I’m in the fortunate and privileged position of having some very long term friends in my life. Unfortunately, we’re now spread across the country. We’d like to try and keep our social connection by playing a TTRPG over zoom or something.
I have never played a TTRPG before. I really got into Disco Elysium and that’s got me interested in TTRPGs. Other friends have been interested for years but no one’s bothered to try and organize something. So all of us have zero experience with running an actual game. And no one to guide us through it who has experience.
I’m looking for recommendations for a TTRPG for us get started on. Needs to work over Zoom. I’d say the most important aspect is that it’s fun and social. “Fun” sounds like an obvious one but the reality is I have one shot to make playing TTRPGs “stick” with this group. If my friends don’t have a great time with it we’ll probably not play after this.
Happy to answer any questions about myself or my group that would help you come up with a recommendation.
I know a lot of people recommend rules-light games for beginners, but if your group has neither roleplaying experience or theater experience, then something more structured and board-gamey may actually benefit. What I find is that players without any experience fall into choice paralysis in rules light games, and having clearer structures can facilitate learning. It really does depend on what sort of experience your players are interested in. If I had to make a blind recommendation, I think that the Free League "Year Zero Engine" games might be a good candidate if you've never played a TRPG before. They have the right balance of rules complexity for new players, good GM support and high production values. There are plenty of different genres (and degrees of complexity) in the ecosystem.
Some examples that you may want to look at:
Most of the these games have a starter kit with one-shot adventures that are meant to introduce players to the system and roleplaying more general.