5 great no-prep tabletop RPGs under $20

polygon.com:

Tabletop fans can argue endlessly about what constitutes a perfect roleplaying game, but one thing every gamer I know agrees on lately: Scheduling games is hard. People are busy, last-minute dropouts are common, and too many campaigns die because it just wasn’t possible to play regularly. That’s one of the many reasons I’m a big fan of no-prep RPGs: It’s easy to grab one and jump right into a story if one of your regular game crew unexpectedly can’t make it to a scheduled session.

But there are a lot of other reasons to have a handful of pick-up-and-play RPGs on hand. Maybe your regular group wants to take a break and try something new, but you don’t want to invest a lot of time or money on a new game you aren’t sure they’ll love. Maybe you want to meet gamers: Organizing an easy-in one-shot to run at a convention or a game café open-table day is a great way to audition new players for your home game. Maybe you’ve tried some of the most popular pick-up-and-play games, like For The Queen, Fiasco, or The Quiet Year, and you’re ready to keep expanding your horizons.

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Or maybe you’re just looking for the perfect gift for the tabletop gamer in your life, and you want to start at a reasonable cost point. Either way, here are some low-to-no-prep indie RPGs I personally love, all under $20 and ready to put a new spin on your game nights.

Nick Wedig’s melancholy card-based storytelling game is one of my favorites for pickup play at conventions. The premise instantly grabs every group I’ve ever shown it to, and the game’s structure really brings out players’ creativity and taste for drama.

This one doesn’t need a game master: Every player takes a deck themed around a single word (the base set is Sacrifice, Reflection,