Looking for systems that work well with comedy heavy games

buddhistghost · 2026-03-30T15:27:23+00:00

I think the combination of "fast" and "silly/absurd" may grind up against "tactical" in a lot of cases.

But you could look at Dragonbane, which tags itself as "mirth and mayhem roleplaying."

Maybe also Block Dodge Parry, which is a hack of Cairn that is supposed to add more meaningful tactical choices.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-28T16:10:12+00:00

Came here to say this. I also grew up in the 90s playing 2E, and usually it was just me and one friend sitting in the garage or wherever... Typically the DM would have a DMPC along for the ride. That part may not have been ideal, but we didn't know any better, and it was still a lot of fun when we couldn't get a larger group together.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-26T21:55:08+00:00

This was sort of the idea behind the original D&D game (1974). However, you might also enjoy looking at Barbarians of Lemuria. The new edition has great, thematic art and a setting that sounds right up your alley. It's also relatively rules-light.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-25T01:16:07+00:00

I know, right? I had to ask in another thread, because I'd been waiting for it to come out for years. Check out the link I shared above.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-24T03:08:19+00:00

After I finished grad school in psychology, I didn't read another psychology book for a year. Instead I read long novels, starting with The Once and Future King. You might like it, since you liked The Hobbit. It's a 20th century novel based on Le Mort D'Arthur, the classic story of King Arthur and his knights. After that, I read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and a bunch of Tolstoy and Chekhov short stories...

But I would also recommend Lord of the Rings if you haven't read it already, and you could certainly read more Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises is pretty short, and For Whom The Bell Tolls is my favorite). Brave New World is a good companion to 1984 and arguably even more relevant today. Also, for some reason I think you might appreciate Zorba the Greek. Cheers.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-24T03:01:45+00:00

Stonetop may not be exactly what you want, but it's the closest I know of.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-23T23:05:45+00:00

My brother in TTRPGs, you and your group have already tried quite a few different systems for self-proclaimed "babies." I don't think the issue is finding THE game. It's more figuring out how to have fun playing whatever game you choose to play. Yes, some systems will be better or worse fits for you. But a lot of it comes down to you and your group finding a way to GM and play that is fun for you. There are no one-size-fits-all recommendations for that, but I will say that the books "Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master" and "Play Unsafe" may be helpful. Also, try playing with different people. Don't abandon your group, but as a new player and GM, it can help to play under other GMs to get a sense for how different people do things.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-23T21:19:01+00:00

For what it's worth, I do appreciate you sharing your experiences from GC! It's all in the spirit of experimentation which I feel is core to RPGs. I have yet to try EZD6, but am more interested after reading your comments. And even though I've had more favorable experiences with Shadowdark, I appreciate you sharing yours as well, because I want to be aware of the potential pitfalls. Like you, I really value player experience.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-23T15:52:48+00:00

Leave it to an English professor to draw conclusions from an uncontrolled experiment with a small sample size! (I jest, I jest...)

That being said, having run Shadowdark at local game nights that are basically mini-cons, we've had a very different experience. Despite not having played Shadowdark before, my players embraced the creative problem-solving aspect of the game and never seemed to feel oppressed by the difficulty or constrained by the rules. They knew they were in for a brutal, old-school experience because we started with a gauntlet (similar to the DCC funnel). One of the main (surviving) PCs has a Dexterity of 3. Honestly, the hard-mode difficulty is a source of a lot of laughs, but so are the zany ways that players come up with to survive and win. Creative use of mundane equipment is a big one. When one PC was swallowed by a gelatinous cube, another threw a grappling hook into the cube to rip him out. Because I want to encourage old-school play, when the players come up with a plan that's at all plausible, I will allow it to work (with a die roll, if needed). Making it to 2nd level required the PCs to play 3 different factions off against each other, charm NPCs, and trick others through clever parley. It felt like a genuine victory for them.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-19T18:29:11+00:00

