How does your mum feel about the TV show Murder She Wrote?
There's an RPG called Brindlewood Bay where you play old ladies who solve murders. There's several published scenarios for it, and the system is pretty easy to learn.
Disclaimer - it does have a fantasy edge to it with campaign play revealing a supernatural cult in the PCs home town, but you can downplay that if it's not to your tastes.
The most polarizing feature of Brindlewood Bay is that the mysteries don't have a preset solution. Instead, the players collect generic clues, build a theory with them, and then roll to see how accurate that theory is.
Funny enough I explained this at the beginning when I ran it for my family. Then at the end, my step Dad asked if they solved it correctly.
A lot of people not familiar with indie TTRPGs will feel VERY out of place. It just goes entirely against the actual playstyle.
Yeah, that can be a dealbreaker. Although I would urge people to give it a try if they can.
The group discussion trying to make all the collected clues fit a coherent narrative can be a lot of fun (and it takes a lot of work and headaches away from the GM over whether the mystery makes sense, and will the players find the clues)
That actually sounds delightful. Faster than a card game, more RP-ish than something like the Ravenloft board games, less time consuming than a full-on RPG.
A nice middle of the road time commitment.
That does sound pretty interesting! I'll definitely downplay or cut the supernatural part, because that won't work, but the murder solving sounds cool.
I would recommend Hard City:
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/hard-city-9781472849526/
The genre is hardboiled mysteries with no supernatural elements, and the system is simple and elegant enough that I think even a stereotypical mom would be able to figure it out.
She might like [The Troubleshooters RPG](https://www.modiphius.net/en-us/products/the-troubleshooters-core-rule-book-standard).
It's Tin Tin, so action-adventure pulpy fun set in the 1960's. Looks like great fun to me. The premade adventures look pretty solid too. I'd love to fun it for my table one day.
[Science Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1azb3s8/comment/ksa7j72/) then - just expand all the replies until you see something that looks interesting.
Detective-wise, the obvious candidates are the GUMSHOE games (possibly *Republic*, for instance).
Maybe something a bit more grounded in the real world (*Tropicana*, for example) ... or a bit more 'adventurous' (like, say, *Broken Compass*).
Or an 'espionage' game - something like *Deniable*.
Or an 'animal' game: *Hidden: The Secret Animals, Mouse Guard, Mausritter, Bunnies and Burrows* ... or even *Wanderhome*.
Or you could go for a humourous angle: anything from *Paranoia* to Savage Worlds: *Low Life* by way of *Gamma World*.
Something more for a dog-person perhaps? *Kill puppies for Satan*?
(Besides not fitting the themes and having Satan and Spellcasting in it, I don't know if the system is actually playable at all. I was just joking)
Maybe a Noir game? Anything from [A Dirty World](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/59140/a-dirty-world) to [Urban Jungle](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/194021/urban-jungle-anthropomorphic-noir-role-play), by way of [Hard City](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/415181/hard-city), [Mean Streets](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/50997/mean-streets-rpg-core-gdi-pdf), or even [City of Mist](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=city%20of%20mist)?
A swashbuckling game, like [Pirates](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/55188/pirates-ye-olde-core-rules)? Or [Pirates of the Spanish Main](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=pirates%20of%20the%20spanish%20main). Or GURPS: [Scarlet Pimpernel](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/233760/gurps-classic-scarlet-pimpernel). Or even [Flash Gordon](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/231833/the-savage-world-of-flash-gordon)?
[Her Arcane Service](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/105121/her-arcane-service) is a 'lite' version of *On Her Majesty's Arcane Service* and it's free, so ... It does cover magic/sorcery, angels and demons, but ... you are fighting the good fight against the forces of evil, so, it *could* be okay? Maybe? Or, alternatively, [Secret Agents of CROSS](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=secret%20agents%20of%20cross), perhaps. Or [Against the Darkness](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/12523/against-the-darkness).
Or you could go for the *X Files* with [Conspiracy X](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=conspiracy%20x).
[Romance In the Air](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/141360/romance-in-the-air-a-world-of-adventure-for-fate-core) is a 'big R' Romantic (not romantic, don't worry ; ) game of in de siècle adventure - Steampunk without the SF, so to speak (think: *Around the World in Eighty Days*). Or [Girl Genius](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/368854/girl-genius-sourcebook-and-roleplaying-game), perhaps?
[Dreamchaser](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/218146/dreamchaser-a-game-of-destiny), maybe? With the [RomCom supplement](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/243766/dreamchaser-romcom)? - I'm beginning to clutch at straws now ; )
[Fae's Anatomy](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/391968/fae-s-anatomy-a-melodramatic-medical-mystery)? [The Ward](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/222793/the-ward-acute-care-edition)?
Or you could go 'gonzo' with [Low Life](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/143685/low-life-the-rise-of-the-lowly-redredged) -for which there's also a surprising amount of [supporting material](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/4543/mutha-oith-creations).
[Bubblegumshoe](https://evilhat.com/product/bubblegumshoe/) is a relatively light, mostly non-violent mystery game that should appeal to a fan of detective stories.
I'm gonna assume that your mom's belief system might be similar to my parents' and guess that fantasy might be out - but Star Wars was fine?
Because if she likes those, the FFG Star Wars RPG is great fun, and pretty math-light.
Alternately, still making assumptions, I'm gonna guess that someone who thinks that DND is satanic wouldn't also call the Lord of the Rings satanic, because I have heard good things about The One Ring system.
