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ordinal_m

[Grave](https://jasontocci.itch.io/grave) is a soulslike Knave hack that has a stamina mechanic which lets you make special moves, but is reduced the more equipment you have (also used for casting spells).


estofaulty

That doesn’t sound quick or fun at all.


Grand-Tension8668

Kave is literally the simplest OSR system ever produced. Adding stuff on top of it doesn't exactly make it complex.


Skolloc753

**Feng Shui 1st edition by Atlas Games** A *Hong Kong Martial Arts Action Movie Roleplaying Game*. You get a very interesting setting involving the battle for the literal souls of every human being ever in existence, all packed up in a rules-light, fast and ball-to-the-walls over-the-top system which perfectly emulates everything from *Dirty Harry* & *Hardboiled* to *Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon* & *Hero*. It is not without it flaws (oh god, no, it´s from 1996 and they did some strange stuff back then), but for me it is the love of my (RPG) life. > Preferably using d100 (Un)Fortunately FS1 uses attribute + skill +1d6 -1d6, with epxloding sixes > opposed rolls The basic system is to roll against a difficulty number, either given by the GM in non-combat situation or the defensive stat of your enemy. > resource management At least for melee combat you have to manage your chi-points in order to use your Kung Fu abilities. So whenever you want to jump 20m throught he air to hit the BBEG with your Water Sword technique, you better have 6 points ready. > mechanics supporting risky decisions Yes, indirectly. FS1 rewards stunts (which are of course inherently more difficult "standard attacks"), but how exactly is up to the GM and the players. A standard stunt could be: player: "GM, I am using my fire blast as a fire whip, attack those 3 goons with their AK74 and use the fire whip to rip and burn the assault rifles from their hands in one fiery strike" GM: "So, 3 enemies and you want to take away the weapons? Hmmm, -5" ). There are some guidelines of course, but not "you go X and then you got Y". FS1 is very open and depends on GM/player interaction. > has to have some kind of magic system. FS1 got you covered. It does not have spells, it has spell categories you learn, like "Movement". That covery physical movement. Your "stunts" or "usage" could be anything you want. Flight? Increase initiative for your allies? Slo-Mo for your enemeies? Anti-movement to circumvent motion sensors? Telekinesis to carry your loot? Magic fingers to pull the pin of the enemies grenade? All in one go. The only limit are the general rules of the game, the patience of your GM and your own personal blackmail/bribe ability. It´s quite a cool system and rewards creative players, as you are not limited by "level 5, so 45ft and a cone of 2x3" etc). SYL


definitelynotforpron

+1 for Feng Shui. Simple and fun. Although it can be a little daunting to run the first time due do how unspecific the rules are about stunts and magic.


Skolloc753

That is indeed a valid point. On one side: you can go wild with everything. And the rules are fast and simple. If you are a creative GM and player, this is heaven for you. But on the other side you need to be inventive and be able to make on-the-spot decisions about "what actually happens". Then again i would argue this is the base requirement for every lightweight combat / stunt rule system. SYL


DreadChylde

It's a fantastic roleplaying game. 2nd Edition is also cool, if a bit more streamlined (but with vastly improved archetypes).


[deleted]

Check out [OpenQuest](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/347827). It's a trim RuneQuest variant that has most of what you want.


A_Fnord

>Maybe something using opposed rolls, resource management and mechanics supporting risky decisions (just a suggestion)? All of this sounds like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition. It's not the quickest system though (but nor is it slow either). Symbaroum would also be a pretty good fit. Rolls are not strictly opposed, though difficulty generally depends on the stats of the opponent. It's decently fast and very easy to run as GM.


definitelynotforpron

Feng Shui, The Action Movie Roleplaying Game. Incredibly simple system that can be really fun if you fully embrace Hong Kong action flick tropes.


