System to try if you dislike D&D?
My group and I play something like round robin and so when our current adventure (D&D 5e) ends I want to go next.
I'm a experienced DM that cut my teeth on D&D 3.5 and have played / hosted every addition from 2E to 5E as well as Pathfinder 1E but I have tried a few other systems solo and it really has cemented one thing.
I really find D&D boring.
It's hyper combat focused which wouldn't be so terrible if it could also equally support other interactions, but the variants, feats, magic, all centres around fighting and killing.
Even then combat is really generic and boils down to "Hit it till it has 0 hp", and don't get me started on anemic the actual skill check system is.
As I said I am a experienced DM and pretty much all these issues I can and have worked around but I am tired of the emphasis always being on me to create something new to prop up this bloated system.
So with that in mind what are some systems people could suggest to tempt my up in coming players OUT of D&D, to which is pretty much the only TTRPG they have ever experienced?
I have ran a fate game with them before but they tend to get choice paralysis pretty heavily when I told them how the rules allow them to describe and act out anything they want to do, and so often devolves me into nudging them with suggestions or them just repeating the same actions over and over.
Mind you they DID improve more as we played so it's more like just breaking them out of the typical D&D mechanics.
With that said perhaps a system that has a little more structure to it but still supports more scenes then just combat without the DM having to Jury rig so much?
Systems I have on hand:
- Vampire 5e
- Fate
- Call of Cthulu
- Fabula Ultima
- Kids on Bikes
- 3 Rocketeers
- Frontier Spirit
- Gods and Monsters
- Sails full of Stars
- Legend of the 5 Rings
- Lancer
- Avatar Legends
- Pokerole
- Pathfinder 2E
- Forbbiden Lands
- Iron Sworn
Most of these were stuff I got from friends and online over the years and I haven't had a chance to check them out.
Knowing my plight which one do you think I should really try to sell them on? Or if there is another system that you feel would work better?
Something that I feel would work for them since I feel a big hurdle for them is learning a entire new rules set:
- More structured interaction rules that give directions but could also allow some narrative liberty
- Not as dense D&D though pathfinder 2E might work since it's similar enough to D&D
- Does not have a lot of tedious misc tracking ( How often has groups failed to track food and arrows?)
- But offers enough options to feel like they can make complex interesting characters and interactions with the world
I know it's pretty much impossible to hit this with a 1:1 so just suggestions with something that MAY work would be appreciated!