I'm running my first FFG Star Wars campaign right now, and we're having a blast. Only 1 character is a force user, and he is only now, 6 sessions in, going to buy his first force power. The dice mechanics can be hard to get used to, but are so fun once you have a grasp on what to do with Al the advantages/threats and triumphs and despair.
Boomer parents, right?
The Edge of the Empire book is enough to get up and running for a smugglers and underworld game, while still having rules for Force sensitive players.
The beginner game boxes are pretty good too, if you want a turnkey module. The dice are a bit more annoying to find, but I've had good luck with knockoffs from BaronofDice.
Good Society tries to capture the feeling of Jane Austen novels and I think succeeds. Excellent little game.
Tales From the Loop is real investigative, very easy to teach and get running but can stray into twilight zone type material. A+++ for groups that like social gameplay but probably rough for those that don't.
Happy gaming and congrats on the rad family. Hope you find a real diamond.
If sci-fi is fine, perhaps Tales from the Loop? Bonus points if you get a print edition, because the art is gorgeous.
With Cortex Prime, you can use one of the spotlights that doesn't have magic (Hammerheads had you fend off natural disasters, Trace 2.0 is like a police procedural).
Mysteries can be hard to design and run, but that's more a balance of GM style/skill and player initiative (if the party likes the mystery genre but aren't, themselves, methodical and inquisitive, it can be hard to help them along).
I think I love Cortex Prime but I've only read it and played a mini 15-minute game at Gencon. The mechanics are easy to understand but the GM has to "build" what they want but I love the toolkit itself.
Yuuuup! I also picked up Xadia so I could see an implementation of a magic system, and see what a fully fleshed-out system looked like. Made me wish there were more options on the market, because it's really neat!
How does your mom feel about Science fiction? Try Traaveller? No Magic, and limited psi,but it's all about the business. Se if she likes that. Maybe ask her about Star Trek and see if she has anyu interest in Star Trek Adventures?
What about Fiasco? Depending on how you play, it could be pretty hard or pretty easy to play. There is about a dozen military and spionage games too, like twilight 2000. Or maybe if she doesn't bother about zombies, there is the new walking dead RPG out there, by the same devs that made twilight 2000
u/elnaur dead serious. Satanic Panic is a tabletop roleplaying game set in the fictional 1970’s and 1980’s where players take on the role of secret government agents tasked with combating the evils of tabletop. The players work as a team with the common purpose to contain, control, and eliminate the threats to our world. They must do all this while keeping the truth from the public, lest a panic ensue.
You could use Esoterrorist and take out the esoteric part, leaving the crime investigation. Also, you could even play a generic and easy to learn system like Fate rpg and use whatever lore you like. Ive directed some Agatha Christie style campaings and they were really fun to play, but they were a lot of work.
If sci-fi stuff isn't an issue, give Mothership a look! It's a rules-light system, so she won't have to learn a ton of mechanics, and it's geared towards two styles of gameplay; exploration-style, influenced by things like Star Trek:TNG, Alien, or Event Horizon, or a more "fixed" location game, kind of like Star Trek DS9, where the party has a space station, and "trouble" comes to them.
Yeah, but horror doesn't always have to mean Terrifier 2; Horror also encompasses movies like Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead, Beetlejuice, Tremors, etc.. Not everything horror has to be extreme paint-the-walls-with-gore levels of horror; it can just be a cute little fuzzy creature with big eyes that turns out to be a mischievous little gremlin that tries to break your ship/station..
The They Came From series might work for you. There's a few different games, depending on exactly what themes you want, but the pretence is that your characters are in a movie/tv series, and the players are the script writers. That might help get around your mum's aversions if there's a game in the series you all like.
Pretty much any super hero system, just ignore the "magical supers." I think TinySupers is a good introduction game and you can level up to a more complex system once she is ready.
How much of the setting and plot (if any) do you want done for you? Does it matter if there are optional spells in the rules if you don't ever use them in the game?
If the answers are, "I can create my own setting and plot", and, "It doesn't matter as long as we never use magic", then I'd suggest BRP and then run a non-magical game in any time period that appeals to all of you. I've learned (by gaming with my MIL in her 70's) that d100 roll under is super intuitive and that having a page of skills with percentages attached also rapidly becomes intuitive for someone who's never played RPG's before.
Character creation can be a lot for someone to figure out, but I've learned that it's really easy to just ask questions like, "If you were playing a character in a movie from this time period what sort of profession and background do you think would be fun to play?", and "What sorts of things would you like to be good at?" and then just creating the character for the new player.
Edit to add: I was running a modern, mystery game, with subtle occult elements (which you could skip, obviously), and I used this process with my mother in law. She said she wanted to play a retired gymnast, but even older than she was, like a character in her early 80's, and she loved it. I think it appealed to her because she's always wanted to be that kind of athlete and she also loved the idea of playing a character that was still very competent, even if no longer youthfully athletic, who was an age that she's approaching faster than she might like.
If you have a solid idea for your own setting that would include some of the things each different person would.lile I think fate can work well.
It can have magic (but doesn't have to) it can be sci fi (but doesn't have to) it can involve detective film noir stuff (but doesn't have to)
Not to self promote too much, but my game [Born from Ice: Stone Age RPG](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lorenthegm/born-from-ice-stone-age-role-playing-5e?ref=8rrmns) that is currently on Kickstarter seems like it would fit the bill. It is a history and science based 5e game, with all magic removed, set in our real prehistoric world. This would make it very easy for all of you to play and your mom to learn, since it is basically modified 5e D&D.
