I was really into TTRPGs in college, but it’s been about ten years since I’ve had a stable group to play with. I’ve run a bunch of one-shots since then, mostly using systems I was already familiar with, and I’ve also played a D&D 5e campaign through Discord, but playing online just isn’t my jam.
Now my wife says a couple of people from her work would like to try the whole RPG thing. The safe bet would probably be a 5e one-shot, but I don’t like D&D or D&D-clones all that much. My usual go-to is Chronicles of Darkness, but I enjoy getting into new games, so I decided to ask what the new hot stuff is that everyone is talking about.
About ten years ago, people wouldn’t stop talking about Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark, but that stuff didn’t really gel with my group at the time. Maybe I should give those games another try, though I’m not sure they’d work all that well with new players. I generally prefer urban fantasy or weirdo high-concept stuff.
Do you have any suggestions?
my experience is that pbta games work quite well with noobies. pbta/fitd still has quite a following, but it’s more of a stable current of the ttrpg landscape now, rather than the new hotness. a couple of well known urban fantast games in that space that come to mind would be Monsterhearts, Monster of the Week, or Urban Shadows, though i haven’t read or played any of those, as it isn’t a genre i usually care for.
these days, 5e is still the one big game, and most of the new games that i’ve seen get a lot of hype are essentially variants of 5e. Shadowdark, Tales of the Valiant, Level-Up, stuff like that.