I wouldnt limit yourself to native linux. Check out protondb.com. You can even use non-steam games through steam for use with proton (or if you're feeling more technical you could use other tools that are more hands on).

Stardew Valley is really lightweight and Linux native.

Since you mentioned battery being an issue and that you just switched to Linux, have you looked into using TLP or Powertop to try doing some tweaks to squeeze out a bit more? It's been years since I've used Linux on a laptop, but that's what I used.

OpenTTD is an open source game based on TTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe). Basically you just connect cities and industries with each other by different forms of transport like trains, busses, airplanes, etc.

FTL

Rimworld is pretty resource light and runs native on Linux. Has the benefit of being one o of the greatest games ever, too. If you're into to that kind of game (colony resource management and light war crimes)

Factorio works well (at a smaller scale).

All Steam Deck verified games should play just fine on that laptop. While Intel Xe graphics are not the greatest, Steam Deck is restricted to 15W and you laptop is not.

This is what I have from Steam on my Linux laptop, similar HW, a bit older:
Baba Is You, The Binding of Isaac, Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Darkest Dungeon, Dicey Dungeons, Enter the Gungeon, FTL, Hollow Knight, Into the Breach, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Monster Train, Opus Magnum, Slay the Spire, Spelunky.
And traditional roguelikes are always good: Crawl, Brogue, Nethack.

I'm a fan of card games like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, and Monster Train run on practically anything. There's hundreds of hours of fun in there if you're into these games.

Factorio

I mean, if you install Steam, you're not that limited in terms of ports, are you? Just about any game being solidified for the Steam Deck to run through Proton will also have the same effect on other Linux distros.

Of course, if it's a low-end laptop, you'd aim for relatively simple, 2D or old games, but they don't explicitly have to be ported to Linux.

Slay the Spire is pretty cool.

If you want try Minetest - opensource "Minecraft" clone.

You need mods it is more game engin to build mods on so lots of Minecraft like games.

The Battle for Wesnoth is one of those oldies but goldies when it comes to Linux gaming.
I'd also heartily recommend trying out OpenMW (not just because I'm part of the team there) as a modern way to play Morrowind, though the upcoming release is not entirely finished, there are a few blockers being hammered away at still.

Hey, DOSBox is available on Linux! There are some hidden gems from the DOS era.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It's free and open source available as a download or in browser here. Not sure if your familiar with traditional roguelikes, but it's basically a permadeath turn based rpg. I finally picked it back up recently and have been addicted. Finally got my first won today after some 300 games.

Veloren is inspired by games such as Cube World, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft.

You can play single player or multi-player, standalone or use an online server, or even host your own server in a Docker container, or on a Raspberry Pi. Plenty of options!

You start by creating your character, you can collect items for your inventory, you can craft items, there are weapons and combat, you develop skills, can tame creatures, you can trade with merchants, you can socialise, and lost more. There is no single, specific goal or focus, and the idea is to keep exploring and have adventures.

The game is community driven and actually updates quite regularly.

It is clearly no clone of Minecraft. It is fun and adventure!

See https://veloren.net/

I've seen OpenMW mentioned (and it's fantastic), but you might want to check out Daggerfall Unity as well. The game's available at no cost, and you can find a zip of the necessary game files on the install guide in the dfworkshop forums.

It's way better than the old DOS version, and it supports mods, too.

Same boat! Here are some i picked up;

• Planescape Torment - rpg & adventure,
• Darklands - old skool rpg & adventure,
• Spiritfarer - simulation & adventure,
• Papers Please - simulation & puzzle,
• The Captain - rpg & simulation,
• Shadowrun - rpg & strategy,
• Baldurs Gate II - rpg & strategy,
• Don't Starve - action & adventure,
• Rimworld - simulation & strategy,
• FTL - strategy & simulation

Edit; formatting

Into the breach is a pretty underrated game to try out

https://r-roms.github.io/megathread/sony/ I found this absolute treasure trove of roms if you want. well I was waiting for my main gaming pc to be shipped I pretty much lived off old ps2 games like ratchet and clank 2

Suikoden I and II are great PSX RPGs, if you can emulate. Shadowrun (Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong) are great and Linux native.

Not related to your stated interests, but Minecraft will work better on Linux than Windows due to Java optimizations.

itch.io client works well on Linux from my tests, but I have no specific recommendations for you because it has been some time.

