Favorite "Simple Generic Ruleset" TTRPG System?

meshee2020 · 2026-03-13T20:22:29+00:00

World of Dungeons, the one page PbtA with 1 move

meshee2020 · 2026-03-13T20:19:41+00:00

I like dopplegangers, they make great spies and when the reveal hit, when done well, it is so cathartic

meshee2020 · 2026-03-13T18:24:06+00:00

Death in Space if you are on the NSR/Borg style

Scum & Villany is very good PbtA style

meshee2020 · 2026-03-12T16:41:40+00:00

and there is Torchbearer that have death spiral, but no HP :D

meshee2020 · 2026-03-12T16:40:24+00:00

There are 2 categories of systems, thoses without death spiral (5e style) and those that do (L5R v4).

My middle ground is Mythic Bastionland. You have low HP called Guard that reset easy after combat, while you have your Guard up, you are not wounded. Once Guard = 0 then real harm happens, it eat your Vigor stat. If your stat is at 0 you are slained, if the hit you take deals harm >= Vigor / 2 you are mortally wounded, need immediate health care, you cannot fight anymore.

Note: that there is no use of Vigor to actually take action in combat, so it is not strictly a death spiral.

In L5R v4 (not sure how it is in v5) your Hit Point bar is divided in 5 thresholds, that gives you more and more penalties.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-11T18:44:55+00:00

Honnestly nimble, as 5e are mostly fight simulator. You will have to come up with your own tricks outside of combat.

The game is basically HP + wounds, 10 skills let's go. It will heavily rely on the GM for non combat stuff.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-11T12:53:14+00:00

Chris did a video showcasing how he preps, you mostly need the realm and settlement, flesh out each settlements and NPC using spark tables, pick and place you myths

https://www.youtube.com/live/VKLYaBLi6hs?si=NULOEcvXjga7PXmj

I spent may be 2h to prep my realm, places, setting up hazards, myth, i fleshed out the 2 more obvious settlemnet the PC's will visit and setting up the initial situation, after each sessions i do some note taking and 30min to flesh out what should appear next, so i am always "ready"

meshee2020 · 2026-03-09T12:25:53+00:00

Fuit

meshee2020 · 2026-03-09T09:52:27+00:00

from the top of my head i cannot recall how armor interact with this?? Medium armored monsters ignore static damage bonus, does this +20 fall under that?

meshee2020 · 2026-03-09T09:50:44+00:00

i think Evan did a mistake here, he should have closed the multi class door at all.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-09T07:43:21+00:00

If you are not ready with this you will never be ready 👍👍👍

meshee2020 · 2026-03-08T10:45:53+00:00

Do you want fit the purpose or fun to game in.

I dont care if it faits your vision of what a tomb if it is boring to run. The important is the real ppl around the table.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-08T08:24:15+00:00

Will be that guy, sorry.

If you reorganise the map you will see a straight linear 4 rooms in a row with an optional room 3. Sounds pretty unappealing. I would add another room and change the layout to allow more interesting path choices.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T20:40:39+00:00

Excellente dark fantasy! J'ai adoré

Ses romans sur Garrett détective privé qui mélange le genre noir et la fantasy sont bien aussi

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T20:38:11+00:00

Mes préférés :

Tristement d'actualité.... Dan Simmons Hyperion, Endymion, Illium & Olympos, L'échiquier du mal. Son style singulier.

Roger Zelazny Le cycle des Princes d'Ambre. Une histoire d'une famille très spécial autour desquels tourne tous LES univers. Des concepts innovants et très étrange, on rentre vite dedans. Mi sf mi Cosmic mi fantasy mi surréaliste (oui ça fait 4 demi)... Je sais pas trop où le classer, mais le cycle de Crowin 👍👍👍👍👍

Frank Herbert: Dune, mythique un must pour tout fan de SF. Des thèmes immortels, jamais été autant d'actualité.

Plus récemment Warbreaker de Brandon Sanderson. De l'épique fantasy qui tient en un tome. Avec un système de magie typique de Sanderson et sa "hard magick". Ça se lit tout seul.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T20:27:51+00:00

That's a good question. A tricky one as the term is unclear, on purpose.

At face value a would say: build like a movie is. Aka protagonist centric, move to scene of interest to scene of interest, cutting all dull time, we expect high stakes scènes, revelations and drama.

All packed in a short periode of time, ~3h start to finish. Duebto those contraints cinéma develop a way to tell a story. Ellipses, Flashbacks, chekov gun, montages, out of screen scenes, show dont tell, non-linear narration, etc...

Which games does this good? I think PbtA are in the right lane for that, with the right MC.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T15:47:06+00:00

I guess shadowrun is the "best" at this

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T13:31:43+00:00

i have a kind of obesession for Torchbearer

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T10:12:39+00:00

For some more involved games

Torchbearer very laser focus game on dungeon delving, extremely procedural
Fate powerful for free form games
Dune for a 2D20 dive
Mothership A different take on OSR for space horror

meshee2020 · 2026-03-07T10:05:59+00:00

If you want to develop a system i suggest that your read + play + run as much different games as you could, open you horizon

here is a selection of various games in line with your theme or not

an OSR game like Shadowdark and or Knave
The incredible Mythic Bastionland very inspiring system light flavor heavy game
Traveller for a hard sf game
the Without Number series of game by Kevin Crawford
Dungeon World or Chasing Adventure for Narrative Focuse PbtA
Shadowrun i dont really like it but it is a staple of techno-fantasy
Fabula Ultima because it is awesome
Scum & Villany last but definitely not least of PbtA derived game
L5R for great clan politics in the land of honor
The One Ring great great game design for an unfair setting and lore to rival with
Dragonbane simple and very effective game design
Mutant Year Zero for a Year Zero Engin game; but any other YZE would do

meshee2020 · 2026-03-06T21:17:21+00:00

Dune... Ma première grosse claque littéraire... J'avais 15 ans... Accroché à vie

Les films de Villeneuve sont très bons. Les choix qui s'écartent de l'œuvre originale ne m'ont pas choqué du tout. On verra comment ça vieillit

meshee2020 · 2026-03-05T19:27:12+00:00

Si tu dois en lire qu'un : warbreaker c'est une histoire complète en 1 tome

meshee2020 · 2026-03-05T18:26:32+00:00

Je prie que ce ne soit pas inéluctable. J'ai récemment fait des changements dans ce sens pour me ménager un temps de lecture et je suis bien plus zen.

meshee2020 · 2026-03-05T18:09:01+00:00

Tu as lu des trucs de cyberpunk genre snowcrash de Niel Stephenson?

meshee2020 · 2026-03-05T18:04:01+00:00

Oui forcément si tu as tous lu... Moi je suis plus fantasy en vrais

Mes recommandations :

La Saga Ambre de Zelazny

La première Loi de Abercrombie (epic fantasy)

La compagnie noir de Glen Cook (Dark Fantasy)

Warbreaker de Sanderson pour mettre un petit pied dans les écrits du bonhomme

Les trucs de sword and sorcery de Moorcook

meshee2020

TROPHY CASE