I have seen those downhill trails that you talk about near Zug, and I backed off at doing them too, especially after I saw two downhillers com down, jump off a 2m drop onto the forest road, somehow manage to brake before falling to their death on the other side and then take off down another path!.

It seems you are looking for a similar type of trail to me, and believe me they do exist.

If you have the Einseideln singletrail map, one example is if you go to aegeri, and then look North/ Northwest towards Raten and Gotschalkenberg, Just south of the Gotschalkenberg look out there is the start of a red trail, the first section is a steepish climb it then drops (not very steeply) over some nice obstacles, including roots and rocks, it is a fairly fast trail, that you do not have to be a downhiller to master but does provide quite a bit of fun, at the end of this trail you can follow a nature street for a little bit and join into another red trail that keeps going towards a place called Gubel, and eventually back towards Zug, there is an unmarked junction on this trail which allows you to go back down towards Aegeri if you want (this route is not marked as a single trail on the map, but the paths do show up).

This is just one example. It does take some getting lost, but eventually you can find the trails they do exist. Another trail on the same map goes down the back of Rigi, there are some switchbacks on it, but they are totally doable without much trouble.

Do some of the more popular tours like Wildspitz, I haven't done it yet but have been told there are some good single trails on it.

I agree with you that the singletrail maps aren't brilliant, but they are a good starting point to find some trails which will ultimately lead to you discovering more.

Another idea, is a lot of bike shops do a ride of some sort one night of the week, join in on one of these to find some of your local trails. I have started doing a wednesday night ride here in Zurich and it is great fun, I've been shown loads of trails, and while the locals are infinitely more skilled and much faster then me it is still fun to follow on down at my own pace (well there are a couple of other auslanders that a closer to my pace!!).

Hope this helps,