Mount and blade: Warband

Its on Steam

Might be a bit off topic here. I really suggest to have a check at https://www.protondb.com/

Many Win-only steam games are performing great on Linux now.

Besides, I've played https://vita3k.org/ for a while. There are countless decent old games which can be played via emulators on linux

VA-11 HALL-A (not sure if I wrote that right) is a nice little cyberpunk visual novel that can run on a toaster and has a native linux version. It sort of falls in line with the choose your own adventure you mentioned because you can make some choices that affect certain things, but mostly, the game is about mixing drinks and changing lives.

... NetHack. Always NetHack.

Minecraft is often a good time and can run well on low end machines.

Text based and RPGs you say? Maybe it's time to explore some MUDs?

For the King is also a nice chill game with a great system reqs:fun ratio. Currently on sale too.

Small list from me: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Caves of Qud, Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead, ADOM, Reigns, SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition, King's Quest, Liberal Crime Squad. The old Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall are also currently available for free. I see Daggerfall is playable with DosBox/Lutris, I assume Arena is as well.

The stalker series has some of the best gunplay of any low-end system game I've seen.

Deus Ex, the first game. Easy to run, a lot of rpg elements. Half-life 1 and 2 are obvious choices and I think have Linux ports. Emulation is definitely a good route to go as well. A lot of good RPGs on consoles that are easy to emulate.

Garry's Mod, Super Tux Kart

While it may not exactly match up with the body of your message, I think this would fit the subject line rather well:

Dwarf Fortress

Vampire Survivors. It's dopamine in digital form.

Maybe a game like terraria? It's a native linux game and hella fun!

Or if you want a more chill game maybe something like Gris? It has a gold rating on ProtonDB so should work fine. Gives u the feels too which is a bonus.

I'd suggest to check IFDB for the text adventures.

Nuclear Throne. It's a fun Roguelike dungeon crawler. A run from beginning to "end" (last level before looping) can take 15min and I've spent 100s of hours playing over the years.There' are so many characters you can choose to play, each with its own unique special ability.

Tunic is a cute little old-zelda-like. It's 3d, but very simple and has run on my steamdeck better than most things.

With the blackout, I see the Gaming community will be assimilated into the LinuxGaming community and I'm here for it.

The Shadowrun games from Harebrained Schemes are some of the best RPGs I've ever played, and they all have native Linux versions. Daggerfall's my favourite, but all three are good.

If you want an old classic, I've been playing rollercoaster tycoon 2 recently and there is an open source engine for it (openrct2) that has native linux compatibility. The controls take some getting used to, But I think that artstyle looks totally amazing.

Battle for Wesnoth: open source turn based strategy rpg.

I've heard lots of good things about Chained Echoes, a recently released JRPG in the style of those older NES / SNES games. Might be up your alley. Runs natively on Linux afaik.

Do you like ARPGs? Titan Quest is a Greek mythology themed Diablo II clone that has some nice improvements over D2. It's usually pretty cheap on Steam.

Currently playing through Tunic on my Linux machine. Its a fun adventure game that doesn't hold your hand.

Shouldn't be too hard on your machine.

Not sure if it’s your cup, but A Short Hike is a very relaxing and wholesome game

Not quite fitting, but Hotline Miami is great!

Try Factorio great automation simulator but this game shoul come with a warning it is practicly a full time job or if you want something to play for hour daily i love Deep Rock Galactic. Both games are quite easy to run and doesnt take much disk space especially DRG have like 5GB i dont know how.

Dark Souls Remastered should run just fine, one of the greatest games ever. Also make sure you play it with a controller!

RimWorld is great and runs on my toaster

Not exactly text based, but the old sierra style games are still a blast to play. Leisure Suit Larry, Maniac Mansion, Thimbleweed Park. They sure don't need many resources to play.

caves of qud is quite good, its tile based roguelike.

Earthbound would keep you busy for quite a while

classicube runs on everything, Minecraft-like written in c

Brotato has very modest system requirements and kind has some elements of a micro arpg if you squint. I haven't tried vampire survivors on my low end system yet, but I'm hopeful it has similar system requirements as it has a similar sort game style.

Cave Story is good / hectic / hard platformer. I might be wrong but I think it was made for Linux first

Also, if you install RetroArch, you can play all the emulated systems.

Maybe I haven't scrolled far enough, but haven't seen anyone recommending Persona, if so I definitely recommend it, in this case, Persona 4, which I played.