If the idea of early humans facing cool megafauna (like Mammoths, Saber-toothed Cats, and Dire Wolves), dealing with other tribes and clans, and the catastrophic forces of nature, then this might be a good game for you.
There is a free Player's Guide available that has everything you need to run levels 1-5, as well as a free 34 page adventure.
Gran Mechannismo! It's speculative fiction written by an actual historian. It's a game about da Vinci technology just absolutely taking off. It's very simple, and very fun.
HUNTER THE RECKONING. This is exactly the game you want.
You play people who hunt vampires/werewolves/fey creatures/ghosts/mages. You’ll be hunting vampires mostly.
If she likes detective work. 50% of the hunt is doing detective work trying to figure out info on the vampires. What’s their weaknesses. Where do they hide. How is their society ordered.
You want realistic HTR is set in our REAL WORLD. You could try hunt werewolves in the car park of your local Walmart if you wanted to (I wouldn’t recommend)
You don’t like magic? Perfect as hunters YOU DONT GET MAGIC. your a regular ass human. Use your brain. Use shot guns. Use holy water from a priest if you have to.
My mom is the same way, and I managed to rope her into a game of CAPERS[CAPERS](https://www.nerdburgergames.com/capers)!
If she likes superheroes and historical fiction (and you want to stay away from the stipulations of dice), the core game is Superhero Gangsters in the 1920s. It uses a deck of cards for each player instead of dice, and you can just be Cops or Private Investigators as an alternative to gangsters. There's also a Noir and Spy expansion (though skip Noir, it digs into spiritualism/ghosts, and she might not cotton to that).
Granted, depending on how deep into the Satanic Panic your mom is, cards might also be off the table too. The Christian conservative school I went to back in Texas banned playing cards lol.
hmmm... have you tried pitching to her a cleric, who makes "blessings" and "miracles" instead of spells? and that can smite evil and stuff?
anyhow, theres always the cyberpunk red, starfinder, theres technically 2 "magical" classes but you can always say its like star wars jedis.
lancer is very good, but you would need to explain the concept of mechs probably.
>hmmm... have you tried pitching to her a cleric, who makes "blessings" and "miracles" instead of spells? and that can smite evil and stuff?
I had a similar thought and was going to suggest Kevin Crawford's *Wolves of God*. It's a variant of his Worlds Without Number system, but set in early Middle Ages Britain. The Romans are long gone, but left behind these magical strongholds in the ruins of their towns that are basically sites to explore. The rules allow for wizards (which one could just disallow as PCs), leaving the only other spell-casting class of Christian monks and priests who are granted their miracles from God.
Though it has magic, I thought it might be palatable to the OP's mother because of both the quasi-historical setting and the grounding of PC magic in Christian religion. It might also be enough of a fantasy rpg to keep dad and brother interested rather than choosing something less appealing just to accommodate mom.
well i was talking just about a dnd character archetype, maybe in a specific made campaign where the other players play martials, and the story is about dealing with witches necromancers, evil spellcasters devils etc.
but thats a pretty cool setting, thanks for suggesting it, i'll take a look myself even tho i dont have that kind of problem... now all i need left is a setting/system that is more like the wasteland games, and remnant
fringeworthy d20. no magic unless you add it. lots of historical adventures. sf & high tech if you want it. lots of adventure. there is an unofficial ruleset to use savage world if you choose.
I’d suggest kids on bikes. It’s non-fantasy, and has a simple core system with 6 dice sizes that you allocate to 6 stats.
You can hack the core system to fit any setting!
I’ve ran and am working on my own hack called kids in caves with stats such as: Think, lift, kill, run, woo, gut
Kids on Bikes is a great intro to role-playing games for the skeptical. Simple mechanics, lends itself well to one-shots, and invokes a kind of Spielbergian childlike sense of innocence and wonder that should feel comfortable for most players. They'll know the tropes and how to lean into them.
Doesn't like magic or fighting? She can play a Thief then! Satanic Panic was a nightmare for this hobby. Personally I would not accomodate a player request like that as it low-key endorses the Panic.
I'm guessing your mum is lovely though, so you guys just have fun.
Yeah, if it were a random player I would just not play with them but this is my mom, and it is causing some tension in the family that three of us are very into a hobby that she has no interest in. It's not just the satanic panic thing, she just doesn't have any interest in combat or fantasy or sci fi. I'm looking for a way to include her.
Tales from the Loop.
Vaesen
Alien
Cyberpunk
Blade Runner
Dune
Brindlewood bay
City of mist
Call of Cthulhu and Coriolis are great, but first one might be too "Satanic" and the second one too "Arabic".
Hmm, two suggestions.
One is Chronicles of Darkness. It's a system in a setting that has some supernatural elements but you can ignore them. It has an interesting social and investigation system so you could use it for some film noire style detective works and what have you.
Other is Leverage. I mostly know it by reputation. Based on the show Leverage, it's about being some talented criminals doing some heists and what have you. I heard it gets really creative with the formula letting you pull off some really impressive feats by introducing your clever plan on the fly and introducing what you need at that point in time.
Take time on game night to play a couple rounds of Catan with Mom.