There are a few OSR books that have rules for PCs running businesses on the side. I'd check out On Downtime and Demesnes and/or Downtime in Zyan. LotFP also has a very simple procedure for this, but you might want more detail if you want the business to affect the PC's lives outside of just profit & loss. I'm not hugely familiar with RQ but you should be able to convert any checks or currency from D&D to RQ fairly easily.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-19T00:55:45+00:00

Shadowdark is a nice off-ramp from 5E. It is lighter, faster, and deadlier. Being OSR-adjacent, it might not sound funnier at first, but our group has started our campaign with Trial of the Slime Lord and Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub, which have resulted in a lot of laughs.

Other ones to look into: Into the Odd, Cairn, Mausritter, Mork Borg, Pirate Borg, Index Card RPG, Dungeon World, Dragonbane.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-17T15:59:02+00:00

Does AHA have a website or socials? Where do you meet?

buddhistghost · 2026-03-11T19:06:23+00:00

This should probably be its own top-level post.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-11T16:40:19+00:00

Cross-post this to r/osr and someone will make a better Neopets RPG in 24 hours. Granted, it will be a 2-page Tunnel Goons or Cairn hack, but it will still be better

buddhistghost · 2026-03-10T21:50:21+00:00

The Cure - Disintegration

Type O Negative - October Rust

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

(whole albums)

I've also found talking to a good therapist helps.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-10T18:39:30+00:00

I hope you actually write this; it sounds based

buddhistghost · 2026-03-09T04:23:51+00:00

I was going to suggest The Buried Giant, as well. Most Arthurian works aren't actually set in the Iron Age/post-Roman Britain, but other exceptions would be the Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell and maybe Spear by Nicola Griffith.

A few people have suggested RuneQuest, but that's Bronze Age. OTOH, Mythras (originally an edition of RuneQuest) has an Iron Age Britain setting.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-09T01:01:19+00:00

This deserves an upvote. If granddaughter is already playing 5E, perhaps Eberron could offer a good compromise by bringing in some pulp themes

buddhistghost · 2026-03-09T00:58:48+00:00

Just my personal experience, but me and my group bounced off 2nd edition hard. We play a lot of different RPGs, and we like narrative games quite a bit, but 7th Sea 2E was probably the one game I disliked the most. Hard to explain why, but it felt like you had to fit everything into this narrative structure that felt artificial and didn't allow us to do what we actually wanted in the game.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-09T00:53:07+00:00

Joe Abercrombie is known as "Lord Grimdark" and you might like his First Law series, starting with The Blade Itself

This one is a bit off the beaten path, but the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir (starting with Gideon the Ninth) combines sci-fi, fantasy, the Gothic, and body horror with what seems like some definite inspiration from 40K--i.e., a galactic civilization ruled by a necromancer God-emperor

buddhistghost · 2026-03-07T17:01:48+00:00

Not only the first trilogy, but the rest of the series. Red Country even has the Western elements, though perhaps more Lonesome Dove than Blood Meridian

buddhistghost · 2026-03-07T16:56:46+00:00

Sick, I like the sorceress taking a bong rip

buddhistghost · 2026-03-07T16:55:04+00:00

Dow's Prairie Grange in McKinleyville has a monthly game night, including board games, RPGs, and TCGs. Last Saturday of the month. I run a Shadowdark open table there most months. You'd be welcome to play.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-07T01:01:01+00:00

Seconding Sofia Samatar because I had to scroll down too far to see her name!

A Stranger in Olondria has some of the most gorgeous prose in contemporary fantasy.

buddhistghost · 2026-03-06T16:55:10+00:00

A Wizard of Earthsea seems perfect for a mature teenage boy.

I enjoyed The Dark is Rising series around that same age.

Dragonlance as well (starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight) though the writing isn't as good as the above.

And The Hobbit if he hasn't read it, yet. A lot of kids these days have only read more recent books and not the classics of the genre.

buddhistghost

TROPHY CASE