I've got an anti-duck instinct but having played Dragonbane I got to say… they've got their ducks in a row. I wouldn't want to play that game any other way

Yeah, I'm mostly anti-duck but Dragonbane can have as many ducking ducks as it wants!

A brave group of diverse individuals banding up to take on a huge foe against all the odds…

Yup, that's epic fantasy all right!

I'm not sure what the point of the article is. Do you think indie creators are not trying to be seen more?

What they need isn't for you to tell them to be more visible, what they need is to be given visibility by media outlets that cover TTRPGs.

Like you.

Blades in the Dark (or any other FitD game) would suit all three criteria. It's more geared to mini-campaigns but that doesn't mean it doesn't work for one-shots

That counts as a success!

While I used to think that, I prefer d20-roll under (which is essentially the same but rounded to the nearest 5%) for simplicity's sake.

Or dice pools. I like dice pools.

In highschool, almost two decades ago. A friend brought Warhammer fantasy RPG to school. I assumed d100 roll under was the default way to play RPGs on the same way most people think D20+modifier is XD

Second answer is the same as first ^^

That's also a good solution! Quick dungeon-crawl I assume?

Blades in the Dark works surprisingly well with small groups and is very much improvisational in its intended playstyle.

Playing a changeling in Symbaroum was my favourite. I like it when a 'race' adds tension to the gameplay and isn't the usual "human, but you're a special snowflake" that I tend to find cringe-worthy.

On the other end of the spectrum the mallard from Dragonbane was quacking fun!

I actually feel like more experienced players (especially when they're "experienced" in playing D&D exclusively) are actually less good at blue-sky thinking that makes role-playing so fun (to me).

You're probably right about Dragonbane but I did go completely bare-bones for that one-shot

If we were playing a longer game (3 or 4 sessions) I definitely think more structure would be better for these beginner players, but I also think we underestimate how natural role-playing is for people

Very interesting take, and I _want_ to believe it, but I've recently GM'd a game for total beginners (they literally had zero idea what they were getting into) and my impression was actually the opposite.

Dragonbane, which I consider relatively light, seemed to get in the way

Of course! I didn't mean it like that, just meant to (inelegantly) qualify my response.

I haven't had an enjoyable game of 5e (not that it was bad, but I didn't particularly vibe with the system) and Pathfinder was essentially the same though the one game I played it in was fun.

I'd go with 'Dune: AitI' but it wasn't particularly crunchy, my group just had a hard time getting used to the funky momentum mechanic.

I can't actually think of any RPG that has truly complex rules that came out in the last 20 years tbh (minus D&D and PF obv)

Sorry for the non-answer 😅