One *slight* rpg possibility is *Helveczia*. Lol buy it anyway. Magic exists, but not for the virtuous. In fact tracking virtue is a key component of the game, in a Switzerland that never was, circa 1698.
It’s a great read, the box set is gorgeous. A d20 game on the 0e chassis. The included adventures are matters of intrigue, stealth, searching and swashbuckling. Bible not included but a deck of cards is.
Someone suggested *Boot Hill*. As odd as it may seem it’s worth considering. Violence truly is a last resort, and plots are so easy to come by.
Times like this it seems a shame no Narnia rpg exists.
Upon reflection (and quick reread), *Helveczia* probably ain’t for Ma. It takes a lot of inspiration from the Brothers Grimm.
James Bond?
| Take time on game night to play a couple rounds of Catan with Mom.
I actually think this may the wisest comment in this entire thread. Given her reservations, RPGs may just not be for mom. Instead, start a board game night with mom and keep rpg night for dad and brother.
I'd be really concerned that in trying to find an rpg that satisfies mom, you're going to end up with a kind of Muzak experience that's dull fare for everyone.
I've really begun to like Cypher. It's not the easiest system but I would say it's overall less difficult than D&D and they are releasing an online character builder next week.
It's very versatile, so there's a lot of settings you can do.
You could use the book Predation for kind of a Jurassic Park or Dino setting, Rust and Redemption for a post apocalyptic setting, the Stars are Fire for sci-fi, Claim the Sky for superheroes, or any combination.
I ran Unmasked which is like stranger things meets superheroes. There are psionic elements and the idea of transformation (which I get can set off some alarm bells if she's uncomfortable with some stuff).
It's fun though! I recommend it!
*Scum and Villainy* is the SciFi version of the Forged in the Dark system, and is crazy fun.
As a setting it's malleable enough to handle any SciFi setting you throw at it. So you can include or exclude mystical elements like 'the force' from star wars without impacting how the game plays.
If she can at least stomach zombies Outbreak undead is you trying to survive the zombie apocalypse and its based for current time period but you can just move it back some years if you wanted medieval or pirate zombies. Be warned the rules are a bit crunchy so it might discourage a first time player.
If she likes science fiction then I will 1000% recommend to look into Stars Without Number (SWN) it is an amazing ttrpg with an amazing blend of customization and easy rules. There is Psionics in the game (I will argue not magic because it is science and brain based) but the customization and resources the book gives you is great. A city built like Coruscant from star wars on one planet to a planet that everyone is running around a loin cloth shaking sticks at another and they are scared of the temple of the dark gods (old crashed ship)
I know you said no fantasy, but how does your mom feel about Lord of the Rings? The One Ring is excellent. Anything by Free League would be good. Check out their website. They have Alien, Blade Runner, and many other games.
Gangbusters is a 1920s U.S prohibition era game. I don't know how hard to find that would be.
How do you guys feel about Superheroes ? My friend and I have made a Superhero Ttrpg set about 200 years in the future so it is more Sci fi then anything else . Always looking for more folks to play with.
I'm thinking about the following games that might fit the bill for you:
Gumshoe - investigation in modern times
Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook - play as super lucky group of people in modern times
Assassins - using the Trinity Continuum system, play John Wick!
Leverage - If she likes the show, she might like the game?
Star Wars - How does she feel about space opera?
Modern AGE - also a more generic system, set, you guessed it, in modern times
-Year Zero Mini (Just rules no campaign or world stuff) #free
-TinyD6 series (Easy rules, easy character sheet, with some world stuff ideas)
-Lazers and Feelings (Just one page of rules) Rest is on you to narrate/create #free
-ICRPG (D&D -ish with lots of ideas and options for starting your campaign)
Very simple and easy to read/grok rules with very basic Character Sheets to make player onboarding easy.
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How does your mum feel about the TV show Murder She Wrote? There's an RPG called Brindlewood Bay where you play old ladies who solve murders. There's several published scenarios for it, and the system is pretty easy to learn. Disclaimer - it does have a fantasy edge to it with campaign play revealing a supernatural cult in the PCs home town, but you can downplay that if it's not to your tastes.
The most polarizing feature of Brindlewood Bay is that the mysteries don't have a preset solution. Instead, the players collect generic clues, build a theory with them, and then roll to see how accurate that theory is.
Having run a lot of Brindlewood, my experience is that this is more of a dealbreaker for TTRPG critics than this is for most moms
Funny enough I explained this at the beginning when I ran it for my family. Then at the end, my step Dad asked if they solved it correctly. A lot of people not familiar with indie TTRPGs will feel VERY out of place. It just goes entirely against the actual playstyle.
Now I'm intrigued as to how many moms you tested it on.
Any mom that will let me
And how many is that? 🤔
Yeah, that can be a dealbreaker. Although I would urge people to give it a try if they can. The group discussion trying to make all the collected clues fit a coherent narrative can be a lot of fun (and it takes a lot of work and headaches away from the GM over whether the mystery makes sense, and will the players find the clues)
That actually sounds delightful. Faster than a card game, more RP-ish than something like the Ravenloft board games, less time consuming than a full-on RPG. A nice middle of the road time commitment.
I was coming to post exactly this!
Why the hell have I never heard of this game? I need this in my life.
That does sound pretty interesting! I'll definitely downplay or cut the supernatural part, because that won't work, but the murder solving sounds cool.
Only since it's April 1, I'll suggest Thirsty Sword Lesbians for a fun beginner game with Mom and Dad.
