as not to derail the other thread that was created not to derail another thread, I offer this thead to list the Casual Gamer-friendly games on the market both past and present.

I will make a comment that any game can be casual gamer friendly with the right GM...

Cyberpunk 2020 - dark future, pick role, x number of points for stats x number of points for skills, roll lifepath, equip.

Warhammer FRP (1st edition, dont know enough about 2nd ed) - dark fantasy, based on medieval Europe, pick race, pick area of study, then start rolling. the only complicated part, IMO, is explaining the advancement scheme.

DnD 3.5 *IF* you stick with the main 3 books - familier background, roll for stats, pick race, pick class, choose skills, (if the skill is on your list of class skills they cost 1 for 1, otherwise 2 for 1.), equip.

also I cant say if point buy or random rolling is easier for Casual Gamers, I believe it depends on the game itself

Feng Shui:  Same reasoning as CP2020, but with 200% more Kung Fu.

Teenagers From Outer Space:  Easy premise for anime fans, hyper-simplified rules (at least the old, pre-Fusion, version on my shelf ... dunno how they've changed it since).

Amber:  Dedicate an evening, run a throne-war, only one can wear the crown.

Primetime Adventures:  A premise any modern person can immediately grok, combined with very simple rules that compellingly lead you through a structured session.  Rawk.

Paranoia: Quick character gen (most published adventures have pre-gens), simple system, knowledge of the setting is a hindrance as often as it's a help, structured missions mean you aren't flailing around wondering what to do.

D&D (Rules Cyclopedia): Roll your stats. Pick a class. Roll your hit points and starting cash and equip yourself with weapons, armour, spells and accessories. You're ready to go!

AD&D 1e: Similar to the above. The rules are somewhat more complex, but on the flipside the random dungeon generator reduces the GM's prep time considerably.

Call of Cthulhu: Especially if you run it in the modern day. No setting information needs to be explained (the PCs start with no Cthulhu Mythos by default, after all), the system is pretty simple once you get going, and everyone's seen the X-Files or Scooby-Doo enough to know how paranormal investigators are supposed to go about their business.

The Whispering Vault: Specifically designed to be a pick-up game (back in 1993 - the idea's not new!). The concept is kind of weird - you play spiritual entities who are trying to protect the universe and humanity from hideous things from beyond the veil - but if the GM's familiar with it it should be easy enough to guide the player's through. (Some of the vast astral worms which transport the PCs to the time and place their mission occurs in can mentally project human-like avatars of themselves, which make handy mouthpieces for the GM to feed the players setting information.)

Quote from: WarthurThe Whispering Vault

Oh, hey, there's a name I haven't thought about in a while.  Is there anywhere to pick up the Whispering Vault rules these days?  It's always been on my lists of games to check out "someday."

Quote from: TonyLBOh, hey, there's a name I haven't thought about in a while.  Is there anywhere to pick up the Whispering Vault rules these days?  It's always been on my lists of games to check out "someday."

Ronin Arts have PDFs of the whole line though, including the long-lost "Mortal Magic" supplement, and have put out a reprint of the main rulebook through Lulu.

Exxxxxxcellent.  Thanks!  Sorry for the tangent ... back to hearing about casual-friendly games.

Basic D&D is nice, only a few stats, not alot to memorize or stuff to choose.

CoC is quick to learn.  Wanna do something?  Look for it on your sheet and roll under than number.  The same could be said for any BRP game that doesn't add too much.

Most games become much more casual friendly if you start with pregen characters.  It cuts the amount of stuff to learn nearly in half.  For CoC, I try to have a dozen characters made with Byakhee on hand in case someone extra shows up or someone needs a new character for some reason.

Marvel Superheroes (Basic): roll your stats, roll your powers, go beat people up. Or you can pick your favorite characters from the Marvel universe and skip chargen altogether. Granted, you can use pregens in any game, but they're actually an integral part of MSH, so much that there's an eight volume reference set that has almost all the characters that were out there up until it's print date.

Hearts & Souls, easy to grasp system, PC generation based on choice and discussion for the campaign (or oneshot) pitch.

Tunnels and Trolls, roll up a pc, throw them in a dungeon and your good. Far simpler than some alternatives for the type of game play it does.


Gamma World (Edition 1-4) roll up a mutant and walk through the wilderness, trying to survive against the oddest alien gamma terra lifeforms.

Quote from: NYTFLYRDnD 3.5 *IF* you stick with the main 3 books - familier background, roll for stats, pick race, pick class, choose skills, (if the skill is on your list of class skills they cost 1 for 1, otherwise 2 for 1.), equip.

If $90 (+ a few bucks for a prefab adventure?) and hundreds of pages of detailed rules is the bar for Casual Gamer-friendly then, well there are a TON of games out there.

Now if you instead went PHB + prefab adventure, and used the SRD for the occational PC summoned creatures, that's getting closer to what I think when I hear "causual gamer" (with an internet connection).  You are talking a table full of causal gamers, right? Because prep work suckth for the casual GM, as DavidR brought up in the other thread.

Quote from: SilverlionGamma World (Edition 1-4) roll up a mutant and walk through the wilderness, trying to survive against the oddest alien gamma terra lifeforms.

Your post reminded me of Omega World (a simple version of Gamma World in Dungeon/Polyhedron).  I wish WOTC had done more with their Polyhedron mini D20 games than test concepts for D20 Modern.  Some of them had potentially for games without as much baggage as D&D and could have been transformed into introductory games.

Quote from: TonyLBExxxxxxcellent.  Thanks!  Sorry for the tangent ... back to hearing about casual-friendly games.

I think Bruce Baugh may be working on a revised edition, which would be good as the rules were never as good as the atmosphere.

Edit:  The Mortal Magic book is great by the way, incredibly atmospheric, I wish more magic books were like that.

The most suitable games around are things like:

RC/Boxed set D&D Basic: fast character creation and right into the action.

Dungeoneer: ditto.  Note that I mean the RPG by Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone, the one that was based on the Fighting Fantasy books.

Feng Shui: yes, fast and right into the action.

WFRP:  this is a little more borderline than the others, but still relatively fast because of how (almost) everything is randomized.

Amber:  I'm going to say only to a certain extent with this one. The actual mechanics of character creation are simple, but an auction takes a while to do, and then each character takes quite a while to round out. Its not as quick as it looks.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditAmber:  I'm going to say only to a certain extent with this one. The actual mechanics of character creation are simple, but an auction takes a while to do, and then each character takes quite a while to round out. Its not as quick as it looks.

Eh.  As a GM, I usually just push to close auctions as soon as people start to dither.  "Hrm, should I bid another..." "Going-once-going-twice-" "54!  I bid 54 points!  JESUS, Tony, what's your hurry?"

It keeps people from thinking too hard, which makes the auction faster, more unbalanced, and more likely to screw players horribly.  All good things

I've found, generally, that if you want to get things down into a casual-gaming timeset, it helps a lot to actually be ... well ... casual about things.  Worrying about getting it right just baloons into a lot of time.  Yeah, maybe the players make a terrible decision, who cares?  You're only playing for an hour or two.  Have some fun with it.

In addition to games already mentioned...

WEG Stars Wars: Pick a template, assign 7D to skills, and you are ready to go. Rules are simple (particularly in the first edition), and pretty much everybody knows everything that matters about the setting.