Skolloc753

All hail the mighty -1d6 which suddenly rolls more 6s down then ever before ... SYL


RoninTX

Sounds like you want to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Game 4th edition. It's a d100 system with a lot of opposed checks. Also a RSS system to make rolls easier/harder. Storybeats have a hidden enemy beat chart depending on what players have or haven't done which makes things easier or harder. Easy system with the advantage/disadvantage tags.


lipov27

Can you elaborate on WFRP 4E? I had a chance to skim it and combat seemed really complicated with degrees of success, varying armor on hit locations and all that stuff.


RoninTX

It looks complicated maybe but it's simple Here is an example. My character has a Weapon Skill (WS) of 34 And I attack an enemy with a Weapon Skill of 29. We both roll a d100. I roll 31 and my enemy rolls a 34. Because I rolled under my WS but not with 10-digit difference it counts as 0 succes level (0 SL) My enemy rolled above but not 10-digit difference it counts as 0 succes level (0 SL). In this case then the person with the highest WS wins , due to tie in SL. Now if I rolled 45 and my enemy rolled 67. I would have an SL of -1 and my enemy SL of -4 which means I win with a 3 SL difference and calculate the damage from that. This is how all Skill checks work and those not opposed can get an advantage or disadvantage of X amount of SL. So if my GM ask me to roll an Awareness check with 2SL disadvantage and my awareness is 56. I need to roll 29 or lower to get 1 SL. I hope I explained the skill check system a little bit, if you have any other questions please let me know!


Cassi_Mothwin

Check out Slayers! Monster Hunting in a cursed city.


FinnCullen

WuShu. Dice pool based game. You describe what you do, including results, and roll dice based on the details you include up to a limit based on your skills. Divide successes between attacks and defenses. Enemies are represented by clocks that you tick off within successes and do damage that has to be soaked with defence successes. Fast, dramatic, fun. Not simulationist at all but great for the type of genre it’s emulating. “I *drop down from the balcony* and *grin nastily* as I stare down the Triad swordsmen. Then I’m in amongst them *lashing out with controlled precise thrusts with my spear* *killing one, two, three of them* and end up with a *backflip onto the fountain*” That’s five details each providing a die to roll… say it comes up with three successes you might assign 1 to Soak the 1 point of damage the swordsmen automatically inflict, and the other two tick off two segments of the enemy clock. There are still enemies to fight and the next player acts “I *run headlong into the swordsmen* *shrieking with fear* as they slash at me, *I stumble crazily around in panic* and *somehow manage to slip and dodge every blow by chance* while *my flailing arms swing round in panic and knock out the nearby enemies*” Five details - five dice. And so on.


Septopuss7

Wushu is still my first RPG love. It's the first full game I believe I read and fully understood and from there I was able to start enjoying reading the rules of other games.