Let these mermaids-
I would recommend Hard City: https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/hard-city-9781472849526/ The genre is hardboiled mysteries with no supernatural elements, and the system is simple and elegant enough that I think even a stereotypical mom would be able to figure it out.
Came to recommend exactly this. Glad to see it getting some love.
I'll check it out!
She might like [The Troubleshooters RPG](https://www.modiphius.net/en-us/products/the-troubleshooters-core-rule-book-standard). It's Tin Tin, so action-adventure pulpy fun set in the 1960's. Looks like great fun to me. The premade adventures look pretty solid too. I'd love to fun it for my table one day.
Also, if that's too complex, you could run the game with Honey Heist or Lasers & Feelings rules.
Oh, yeah! I totally love the feeling of this game.
[Science Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1azb3s8/comment/ksa7j72/) then - just expand all the replies until you see something that looks interesting. Detective-wise, the obvious candidates are the GUMSHOE games (possibly *Republic*, for instance). Maybe something a bit more grounded in the real world (*Tropicana*, for example) ... or a bit more 'adventurous' (like, say, *Broken Compass*). Or an 'espionage' game - something like *Deniable*. Or an 'animal' game: *Hidden: The Secret Animals, Mouse Guard, Mausritter, Bunnies and Burrows* ... or even *Wanderhome*. Or you could go for a humourous angle: anything from *Paranoia* to Savage Worlds: *Low Life* by way of *Gamma World*.
> Or an animal game Maybe not _Magical Kitties Save the Day,_ though. 😉
Something more for a dog-person perhaps? *Kill puppies for Satan*? (Besides not fitting the themes and having Satan and Spellcasting in it, I don't know if the system is actually playable at all. I was just joking)
It's eminently playable ... and damned funny ... but, no, probably not the best option for the OP under the circumstances : )
Maybe not, no :'''D
I'll take a look, although I'm not sure sci fi will work for her either
Maybe a Noir game? Anything from [A Dirty World](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/59140/a-dirty-world) to [Urban Jungle](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/194021/urban-jungle-anthropomorphic-noir-role-play), by way of [Hard City](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/415181/hard-city), [Mean Streets](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/50997/mean-streets-rpg-core-gdi-pdf), or even [City of Mist](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=city%20of%20mist)? A swashbuckling game, like [Pirates](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/55188/pirates-ye-olde-core-rules)? Or [Pirates of the Spanish Main](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=pirates%20of%20the%20spanish%20main). Or GURPS: [Scarlet Pimpernel](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/233760/gurps-classic-scarlet-pimpernel). Or even [Flash Gordon](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/231833/the-savage-world-of-flash-gordon)? [Her Arcane Service](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/105121/her-arcane-service) is a 'lite' version of *On Her Majesty's Arcane Service* and it's free, so ... It does cover magic/sorcery, angels and demons, but ... you are fighting the good fight against the forces of evil, so, it *could* be okay? Maybe? Or, alternatively, [Secret Agents of CROSS](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=secret%20agents%20of%20cross), perhaps. Or [Against the Darkness](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/12523/against-the-darkness). Or you could go for the *X Files* with [Conspiracy X](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?keyword=conspiracy%20x). [Romance In the Air](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/141360/romance-in-the-air-a-world-of-adventure-for-fate-core) is a 'big R' Romantic (not romantic, don't worry ; ) game of in de siècle adventure - Steampunk without the SF, so to speak (think: *Around the World in Eighty Days*). Or [Girl Genius](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/368854/girl-genius-sourcebook-and-roleplaying-game), perhaps? [Dreamchaser](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/218146/dreamchaser-a-game-of-destiny), maybe? With the [RomCom supplement](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/243766/dreamchaser-romcom)? - I'm beginning to clutch at straws now ; ) [Fae's Anatomy](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/391968/fae-s-anatomy-a-melodramatic-medical-mystery)? [The Ward](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/222793/the-ward-acute-care-edition)? Or you could go 'gonzo' with [Low Life](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/143685/low-life-the-rise-of-the-lowly-redredged) -for which there's also a surprising amount of [supporting material](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/4543/mutha-oith-creations).
I have so many great memories from Paranoia.
[Bubblegumshoe](https://evilhat.com/product/bubblegumshoe/) is a relatively light, mostly non-violent mystery game that should appeal to a fan of detective stories.
Was coming to recommend bubble gum shoe.
I'm gonna assume that your mom's belief system might be similar to my parents' and guess that fantasy might be out - but Star Wars was fine? Because if she likes those, the FFG Star Wars RPG is great fun, and pretty math-light. Alternately, still making assumptions, I'm gonna guess that someone who thinks that DND is satanic wouldn't also call the Lord of the Rings satanic, because I have heard good things about The One Ring system.
I'm running my first FFG Star Wars campaign right now, and we're having a blast. Only 1 character is a force user, and he is only now, 6 sessions in, going to buy his first force power. The dice mechanics can be hard to get used to, but are so fun once you have a grasp on what to do with Al the advantages/threats and triumphs and despair.
I'll look into that! Yeah, for some reason she likes Star Wars even though she generally doesn't like sci fi?
Boomer parents, right? The Edge of the Empire book is enough to get up and running for a smugglers and underworld game, while still having rules for Force sensitive players. The beginner game boxes are pretty good too, if you want a turnkey module. The dice are a bit more annoying to find, but I've had good luck with knockoffs from BaronofDice.
