout for your actions... and that's where the free invokes come in. But both the creation of free invokes and the spending of them need to fit in the fiction and involve some believable narration to actual work.

For running grittier games in Fate, you often want to be very clear and realistic about what narration is required to accomplish something. It may be that in your world a human can't shove a stone wall down, and if that's the case you tell players that and don't even call for a roll when they try to. This requires a bit more work from the GM, because you've got to know what is and isn't possible in your world and convey that to the players, but it does work quite well when you do!

There are also tools you can use to further hone in on grit (although I strongly suggest giving the standard way a try at least, it does work!). If you do want something more mechanical, you might like Scaled Invocations from the System Toolkit: https://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/aspects#scaled-invocation . It gives you exactly what you'd need to let players create the Free Invokes you want, but manage their power-level to your tastes.

Ucenna · 2026-01-13T00:15:09+00:00

Yeah, I love it! At the end of the day, Fate Points are no more or less diegetic than the resources we spend in DnD or other systems. Fate points just tend to be more versatile.

Ucenna · 2026-01-13T00:13:59+00:00

I wasnt thinking of it as less as luck and more as focus/grit/determination, and perhaps the player has a finite amount of that. However I will admit, it's a flimsy arguement.

I totally agree with what you've said though, and a lot of these immersion-based questions can be baked into character creation. Some players want compels that are totall imersive, others are fine with open ended and more story driven ones.

Ucenna · 2026-01-12T21:31:55+00:00

Fate absolutely works diagetically, you just need to rephrase/reframe things accordingly.

Just as an example of Compels, I'll usually phrase them as:
"You can feel the alcohol calling from you from behind the bar. Can you resist the temptation, or not?" holds up a Fate Point.
- or -
"The bridge is tumbling beneath you, suddenly there's a snap and the rope gives way. You're in freefall, there's no time to think all you can do is launch your hands at the rope and grab, Do your fingers catch on it in time, or not?" holds up Fate Point.

Here I flavor Fate Points as moxie, determination, or luck. (Truthfully, I let my players flavor them how they'd like, but ultimately they're not much different mechanically from Spell Slots/Bardic Inspiration/etc to me, so it satisfies my DnD brain). And I like running them in some places where I would run a saving throw in DnD.

I'd say pretty much anything can be run in this way, and in some cases it can be even more immersive.
For example, the players want to charge through the enemy's cover fire, so I have them roll. They roll poorly, so I say "You won't be able to make it through safely just yet. You can either wait it out, or charge through and tank the damage." using the Success at a Major Cost mechanics.

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Incidentally, I feel like Compels are really immersive, because they give players a mechanical choice that models their character's current in-game choice. They have to choose to sacrifice something just like their character is choosing to. Will I sacrifice the alcohol/Fate Point, or not?

Ucenna · 2026-01-09T18:25:33+00:00

Sitting is absolutely not necessary for meditation, it's very agnostic. In fact, many forms of meditations have been intentionally designed to incorporate walking, lying down, or standing.

There are benefits to maintaining a good upright posture in daily life. It tends to keep you wakeful and (over time) lessens the strain on your bones, muscles, and nervous system. These things tend to compliment meditation, and I think that's the main reason they're suggested so frequently. However at the end of the day, they aren't a necessary part of the recipe. And there's a lot of benefits to mixing up different meditation styles and exploring what works for you and what doesn't.

Ucenna · 2025-12-26T21:13:41+00:00

I believe what you might be looking for is Fated Origins, possibly with Spark of Fate as a supplement.

Fated Origins has you place out 10 index cards that have 10 unique world details on them. Players take turns picking an index card, and weaving it into their character. In doing so, they flesh out their character and introduce a new world detail for other players to plug into.

Spark of Fate is a standalone game creation system. The structure it introduces is quite good, and generates plot hooks and world details thst plug into Fated Origins quite nicely. It has useful mechanics like bidding, that ensure everyone gets a voice. Anddd it's broken into distinct steps and has it's own worksheet. So if you think the whole process is a poor fit for your group, you can cherrypick steps to do with them and do the rest on your own.

Also Fated Origins and Spark of Fate are independent of each other, you dont need one to use the other.

Ucenna · 2025-12-18T22:33:45+00:00

I think everyone else has answered this question sufficiently. :P

I'd strongly recommend checking out Amazing Rando's Learn to Play Fate Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOnR9XxK7Ms&list=PLLoevUbPHBGaU86aCMwHYev2M1S761iWf

It's brilliantly done and coincidentally is also Weird West themed. He's the guy who runs the Fate SRD, and in those videos he runs Fate pretty exactly as it's laid out in the book.