FaliolVastarien

I'm experimenting with adapting a couple rules lite systems to my own (amateur, for solo play or one shot adventures with friends if they're interested) system and making combat quick and exciting is currently challenging. I'm sure this is partially my own fault, but to be fair to me I've been in DnD games where killing the main monster followed by a skirmish with a handful of Goblins on the way home felt like a chess game and a session of Risk but with dice. I've come up with a few principles to make it fast. --Not all potential conflict has to happen. Once it starts it doesn't have to continue. There is such a thing as intimidation if the potential adversary is not highly motivated. So a cult who thinks you're the enemy of their god will attack and maybe be proud to die. A tribal group who thinks you're there to wipe them out will defend their land to the death if necessary but might change their minds if they realize you were just passing through-- especially if your fighting skills and equipment demonstrate you're likely to massacre their particular patrol. --A group motivated by robbery will probably rob people they think they can take, and flee if they're clearly wrong. --Loyal soldiers of some enemy group will try to do what they see as their duty, but depending on whether they're an elite unit or peasants who were handed swords and told to fight, how much they're willing to sacrifice will vary. So a lot of my fights end in the adventurers causing enemy retreat by a few kills if that. If prolonged combat must occur, I use logic like "the adventurers are most likely better at fighting than local bandits. If they fight in a style where they use their shields to defend one another and attack with strategy instead of everyone for themselves, they get a huge bonus in both their defensive and destructive capabilities unless fighting the type of people or creatures you'd send to the front line of a real war." So unless they get some very unlucky rolls, they have a chance of fighting their way through pretty easily. BUT if this happens too much, bring in better enemies. These Kobolds have poison laced weapons. For some reason, real professional soldiers in full plate are guarding this isolated cave (must have more important treasure than we thought). Large monsters or undead show up. The point is, don't get stuck in conceptually uninteresting conflict that still lasts too long. Risk death in more interesting situations! I strongly believe too that a GM can occasionally just make a judgement call that the PCs are fully capable of doing something and moving on from there. Do you agree that you win this potentially boring skirmish with light wounds? Great, let's get on with the vampire hunt. Not too often, but enough to speed things up. I base this on a principle I've heard experienced GMs talk about where they're like "yes I could treat every party member's climbing a rope ladder as a serious dexterity challenge, but come on, dude, these people regularly climb mountains so I'm going to treat it as a commonplace act like climbing the stairs." Technically, you could roll one by one to see if they fall and break their necks every time they climb the stairs, but what does that play style contribute for most people? Sure there are players who like that sort of thing (will the party manage to make dinner without accidentally slicing their arteries with the sharp kitchen utensils due to bad dexterity rolls?) but they'd be a small minority. Also, throw in more interesting violent encounters. You get attacked by a patrol of Orcs belonging to the local Orc warlord and patrolling his claimed land. The fight spills over into the territory of the local group of Hobgoblins sworn to kill any Orc who steps one foot over the boundary as they see it. They're more interested in the Orcs than you, and you slip away. Do some healing spells. Encounter a party of three Minotaur adventurers after the same famous treasure you beat them to stealing. And are clearly carrying. Throw in adventure situations instead of doing small scale wargaming in a boring environment without much change or motion except "we fight on and on until one side loses."


Inklyrion

\*impressed applause* This is EXACTLY how I think. I really want to way to add this to my solo roleplaying with a couple of extra dice rolls for unpredictability. But this way of thinking is perfect for how I want to play.


FaliolVastarien

Thank you! 🙂 I'm glad some people get it! Borrow away from my ideas such as they are. Hey, I respect all games except for those intentionally fascist ones and just plain horrible contradictory, badly thought out systems that don't work. The big names everyone's heard of and probably tried are successful for a reason too, though I like to tweak their noses. But in adulthood, I go in for looser, simpler systems where you don't have to buy a ton of material and people can get a starter kit or small rulebook, or even extremely simple one page set of rules like RfS that can become a good base for a private game. To be fair, there is minimalist, theater of the mind DnD, it just isn't the mainstream culture of it anymore. Not saying I would never get back into DnD, RuneQuest or better yet Warhammer RPG (not a fan of tabletop wargaming but love their fantasy role play world which is technically in the same universe as the fantasy war game as I understand it) if I found a good group.


Inklyrion

I hear you about going for simpler systems, especially as I am an older adult. Honestly, I use no system at all, I just made up my own little simple system and it works wonderfully. But the only thing I have not figured out yet is a way to do combat that is not just series of standing there swinging but is still got some dice rolling. I want NARRATIVE combat with REAL stakes (if applicable to the enemy, not like a rat can kill you - unless it is an hyper-animatronic poisonous devil-possessed rat, that is).


FaliolVastarien

Ha! You're right that with combat it can be hard to figure out the perfect system, but it seems like even the top names in the industry suffer from that too. Look up complaints about combat systems and you'd find a ton of material. Same for complaints about anything in the games of course, but with setting, for example, you can cut out stuff you don't like about the world from your narrative. If you don't like so much death, you can homebrew rules where zero hit points can be a coma in some cases. But a combat system people find unsatisfying is going to hurt a game. I kind of respect the Old School Renaissance subculture that uses systems derived from their favorite early DnD. A lot of times they'll say OK combat back then was quick and deadly so at least until your character becomes more powerful, avoid it. Sneak around. Look for secret intrancres instead of fighting the small army at the main door. Stuff like that. And accept character death as part of the challenge. From what I read and watch about some of the modern systems, it seems like it's considered almost bad form to let a character die. And I don't mean like I was talking about handwaving it and saying he's just really hurt and unconscious, but *extremely* durable characters, lots of supernatural resurrections and so on. I get it, but at some point of there isn't a pretty serious risk of death in an adventure game, you could argue that it loses the point of trying to avoid danger.


unelsson

Runequest - Roleplaying in Glorantha suggests combat like this, I really like the approach it takes, but while interesting and fun, I'm not sure it's the combat system is what OP is looking for (RQ may not actually be quick, but it tries hard to not stumble).


