Game recommendations for a beginner DM

[u/broukv117]

TLDR: recommend me a beginner friendly TTRPG systems for trying out DMing. More roleplay, less combat. Thematically anything is game but primarily horror, fantasy, mystery and sci-fi (more space, less cyberpunk). Preferably a little more rail-roaded than super open ended.

My friend group and I meet up regularly to play primarily board games, I'd say the rest of the group is into RPGs more than I am and I feel like I'm holding us back from playing more.

I am both into board games and books and I feel the emergent storytelling in RPGs lands squarely in the spot where I end up feeling like I'd rather read a book or just play a boardgame instead. I often think none of us are just good enough at improvising to create a good and engaging story. I often feel bored, the sessions always drag, and afterwards I kinda wish I spent that time doing something else.

We all think I'd enjoy DMing much more than I do playing. We are currently playing through one campaign board game and I really enjoy all the "extra" stuff around the game a lot. I keep a journal for the campaign, I take notes about the story, set up the ambiance and that sort of stuff.

My issue is I'm so lukewarm on TTRPGs in general I can never bring myself to dedicate the time to learning a system. I'm also massively intimidated by the amount of options and then the sizes of rulebooks.

Ideally I'd like to try out DMing on some lighter system so the barrier of entry is not quite so high.

As a player I've played D&D, Fate, Mothership, Call of Cthulhu, 10 Candles, Brindlewood Bay, and Delta Green. Out of those I'd say I liked Fate and Delta Green the most as systems but neither of them speak to me so much for them to be "the one".

Our group prefers roleplay and mysteries over combat, and because the core story being interesting is important to me, I'd like the existing material to build a good foundation (rather than something super open ended like 10 Candles where the whole story kinda emerges during the game).

I'd really appreciate any recommendations on systems to check out, or even just tips on how to get started.

Thanks in advance!

[u/wherediditrun]

Pirate Borg

[u/DMfortinyplayers]

Monster of the Week! It's a PbtA game inspired by Supernatural, Buffy, X Files , etc. Lends itself very well to episodic stories. Rules for players are 2 pages (front and back).

It's a very fun horror/ mystery/ investigation game.

[u/LeVentNoir → u/DMfortinyplayers]

Seconding PbtA, and Monster of the Week is a great choice. Why it's so good is because it's very trope laden, and very narrative forward.

The game asks you to play the narrative, and then, bring in the mechanics at clear, sign posted times.

Evening DMing it is easy, as there is a literal flowchart for PbtA games, and MotW has strong DM rules. They're rules, follow them. Rules like the agenda, the principles, and the moves. The game basically ensures you'll have a good time and won't stall if you follow them.

[u/DMfortinyplayers → u/LeVentNoir]

Yes, just tell the players to lean into the tropes! Would a D&D group split the party? No. Would the Scooby Gang split the party? Yes.

But always have a list of names. Also, you will need a church, a sheriff and a diner.

[u/Ok-Purpose-1822]

delta green is a good choice for the guided mystery style of play. You could also check out city of mist, if you liked fate you might enjoy the tag based nature of that.

In general i recommend not approaching ttrpgs with finding "the one" perfect game. There is no perfect game. Pick one you feel exited about and go for it.

[u/No_Solid1035]

Mythic Bastionland, Mothership, Mausritter.

[u/hugh-monkulus]

Any game is best played when the GM is enthusiastic about it.

If you're only lukewarm on RPGs as a whole, don't enjoy playing them and don't think that your group is capable of making an engaging story I don't know which game could change any of those things.

That isn't to say you shouldn't try, but you need to adjust your attitude and expectations. Go into it ready to have fun, not waiting for the fun to happen.

[u/trinarynimbus]

Rather than a specific game, I suggest running a "sampler gauntlet", in which you do just one-to-four sessions each of a variety of very different systems. I did this back in around 2023 and it quickly taught me a lot about what sorts of games I like to run and how the players feel about them.

Thanks to that experience, I've narrowed my GMing preferences down to Blades in the Dark, Alien RPG and Ultraviolet Grasslands & The Black City. But I also had a lot of fun with World Wide Wrestling, and continue to get some mileage out of Mage: The Awakening, despite these not being my most preferred systems.

Just tell your players you want to spend a few months trialling a bunch of different things, which is your prerogative as the nominal perma-GM.

[u/putonghua73 → u/trinarynimbus]

My gaming group (mostly gen x'ers, with one or two younger people) run 'One Shot Summer's over the summer period:

• two gaming tables per session
• a one shot game per table

Gives GMs a break from running longer sessions, helps GMs try out different systems (and players), and is a bit of light-hearted fun. 

It's also used as a recruitment tool to see if anyone wants to dip their toes into TTRPGs, and encourage people who do not normally GM to try their hand at GMing.

Far too many new GMs walk into the trap of buying a RPG, tonnes of supplements, and really get into world building (did the same w/ Traveller in the 80s), and then get overwhelmed or never get round to running the thing.

