Hi all,
I'm thinking of running an online role-playing game aimed at a group with limited time and at least a few folks with limited experience with tabletop RPGs. I am not interested in running D&D or anything that would require giving potential players a ton of homework (read this book learn these arcane new rules). I'm looking for something with relatively simple and straight-forward mechanics that would be relatively easy to learn and teach. I am familiar with more rules-complex games (D&D and GURPS, for example), but as a GM, even at my best I've never been good at keeping my my thumb on all the moving fiddly bits.
I need something that's simple to manage and run and will be simple for my players to interact with. But I also don't know any up-and-coming improv actors, so I'd like to avoid something that eschews mechanics almost completely in favor of narrative. I want my players to have the ability to influence and even craft narrative beats, but I don't want them feel they have to be extroverts to enjoy the game. Basically, I need something that straddles the line between more traditional GM-as-sole-storyteller model of D&D and the we-don't-need-no-stinking-GMs model of improv storytelling.
I'm leaning toward maybe Quest or something Powered by the Apocalypse, but I'm totally open to suggestions. There's a vast universe of tabletop RPGs out there and I'm sure I only know a bit of it.