From Sweden comes the Scandi-RPG by Free League, Symbaroum, winner of multiple ENNIE Awards. We decided to try the first adventure in the Starter Set called Where Darkness Dwells.
Two things intrigued me about Symbaroum and kept drawing me back to it.
It's a traditional D&D-style RPG but the GM rolls no dice, even in combat.
It has a narrow focus on a relatively small but flavorsome setting that is a mash-up of elements cherry-picked from Warhammer, Middle-earth, and Princess Mononoke.
But the roll under mechanic and how the GM gives modifiers to target numbers not dice rolls was so contrary to D&D 5e and its ilk, I wasn't sure Symbaroum would work in play. I thought it might cause a big headache.
We used the pre-gen characters included with the starter set. I made colour copies of the sheets but also distilled the lengthy descriptions in the book into bullet points, summing up their backstory, the goal and their dramatic poles/inner conflict. Attached.
The pre-gen characters are mechanically well designed and we had no problems with them in play.
The wizard is especially interesting as they're an ogre and have no spells. Unconventional from a traditional fantasy RPG standpoint. The wizard has powerful ritual magic instead and this enables them to summon a capable, extraplanar bodyguard at level 1.
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On the day Symbaroum ran very smoothly and despite my misgivings, everyone grocked the mechanics straight out the gate.
As a GM I loved not rolling dice. The players handling their own defence and armour rolls, instead of me rolling attack and damage rolls, felt like a stroke of genius. I never want to go back to rolling dice on the "GM's turn".
The lack of mechanical inflation was also a savvy design choice. If hit points and damage scale up across the board as you level up, isn't levelling up just inflation? This has always been one of D&D's shortcomings imo.
Where Darkness Dwells played more like a video game tutorial though---and everyone hates those---so in hindsight I would've preferred a more challenging, richer adventure. Ironically, the second adventure in the starter set offers exactly that. Called The Gathering Storm it is a longer adventure but could still fit into a half-day session at a squeeze.
So my advice would be to read Where Darkness Dwells and solo play the journey through Davokar and encounter with the Ilanda. This will set you up nicely for running The Gathering Storm for your players.