RPG recommendation for work

[Renevent]

Looking for some recommendations for an RPG to play at work. Just got done with Dark Sun which was pretty fun, though not as fun and little more clunky then 12 year old me remembers. Anyways since this will be played while scripts run, on my work laptop, and in between people popping in and out of my office, it needs to be:

1) Light on system requirements (ie CPU/VC)

2) 200MB or less

3) Turned based, and if not turned based then something at least fairly slow paced where I can pause and I don't have to be furiously controlling it and calling un-needed attention to me and not giving away that I am playing a game.

4) I do kinda want something a little newer, I was thinking about buying the Gold Box pack from GOG.com but I've played them before as a kid and not crazy about having to re-learn and deal with the clunky UI.

5) Runs in a window and able to paused and tabbed out easily and quickly.

-or-

6) Plays in a browser window

Any ideas or suggestions would be great, and I def am more interested in free/browser based stuff as that would be the easiest to play at work.

 

[kintake]

Not new, but plays in a browser Castle of the winds

 

[CryptRat]

Paper sorcerer

 

[Renevent]

Not new, but plays in a browser Castle of the winds

Not bad, thanks.

Paper sorcerer

Own it and beat it, though maybe it's time to play again. Only issue is I own it on Steam and not sure I should download the Steam client at work on my work laptop.

 

[bataille]

http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/howto

 

[TripJack]

try roguelikes like crawl stone soup or doomrl

 

[Darth Roxor]

Knights of the Chalice

 

[SausageInYourFace]

What you are looking for seems to be a little at odds. Something free, lightweight, modern ~ I would assume fairly casual..? but then you mention these pretty deep old school RPGs?

In any case, as for lightweight recommendations, I suggest you could try:

Card Hunter, which is a super lightweight game that you could either play in a window or in your browser. It isn't deep but it has a nice flair and surprisingly fun turn-based combat (if you can deal with card based combat). Its so lightweight and fast you barely notice it running at all. And since its free to play you can just try it out. Notice that there is some content only available if you pay for it but that can be easily ignored, there is plenty of content for free and which can be easily enjoyed, its not pay to win at all.

Templar Battleforce, now this is a personal favorite of my mine. Its lightweight as it was developed for mobile. It may not look the part but this is a pretty deep tactical combat game with huge skill trees and ton of different options to build your squad. The combat is incredibly fun as you usually have main objectives, secondary objectives and then you can have unexpected events that change the objectives mid-mission. That keeps the combat super fresh and fun for me. You have a huge variety of different difficulty settings and while the setting itself is obviously a 40k derivative the writing isn't half bad and gives all the missions a bit of context and meaning. For more fun, you can name your Templars after people you know and activate permadeath.
Seriously, this game is amazing.

Last up, try the survival-roguelike NeoScavanger. Its pretty addictive at first (albeit also pretty repetitive after some time) and deep enough that it was voted Codex Top 3 RPG in its respective year, despite being flash based (so its lightweight and tabs out like a champ). Its pretty fun in terms of emergent storytelling and has a vast but deadly world to explore and survive in. I recommend you read a little through its Codex thread where people used to tell their tales of survival and failure and that was almost as fun as playing myself.

 

[Renevent]

Knights of the Chalice

That's a good recommendation, def will add that to the list. I remember seeing that on here before but never got around to trying it.

What you are looking for seems to be a little at odds. Something free, lightweight, modern ~ I would assume fairly casual..? but then you mention these pretty deep old school RPGs?

In any case, as for lightweight recommendations, I suggest you could try:

Card Hunter, which is a super lightweight game that you could either play in a window or in your browser. It isn't deep but it has a nice flair and surprisingly fun turn-based combat (if you can deal with card based combat). Its so lightweight and fast you barely notice it running at all. And since its free to play you can just try it out. Notice that there is some content only available if you pay for it but that can be easily ignored, there is plenty of content for free and which can be easily enjoyed, its not pay to win at all.

Templar Battleforce, now this is a personal favorite of my mine. Its lightweight as it was developed for mobile. It may not look the part but this is a pretty deep tactical combat game with huge skill trees and ton of different options to build your squad. The combat is incredibly fun as you usually have main objectives, secondary objectives and then you can have unexpected events that change the objectives mid-mission. That keeps the combat super fresh and fun for me. You have a huge variety of different difficulty settings and while the setting itself is obviously a 40k derivative the writing isn't half bad and gives all the missions a bit of context and meaning. For more fun, you can name your Templars after people you know and activate permadeath.
Seriously, this game is amazing.

Last up, try the survival-roguelike NeoScavanger. Its pretty addictive at first (albeit also pretty repetitive after some time) and deep enough that it was voted Codex Top 3 RPG in its respective year, despite being flash based (so its lightweight and tabs out like a champ). Its pretty fun in terms of emergent storytelling and has a vast but deadly world to explore and survive in. I recommend you read a little through its Codex thread where people used to tell their tales of survival and failure and that was almost as fun as playing myself.

Doesn't have to be free, but that's obviously a plus. Both of those suggestions are great though, thanks.

 

[Tigranes]

I often play Battle Brothers on my light laptop when I'm traveling, it works very well for anytime pause, alt-tabbing, no-sound play, etc.

KOTC would also do just fine, I should reinstall it.

