What's the best system for running a Witcher-esque campaign?

GM with 22 years experience here. (22 of GMing, more of playing).

Use Dungeon World system, but adapt (Dungeon World calls it "hacking" the system) it to Witcher setting. Just steal the core of the rules, if you're a regular dm/gm I'm sure you know how to do that. You can create your own custom moves and there is a guide in the book how to do that.

www.dungeonworldsrd.com

It's 2d6+appropriate mod, 6- = fail with consequences 7-9 = success but with consequences, 10+ = pure success.

Only players roll.

It is one of THE greatest systems I have ever played. The entire dw book is like a manual on how to be a great gm. The only bad advice I found in there was to split up your players as a 'move' you can make. That's always a terrible idea, unless its VERY temporary, like split them up but in the same room, to solve a trap puzzle.

Other than that, no warnings

The system is built to make amazing narrative with very even pacing and lots of interaction.

Let your players make up as much or as little as you like while still having as much control as GM as you want - but if you're stuck for an idea or etc. you can actually ask a player 'what is here?' or 'why is that?' and have what they say become reality.

I know what I'm saying isn't going to make complete sense without having read the rule book but trust me - its worth your time.

The rule book reads pretty bland and unappealing, that's VERY deceptive. I wasn't impressed by the actual book itself -- until I actually TRIED the system.

Blew me away.

I almost feel like I could never go back to a pass-fail dice system ever again. (Like anything d20, or d100.)

You can find the rules at www.dungeonworldsrd.com.

Good luck!

>>54136536
baka

>>54136536
>Dungeon World
Is this pasta?

>>54136509
No system takes it upon itself to make out of combat interactions as deep and as meaningful as in combat interactions. At that point just pick your poison.

>>54136709
It's reheated pasta.

PbtA games aren't bad though. You could definitely capture the Witcher feel with it, although you'd need players who collaborate.

>>54136722
This guy is full of shit.

>>54136509
Heavily shopped Barbarians of Lemuria could work. Its got minimalist magic (like the witcher), broad and diverse character creation options, and the system can handle basically anything by design as long as the players are willing and capable to roleplay well.

>>54136722
FATE handles combat basically the same as non-combat. So do PbtA systems, now that I think about it (except DW).

>>54136759
>This guy is full of shit.
Prove me wrong.

>>54136796
Legend of the Five Rings. There, you're wrong.

>>54136809
What does it do differently from D&D's binary single-roll resolution method?

>>54136709
>>54136754
Pasta aside, how is dungeon world?

>>54136796
Barbarians of Lemuria, L5R, Fate, and even the kind of toxic horsecrap WW puts out all fly in the face of your BS "I only play D&D" mentality.
If you want to get technical, proving a negative is almost always rhetorically impossible: prove you're right.

>>54136536
>GM with 22 years experience here.
Redflag
>rest
Oh, it's just pasta

>>54136858
I cant remember if its a horrible 3.5 clone or not, or if thats RQ. If its the one Im thinking of its a mess.

>>54136509
Pathfinder is the best game to realistically create the gritty world needed for the Witcher. The casual realism in the system will also let your players be able to make roleplay decisions with the utmost mechanical information.

There's even an alchemist class so you can faithfully recreate a Witcher.

>>54136903
>Pathfinder is the best game to-
Let me just stop you there, because there are very few circumstances where Pathfinder is the best game for any purpose.

Pathfinder is like Java: it'll work for most things, but you'd better have an excuse for why you're not using something better.

>>54136897

Dungeon World is an attempt to transfer the "feel" of D&D into a PbtA game, with mixed results. Honestly I'd say the GM advice parts are probably the best things in the book.

Adam Koebel is a great GM. As a game designer I'm not so sure.

>>54136858
It's pretty okay. It is simple, has a good GM-ing guide (thinking about it, it gives some good advice for factions, for example, and although I never used it much, it's got things like city-developing/trading and such which is something that happens in the third game), but it's also very narrative and some things it got from the D&D side of the family tree (like HP or the way stats are set up) clash with that style, hard.

Overall, good game, not the best it could be. Grab a PDF from somewhere.

>>54136897
You are definitely thinking of something else.

>>54136947
Not interested in dungeon world necessarily, I'm looking for a system to hold some fantasy one shot with, obviously not interested in going back to D&D. Even generic systems like GURPS or savage worlds can be fine if they're decent. Not too rule-heavy and I don't need much prep time as with my players I learned to be flexible and make up stuff on the fly to go with the flow.

>>54137000
DW is pretty good for oneshots, it has all the rules needed by the players on their sheet, for example, and it thrives on a DM who can do good improv.

>>54137071
Will definitely look into it then, thank you

>>54136858

Memes aside it doesn't really work mostly because of all the D&D mechanical stuff tacked to it that doesn't work as the rules don't really care about mechanics.

Apocalypse World on the other hand is really good at what it does as a fiction first, narrative story telling game.

There's not a lot of the 'game' portion of RPG and things can feel very arbitrary as there's no real mechanics to adjudicate things logically but it's fun and simple to.play as like a baby's first RPG.

>>54136509
Soon lad

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Witcher_Role-Playing_Game

>>54136509

So a bunch of rangers in DnD with their spells mucked about with.

>>54136509
GURPS

Some guys made a setting book and bestiary.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzai7htxub31oyn/GURPS%20Witchers%20and%20their%20World%20-%20Characters.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0iiwm5fgibln2my/GURPS%20Witchers%20and%20their%20World%20-%20Monstrum.pdf?dl=0