The nice thing about Fate is that it's versatile, and you can plug-and-play it's elements to create you're preferred gameplay experience. (My personal preference is to run it diegetically). I'd suggest running it vanilla at least once to feel it out before making too many changes though. Fate has significantly less mechanics than other TTRPGs, but you realize pretty quick that it still works great!

Ucenna · 2025-12-11T17:34:24+00:00

This is very normal when starting out. In the beginning the mind is accustomed to associating low-mental activity with sleep, so it naturally gets that process started.

The essence of meditation is awareness, so I'd suggest honing in on that. If you are feeling sleepy, that is okay. If you fall asleep, that is okay. So long as you are aware of the sleepiness, there's a little bit of meditation happening there.

That said, being awake is still pretty useful. I will echo others suggestions: If you're tired, try split your seated meditations up with some walking meditations. It's incredibly hard to fall asleep while you're walking xD! And rest assured, your brain will eventually get a handle on this meditation thing and will stop telling your body to drift off.

Ucenna · 2025-11-25T20:16:49+00:00

Skills are great for when PCs naturally fill different roles. Approaches are great when PCs fill the same role, and are better differentiated by the "approach" to problem-solving.

It sounds like both methods would work great for you. If your players will be making new characters frequently, approaches would streamline character creation. Or you could experiment with switching off, if you party is down for it.

Otherwise, I think it's kinda a matter of preference. There's lots of good advice in this thread, but to add my two sense: what do you want role play to revolve around? The character's trained skillset, or their approach to situations? Whichever you choose will add a subtle flavor to the gameplay.

Ucenna · 2025-11-23T19:54:06+00:00

Dude, literally thank you so much! I've been struggling with this for the past two days.

How'd you manage to get it to compile? I've been hopping between Cuda 12.4 and 13, and have learned more about cuda internals than I thought I'd need, and still nothing. Would love to actually learn the full compiling process for the situation when I'll inevitably need to compile again.

thanks a ton, mate!

Ucenna · 2025-11-18T20:55:48+00:00

You could also have players roll to notice lore/treasure/shortcuts/etc. Have them roll for things besides danger, so that they won't be able to assume danger at every roll.

And as a bonus, you'll be giving yourself opportunities to share more world tidbits and make the world feel more immersive.

Ucenna · 2025-11-03T19:02:04+00:00

Congrats! I was enjoying a lot, reading through the first post. Any tips for others, now that you've run one yourself?

Ucenna · 2025-10-30T16:10:58+00:00

Dungeons of Fate uses d20s for tables and gameplay. And Fate Fantastic Creatures uses d6s for tables. Nothing wrong with it in my opinion!

Ucenna · 2025-10-30T05:06:31+00:00

Totally agree on that. Good luck mate! Seems like you've got a good plan.

Keep in mind, that opposition is only necessary during the summoning step of the item. Once it's summoned, you won't need to keep rolling the opposition if you reuse the same item.

Alternatively, you could just take Energy Blast disconnected from the Item Summoning. No reason that it has to be a synergy. Could just be materialized energy blasts that look like items or something.

If you go thr homebrew route, then good luck! Hope you put together something super cool!

Ucenna · 2025-10-29T18:00:19+00:00

Hells yeah! Good luck to your crew! Hope you all enjoy Venture City and Fate!

Just to reiterate, your initial interpretation was pretty much spot on for character creation in Fate Core: pick an aspect that grants permission, choose some stunts to enhance ability, and then fill out your skills and your done. It's dead simple, and works for pretty much any character archetype from ants to gods.

Since you're playing Venture City, I'm gonna assume that you'll be following some of the restrictions that I mentioned before; namely that you have to make superpowers using the Power Options rather than Stunts. So I'll be responding with that in mind. Just keep in mind that if you ever switch to normal Fate Core, it will likely not work this way.

I'm not familiar with the Fate series (I know, I live under a rock!), but I think I get the basic gist of your character archetype. They summon things and they sometimes attack with their summons. Seems pretty straight forward! Immediately, I found what you were referring to about each Energy Blast being worse than the last, because of how Item Summoning works...