Generally, like BB, I'd go for games based on 'stages' of combat that are easy to play in short bursts or interrupted time periods, than traditional narrativised / exploring RPGs. That might also include emulating the older Fire Emblems or Shining Force, and maybe some blobbers could work.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

DCSS has a nice browser version...
Many other roguelikes don't take a lot of space and don't need installation.
I recommend Brogue and Infra Arcana.
There are many more good ones...

 

[hackncrazy]

Roguelikes, as some other users posted, are always a good deal to play at work, mainly because they 100% fit all of the requirements you asked for.

My favorites to play while working are Brogue, DoomRL, DCSS, Cogmind and The Ground Gives Way. Aside from DCSS, which is a tad longer (8-12 hours to finish if you're a beginner), they can be done in quite a short time, with a winning run taking no longer than 2 hours. Of course, you'll need at least 20 or so hours to understand exactly how the game plays and stop dying for any kind of shitty mistake.

Aside of that, don't you have access to DosBox? If you do, you can play almost 20 years of good games that also fits your requirements.

 

[V_K]

Wasn't there some RPG written in Exel?

 

[SpaceDriftingGrimoire]

Released in 2014, a rouge-like completely turn-based survival game in which you apply skill points into strengths and weaknesses before playing. Each strength or weakness trait can open up new ways to handle situations or make the game more difficult. You explore a post-post apocalypse in which you must gather resources to survive while also gradually discovering what the world after the apocalypse has morphed into. Has elements of Cyberpunk and fantastical elements that are reminiscent of the Stalker series of games. Can be played in short or long bursts without practically any hassle. Very unforgiving and tough, so be prepared for multiple character re-rolls.

Also released in 2014; fast-paced rogue-like turn-based movement that can be as speedily or as slowly played at your leisure. The goal is to face off against the great evil, but with a catch: every step you take will cause a black void of destruction to consume the world on the left hand side of the screen until it eventually catches up to you. You must continually progress to the right of the screen in order to survive and defeat the big bad causing the calamity. And if (or when) you die each new play-through and world layout is somewhat different, adding to the on-the-fly challenge. Also the more you progress through each playthrough the more content you unlock upon each new playthrough (classes, abilities, traits, etc.)

Both have very small initial install sizes and are not graphics intensive.

 

[AbounI]

Not a RPG, but a tactical turn based browser game : Fantasy Dimension

Fantasy Dimension is a dark fantasy turn based tactical game.

Main focus of the game is:
- turn based tactical combat with various movement options for each character
- custom character creation allowing any combination of traits, skills and spells to create your own classes
- imagination evoking line art graphics done in the style of antique and vintage books

Note that the game might be difficult, otherwise it could not be called tactical game.
To win battles, it requires:
- smart move choices
- good tactics
- thinking ahead
- planning every move
- prioritizing the sequence of moves per turn
- balanced party and characters

The game is completely free for players to play on official website fantasy-dimension.com with no hidden payments or micro transactions, however we appreciate donations to assist us with server upkeep costs and gameplay updates.
Players can play as an unregistered guest or use quick registration to save game progress.
Few difficulty modes are available to set desired level which can be adjusted during play if needed.
Certain parts of the game are randomly generated allowing a different experience each time.

http://www.fantasy-dimension.com/tactics/

I played it months ago, it has some descent mechanics, but don't expect any story, just combats

 

[Ippolit]

Antharion needs 160 MB, runs in a max. 1280x800 Window, doesn't crash on Alt-Tab and is a turn-based RPG. Unfortunately i played it only ~30-40 minutes but it looked pretty good.

 

[Catacombs]

Knights of the Chalice

This looks fun. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[deama]

Democracy 3 -- the gog installer is about 180MBs, donno how much the installed game is.

Girl Life? It's pretty light if you don't include the image pack.

 

[fantadomat]

Sorcery! 1/2/3/4 and The quest.

 

[felipepepe]

Tales of Maj'Eyal.

 

[Daemongar]

Eh, i would strongly advise against playing games at work... but if you must, please, please, please play ASCii type games like Angband or whatever. At least a cursory glance from a boss or coworker wouldn't make fucking heads or tails of what they see. If they did, well, they'd be a bro. Kind of like I used to browse the web at work, but only with Lynx web browser. Games are great, but... you work so you can game, not the other way around. I work in IT and I would probably fire a gamer. Just because I trust folks, and I couldn't trust NOR respect someone who is so goddamn blatant as to play a game with VGA or better graphics. If someone was playing an ASCII game, I'd accept that at least they are making a good effort to not make me (their boss) look like an idiot.

But hey, tiny windowed Betrayal at Krondor would be acceptable, because the graphics are so bad, the I doubt anyone would be able to cypher what you are doing.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Caves of Qud or Cogmind perhaps?

Both modern roguelikes.

 

[RNGsus]

Eh, i would strongly advise against playing games at work... but if you must, please, please, please play ASCii type games like Angband or whatever. At least a cursory glance from a boss or coworker wouldn't make fucking heads or tails of what they see. If they did, well, they'd be a bro. Kind of like I used to browse the web at work, but only with Lynx web browser. Games are great, but... you work so you can game, not the other way around.

Not all bros work to game. Some of us game to work, because we'd rather clock in and shoot up the office or warehouse, then blow away all the hostage rescue motherfuckers and escape. :D

 

[One Stoned Bastard]

I've heard of this RPG called Do Your Fucking Job that runs on Real Life but you might find it to be overrated.

 

[udm]

https://www.kingdomofloathing.com/

Best. Browser-based. RPG. Ever.