What are the best quick start rules you've ever seen? What made them successful?

I'm curious, because I'm looking to produce some quick start rules for an early alpha playtest. It's easy for me to gloss over presentation issues when I'm literally sitting across from the players and can explain myself.

I'd rather learn good rules presentation from the get go, and I think good quick start rules are key to this. So which ones stand out?

Well, the Dying Earth RPG's quickstart rules were so good it ended up negatively affecting sales of the game so they started charging for it.

I like the BRP quickstart... not too long, not too short... includes some sample adventures... free.

GURPS Lite is well done as well.

I've heard good things, and tried reading, the Exalted quickstart... but never did finish it.

I supose there are two different things here. Quickstart rules versus starter set rules. I'll mention a couple of favorites from both.

Quickstart Rules

Some of the old TSR quickstart rules sets for 2E were pretty well done. There were 2-3 of these back in the day, plus one for Diablo II (using AD&D 2E) that was really nice. They were short and to the point, and gave a good introduction for the game along with pregens, etc.

The Call of Cthulhu quickplay rules always seemed to be well done. I don't play much CoC, but they gave a nice overview of the game and a leadoff adventure.

The Castles & Crusades quickplay rules from recent "Free RPG Day" have been nice. They give a few core classes and low levels and explain how you can use the rules to make your own characters, then half of the booklet is an adventure.

Starter Sets

The Pathfinder starter set is amazing. It has complete rules for low-level characters and is totally compatible with the full Pathfinder rules. It comes with pregens and great artwork layout. I'm not a big fan of Pathfinder, but the starter set is really well done.

I think the old WEG Star Wars starter set is excellent as well. You can start an adventure almost immediately, it has good components, and it well put together.

For D&D, the old "basic" boxed sets were pretty darned good. (Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer ... all three editions were nice.) They had solid rules for low-level characters, had a module, came with dice...  The Mentzer Red Box is probably the best "how to play D&D" rules set I've seen.

I just picked up Catylist's new Shadowrun "beginner's box" the other day. I've never really played Shadowrun, but this one makes me want to give it a shot and was only $20.

In General

The best starter sets (quickplay or boxed rules) have a couple of features, in my opinion:

(1) Interesting pre-gen characters.

(2) Rules which are simple and easy to use, yet compatible with the full product.

(3) Some sort of module or adventure designed for immediate play.

(4) An attempt to put in decent inspirational artwork so the player can "see" the type of game they are going to experience.

(5) If a game requires non-standard dice, include them. Heck, if the game requires even a bunch of d6's maybe throw them in as well.

Does MERP count?

I still like the quickstarter for The Riddle of Steel. In fact, it makes for a much better game than the actual full treatment.

Two off the top of my head:

Tunnels & Trolls
Savage Worlds Test Drive


A quickstart is like an elevator pitch- you should be able to covey what your game is about and what it can do and what it does best in just a few pages.  There should be enough to start a game, play for a bit and leave you wanting more.

1st Ed Ghostbusters came with a 4-page pamphlet that laid out everything you need to know to play. I have had folks learn it in under 5 minutes.

1st ed. Star Wars didn't come with a "quick start" but also takes 5 minutes to learn.

Never seen those bested.

Also two of the best-written and laid-out rules sets of all time.

Another vote for the Call of Cthulhu Quick-Start rules.

The essentials of the game are distilled in a dozen pages or so.  Players can generate their own characters instead of using pre-gens (which I generally think is a good idea).  And the intro adventure has a nice structure to get new players into the game.

I just reviewed the most recent version of the CoC QS rules:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=31309

Quote from: Matt;8067141st Ed Ghostbusters came with a 4-page pamphlet that laid out everything you need to know to play. I have had folks learn it in under 5 minutes.

1st ed. Star Wars didn't come with a "quick start" but also takes 5 minutes to learn.

Never seen those bested.

Also two of the best-written and laid-out rules sets of all time.

I've seen them equaled at least. FASERIP

Quote from: TristramEvans;806797I've seen them equaled at least. FASERIP

If you mean the awesome yellow boxed set where Spidey explains the rules, then I agree and it was an oversight. What a great game and presentation.

Quote from: Matt;806817If you mean the awesome yellow boxed set where Spidey explains the rules, then I agree and it was an oversight. What a great game and presentation.

Yeah, Im still astounded by that game's design

Quote from: TristramEvans;806818Yeah, Im still astounded by that game's design

I read it now and then just for fun. Also never tire of telling folks it (and almost everything else TSR produced for MSH) is free and legally downloadable at the Classic Marvel Forever site.

Quote from: Matt;806819I read it now and then just for fun. Also never tire of telling folks it (and almost everything else TSR produced for MSH) is free and legally downloadable at the Classic Marvel Forever site.

Wow. That is pretty much perfect. It's fun, it's straight to the point, and the game design is so fricking good that you don't need a lot of extra information.

You just could not do that with most other games.

The Tunnels&Trolls quick start rules are nicely done and are still available free.  Dying Earth quick start is one of if not the best I've seen.

Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn included a nice quick start booklet.

The character Play Books for Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures are almost a quick start. They make character generation fun, interesting, and build a story along with the character. Couple them with one of the Adventure Packs and the whole game serves as a quick start.