My group are clamouring for a vanilla high fantasy game, I've played nWoD with them and Rogue Trader and while they enjoyed it, they've unanimously said "Something more heroic and magical". Now we all play quite a lot of Video Games as well, and when I said, "Something maybe WoW like?" they jumped at it.
I've never played a d20 game be it DnD, PF or anything else. I know DnD4 gets stick for 'wow like' design but I'm not sure what that entails. What system should I pick to best emulate a World of Warcraft style of gameplay that lets players pick from a variety of races and play distinct classes that are all useful in some way? Is 4e a good pick, should I go for 5 and use the Warcraft homebrew for it? Is Fantasycraft any good?
>>48261501
>I know DnD4 gets stick for 'wow like' design but I'm not sure what that entails.
It's generally by people that didn't really play 4e and are parroting some shit they heard on /tg/. This post will probably start some sort of edition war but 4e is a fine place to start if you want to get into some real crunch and heroic gameplay. If you're looking for something easier to pick up and play I would recommend any number of retro clones (games that recreate the feeling of oldschool gaming with more streamlined mechanics). I recently played Shadow of the Demon Lord which was fun, as well as Ambition and Avarice which was good as well. Personally for retro clones I enjoy Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. It has a nice mix between crunch and roleplay but it can be overwhelming when you look at the magic section and it's like 300 pages. The magic system is a bit bloated, I will admit, but it's not nearly as intimidating as it seems on first glance.
If you are looking for something basic, you might just want to start with, well, D&D Basic (Moldvay edition). That or Basic Fantasy RPG are both great for new players.
Avoid 5e and 3.X D&D, and Pathfinder, although the cult will show up soon enough to try and convert you. Not that they are irredeemable but many new players get trapped into playing these systems because they are so popular when in reality they are just nothing special and in my opinion leave you with a skewed idea of what TTRPGs are. D&D is uniquely D&D at every edition, and while that's fine, there are so many good and simple systems out there that you should explore first.
>>48261802
>avoid d&d
>except the one I like
lel
In all seriousness 4e is alright for what you want. Everyone has powers they use and the at will / encounter / daily makes them a bit easier to manage than long and short rests which can be somewhat arbitrary.
>>48261802
It wasn't my goal to start an edition war about anything, I'd just like to hear the merits and shortcomings of the generic high fantasy systems and decide from there. I've played quite a few other RPGs so I'm not particularly afraid of being glued to a new system at the expense of others.
I'm not exactly looking to jump into the deep end when it comes to Crunch. While I get that almost ever RPG has some barrier into getting into it, I'd prefer the barrier just be at the start rather than a constant obstacle. Basic Fantasy RPG looks pretty decent but it seems (I've not got a pdf of it just yet), but it seems like it only has a few classes? I was hoping for something akin to prestige classes or feats or something, to represent the Specialisations that players can adopt in WoW to further distinguish their class.
I was under the impression that Shadow of the Demon Lord was more akin to WFRP2, rather low key Fantasy? I'll have a look into it. I've seen 13th Age and Fantasycraft get kicked around a bit too, are either of those suitable?
>>48261957
>hurr let me reduce your paragraph to a half sentence with greentext u r dumb
spotted the 5e drone
but really I did say moldvay basic, and I'm not discounting any fun people have with ADnD, 3.5, PF, 5, just don't recommend them to new players
>>48261501
4e plays more like WoW but I hope you like pdfs because you're going to need about 14 of them.
5e has much more streamlined mechanics and requires a lot less book access. The setting is still WoW-like but the mechanics are not.
Avoid "indy darlings," they tend to be very trope-y and based on systems that don't always appeal to new-ish players. They make a better 2nd or 3rd game than a first one.
>>48261983
If you want a lot of customization with classes Shadow of the Demon Lord actually offers up some nice stuff. The magic is definitely more of the old school variety but I think it was pretty fun for fantasy.
>>48261501
4E, make your own setting or go full-magic with Eberron. You will need PDFs, but there is such a wealth of choice you can play anything/everything and all classes are fun/viable.
Pirate the updated character creator, have fun.
>>48263399
The other part of his post also said you were right
>>48261501
>gameplay that lets players pick from a variety of races and play distinct classes that are all useful in some way?
4e is the best of the DnD's for this.
As for WoW-like? Not really. I play both, and there really isn't an RPG that emulates WoW.
Here is my take i hope it helps.
All D&D tend to be crunchy, combat focused and require rules expertise to be proficient. Your characters will be as good as you are good with the rules.
It's pretty interesting if your players like crunch and to master the systems.
On differences:
Pathfinder (avoid 3e): The most crunch, lot of options, hated for being very unbalanced and 100% caster edition, and has so much splat that it's difficult to keep it fantasy at this point. If you have never played D&D i would avoid it as it has too much rules to it.
4e: Most balanced of all ton of options, that are mostly different on fluff (magic and weapons use the same mechanics but), has very WoW-y rules, people that hate it complains that it's rules are decoupled of the "simulation", ie they are there to have mechanics, but are not very grounded on whats's happening on the story.
5e: has crunch, but is very simple (less options), mostly all classes are playable, rules are less decoupled from simulation thant 4e but not that much.
Main gripes are lack of options, flatter character progression.