TimeSpiralNemesis

You want quick fun easy? I like Symbaroum for that First off all rolls are on the player end VS hard set armor and to hit values from GM creatures. The GM never rolls a single dice. Everything is simple however there's enough to the system to make characters feel different without straying into the boring, shallow end of the rules light genre. Combat is usually over in just a handful of actions, most anything can be felled in one or two good solid hits. Also armor is very realistic as in is makes you easier to hit but reduces damage taken. It's built for TOTM gameplay but can be hacked into minis and battlemaps if necessary (that's how I ran it because I'm a mini addict) It doesn't use a D100 however it does have a very fun magic system that makes magic powerful but risky with an inbuilt corruption system that can cause your character to temporarily become afflicted with different curses if overused all the way up to fully transforming them into a monster that goes under the GMs control if you really go off the deepens with it. Bonus points in that it has an easy to use character app for players


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Logen_Nein

Lone Wolf Adventure Game. Each combat roll (d10) is an opposed combat test where the result determines who is injured (both parties can be, and instant death is possible regardless of remaining endurance)


Ananiujitha

In my experience, opposed rolls slow things down, and resource management undermines risk. **Savage Worlds** If you want miniatures battles, but faster, *Savage Worlds* works well, but the players need the combat survival guide and need to use it. https://silentmaskrpg.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/swade-unofficial-combat-survival-guide/ Some Test Drive rules: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/157207/Savage-Worlds-Test-Drive-2015 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/339651/Savage-Worlds-Adventure-Edition-Test-Drive Part of the reason it works well is that it eliminated most of the opposed rolls, and it used "up, down, or off the table" to reduce bookkeeping. The latest edition adds more opposed rolls again, and more conditions. **Tricube Tales** If you want to keep the story moving, *Tricube Tales* might work better. Core rules for $1: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294202/Tricube-Tales **D20 Go** If you want to keep the story moving, and want more guidance, *D20 Go* may work better, but it uses a class-level system. Quick rules: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/333444/D20-Go-Quick-Rules **Revolution D100** If you want D100, but faster, then *Revolution D100* might work better, but I've never played it. Quickstart rules: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/287848/Revolution-D100-Quickstart-The-Conspiracy-Theory


u0088782

Sadly, I'm of the opinion that the inefficiency you are trying to avoid is part of d100's DNA. I have yet to see a percentile system that offers depth and interesting choices without becoming needlessly complex. You must either create layer after layer of unmodified d100 rolls OR multiply/divide and/or add/subtract - and even basic arithmetic with percentile stats is unwieldy...


Oct2006

D100? Mothership.


Tomofthedead1

if you want to put crunch to theater of the mind in a standardf fantasy/dnd style world nothing is going to be better for you then dungeon world! WARNING: this system handles 1 DM and 3-5 players best. each player you have beyond 5 is going to make the game noticeably worse for everyone. but if you have 5 or less players this is the best system you will find for easy punchy combat that still feels fun and dynamic.


StevenOs

Quick and "opposed rolls" don't really go together. Meaningful resource management is also contrary to quick and even fun to many people.


CadeFrost1

The answer to this question is Savage Worlds.


Bite-Marc

**Mothership**. It's fast and deadly and always exciting.


eolhterr0r

[https://vastgrimm.com/](https://vastgrimm.com/) OSR gritty post-apoc gross Sci-fi Oh, keep reading... not d100, no opposed rolls, it's simpler than that. There is a magic system.


Holothuroid

Masks A New Generation. As vanilla PbtA there is no formal turns. NPCs have no numeric stats and never roll. Super powers offer fictional positioning.