Flatpack: Fix the Future is the first game in the smash Hyperoptimistic Postapocalyptic genre of gaming. Flatpack is a game about building a new society using pre-apocalypse technology that you don't always trust or understand, and solving terrible problems creatively.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Sorcery and Super Science might work for this. It's already most of the way there. Most characters are mutants though and all humans are sorcerers so it might not be a perfect fit
You can also try a bit of a combo move with Worlds Without Number and Stars Without Number. Both games could probably handle this by themselves, but the rules are similar enough to combine which would give you scifi and magic together
Story over numbercrunching makes Fate a great choice, particularly Accelerated, which is a streamlined minimalist version. Minimal character stats, simple rules, and it's very flexible, with a lot of the specifics being determined during play to fit the plot. For example, instead of specific skills you have Approaches, which describe how you do things. Your character might be good at being Clever, or Sneaky, or Forceful, etc. You get a bonus to the thing you're doing if you can describe how you're doing it to fit that adjective. It's a system designed to be more of a collaborative storytelling game than a wargaming system, which sounds like it'd suit you.
I really like the sound of that! One thing the kids have trouble with is making decisions in line with their character (e.g. the tanky dragonborn fighter keeps trying to stealth through a situation, and the elf ranger with -2 charisma tries to talk her way out of things). This sounds like a great way to keep their character strengths front of mind. Thanks!
Apocalypse World is a pretty good one. It's very rules-lite and narrative focused. Players are more in control of the narrative than most RPGs; the players can declare what they want to do (e.g. "I want to drive really fast towards that group of bandits, then jump out of the truck just before it hits them, do a backflip in the air, and shoot the two on the left while the truck runs over the two on the right"), and rather than the response being "You can't do that", it's typically "Okay, but". Getting a die roll that isn't high enough to just flat out accomplish what you were trying typically still lets you succeed, but with some caveats, which the player typically gets to make the final decision on - for instance, in the above case, you might roll a 7 (a middle-tier roll), and be told that you can choose 2 of the following: You accurately shoot the two bandits on the left, the truck kills the two on the right, you don't hurt yourself when you land, and your gun doesn't explode.
Mutants & Masterminds 3e -- available for free online as d20herosrd.com -- can do literally anything. It's originally written for superheroes (obviously), but I've seen it used for D&D style fantasy, sci-fi, and so on. There is literally one single spell in all of fiction and film that I have tried to replicate in that system and not been able to (Balefire, from The Wheel of Time, because weird shit with time). It's all the flexibility of GURPS with a fraction as much math, all the power-fantasy of D&D without the game-breaking power-loops (there are a few but they're easy to spot and avoid). And all the complexity is front-loaded; once you get through character creation, it's all just d20s. If you can play D&D you can play M&M.
For something less crunchy, try Fate. Whether Core or Accelerated or whatever I couldn't tell you -- I personally hate this entire family of systems -- but it is very rules-light and storytelling-focused. It might suit your needs.
Mutants & Masterminds is a neat system, and flexible enough that you can use it to do a lot of different things.
But if someone is asking for a game that is "simpler than 5E", then Mutants & Masterminds would not be my first suggestion. Depending on what you're trying to do, character creation could get pretty detailed.
Trying to figure out balefire in a D&D campaign sounds horrifying... would be fun though!
Technically there is a WoT d20 version of it, but trying to shoehorn WoT into Vancian magic works about as terribly as you would expect.
I can think of three options, none are perfect, but each could be tinkered with to get what you want:
In the Light of a Ghost Star – This is much further in the future than you intend. But it has incredibly simple rules which are easy to customize. Also I made a psionics supplement for it here. I had pretty good success running it.
Mutants & Machine-guns - A loose, fairly tongue-in-cheek system. Free.
Mutant Future - Basically a cleaned up clone of early edition Gamma World. Less light than other games mentioned.
Wow, I haven't heard of any of those. This decision is going to be harder than I thought! Thanks!
I like TD2e for basically everything. They do have related systems/sets of Traits for different campaign types.
Recently I've tried Blades in the Dark which from my perspective ticks a lot of your boxes. Simpler than D&D for sure, similar to PbtA in terms of rolls and character sheets, and set in a post-apocalyptic world (albeit Victorian era).
Other than that I love the flexibility of Savage Worlds with its kind of simple rules and many many different extensions for different settings. Good base for tinkering imho.
And of course if you mention PbtA, why not go with Apocalypse World?
Interesting, BitD has come up a few times as I've been trying to research other systems. I'd better check it out. Apocalypse World would take a lot of censoring from what I've seen of the character sheets! I do really like the flexibility and leveling options of Savage Worlds, so that's definitely a contender. Thanks!