One of my D&D 5e players is feeling a bit burned out but still loves the campaign and their character. They suggested taking breaks by running shorter campaigns in other RPG systems, especially those that focus more on narrative and less on crunchy mechanics. I’m open to running pre-made adventures rather than building everything from scratch. Specifically, I’m interested in short campaigns that would take about the same number of sessions as “Lost Mine of Phandelver” to finish. I want to avoid lengthy campaigns like “Masks of Nyarlathotep” or “Enemy Within,” and I prefer systems that don’t feel like D&D 5e or Pathfinder. Any suggestions for narrative or lightweight games with premade short campaigns?
9 Answers
You could also try letting a player run a short campaign, which can help relieve the GM burnout. Systems like Savage Worlds work great for this because they’re easy to pick up and flexible for a bunch of genres or styles.
There are ton of options, but since your player liked World of Darkness and wants something heroic/high fantasy that’s less crunchy than 5e, that narrows it down. Alien RPG is also great if you want to explore something sci-fi and raw, and it has a solid starter set with a manageable campaign length. For some fantasy options, Dragonbane has a neat collection of linked mini-adventures set in the Misty Vale area that you could run shorter versions of depending on how many sessions you want to do.
If you’re down to try something small and indie, there’s a French game called “L’Agence” that mimics action movie storytelling — plan, execute, things go wrong, adapt, and repeat until you win. One GM I know switched to this system just for the final session of a long D&D campaign and it worked really well for a tense, cinematic finish.
Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness games have lots of pre-made stories with ready-to-go characters. If your group is into narrative and drama but doesn’t want to dive deep into crunchy rules, those can be a lot of fun and usually don’t require tons of prep.
Another idea is to try narrative-focused D&D 5e variants that streamline the crunch but keep the feel. For example, systems like “DND Story Mode 5e” cut down on the complexity and focus on storytelling. Could be a nice middle ground if you don’t want to fully change systems but want a fresh feel.
My group faced similar burnout, so we grabbed starter sets from different systems to mix it up. We’ve tried Mork Borg, CY_BORG, Call of Cthulhu, and Aetherium. The starter sets usually include simple adventures to get you going. I’d also recommend trying something outside of Roll20 or similar platforms if you want to fully shake up the experience. For example, the Fantasy Flight Star Wars starter set uses unique dice that can really change the vibe if you want to get weird with it.
If you want something easy to pick up and very flexible, Savage Worlds is a solid choice. Character creation is quick and the rules are straightforward, plus it supports tons of different settings. Monster of the Week is also fun if you want episodic supernatural thrillers—kind of like playing your own Scooby-Doo or Supernatural style hunt every game session.
Blades in the Dark is a great shout if you’re after narrative focus without needing to prep much. The system encourages story-driven play, and you can get through a short campaign in about 5-10 sessions. Also, check out “Brought To The Light” for the Swords of the Serpentine system, which plays quite differently from traditional fantasy RPGs and has some neat pre-made content.
Swords of the Serpentine sounds interesting! I appreciate the suggestion since it’s quite different from what we usually play.
If you’re into sci-fi horror, Mothership is a fantastic choice. It has several short, engaging adventures like “Another Bug Hunt,” “Radio Free Hekate,” and “Warped Beyond Recognition.” The system is lightweight and easy to pick up, perfect for quick campaigns that still pack a punch.
Yeah the player did mention they’d like to stick to heroic/high fantasy but without as many rules as 5e or something like World of Darkness. So Dragonbane might be worth checking out with its modular approach to adventures.