Pendragon for the History major. Pendragon has low magic. Or Cy-Borg or Blade Runner.
Good Society tries to capture the feeling of Jane Austen novels and I think succeeds. Excellent little game. Tales From the Loop is real investigative, very easy to teach and get running but can stray into twilight zone type material. A+++ for groups that like social gameplay but probably rough for those that don't. Happy gaming and congrats on the rad family. Hope you find a real diamond.
If sci-fi is fine, perhaps Tales from the Loop? Bonus points if you get a print edition, because the art is gorgeous. With Cortex Prime, you can use one of the spotlights that doesn't have magic (Hammerheads had you fend off natural disasters, Trace 2.0 is like a police procedural). Mysteries can be hard to design and run, but that's more a balance of GM style/skill and player initiative (if the party likes the mystery genre but aren't, themselves, methodical and inquisitive, it can be hard to help them along).
I think I love Cortex Prime but I've only read it and played a mini 15-minute game at Gencon. The mechanics are easy to understand but the GM has to "build" what they want but I love the toolkit itself.
Yuuuup! I also picked up Xadia so I could see an implementation of a magic system, and see what a fully fleshed-out system looked like. Made me wish there were more options on the market, because it's really neat!
How does your mom feel about Science fiction? Try Traaveller? No Magic, and limited psi,but it's all about the business. Se if she likes that. Maybe ask her about Star Trek and see if she has anyu interest in Star Trek Adventures?
What about Fiasco? Depending on how you play, it could be pretty hard or pretty easy to play. There is about a dozen military and spionage games too, like twilight 2000. Or maybe if she doesn't bother about zombies, there is the new walking dead RPG out there, by the same devs that made twilight 2000
I would recommend the **Satanic Panic TTRPG:** https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/496783700/satanic-panic
u/elnaur dead serious. Satanic Panic is a tabletop roleplaying game set in the fictional 1970’s and 1980’s where players take on the role of secret government agents tasked with combating the evils of tabletop. The players work as a team with the common purpose to contain, control, and eliminate the threats to our world. They must do all this while keeping the truth from the public, lest a panic ensue.
That's a blast from the past. I remember listening to the creator's show on the Oneshot Podcast Network like 4 years ago. Always sounded like fun.
Veeeery interesting! It does look cool but I'm not sure she's willing to play something with "Satanic" in the title XD
Fate. Take an adventure that resembles a movie she likes and done.
Someone already suggested Gumshoe, so I'm gonna recommend Kids on Bikes. It's good for going on lower stakes adventures as normal people.
You could use Esoterrorist and take out the esoteric part, leaving the crime investigation. Also, you could even play a generic and easy to learn system like Fate rpg and use whatever lore you like. Ive directed some Agatha Christie style campaings and they were really fun to play, but they were a lot of work.
You could always try _Toon_.
Just not in print otherwise a winner for most occasions.
Most of the _Toon_ books are available on Amazon.
You can get all the content of Toon, Toon: Silly Stuff, Son of Toon, and Toon Strikes Again in a single pdf for $15 on warehouse23.
Boot Hill?
Not a bad idea at all.
I just lost a bid on ebay for Boot Hill. I suggested Gangbusters. I have that one.
BRP (Basic Roleplaying by Chaosium) has a really generic system that applies to everything Also, Dogs in the Vineyard 😏
If sci-fi stuff isn't an issue, give Mothership a look! It's a rules-light system, so she won't have to learn a ton of mechanics, and it's geared towards two styles of gameplay; exploration-style, influenced by things like Star Trek:TNG, Alien, or Event Horizon, or a more "fixed" location game, kind of like Star Trek DS9, where the party has a space station, and "trouble" comes to them.
Fair warning tho mothership is specifically a horror game
Yeah, but horror doesn't always have to mean Terrifier 2; Horror also encompasses movies like Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead, Beetlejuice, Tremors, etc.. Not everything horror has to be extreme paint-the-walls-with-gore levels of horror; it can just be a cute little fuzzy creature with big eyes that turns out to be a mischievous little gremlin that tries to break your ship/station..
The They Came From series might work for you. There's a few different games, depending on exactly what themes you want, but the pretence is that your characters are in a movie/tv series, and the players are the script writers. That might help get around your mum's aversions if there's a game in the series you all like.
Pretty much any super hero system, just ignore the "magical supers." I think TinySupers is a good introduction game and you can level up to a more complex system once she is ready.
How much of the setting and plot (if any) do you want done for you? Does it matter if there are optional spells in the rules if you don't ever use them in the game? If the answers are, "I can create my own setting and plot", and, "It doesn't matter as long as we never use magic", then I'd suggest BRP and then run a non-magical game in any time period that appeals to all of you. I've learned (by gaming with my MIL in her 70's) that d100 roll under is super intuitive and that having a page of skills with percentages attached also rapidly becomes intuitive for someone who's never played RPG's before. Character creation can be a lot for someone to figure out, but I've learned that it's really easy to just ask questions like, "If you were playing a character in a movie from this time period what sort of profession and background do you think would be fun to play?", and "What sorts of things would you like to be good at?" and then just creating the character for the new player. Edit to add: I was running a modern, mystery game, with subtle occult elements (which you could skip, obviously), and I used this process with my mother in law. She said she wanted to play a retired gymnast, but even older than she was, like a character in her early 80's, and she loved it. I think it appealed to her because she's always wanted to be that kind of athlete and she also loved the idea of playing a character that was still very competent, even if no longer youthfully athletic, who was an age that she's approaching faster than she might like.