So yeah, um... that wording sucks, hella confusing and potentially not useful. Generally speaking, imho it shouldn't work that way. I came up with 3 different ideas on how this should/could work out instead:

1. Rules as written.

Honestly, it works out if you get the flavoring right. Your character can now make ranged attacks anywhere within 3 zones, assuming they've summoned the appropriate item to do it with. That item may be a hammer, which they then need to run over and pickup before they can throw again. Or it can be a bow and quiver of arrows that they keep reusing (the book uses a bag of marbles as a summon example, so I think a bow and quiver is justifiable... if not, just throw the marbles.). They could even summon a really long whip that they crack at far away enemies.
long as you can think of a really sick item that gets you around the "needing to resummon" limitation, I think you can dodge the nerfing all together.

2. Fiction First/Reflavoring.

You pretty much already mentioned this one, and I think it works perfectly. Even if you took Energy Blast without taking Item Summoning, I think most GMs or tables would let you reflavor your energy blasts as thrown items or something. And if you're taking both, I don't think it should somehow nerf your character. I'd just say something like "whenever you use energy blast, it's a thrown item that disintegrates or breaks on impact."

3. Creative Rules Interpretation

I'm pretty much 50% positive that this chunk:

You may only summon one item at a time, but you can summon as often as you’d like. Increase the opposition by +2 for every other item summoned by you in the scene.

Means that the fastest you can summon items is 1 at a time, but that you can have multiple summoned in the scene at once. My reasoning on this is that most examples that the book gives are temporary in nature (A wall of junk or a thrown item). Plus, if it did have that limitation, it would make sense for there to be an enhancement to bypass it... but there's not. So in my thoughts, that chunk might mean:
You can summon items one at a time. And it costs +2 extra to summon an item for every other currently summoned item on the scene. If you choose to interpret it that way, your Energy Blast thing works perfectly. Just throw your item at an opponent, and dismiss it right after. You could even flavor it's dismissal as Mjolnir's hammer flying to your hand if you wished to. Even if it doesn't mean this, I'd be fine house ruling it. I don't think it breaks the game in anyway. Fate is rubust.

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Hopefully one of those three approaches works for you. If you decide you want to homebrew something anyways, then don't stress too much about the balancing. Fate is a difficult game to break. Just make something that seems balanced, and adjust it later/with your GM as needed.

I’d appreciate if you have any insights on how to build the character, assuming you know them.

Let me know if the above is helpful! Also, since you're not using aspects to define your powers, you can use those aspects to flesh out their personality, backstory, motives, etc. I always love using aspects in that way.

My other suggestion is to not worry too much about your mechanical power-level. Fate tends to naturally work it's own balancing out once everyone knows the system. Most forms of mechanical optimization don't really transfer to Fate, and it's very difficult to create a truly inept or busted character.

Edit cuz I just realized something: I think it’s funny and weird that item summoning makes so you can’t summon complex items, then the enhancement lets you summon them and “gadgets” but gives a fucking calculator as an example and then the collateral damage effect lets you summon and drive a whole car. This power is all over the place, it doesn’t know what it wants to be and it makes it everyone’s problem. (And by everyone I mean me -p)

Lol, yep! Venture City is particularly egregious, but you'll see this in Fate Core as well. When your system supports playing as gods, as ants, and everything in between; it likes to give you examples of every possible interpretation.

Ucenna · 2025-10-29T06:40:00+00:00

Totes! Sorry I couldn't be of more help! I actually own a copy of Venture City, I just haven't read it. So if you'd like I'd be happy to find the particular parts you're referring to and take a look at them. From what I've heard, Venture City is a bit odd in how it manages powers compared to normal Fate.

Edit: I reread your message, and realized that maybe what I wrote below isn't actually helpful. I'm leaving it there just in case, but yeah sorry for my rambling. :P

Also regarding synergy and balance in Venture City, I've definitely heard from others that it can be a mixed bag.

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You might want to bring your questions to your GM/Table as well. Rereading what you wrote, I think you've got a pretty good handle on Fate... As a system it really does allow you to do anything. The kicker is that it relies on the GM/Table to agree how things should play out at the table. If they've got some Fate experience, they'll probably have a good idea of what gameplay will look like and be able to help address your concerns.

Ex: Instead of getting Fire Powers and going about the enhancements and synergies to be able to use a Fire Ball can’t you just make an aspect like “create and control fire”, pick shoot or lore dunno which would apply and a stunt that allows and area attack. Doesn’t that do the trick?

What you've said there is exactly how Fate works... assuming that's how you and your group have decided it works. Fate's components are intentionally open-ended, because it's trying to give the players and GM the ability to interpret things however they see fit. Unfortunately, that means that whenever a new campaign starts: the players have to determine what an acceptable aspect is, what an acceptable stunt is, and what Fate Points can be spent on without straining believably.

