#RPGaday2017 day 22 - What RPG is easiest for you to run?

Continuing the series. Let's blog, homies.

#RPGaday2017, Day 22: What RPG is easiest for you to run?

So, here's another tricky one. I'd say The Gehenna Engine, but it's impossible for me to know if that's because I designed the damn thing, or because I succeeded, and it's easy to run¹.

If I didn't like it, then it'd be a very different sort of game.

But that feels like cheating.

So let's do something else.

Rather than go with a straight ranking, here's some RPGs that I like to run, and why I find that easy.

Fantasy Flight Star Wars

Full of lovely bits that I
recommend ignoring.

Now, let's be clear. There's a bunch of edge cases, subsystems, and other stuff that makes Edge of the Empire and its counterparts actually pretty tricky to run.

So yeah. I ignore all that stuff.

But the core mechanic of those games, with the Narrative Dice, is actually pretty simple. IMO, the rest of the work is gilding a perfectly gorgeous lily. Set a difficulty, add in some setback dice for environmental stuff, get on with your life. 

And those dice, my goodness. 

This system does a remarkable job of modeling situations. They're luck dice, basically, which I like - it's not a question of whether or not the characters are "good enough" - of course they are. It's a question of whether or not circumstances are getting in the way.

This was also helped by probably the best beginner's box I've ever seen. It really does a good job of introducing the system.

Savage Worlds

So, I haven't actually run much SW - my experience is limited to a couple one-offs, and some playtesting for a (sadly unreleased) Nova Praxis adventure², to make sure I got the balance and feel right.

But in my limited experience, if you're looking for Grids & Violence combat-focused gameplay, there's been nothing that comes close to being as easy and fast, and that's really allowed me to focus on the things that make running combat fun.

I'm dubious that anybody that I play with would find its character representation and advancement systems satisfying for a long-term game. I myself rather dislike how swingy it is. But when it comes to combat-focused RPGs, I found it easy and smooth for the amount of tactical options it offered.

And damn, is it fast.

Other games

I've got a couple more custom systems that I find terribly easy - EGADS  most notable among them - but a lot of that is familiarity. I can find something like Pathfinder much easier than it might otherwise be, and that's got to be a factor in my own works, no doubt. And easy = / = satisfying; I really enjoy running Infinity and other 2d20 games, but there's a lot of bits to keep track of. I wouldn't say that it's easy for me - not yet anyway - but I find it enjoying to engage with nonetheless. 

Satisfying.

But when it comes to ease of use, it's gotta be those three, in about that order.

* * *

1 - I do have a friend running the game in it's pre-alpha state for someone else. I'm not the GM, not a player; it's terrifying to me, but early returns are promising. 

I can't wait to get this game out of development, and into a more public Beta, so that you all can tell me what a bad lead designer I am ;)

2 - Still some of my proudest work. Eventually, I hope for Hatchet Job to see release. Hell, if I can get someone to run it for me, I'd be ecstatic.