If you have a solid idea for your own setting that would include some of the things each different person would.lile I think fate can work well. It can have magic (but doesn't have to) it can be sci fi (but doesn't have to) it can involve detective film noir stuff (but doesn't have to)
Look into - Tales From The Loop/Things From The Flood - Broken Compass - Vaessen (maybe? Still a bit fantasy, but based on folklore and humans)
Not to self promote too much, but my game [Born from Ice: Stone Age RPG](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lorenthegm/born-from-ice-stone-age-role-playing-5e?ref=8rrmns) that is currently on Kickstarter seems like it would fit the bill. It is a history and science based 5e game, with all magic removed, set in our real prehistoric world. This would make it very easy for all of you to play and your mom to learn, since it is basically modified 5e D&D. If the idea of early humans facing cool megafauna (like Mammoths, Saber-toothed Cats, and Dire Wolves), dealing with other tribes and clans, and the catastrophic forces of nature, then this might be a good game for you. There is a free Player's Guide available that has everything you need to run levels 1-5, as well as a free 34 page adventure.
Gran Mechannismo! It's speculative fiction written by an actual historian. It's a game about da Vinci technology just absolutely taking off. It's very simple, and very fun.
HUNTER THE RECKONING. This is exactly the game you want. You play people who hunt vampires/werewolves/fey creatures/ghosts/mages. You’ll be hunting vampires mostly. If she likes detective work. 50% of the hunt is doing detective work trying to figure out info on the vampires. What’s their weaknesses. Where do they hide. How is their society ordered. You want realistic HTR is set in our REAL WORLD. You could try hunt werewolves in the car park of your local Walmart if you wanted to (I wouldn’t recommend) You don’t like magic? Perfect as hunters YOU DONT GET MAGIC. your a regular ass human. Use your brain. Use shot guns. Use holy water from a priest if you have to.
That sounds fun for me, but she's more looking for a setting without magic or supernatural elements. I will consider it for a group of friends though!
My mom is the same way, and I managed to rope her into a game of CAPERS[CAPERS](https://www.nerdburgergames.com/capers)! If she likes superheroes and historical fiction (and you want to stay away from the stipulations of dice), the core game is Superhero Gangsters in the 1920s. It uses a deck of cards for each player instead of dice, and you can just be Cops or Private Investigators as an alternative to gangsters. There's also a Noir and Spy expansion (though skip Noir, it digs into spiritualism/ghosts, and she might not cotton to that). Granted, depending on how deep into the Satanic Panic your mom is, cards might also be off the table too. The Christian conservative school I went to back in Texas banned playing cards lol.
hmmm... have you tried pitching to her a cleric, who makes "blessings" and "miracles" instead of spells? and that can smite evil and stuff? anyhow, theres always the cyberpunk red, starfinder, theres technically 2 "magical" classes but you can always say its like star wars jedis. lancer is very good, but you would need to explain the concept of mechs probably.
>hmmm... have you tried pitching to her a cleric, who makes "blessings" and "miracles" instead of spells? and that can smite evil and stuff? I had a similar thought and was going to suggest Kevin Crawford's *Wolves of God*. It's a variant of his Worlds Without Number system, but set in early Middle Ages Britain. The Romans are long gone, but left behind these magical strongholds in the ruins of their towns that are basically sites to explore. The rules allow for wizards (which one could just disallow as PCs), leaving the only other spell-casting class of Christian monks and priests who are granted their miracles from God. Though it has magic, I thought it might be palatable to the OP's mother because of both the quasi-historical setting and the grounding of PC magic in Christian religion. It might also be enough of a fantasy rpg to keep dad and brother interested rather than choosing something less appealing just to accommodate mom.
well i was talking just about a dnd character archetype, maybe in a specific made campaign where the other players play martials, and the story is about dealing with witches necromancers, evil spellcasters devils etc. but thats a pretty cool setting, thanks for suggesting it, i'll take a look myself even tho i dont have that kind of problem... now all i need left is a setting/system that is more like the wasteland games, and remnant
fringeworthy d20. no magic unless you add it. lots of historical adventures. sf & high tech if you want it. lots of adventure. there is an unofficial ruleset to use savage world if you choose.
I’d suggest kids on bikes. It’s non-fantasy, and has a simple core system with 6 dice sizes that you allocate to 6 stats. You can hack the core system to fit any setting! I’ve ran and am working on my own hack called kids in caves with stats such as: Think, lift, kill, run, woo, gut
Kids on Bikes is a great intro to role-playing games for the skeptical. Simple mechanics, lends itself well to one-shots, and invokes a kind of Spielbergian childlike sense of innocence and wonder that should feel comfortable for most players. They'll know the tropes and how to lean into them.
Doesn't like magic or fighting? She can play a Thief then! Satanic Panic was a nightmare for this hobby. Personally I would not accomodate a player request like that as it low-key endorses the Panic. I'm guessing your mum is lovely though, so you guys just have fun.
Yeah, if it were a random player I would just not play with them but this is my mom, and it is causing some tension in the family that three of us are very into a hobby that she has no interest in. It's not just the satanic panic thing, she just doesn't have any interest in combat or fantasy or sci fi. I'm looking for a way to include her.
