My manager at work is considering RPGs as a possible activity for an upcoming team building day, and naturally as the team's resident RPG nerd, I've been asked to think about organising this. Which means I need to pick a game to run. Something beginner friendly, as none of these people have ever played an RPG before. I asked BlueSky and a couple of Discords for advice, and here's what came up:
D&D 5e
Pros: It's the default RPG experience. It's got brand recognition and a handy starter set, and it's not all that complicated at first level. If they've seen the recent Honor Among Thieves movie, or played Baldur's Gate 3, that's an extra bit of cultural relevance that might help grab them. If they enjoy it there's tons of material and other players out there, and it should have good VTT support if they want online games.
Cons: I'm not a big fan (team Pathfinder here) so I'd have to buy the starter set and then learn how to run it, which I would feel a bit resentful about. Plus it is complicated, compared to most of the other games I play, even at first level.
Matrons of Mystery
Pros: Not everyone is into fantasy, but most people have watched some kind of cosy British crime drama. It's a familiar modern day setting. People absolutely love playing little old ladies solving murders. The game system is pretty simple, and there's no character death to worry about, plus I wrote the thing and know it inside out.
Cons: Only about half my team are originally from Britain. I don't know how popular 'little old ladies solving murders' is as a genre in India, and the game really hinges on everyone knowing exactly how to act in this genre and improvising around it. Plus there's a few people who really don't like the Carved from Brindlewood mystery system and there's no way around that.
(Brindlewood Bay was also suggested, for much the same reasons, but I think Matrons of Mystery is better for beginners as it's well suited to one-shots without having to cut out a chunk of the game and it sticks closer to the cosy mystery genre.)
Dragonbane
Pros: It's the classic dungeon crawl experience you get from D&D, but with the complexity scaled down. You still get to have fun with maps and polyhedral dice and minis. If they've got some idea what an RPG looks like from Stranger Things, this is still on the same page. There's a handy quickstart with pregens and an adventure.
Cons: Again, I don't own it (although the quickstart is free and that's probably enough for a one-shot) and combat might be a little more deadly than D&D, meaning I'd need some backup characters.
Liminal
Pros: A modern day setting that's familiar to everyone. Grounded in folklore, which some people will pick up on, but which you don't need to know to play the game. Easy mechanics. Plus I know it really well and have my own adventures to run.
Cons: Urban fantasy is a less familiar genre than regular fantasy. Unless it turns out my team are all super into Rivers of London or The Dresden Files, this one might be a little harder to explain.
Alien
Pros: It's based on a popular film series and there's a fair chance most people will be familiar with it. The rules are straightforward, and I have my own scenarios I can run.
Cons: It's horror, specifically body horror, and that's really not some people's jam. I'd rather not have to give content warnings for a first ever game. That crit table is brutal.
Escape from Dino Island
Pros: Again, based on a popular film series which most people will have some familiarity with. Straightforward rules, very low prep on my part, and should be easy to get up and running. Built for one-shots.
Cons: Can end up going through characters rather fast, due to the injury rules. Needs plenty of spare characters. Also, being a prepless system it does call for more improv from the players than most.
Call of Cthulhu
Pros: Another classic gaming experience, and with a real world setting that doesn't require any knowledge of the entities involved. Percentile system makes it easy to understand your chances, and reasonably simple from the player side of things.
Cons: While I do own it, thanks to the recent Humble Bundle, I've never actually run it. While it is fairly simple from the players' end, it doesn't look simple due to the ridiculous number of skills. It's horror, and while there are plenty of scenarios that aren't likely to go anywhere particularly iffy, it's still not everyone's thing and character death is highly likely. Plus, as I said, many of my team are Indian and I don't like the idea of them looking up the Investigator's Handbook and encountering that particularly poorly chosen book cover.
Monster of the Week
Pros: Another modern day setting, with easy mechanics, and based on popular TV shows. Well designed playbooks to get people up to speed quickly. Loads of pre-written adventures so easy prep for me as well. Easier to keep the horror aspects on the down low than the more explicitly horror games above.
Cons: I know as much about the popularity of Buffy and Supernatural in India as I do about the popularity of Miss Marple. This is another one that really requires knowing the genre.
Conclusions
Currently Dragonbane is looking like my best option. It's the kind of game people think of when they think about RPGs, without being as complicated as my favourite Pathfinder 2e, and means I can break out some minis and polyhedral dice. I will be consulting the players though, to see if there's anything they're particularly interested in.
If the idea proves popular with the team I may also need to recruit an additional GM, which will also influence what gets run, as D&D or Call of Cthulhu GMs are probably going to be the easiest to find.
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