What's the best roleplaying game for beginners?

Not enough data for a meaningful answer.

A lot depends on the group of people you're playing with. Their preferred genres, their experience with other mediums (video games, theatre, etc), the social dynamics of the group and what you know about their abilities.

With a bit more definition, there are a lot of games we can recommend for new players, but in a vacuum the suggestions will be scattershot and wildly variable without any real context to base them off.

Freeform with single d6, character sheet in descriptive rather than statistics format, and GM deciding on how hih you need to roll to succeed by arbitrary judgement

>>53001358
GURPS

>>53001358
Any game with a good dm.

If the dm is a noob, play 3.5 edition dnd, core rulebooks only, and don't house-rule anything for the first campaign.

From Another Time Another Land
Via the New Legends
Wraeththlu: From Enchantment to Fullfillment.
Senzar
World of Synnibar

If they can handle these five, they can handle anything.

>>53001462
Don't forget RHW.

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>>53001358
Dungeon World.

>>53001358
At the risk of angering the mods, there is a certain new RPG for a certain Hasbro bran about equines that actually has an extremely basic system that is super-easy to learn.

You DO have to deal with the fact that it's pony, but there's no reason why you can't just change some of the names around and run with it.

/tg/ and /mlp/ together even collaborated on some homebrew races that should be easy to convert to a fantasy setting.

Unicorn ---> Elf
Pegasus ---> Aven
Earth pony ---> Human

Changeling ---> Changeling
Griffin ---> Dwarf (change their Fly talent to something else)
Diamond Dog ---> Kobold
Zebra ---> Gnome
Buffalo ---> Giant

>>53001699
*Actually replace Aven with Faerie or something to keep things fairy-tale seeming.

Gnome could be replaced by troll, but in this sense would be more like troll dolls than monsters that live under the bridge and bother goats.

>>53001358
D&D 5e followed by Savage Worlds.

>>53001462
Has anyone ever played FATAL here?

>>53001400
Dubs speaks the truth. Or play Big Motherfuckin' Crab Truckers.

>>53001830
We've had several Fatal games on /tg/. Most of the time it is just chargen for the lols, but one time a series of battles was ran on /tg/. In one of them the wizard accidentally holocausted everything in a 5 mile radius, including himself.

>>53001358
This really depends on what genre they want to play and how old they are. For kids age 8-12 I recommend Risus, pick a TV-show or book they like and some Cliches that make sense for it. Any Lasers and Feelings hack works too.

For teenagers 13-16 I recommend FATE for setting agnostic games and Don't Rest Your Head for some cool, simple horror games. For young adults and up you might as well use whatever game system you feel most comfortable running and explaining how to play. If it's moderately complex give them pre-gens or something.

Honestly, though, the key to getting newbies into tabletop isn't the system or the setting, it's having a really good adventure with art and handouts and telling a really nice story. I started with D&D 3E when I was 13 and I had a blast because the party was in the middle of a really cool dungeon. The system was a little complicated and my vanilla Fighter felt kinda lame compared to the Battle Sorcerer (we were 8th level) but who cares, I was cutting gelatinous cubes in half while lava poured from the walls and a necromancer sent waves of skeletons at us from all directions. It was rad as hell and still memorable after more than a decade.

>>53001358
Almost anything other than DnD, but since you're new and all the people you're playing with will probably be new, then you'll get roped into playing DnD and having a pretty bad time.

I would suggest something rules lite instead. If you have to go DnD, go OSR with it

>>53001358
>>53002409
This guy's a faggot, play 5e. It's more balanced than OSR, not to mention that your character actually gets more benefits as he or she levels up other than numerical increases to statistics.

An OSR Fighting-Man is the most boring thing that has ever been put to payer. Well, that and the CW Samurai.

>>53001358

Depends on the preferred genre, but here are a few:

FFG Star Wars
D&D 5e
Call of Cthulhu 6edition

>>53002543
Honestly I'd say OSR's barebonesness is a benefit when it comes to new players.
Fighting men can hit stuff good and wizards know 1-2 spells, as opposed to having special abilities and massive spell lists straight out the gate.
The more mechanical/gamey stuff there is, the more abstract the game becomes from reality, the more your players are going to have to adjust.

The emphasis on avoiding combat helps as well. In my experience, new players are quite good at coming up with zany schemes to get what they want,

>>53004068

The problem with OSR is that it comes with a completely different perspective and playstyle to most RPGs, one that only really exists within its specific niche. This is fine for fans of it, but makes it an odd entry point for new players, since they'll learn an exception, rather than the norm.

>>53001443
Don't listen to this idiot. Play 5th edition without the feats. 3.5, even with only the core rulebook is clusterfuck of unnecessary math.

Risus
D&D Basic

I will tell you what not to pick:

Not d&d or pathfinder
Not gurps
Not fatal, hybrid (or whateaver that rpg made by a crazy person is called).
No Sword path glory, rhand morninstar mission

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>>53001430
This guy knows what's up.

Half my current group started on GURPS, and half started on 5e, and the difference is stark.

See, because of the way that GURPS is set up, it trains people to actually make CHARACTERS, with actual flaws and emotions and preferences. All of your character traits are right there on the paper, so it makes new players more comfortable by giving them something to riff on, rather than forcing them to blindly improv.

D&D on the other hand, trains people to play a class, race, and MAYBE an alignment if the DM is super autistic about staying in character.

I'm never starting a group off on 5e again

>>53001384

fpbp

>>53001358
It depends on what you are looking for. Combat? Narration? It would be nice to know more
A system I discovered recently is Atomic Highway, intended for post apocalyptic game, the system uses D6 and it's very easy to learn. You can find the pdf for free on internet

Everyone Is John

>>53001358
D&D

because you can find players for it

>>53001430
This, it may not be super easy for first time GMs, but its great for players. I had two people who had never played table top before, i guided them through the character creation and then we played and they picked up on it real quick.

>>53004970
It just sounds like you have shit players, because I've never DM'd for anything other than D&D, and this has never, ever been a problem for me.

I haven't managed to actually play/run a game of it yet. But Upwind seems like it'd be a good starter RPG.

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>>53006373
THIS

>>53001462
>Senzar
Nothing wrong with it

>>53006373
this guy gets it

Alternatively, there's a neat little game called Engine Heart that I've found simple and easy to play recently. Might be good to start with, though it's just my opinion.