D&D/Pathfinder, Herosystem, BESM, GURPS...

I'm pretty old school having started with The Dark Eye and later moved on to AD&D 1st Edition and later 2nd Edition.

Today as far as I have heard many people prefer D&D 3.5 if they still have the rule books or Pathfinder which was designed as a D&D 3.5 compatible replacement since later D&D versions streamlined to gameplay too much for the taste of the core RPG crowd.

So Pathfinder might be a good place to start since many people play and recommend it and the rule books are generally a lot cheaper than for some other systems. Digital versions are also often available in bundles. Such a bundle is currently available on Humble, BTW.

www.humblebundle.com/books/pathfinder-10th-anniversary-books

I suppose it really comes down to complexity. D&D and pathfinder have all the overhead pre-written, while OVA, BESM, Herosystem and others give you core rules and you build the world yourself. (or buy the source books with things pre-built, modern day handguns names, damages, weights, etc).

I'd probably still go with D&D or Pathfinder... until they get their feet wet enough and they want to expand where the limits and annoyances of the fixed classes gets in the way, then approach with a template or point buy system for powers/abilities allowing her to expand however she wants. Jumping straight into say HeroSystem could be a bit too much, too many things to read. (Same with D&D spells, but stick with fighter/rogue classes and it's far simpler).

I remember having a pamphlet that was like 2 pages that explained GURPS in a nutshell, and it was very good. GURPS might be a better choice.


Or... maybe something more silly. Munchkin?

*gasp* She's dead to me!

Actually, with the quality of the movies after RotJ I'm not sure I like Star Wars all that much anymore.



p.s. This post was not helpful. :)

I've never played a tabletop RPG, but I was under the assumption that the only person who really needs anything is the dungeon master.

It's possible that she could find a local club near where she lives and play RPGs without ever having to buy anything. She could probably use the website called Meetup to find clubs like that.

The First question you should ask, when deciding on an RPG is: who am I going to play with? Then you ask your friends what they are interested in and agree on something everyone can live with. The entry costs are usually rather low, no matter which system you pick. Yes, you need the core rules and some dice (if you don't already have them) but that's basically it. Ignore all the expansions and stuff until got comfotable with the game.

A set of dice should be $10 or less. Well, in the US anyway. I see you're in Turkey.
D&D's a good go-to to start. You might try Pathfinder (which is based on D&D 3rd edition) -- it's a more "complicated" role-playing game, but it's cheaper, and the rules are entirely open-source (https://www.aonprd.com/) and currently super cheap on humblebundle.com to get the fancy with-art-and-layout version in PDFs.

If you want to go an alternate route, Fate is a great game and can be played any way one wants. There's no strong pre-published fantasy setting, but it's easy to "roll your own", as a generic system. Dice are harder to find, but can be mimicked with standard d6s. Even if you want a print copy, it's fairly inexpensive (though I don't know about shipping. https://fate-srd.com/ and the PDFs are PWYW on drivethrurpg.com
I wanted to thank you for saying this so I didn't have to. And I'm quoting it in its entirety to highlight its importance.

Despite modern "streaming culture" encouraging the idea that GMs (Game Masters) should be experts, I would encourage a new group staring together to just go at it. With RPGs, the only way of "not doing it right" is "not having fun". Just dig in and tell a story together! Use the rules to help you along.

Some excellent feedback here. Thank you very much everyone.

Depends on the game I think. I can't imagine playing D&D without everyone having the Player's Handbook. A simpler system, like Warhammer Fantasy RPG, can indeed work ok with only one set of books, at least once everyone has learned the basics (which is simple enough) and if everyone has the time to do character creation and later progression together before/after the game session, since they won't be able to do it at their leisure at home without the core book.

Anyway, it's usually best to have at least a second copy of a whatever core rulebook/player's hanbook contains the most important stuff that comes up often laying around, to make checking rules easier. If three people need to look up different details at virtually the same time and you only ahve one book the game can suddenly grind to a halt for 10 minutes. Then the people currently not holding the book start just talking about shit waiting for the other guy to find whatever he needs, and afterwards it's probably ten more minutes untill you really getting the game back on track.