Hey fellow tabletop people: what are your favorite GMless games? I'm trying to run more, and I'm down for recommendations 

Please no solo games -- this would be for 2-6 people, maybe. (Definitely 2, sometimes up to 6, so something for 4 is great.)

Boosts welcome.

#ttrpg

@titania Fiasco is always a great starting point.

Orbital and Wanderhome are my favorite Belonging Outside Belonging games at the moment, if you'd like to go dice-less as well.

Ironsworn & Starforged do GM-less questing really well.

Microscope, Kingdom, and In This World are all fun GM-less games that depart a bit further from your typical "party of adventurers"-style games.

The Zone offers some great weird-horror one-shots.

@titania Fiasco! I'm partial to the first edition (the one with out the pre-printed cards) but both are great for GMless one-shots

@titania "This Town is Full of Monsters" by Aleks Samoylov worked really well for us as a multiple-session game - it's a game about building up eldritch mysteries

"i'm sorry did you say street magic" by Caro Asercion is a wonderful collaborative worldbuilding game - it's a Microscope hack, if you know that game, but much smaller scope and the rules encourage a more chill, yes-and style of play.

"I Have the High Ground" by Jess Levine is strictly two player, but it's fantastic - you create and then play out the duel of posturing and banter that precedes the duel of weapons, using rock-paper-scissors mechanics to capture the back-and-forth.

"ECH0" by Role Over Play Dead is a heartbreaking little freeform game about the dying ghost of a mech pilot from a long-past war and the children who reunite them with the wreckage of their mech. We played one of the children, and it was super fun and silly until it wasn't - we're tearing up a little, it's very touching.

"Long Distance Camping" by cloverfirefly is a super lighthearted game for remote play by a group of friends - very much a framework for freeform roleplay.

"Wanderhome" by Jay Dragon (we got the itch.io pdf edition in a bundle) is a really wholesome Belonging Outside Belonging game, but in our limited experience you really need to bring some kind of plot to it to make it shine - figure out what the player characters are trying to do, so you have this back-and-forth of gaining tokens through character moments and spending tokens pursuing your group's goals.

This Town Is Full of Monsters by Aleks Samoylov

How can you just sit there and eat pizza!?

itch.io
@Packbat thank you!! I've been really curious about "I'm sorry did you say street magic" (LGS sells a bound copy of it), so I'm glad to know it's good!

@titania we played a game a couple weeks back with some folks we met through their actual-play podcast - one of the other players introduced a sculptor into the city just as we were planning to add a piece of public art, so it turned into that character's piece, and then later someone referenced it during an event

the game is full of that kind of thing - one player adding a thing and other players building it up

@Packbat I will definitely check it out, thanks for the reminder! 

@titania Getting in early with my suggestion of #Starforged, which, despite the rumors, is not just solo only. It does work with multiple players and is entirely GMless.

You can include its predecessor #Ironsworn in here as well, but for my money the science fiction manifestation is actually superior. Not just because I prefer science fiction but because there are a couple of minor rules changes which end up having some very pleasant knock on effects.

The openness of the license to the game means that there are a vast number of third-party supplements and extensions available which touch on a vast number of possibilities. If I were recommending a GMless game to anybody today, this is where I would start.

#TTRPG

https://www.ironswornrpg.com/product-ironsworn-starforged

Ironsworn - Starforged

Learn more about Starforged, the standalone evolution of the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game. Includes full support for solo, co-op, and guided play!

ironsworn

@titania However, if we're going further afield in the #TTRPG lexicon, how about EVERYTHING by Ben Robbins, from #Microscope to #Kingdom, to Follow (which you can have for free now), to #InThisWorld – all of which are GMless games and all of which are fantastic that your defined player numbers.

If you haven't experienced anything by Ben Robbins before, I would suggest starting with Kingdom, because it's going to be the closest to the expected RPG format, but my favorite is definitely Microscope because being able to zoom in and out of entire histories is incredibly fun.

There is literally nothing on this page that you would not enjoy if you are looking for GMless games.

https://www.lamemage.com/

Lame Mage Productions

@titania We can go even more afield into #TTRPG obscura.

#ECH0 is an odd little game which involves GMless storytelling and map creation but does really want either one-on-one play or three or more players, which may not be a problem or could be depending on how you foresee playing these games. It's extremely lightweight and has a very specific sort of mode it intends to be played and but – we are creative people.

It's definitely one of the more unusual examples of the genre.

https://roleoverplaydead.itch.io/ech0

ECH0 by Role Over Play Dead

Peace. Kids playing in mech wreckage. A ghost. One last journey to find a final resting place.

itch.io
@titania I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I played The Quiet Year with some friends and it was a very fun experience. It's a GMless map building RPG where you build up a community over the course of a year. Highly recommend.
@WizardOfKoz The Quiet Year is a fave. If you like it I recommend The Ground Itself https://everestpipkin.itch.io/the-ground-itself
The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin

A world-building game about places over time

itch.io
@titania I'm not entirely sure what would qualify as a tabletop RPG without a game master. I guess I could recommend things like pandemic legacy and betrayal at house on the hill? Any of the legacy updates to board games really.

@TheMNWolf You're in for a pleasant surprise. There are quite a number of them and it's a well-established genre!

The Quiet Year is a favorite of mine. Rusalka is good. People in my tabletop group just finished Cerebos and enjoyed it a lot -- and there are a great number of suggestions in the replies here 

Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands by Meguey & Vincent Baker, et al

The messy lives of Mobile Frame pilots

itch.io