Well, there is no need to make a combat heavy campaign no matter what system you use. One of the most story-centric campaigns I’ve ever played was using the old Hero system which has some pretty complicated combat systems. Use what you want and ignore what you don’t.
I will be a contrarian here. The problem with D&D when starting out is you need a DM, and a bad DM is enough to make one shun the hobby forever. So for someone that age I would recommend one of the recently release D&D boardgames Wrath of Ashardalon or Castle Ravenloft.
To a fair approximation, these games are just like D&D, except more fun and with less wankery. If the kid likes that, they can try “real” D&D later.
True, I’ve been looking at various boardgames for my kids. I’d like to try Decent, but it’s a bit over their heads right now. I’ve read good things about the newer D&D game, Wrath of Ashardalon. Plus, it has minis which are cool in their own right. Though by nature I think these sorts of boardgame/rpg hybrids are pretty light on the RPG and heavy on the combat. But still…minis!
You’re presuming they want to play a combat orientated game. While most people play D&D as a combat game, especially with 4th ed, it doesn’t have to go that way. If she wants to roleplay she can with D&D, but she’d have to homerule Castle Ravenlost because it’s purely rules for a dungeon crawl.
As for the bad GM thing, I get the feeling it doesn’t matter when kids start out playing together and developing together. If you had a brilliant GM run through a campaign with them they might stick with it for a while, then they might abandon it when their own campaign isn’t as good. If they’re all playing together with no experience, they won’t know any better. Plus they’ll be less grognardy/nerdy about it. They’ll do what’s fun rather than what’s more correct or accurate, or what ties into the lore better. Especially as the daughter is 12. There are tonnes of stories from loads of gamers out there who started off when they were that age. They all recoil in horror at how bad their stories are but still often rate them as the most fun they had. And it’s the fun that kept them in the game, they just got better at GMing or playing a character as they got more experience.
Depending on who’s running the game, I recommend anything using the FATE system by Evil Hat Games, such as Spirit of the Century. It relies a lot on cooperative narrative between players and GM, and has well-designed mechanics for players helping define the story as it progresses.
They’re nothing like an RPG at all, though, unless all your RPG stories consist of “a man meets you in a tavern, and tells you there is treasure in a cave nearby.”
The most accessible RPG I can think of is “Big Eyes, Small Mouth”, an awesome Anime-based RPG with three stats that can be used for any setting, so you could even make a Pokemon-based setting or something.
The guys over at Kenzerco have Dawg: The RPG if she likes dogs. It gets silly when everyone can only communicate with each other via barking.
It’s not exactly as pretty as the others listed, but at $5 for a pdf and $1 each for some pregen adventures, it’s not exactly a huge financial commitment.
There’s a free system primer here that gives a pretty good idea what it’s about:
Seems pretty great for a story/imagination-focused game, though in this case it would have been ideal if there were some cool fantasy games based on it, of course.
See if you find a copy of Toon. A Warner-Brothers style cartoon role-playing game with simple mechanics and an emphasis on folks making goofy stuff up as they go along.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one, it’s awesome. :)
Warrior, Rogue, & Mage - haven’t tried it myself but heard mechanics are greatly simplified, its generally well reviewed on RPGNow, and its free.
I can’t disagree more.
Ravenloft and Ashardalon aren’t RPGs at all in any meaningful sense of the word. They’re board games, and not very good ones at that. You’re better off getting Betrayal at House on the Hill, Space Hulk, or Arkham Horror if you’re going in that direction–all are just as much of an RPG as the D&D ones, and they’re vastly better games.
You could also try the old Advanced Fighting Fantasy. It’s about as simple as any system I’ve seen, but it actually does have a little bit of RP mechanics. And it’s nowhere near as random(ly fatal) as, for example, the D20 system.
Boardgame-wise, I’d go with something like WHQ if I really had to (try eBay). But I suspect an actual RPG would be better for someone interested in RPGs. I mean, I assume it’s not the dungeon crawling she finds appealing…
It’s Investigation/Interaction mechanics & well-developed fluff you/she wants, I’d think. Mechanics because it’s much easier for newbies to actually roleplay when there’s rules for how, and fluff because it’s much easier to DM if you can just stitch pre-existing stuff together, or at least grasp on to it when the PCs do the unexpected.
I have the Mouse Guard RPG, with the intention of running it with my daughters in a couple years (they are 5 and 6 now), so I haven’t played it but I have read through it. Although it is based on the “inscrutable” Burning Wheel rules, it is very, very streamlined and stripped down. There is nothing inscrutable about it, it heavily emphasizes storycrafting and character building, and de-emphasizes combat. Plus, it is gorgeous. It seems like it would be a perfect gateway RPG for young daughters.
Though the OP might be interested in this - Daniel Solis’ Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple went up on Kickstarter. Haven’t played it but it’s supposed to be a very good game aimed at young teens who are new to roleplaying. It’s already met the goal, but worth a look.
I was very disappointed to learn at my local game/comic shop that Mouse Guard is currently out of print.
Instead, I picked up D&D: Wrath of Ashardalon. I paid full price for it rather than the Amazon price, but I suppose I got a few karma points for that decision.
Anyhow, I spent the afternoon playing through a couple of the packed-in adventures with my 9 year old and 7 year old yesterday. Before we knew it, we’d spent a solid 6+ hours gaming and it was dinner time. The mechanics are a vastly simplified version of very, very basic D&D rules, and it’s really just a dungeon crawl combat game as it doesn’t offer any actual role playing opportunities, but I can see it’s a great introduction to this sort of gaming and, as a bonus – it’s a cooperative rather than competitive game that can definitely be played as a 1 player experience.
Yes: apparently the first run was a very small one or something.