My kids (10 & 13) and I are wrapping up our first campaign together in D&D 5e, and I’m starting to think about the next one. It’s going to be a homebrew setting–future humanity decimated by climate change, but also elements of weird magic with giant plants and insects, inspired by things like Studio Ghibli, Kipo, etc.
After watching the recent Critical Role - Tears of the Kingdom oneshot, I started tinkering with my own system (PbtA based, with lots of opportunities for inventive crafting, and a video-game-inspired skill tree rather than strict classes) which is fun, but really time-consuming.
Wondering if anyone knows of an existing system that would work well for this setting? I’d like to find something simpler than 5e (which is the only system I know well), since they mainly enjoy the story and role-playing rather than lots of number crunching and detailed rules.
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!