Fortunately there are board games that can give that feel or smaller pen and paper experiences that might offer more of a one off game play. And you can do a one off game play with Dungeons and Dragons as well a one shot, but that might not be what you are looking for.

Fiasco

Fiasco is a pen and paper RPG, but it is one that is meant to be played in a single sitting. It is also one that you are meant to play with everyone as a player. So you lose the need for someone to be leading the story and basically having a different experience than everyone else.

Fiasco leans into the roll playing side of an RPG with impro focused prompts and collaborative story telling. It is also a game where things aren’t supposed to go that great. As the same, Fiasco, would suggest, the situations you are in and the story that is generated generally aren’t the best for the characters.

Spire’s End

Spire’s End is going to offer you more of a mechanical combat in a game though very luck heavy. In this, you and another person, or just playing solo, delve into a spire that has appeared in your town. Of course it isn’t full of nice things. In fact, it is where almost everyone in the town is being held. So can you explore, fight monsters, and find an end where you save the day?

Thus far, that is beyond what I’ve been able to do, But if you want to see how it plays, you can watch my game play below.

Legacy of Dragonholt

One that I had in my collection for a while, Legacy of Dragonholt is a choose your own adventure story combined with some character building. And I think out of all of these, it might be the most RPG like well, after Fiasco, but Legacy of Dragon holt has more of a standard feel to it.

Now, my one knock on it is that the writing is just okay. It toes a line where it seems like it should be more serious in it’s story. And sometimes it is serious, but it is meant for families to be able to play. Mom, Dad, a kid, and you can pass around the book and let people read passages. You spend tokens and players take turns making decisions. But one that I think is pretty solid. I’d love to see a new version or a new setting just with better quality writing.

Destinies

Now for something with very good writing, we have Destinies or soon coming out The Dark Quarter. You can still late pledge that one. But Destinies is a competitive game where each player is trying to fulfill their destiny. You explore the world, unlocking more of the map, rolling dice to complete challenges, and interacting with story.

Destinies uses an app to tell the story. Now you might not like apps at the table, but it does a great job. Mainly, it can keep answers to the story hidden while you play. And it can be played solo, that you can play without spoiling yourself. The app also allows for simpler interactions with items. You don’t need a massive book to cover every combination, just the data in the app.

Clank Legacy

Next up is the most board game out of all of them. Clank Legacy is going to be a game built upon the Acquisitions Incorporated crew from Penny Arcade and elsewhere. But this is a legacy style game which means to get the full story you and a group need to play it several times. However, it isn’t as long as playing a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons or something like that.

At the heart of it, Clank Legacy is a game where you build out a deck of cards as you play. Using those cards you are going on quests, maybe, I don’t know all the details for Legacy. But in the regular version you delve into a dungeon trying not to make too much noise. But the legacy version adds on to that.

Dungeon Party

Finally, if you want something silly, and a number of these are silly, Dungeon Party is a great option. It is a dungeon crawling game where you just get to go in and beat up monsters. But you do that by playing quarters. You bounce your token, though recommend you use actual quarters, to get to land on monsters and defeat them.

As you defeat them you get treasures that give you new abilities that you can use. This is not a drinking game, but it could easily be made into one. And that is kind of the point of it. A chance to just be goofy and have a good time around the table with that fantasy theme.

Final Thoughts

RPG’s are hard to emulate the whole experience outside of a big game. And I kept games like Gloomhaven, Folklore The Affliction, Tainted Grail, and Sword & Sorcery off the list because they are all games that require more commitment.

But I think that they are good options. And even the longer ones here, Legacy or Dragonholt, Destinies, and Clank Legacy are all shorter than your standard campaign. Plus, there is some level with them that they are easy to get to the table. For someone who wants that feel but doesn’t want to remember a plethora of stats and abilities, these attempt to make it easier.

What are some experiences that feel like an RPG without that big time commitment. Let me know your favorites in the comments below.

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Frustration

This is kind of the basic response that most people will have. They will grab their dice and roll, fail, possibly again, and get annoyed at the dice. They will complain how they can’t hit anything. It is bad luck, their dice just hate them. And while rolling poorly isn’t fun for them, the complaining and frustration takes everyone else to their mood. As the RPG Academy says: “If you’re having fun you’re doing it right.” And frustration can remove the fun.

It’s hard and not always possible, actually, to not get frustrated. And while I tend to roll okay, I do know how it goes when you have a series of bad rolls. And they always seem to come at the worst time. But, I think, there is a responsibility at the table, from all players, to make bad rolls less of a big deal.

How Do You Lean Into It?

• Make it a joke
• Help action
• Give advantage
• Fail forward

Make It A Joke

This one is really something that needs to be led by the player who is failing at their roll. Lean into the fact you roll poorly. Joke about how you’re going to fail in the big situations above the table. But also in the game, this is happening to your character. Make it a joke for them as well. Turn the bad dice roll into a role playing opportunity.

The character you play should be aware of the fact they aren’t doing well. When you miss three attacks on the big boss in a row but can kill a random rat like no ones business, you’d know. Or when you can’t find the obvious clue in the room. Lean into it, lean into the fact that you don’t know or can’t hit. Tell the other characters that you can’t see anything but point out how poorly you’ve done at it before.

The Help Action

This goes for the players who roll poorly and those who are playing with them. Use the help action. Help basically gives the player advantage on whatever they are trying to do. And I say that this is something almost anyone at the table can do, and most people forget about. It isn’t a flashy action, but when someone helps, your rolls on average should improve by 5, I believe that’s the math anyways.

If you are the other players, give up an action to help that rogue who can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn. Or help them look for clues in a room. Don’t make the roll yourself, but give them advantage.

And for that player who rolls poorly, help out in key situations in battle. This ties into the first one, make it a joke. If your character is aware that they fail in key situations, then use the help action for the next character instead. Create that distraction in the boss fight. Or narrate how when there’s an investigation going on, you’re handing things to the person investigating to help them. Use that help action as an aware move of your character.

Give Out Advantage/Inspiration

This one is for the Dungeon Master. And it comes down to giving out inspiration. That gives that player who rolls poorly a way to get advantage whenever. And give out inspiration when they do something cool, but also give out some when they mess it up and narrate how it goes poorly. If they are owning a bad roll, that is worthy of inspiration.

Fail Forward

Now, I have this one last, but generally, this one is extremely important. In the big boss fight, failing forward might not be an option, because combat has more rules in place. But for an important check, fail forward somehow. Really, most rolls can fail forward.

The example for this is that players are looking for a trapdoor in a room. They know someone came into the room and when they come in there is no one there. Player 1 rolls, they fail miserable, player 2 fails, and now it’s down to player 3. If player 3 fails, that means no one has found the trapdoor and the person gets away. Well, person 3, in a fail forward, rolls and fails. Does that mean that that ends that encounter?

With failing forward, player 3, or the group, finds the trapdoor. But the person getting away has done two things. They have had time to put in a small trap on the trapdoor. And they’ve gotten more of a head start they had player 1 found the trapdoor on the first roll. It gives the player consequences for rolling poorly, but it keeps the story moving. You never want the story to just die.

The Dice Might Hate You

So yes, the dice, they might hate you. But there are things that as the person whom the dice hate, the players at the table, and the Dungeon Master running the game that you can do to make it better. This is a game after all. And we want people to have fun when playing the game. Not get everything they want, but to have fun, and a bunch of poor rolls can certainly hurt that. So figure out ways, behind what I’ve suggested, to be flexible with your character and have fun at the table.

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