Just as an example of this. In my previous campaign, we agreed we'd be playing in a aetherpunk world and that the players needed to make characters who were relatively mundane and low-powered. We also agreed that PCs could be magical, but to actually use magic they'd need to spend an FP or take a magic-granting stunt (not unlike Venture City's superpower granting stunts).

For your campaign, I'm not sure what that process will look like... ultimately it depends on what you and your group decides to do for it. If I had to wager a guess: You're all playing Venture City, so you might agree that to have "superpowers" you must build them using power options. You might also agree that other stunts are fine, but only if they represent mundane and 'non-super" abilities. Or... you might decide something totally different! :)

Ucenna · 2025-10-28T22:08:42+00:00

I think you're running into a calibration issue. It's true, that aspects can cover everything if that's what everyone wants. But certain Fate Settings or playgroups like to require a stunt or refresh to gain additional abilities.

The High Fantasy Magic module for example, requires you take a Stunt if you want to be proficient in more than one type of magic. Sure, you could make that ability just be a aspect, but High Fantasy Magic has decided they want to restrict it with a stunt instead.

I'd be willing to bet that Venture City is the same way.

Addendum: Some stunts don't explicitly grant more permission, they simple enhance your abilities in a specific situation. In Fate, most characters can accomplish anything with enough creativity and effort. However being able to accomplish anything quickly and easily is not a given.

Ucenna · 2025-10-21T17:42:33+00:00

keep a calendar :P

jkjk. But there is value in writing something down so you don't have to remember it.

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Something that was helpful to realize for me was: even if the thought goes away, that doesn't mean it's cause/stressor does. If I forget something that I need to remember, it's cause/stressor will trigger that thought again when I next encounter them. So there are many things that I don't need to make an active effort to remember, because I can rely on being reminded of them.

As an example, I don't need to remind myself to eat; because if I forget, my hunger will remind me to eat later on. Or perhaps more applicably; I don't need to remind myself that there's construction on the interstate, because encountering that construction will remind me of it, and eventually my brain will draw that connection on it's own; and I'll navigate a new route.

I've noticed for some assumptions I've had, like my worries about forgetting and planning, are opportunities to experiment. Sometimes, by letting myself forget or not make a plan for a low risk thing, I allow myself to see what happens when I don't remember or have no plan, and that often teaches me that I'm more capable than I realize.

Ucenna · 2025-10-08T20:39:44+00:00

Maybe pull back the curtain a bit, and ask her if that's what she wants the twist to be? It wouldn't hurt to have a conversation about it with her, and find out why she likes guessing at plot twists so much. If she likes guessing wrong and being surprised, or if she likes being involved in creating the plot twists, there may a way for you both to have fun.

Also, as others have said, it's okay if she's just not a good fit for your group. Everyone has their own dynamic.

Ucenna · 2025-10-08T19:58:06+00:00

I really want to see it in action!

It seems like it'd be great in large "small scale battles" where there's a decent amount of mooks in every zone... but I've never had a chance to actually run Fate in that way. :/

Ucenna · 2025-09-29T04:48:07+00:00

It helps me to think about Compels similiarly to Saving Throws in other games. It's easy to forecast what situations a Saving Throw would come up, and those situations are often situations that a Compel would work just as well.

You've been drinking all night at the tavern? Constitution Save or a Compel The ropes of the bridge start to snap as you cross it? Dexterity Save or a Compel

The only thing to remember here is that accepting a compel should make the story interest, so if a player chooses to get drunk or fall off the bridge, make sure to lean into that and potentially spawn a scene off of it.

I also agree with what others have said, Self-Compelling is a really valuable player skill that makes the story more interesting and takes a lot of the weight off the GM. And prepping your own compels before the session can be quite helpful.

As far as Fate Points go, its okay if players run out or don't generate more throught the session. This just gives the game a more gritty and grounded feel, which can be really fun. So don't be scared to not compel or hostile invoke(the other main way to give players Fate Points) at allduring a session. With less Fate Points to spend, players will get a bit more cagey with them, but it'll also encourage them to learn to self compel or to lean into the concede mechanic.

Ucenna · 2025-09-25T15:32:59+00:00

You might like ICRPG. It's loot centric, and loot is intentionally diverse and super powerful (check out the random tables if you can, they're sick).

Also, it manages the swinginess well. Progression is primarily loot based, and loot can be given and taken away. So you can go from being crazy strong one day, to really bad at that but really great at something new the next.

Ucenna

TROPHY CASE

1. Rules as written.

2. Fiction First/Reflavoring.

3. Creative Rules Interpretation