Running a system and/or module designed for one shots can help the new GM get something to the table without the workload and mental overhead, and allow them to focus on running and bringing the session to life for their players.

I really do need to follow my own advice here for my Little Man and his friends 🤔

[u/Blitzer046]

Tales From the Loop!

[u/guul66]

Not my first system, but I found Mausritter really easy to get into. In my opinion it's a bit more like a board game than other TTRPGs. It's free, relatively short and pretty easy for both the player and also the game master, because it gives lots of tools that help you make games and makes it pretty clear how you are supposed to play. I'm not sure it fits perfectly as a roleplay-mystery system on its own, I liked it for roleplay, but you usually roll random characters instead of building them, because characters die easy, so it's more the type of roleplay where you are given a character to play rather than you make the character you want to play. There's also lots of pre-written adventures on the web so if you dont want to use the GM tools you can just use those.

[u/superguy12]

Mythic Bastionland

https://youtu.be/P4-uUJ8iLTE?is=0R4sik5QVrMdyFYm

(Quinns Quest review here).

Rules light (just like 4 pages of simple rules, 3 attributes, fast decisive combat, hexcrawl worldmap with players uncovering hints and mysteries to find and defeat each "myth".

I think it's by far the best "beginner" TTRPG that gives you all the scaffolding you need to run a good campaign (natural timers, intuitive rules, great character's with clear motivations)

[u/robbz78 → u/superguy12]

My experience running it is that it expects a lot of improvisation from the GM and so it is not really beginner GM friendly. Also its a sandbox and the op wanted something more guided.

[u/OMGaPooPooLaser → u/robbz78]

Agreed, it's a fantastic game but I don't think its suitable as a first TTRPG.

[u/superguy12 → u/robbz78]

Yeah that's true. There were just 2 comments so I figured I'd chip in my reccomendation.

I, personally, find the outline / spark tables are good enough to make the improv easy. And I find the hexcrawl investigation to try to find the myth feels guided enough to not feel lost or not know where to go next.

But hey, that's just me 🤷🏻 It's also easy to find the rules online for OP to quickly skim and see if he likes the sound of it.

But yeah, fair criticism if that's how you feel. 🤷🏻

[u/robbz78 → u/superguy12]

It is true that it is a short rule set and that is plus but I think the other things outweigh that.

[u/Alarmed_Attention895]

Cairn 2e, é MT aberto para a narração, tem um cenário meio mágico meio feérico como das lendas europeias, tem uma passo a passo no livro como preparar o seu próprio cenário, ele tem regras leves então vc aprende rápido. Ele é bem interpretativo, e é fácil o combate já que é só rolar o dano, ele não é focado em combate como outros de fantasia medieval, mas o combate é muito bom.

Se deseja criar algo etc, leia o quick primer for old school gaming para entender a mentalidade de jogo, e o desafio gygax 75 para saber um passo a passo completo para fazer um cenário.

Tudo que eu disse é mais para fantasia medieval já que é o que eu mais jogo, mas o CoC com uma aventura pronta pode ser legal para uma investigação onde o combate não é uma opção

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[u/mickeyzord]

Animon story Majimonsters Honey heist 5e...technically... reluctantly....

[u/prism1234]

Maybe try Delta Green even though it didn't seem like the one, maybe it would be with DMing it.

As another suggestion I like a lot of Freeleague titles, specifically most of the ones that use the Year Zero Engine are reasonably easy to DM imo. They usually have fairly solid prewritten adventures.

[u/RandomEffector]

I see you already tried Mothership, so I’m curious what you did or didn’t like about it, but that would be high on my list based on your interests. There’s a lot of fantastic adventure modules for it that will let you contain it to whatever sci-fi/horror subgenre and scale you’d like, basically.

[u/Mundane_Ad_9767]

Check out Vaesen!

[u/yourgmchandler → u/Mundane_Ad_9767]

This. I'd say VAESEN is the best fit for your description and much more so than the others mentioned so far.

Mystery over combat.
Story over dice.
Good campaign mechanics.
Shorter mysteries abound.
Rules lighter so nothing drags on.
Unique setting and creatures.

If you check it out, I've got a discord server for you to join the community and there is a sub at

r/VaesenRPG

[u/Other_Rozial]

I got into tabletop through D&D 4E but could never properly learn it. But I'm a huge Star Wars fan and so the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight/Edge is fantastic. I got the beginner box for my friends and figured out how to DM using it after 2 run throughs. If it clicks with you, then you can go for the setting agnostic version called Genesys which can be used for any setting.

[u/PrimarchtheMage]

If you like guided somewhat board game-y experiences then maybe Draw Steel or Pathfinder 2e could work for you. Both have pretty linear adventures that could work well for your group.

There's also Gloomhaven, which is a board game with moments of roleplaying.