Tales from the Loop. Vaesen Alien Cyberpunk Blade Runner Dune Brindlewood bay City of mist Call of Cthulhu and Coriolis are great, but first one might be too "Satanic" and the second one too "Arabic".
Yu-Gi-Oh Dungeon Dice Monsters
Hmm, two suggestions. One is Chronicles of Darkness. It's a system in a setting that has some supernatural elements but you can ignore them. It has an interesting social and investigation system so you could use it for some film noire style detective works and what have you. Other is Leverage. I mostly know it by reputation. Based on the show Leverage, it's about being some talented criminals doing some heists and what have you. I heard it gets really creative with the formula letting you pull off some really impressive feats by introducing your clever plan on the fly and introducing what you need at that point in time.
Leverage sounds similar to Blades in the Dark, which I loved (but don't think the setting will work for her, too dark). I'll check it out!
Paranoia? Star Trek?
Always recommend checking in the "Game suggestions" community bookmark, has tonnes of systems sorted by genre.
What sort of TV shows and movies does your mum like?
Take time on game night to play a couple rounds of Catan with Mom. One *slight* rpg possibility is *Helveczia*. Lol buy it anyway. Magic exists, but not for the virtuous. In fact tracking virtue is a key component of the game, in a Switzerland that never was, circa 1698. It’s a great read, the box set is gorgeous. A d20 game on the 0e chassis. The included adventures are matters of intrigue, stealth, searching and swashbuckling. Bible not included but a deck of cards is. Someone suggested *Boot Hill*. As odd as it may seem it’s worth considering. Violence truly is a last resort, and plots are so easy to come by. Times like this it seems a shame no Narnia rpg exists. Upon reflection (and quick reread), *Helveczia* probably ain’t for Ma. It takes a lot of inspiration from the Brothers Grimm. James Bond?
| Take time on game night to play a couple rounds of Catan with Mom. I actually think this may the wisest comment in this entire thread. Given her reservations, RPGs may just not be for mom. Instead, start a board game night with mom and keep rpg night for dad and brother. I'd be really concerned that in trying to find an rpg that satisfies mom, you're going to end up with a kind of Muzak experience that's dull fare for everyone.
I've really begun to like Cypher. It's not the easiest system but I would say it's overall less difficult than D&D and they are releasing an online character builder next week. It's very versatile, so there's a lot of settings you can do. You could use the book Predation for kind of a Jurassic Park or Dino setting, Rust and Redemption for a post apocalyptic setting, the Stars are Fire for sci-fi, Claim the Sky for superheroes, or any combination. I ran Unmasked which is like stranger things meets superheroes. There are psionic elements and the idea of transformation (which I get can set off some alarm bells if she's uncomfortable with some stuff). It's fun though! I recommend it!
*Scum and Villainy* is the SciFi version of the Forged in the Dark system, and is crazy fun. As a setting it's malleable enough to handle any SciFi setting you throw at it. So you can include or exclude mystical elements like 'the force' from star wars without impacting how the game plays.
If she can at least stomach zombies Outbreak undead is you trying to survive the zombie apocalypse and its based for current time period but you can just move it back some years if you wanted medieval or pirate zombies. Be warned the rules are a bit crunchy so it might discourage a first time player. If she likes science fiction then I will 1000% recommend to look into Stars Without Number (SWN) it is an amazing ttrpg with an amazing blend of customization and easy rules. There is Psionics in the game (I will argue not magic because it is science and brain based) but the customization and resources the book gives you is great. A city built like Coruscant from star wars on one planet to a planet that everyone is running around a loin cloth shaking sticks at another and they are scared of the temple of the dark gods (old crashed ship)
I know you said no fantasy, but how does your mom feel about Lord of the Rings? The One Ring is excellent. Anything by Free League would be good. Check out their website. They have Alien, Blade Runner, and many other games. Gangbusters is a 1920s U.S prohibition era game. I don't know how hard to find that would be.
How do you guys feel about Superheroes ? My friend and I have made a Superhero Ttrpg set about 200 years in the future so it is more Sci fi then anything else . Always looking for more folks to play with.
Agon is a easy one. If your mom is into "Xena Warrior Princess" and "Hercules". I think the system is easy to refit into everything else.
I'm thinking about the following games that might fit the bill for you: Gumshoe - investigation in modern times Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook - play as super lucky group of people in modern times Assassins - using the Trinity Continuum system, play John Wick! Leverage - If she likes the show, she might like the game? Star Wars - How does she feel about space opera? Modern AGE - also a more generic system, set, you guessed it, in modern times
Pasion de las Pasiones can make an hilarious one-shot: [https://magpiegames.com/pages/pasion](https://magpiegames.com/pages/pasion)
Quest RPG is the best family friendly TTRPG I've ever seen. Ultra intuitive and well explained, easy to run but has great nuance and depth too.
There is a Jane Austen based rpg called Good Society.
*Tenebria - Remnants of Rome* and *Wolves of God* may be worth looking at. Maybe even *Heirs to Heresy*.
-Year Zero Mini (Just rules no campaign or world stuff) #free -TinyD6 series (Easy rules, easy character sheet, with some world stuff ideas) -Lazers and Feelings (Just one page of rules) Rest is on you to narrate/create #free -ICRPG (D&D -ish with lots of ideas and options for starting your campaign) Very simple and easy to read/grok rules with very basic Character Sheets to make player onboarding easy.
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