There's also Fable Anniversary, the classic Xbox exclusive RPG, both games are also Deck Verified.

I know that you can run TES 4 Oblivion decently well on Linux with a Windows emulator (WINE). I had a few odd graphics glitches like a gigantic texture of a tree just completely taking over the sky. I guess it wanted to be some kind of Yggdrasil tree or something.

It ran well though, and on a early 2010-era laptop. I don't know about mod compatibility though.

Chrono trigger for SNES, ff 7,8,9 for psx. If you can run citra bravy default. Final fantasy 3 for PSP, ff tactics for GBA.

Go nuts over on GOG!

So many great titles for cheap.

I recently played through every Deus Ex game on linux, first 2 are oibviously low end, and maybe Human Revolution , it came out in 2011. the original and Human revolution are pretty good if you like rpgs, Invisible war the second game is alright but pretty light on some elements that make those two great, cause it was made i think with thje original xbox in mind instead of pc.

Baba Is You, Into The Breach, Ultima VII (with Exult)

Stronghold Crusaders, or Command and Conquer.

Nostalgic childhood games.

Starsector. Sseth has a really good review of the game.

I quite like Mindustry, it's FOSS and on Android too, it is in most repositories/appstores

If you like Pokemon like games, take a look at Cassette Beasts! Very charming game!

Backpack hero is very cute and fun, and runs very well through proton.

• Star Ocean First Departure (PPSSPP)
• Star Ocean Second Evolution (PPSSPP, Maybe even Yuzu?)
• Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth
• Stardew Valley
• Wargroove
• FTL: Faster Than Light
• Spiritfarer Farewell Edition

Here you can find a bunch free software RPGs: https://libregamewiki.org/Role-playing_games

Also you can install MAME and download like 5000 arcade games from the 70, 80, 90, 2000.

If you like roguelikes I'd recommend Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Might be interested in Endless Sky? It's a 2d spaceship simulator/RPG. I haven't played it in a while but I only started encountering performance issues when my fleet was 40+ ships large and at that point I kinda get it

Omori, if you are into Motherlike games. More story based if that's your thing

Urban Terror for FPS; so much fun back in the day. Battle for Wesnoth for a turn-based-fantasy strategy.

the EV games combine asteroids style flight with choose your own adventure text walls. I recommend Nova. You'll need to run it in WINE.

Oceanhorn

A Vampyre Story worked nice on Wine on an old computer with Mint Xfce when I played it last year. Only had to set Wine as windowed full screen, since the game got issues when alt-tabbing. Also worth noting it requires DirectX on Windows, so you'll have to use DXVK.

Haven't seen any PICO-8 games lag on Linux, and both Celeste Classic games were released on PICO-8.

Dust: An Elysian Tail might be playable, bar maybe two areas (one mandatory) that have a lot going on.

Slay the Spire should run fine, but I had to sideload an older version of OpenJDK to get it working (maybe 8 or 11; don't remember which exactly).

Songs for A Hero also seems to run fine.

Tanglewood is a Mega Drive homebrew, so should be playable on any emulators your PC can run.

Va-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action also runs fine.

Böbl and Nix: The Paradox Relic should both run fine on NES emulators.

Bloons TD6 is pretty fun and light.

Not an answer to your question but when you say " I find that it has battery issues trying to play anything fancy like Skyrim" do you mean that the battery drains while plugged in or that you are mainly playing while not plugged in and your battery life is really short.

If it is the former then you might just need to buy a higher wattage power adapter to sustain. The power draw.

ofc battery drains if not connected to the electricity network man, these graphics card are not meant to run games if not when they are charging

Anyway you can try SuperTux and Xonotic

If you install ScummVM you can play most of the Lucasarts titles. All of these games are top tier (Monkey Island, day of the Tentacle etc) and you would enjoy!

One Hour One Life and Two Hours One Life (open source) can be run on pretty much any computer.
The concept is: you're born as a baby or a fertile woman and you have to gather and build to survive. Your maximum age is 60 years (OHOL) or 120 years (2HOL) and you hunt, gather, build tools, have babies and raise them. You can become the matriarch of a huge multigenerational family and build towns, buildings, farms, roads and weapons. People keep adding to it, I haven't played in awhile but I think they have cars and airplanes now.
The graphics are MS Paint-quality but the gameplay is so incredibly fun. Highly recommend.

Neither RPGs nor choose your own adventure games, but I'll leave Celeste, Hollow Knight, and Cuphead here anyway