What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?

If we’re talking a one-off, as opposed to a campaign, then I turn to my collection of Free RPG Day offerings. The vast majority come with quick-play rules and a short scenario, which makes them perfect for when you don’t have time for a longer session. Most also come with pre-gen characters; for those that don’t, I try to make sure I have a few characters that can be dropped in and played with little fuss. My favourite in this case is Kobolds Ate My Baby!, because it is simple to play, tonnes of fun, and requires little to no prep.

But if you’re talking about a campaign, where you just don’t have longer than two hours per session, I’d suggest looking at the organized play material for games like Pathfinder, D&D 5E, Call of Cthulhu, and Numenera. If you’re playing one of those games, they each have organized play material which can be easily played in 1-2 hour chunks. Pathfinder, for instance, has Pathfinder Quests which are meant to be simple encounters which can be played in about an hour, and they’re free to download.

Even if you don’t play any of those games, looking at their organized play material is a great way to learn how to structure an encounter or series of encounters which can fit in a two hour session. Or make some changes to the material and make it work for the system you’re using. Most RPG encounters have a skeleton that will work for any RPG, you just have to flesh it out to fit your game.