(I hope that by being very specific in my criteria that this question will be deemed acceptable to this site. Apologies in advance if I did not meet what I understand to be the requirements for asking questions here.)
I am looking to try playing a little Dungeons & Dragons, or something very much like it, after a very long absence. I have not played in twenty years. However, I am not looking to take this up as a major hobby. I just want to dabble in it, not take it too seriously, and emphasize story telling over strict dice rolling and rules. The key elements I'm looking for are:
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No requirement of miniatures or maps. All game play is conducted through verbal description.
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Ideally, easy character sheet generation. Something like no more than an hour to create a character.
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The dungeon master (or whatever that role is called) has a lot of discretion to make expedient choices in order to keep things moving.
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Ideally, support with apps on mobile devices that can reduce the requirement to carry books and other game related paraphernalia.
The game will be conducted probably only about once a month, but hopefully each one session could be a significant amount of time, up to about 6 hours at the longest. The number of players is anticipated to be around 5 people, 1 DM and 4 players, but the number of players could be a couple more.
With those criteria, is there a role playing game in the fantasy (swords & sorcery) genre that is best suited to meet my needs? I have heard that Pathfinder is supposed to be more accessible than current D&D versions (Only what I've heard, I don't really know if that's true), but even Pathfinder seems to demand a steep learning curve before one can even think of beginning a game.
Best Answer
I would heartily recommend you try Dungeon World.
Let's take your points in order:
Dungeon World, like all games derived from Apocalypse World, is centered entirely on the fiction. The rules come in the form of moves.
All play begins and ends in the story. When something in the fiction - the conversation at the table that tells the story - meets particular, specific conditions, it triggers the mechanics in the move. Most moves will have the form of: roll 2d6 + some stat modifier. On a result of 10+, something altogether good happens; on 7-9, something good happens along with some price or choice; on 6 or less, something bad will happen. The rules feed back right into the fiction. And the story continues from there.
Dungeon World character sheets, like Apocalypse World playbooks, have everything necessary to create, play, and level up each character class. The generic move sheets contain all the player-facing mechanics available to all characters regardless of class.
Making characters boils down to making a few choices and ticking the appropriate boxes. Then there is some collaborative decision making with the group to assure that they are all motivated to interact with each other instead of all just meeting in a tavern. Character creation for a whole group can take less than half an hour if everyone can be kept moving along. The actual time will depend on your group. But there is no optimization required or even really possible. Awesome, interesting decisions are far better than "good" ones.
The whole game is built around keeping the fiction going. The choices and consequences of moves build excitement and complications in the fiction. The GM gets to make decisions, but the players are able to contribute, too. In fact, bouncing decisions back to the group takes some pressure off of the GM to come up with everything on his own while simultaneously giving the players a sense of power and agency within the game.
The GM has moves, too, but they are not the same a player moves. In games derived from Apocalypse World, the GM moves are asymmetrical - the GM has rules, but they are not the same rules as the players - because the game is about story generation and not simulation. As GM, you will never roll dice. You never roll to see if your monsters hit. If you advertised a threat - The ogre's huge club is swinging towards you! and the players reacted - I hold my shield fast in both hands to protect the children! and you called for a move roll (I would say Defend in this example) and the result said the player takes damage, then they just take the damage. You say what it is, and they roll it. They knew that club was coming and could judge the consequences of protecting that child.
This asymmetry means that you are free to advance the story and make good on the threats you bring out instead of engaging in simulation and hoping your big bad monster can actually connect.
All the books are available in PDF. The need for paraphernalia is practically non-existant. Some paper, dice, pencils, and the move, reference, and character sheets are all that is really required.
Dungeon World takes the revolutionary and evolutionary advances of Apocalypse World and transforms them to fit the world of classic fantasy roleplaying. Your group is ideally sized for Dungeon World. I have used it to great success in a similar situation with infrequent play but good-sized chunks of play each time.