Thinking about trying your hand at role-playing, but not sure where to begin? Did you play RPGs when you were younger and want get back into it? Or maybe you have a friend that you want to pull into game night, but want to ease him/her in?
Never fear! Here are three tabletop RPGs that are beginner-friendly, easy to learn and a ton of fun.
FIASCO
If you are a fan of the finely-crafted neo-noir storytelling of the Coen Brothers (and who isn’t), then Fiasco might be the RPG for you. Inspired by the by the caper-gone-wrong movie genre, Fiasco is a game that beginners can easily learn and play. It’s designed to be played by three to five players over the course of two or three hours. It requires the game itself, six-sided dice, pen and paper. That’s it — no prep, no game master. And this game is fun. Like, honest-to-goodness, where-has-this-game-been-all-of-my-life fun.
In the game, players will play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. The maker of the game, Bully Pulpit, states, “There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won’t go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.”
MOUSE GUARD
In case you aren’t already familiar, Mouse Guard is a bestselling, award-winning and insanely popular comic book series written and illustrated by David Peterson. In the stories, a group of mice who live in a medieval era form a brotherhood known as the “Mouse Guard”. The Mouse Guard are sworn to serve their fellow civilian mice in times of need, including making safe passage for them through the wilderness and protecting them from predators. The stories and artwork are amazing and hard to put down, once you begin reading.
The RPG based on the comic is no different. Players form their own Mouse Guard patrol and attempt to complete missions while the Game Master takes on the roles of the weather, animals and the wilderness all trying to thwart the fearless mice. The gaming experience is exciting and tremendously fun for gamers of all ages. So much so that it has won multiple awards, including Best Role-Playing Game at the 2009 Origin Awards.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS STARTER SET
C’mon now. You knew this was going to be one of them. When it comes to RPGs, you can’t be the game that launched the genre. And even though the world of D&D goes really deep and can get fairly complicated, it’s framework is flexible, meaning you can play it in a simplified setting, with rules and processes that won’t intimidate beginners.
Our advice to beginners is get the D&D Starter Set. It has everything you need to learn the fundamental rules of the game and play heroic characters on perilous adventures in worlds of fantasy. The Starter Kit contains a rulebook, dice, pre-generated characters and an adventure book for the DungeonMaster (DM). The best part — you get this all for $20.
So, get (back) on the gaming horse today with one of these awesome, beginner-friendly games! The excitement, fun and laughter you will have with friends and family will leav you wishing you had started playing RPGs sooner!
