@@NayrAnur Yeah, it was pretty easy to make a hacker-in-a-box with an agent program or whatever, and there's no cyberdecks, so you can hack with a curling iron if you want, you just won't get a lot of bonuses.
Can I just say I'm chuffed that you mentioned Symbaroum. I champion it a lot because I enjoy the setting and aesthetic as much as anything, but I so rarely see it get mentioned.
Ditto. I'm fairly new to TTRPG games, but our West Marches game shifted to it for a year or so campaign, and I absolutely loved it, and would love to play it some more.
Glad to see Shadow of the Demon Lord on this list! I personally believe it is quite underrated, or at the very least overshadowed by other systems in terms of popularity. I absolutely adore the character creation and progression in this system with how many combinations there are, and I also do enjoy how absurd it can get. From what I know, there is a more traditional fantasy style setting game built off the Demon Lord engine coming out some time soon by the name of Shadow of the Weird Wizard, for those who do not like the absurdist horror and black humour of the Demon Lord game. There is a playtest running on the official Shadow of the Demon Lord discord server, and from what I have seen, it is certainly a big step up in terms of the system itself, and I quite like the setting too! There is also a post-apocalypse game by the name of PunkApocalyptic: The RPG based on the world of PunkApocalyptic by Bad Roll Games that runs on a modified version of the Shadow of the Demon Lord engine. It hasn't caught my eyes that much, so I can't say much about it. I am so happy to see the communities join forces like this and explore all the various systems that have already been written, are being written, and that could be written!
This is a really really good list of TTRPGs! Many of my favourites were mentioned 👍 if you are looking for a really rules light TTRPG you should check Knave, Maze Rats, Cairn. Into The Odd is one of the best ruleslight IMO.
Good call giving Index Card RPG it’s due. It’s an excellent system that is quick and fun to learn and play regardless of experience level, and its mechanics are easily extended to any setting, making it truly universal. Runehammer Games got it right with ICRPG.
Awesome list! 👍I knew some 30 games, and still heard about some unknown to me in this video! 🤯 And I just saw that Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC), which - in my opinion - is VERY different from classical D&D or 5E, is officially based on the OGL. The adventures are pure madness, it has a TON of material, and it uses 10 different dice!
ICRPG! We just hosted RUNEJAMMER! at the end of August - 40+ online games hosted by a dozen GMs (including me and DM Scotty) and about 75 distinct players. It was a blast!
Excellent coverage and insight on so many great games. It's a fantastic time to be a TTRPG gamer, with so many options, rule systems, genres and campaign play styles. Some of these games are even fun to overlap and combine for some unexpected outcomes at the table.
You managed to mention a lot of free legaue games but you missed my favorite. Vaesen, sort of monster of the week but more gothic horror with a focus on scandinavian folklore and setting taking place in a alternate 1800s. Sharing the same d6 pool engine as most of free legaues games. Would love a round up of more games in the future if you have the time and energy. Or perhaps that a lot more games get mentioned as examples when you do your cool genre deepdives and its story potential.
I feel I should mention two more ‘generic systems’ that give you immense options. GURPS [generic universal role play system], which has a Gurps lite option, or you can go super detailed. BRP [basic Roleplaying] d100 skill based system [used by Call of Cthulhu and Runequest]. Both have magic, vehicles, psychic and superpower rules. . U can play literally anything with either of these.
Great video, and I know there are a lot of games out there for those who got started in DnD. Glad to see Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, World of Darkness, and Warhammer 40k RPGs on the list. I would've loved to see Toon on the kid-friendly list and GURPS on the generic list (it's right in the name). I also enjoy BESM, but that would best qualify as a fandom RPG for any Anime.
I'd also like to put forward a few that are either smaller names or ones from Japan that players in a western audience might not know. Monsterpunk is a post apocalyptic earth where monsters from fantasy broke into our reality. Now humanity must band with factions of monsters and make pacts with them in order to survive the wild magic hellscape that spans the land. Ryuu-tama is a japanese ttrpg that focuses on exploration and travel. It has been described as Studio Ghibli meets Oregon Trail. The players and the dm work together as they adventure to design the world and towns they visit. And even the GM is given a character; a story telling dragon who's abilities represent the genre the dragon represents. Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a very LGBTQ+ friendly system from Evil Hat that focuses on romance and drama as their core mechanics. The classes, settings and rules are all set up to make the players feel like they are playing in a sitcom or a soap opera. Will the Infamous find redemption for their past deeds? Will the Trickster ever open their hearts to the party? What will happen between the Scoundrel and the BBEG in their will they/won't they relationship? It is a great system for those seeking light hearted drama. And Fight! 2nd is a system focused on fighting games. You don't just design your character, you design your special moves as well. Dripping with love of the fighting game genre, it plays on the extreme personalities of video game characters, and the over the top combat seen within. Trash goons like a beat 'em up, be especially good at punching cars, and fight your way to the top!
Thanks for mentioning the Trinity Continuum! The TC core rules are modern-day action adventure, and sort of like the World of Darkness, contains a number of additional game lines, each representing a different sub-genre and time period: - Trinity Continuum: Æon (2123 sci-fi) features PCs as psions in a Mass Effect-ish future, making contact with lost human colonies and meeting strange new alien races. - Trinity Continuum: Anima (2084 cyberpunk) has PCs living in a whitewashed fascist utopia, trying to recover from a recent devastating war, and using their new Glass neural implants to treat their collective PTSD by playing the world's most popular MMO. Weird that some game streamers are disappearing, though. - Trinity Continuum: Aberrant (2028 supers) has PCs as novas, people who can manipulate the four quantum forces to do nearly anything they can imagine. Unfortunately the human body wasn't designed to channel these forces, which leads to some problems. - Trinity Continuum: Assassins (present) has PCs as Assassins. If you've ever wanted to play Agent 47 or John Wick or Wanted or Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Desmond Miles, or... well, you get the idea. - Trinity Continuum: Adventure! (1934 pulp) has PCs as daredevils, stalwarts, and mesmerists exploring the hidden corners of the world with derring-do, a solid left hook, and a zeppelin headquarters. - Trinity Continuum: Aether (1895 Victorian) has PCs as aethernauts, people who can manipulate the new discovery of Aether to visit strange alien worlds, other dimensions, and even change their own bodies. Unfortunately, use of Aether seems to have attracted the attention of the Martian invasion force and their deadly tripods. - Trinity Continuum: Aegis (1200 BCE) has PCs as champions, oracles, and Olympians, the heroes of the ancient world during the Greek Bronze age collapse.
DOGS (or Dice pool and mOral dilemma based Generic role-playing System) is a setting agnostic game based on the rules of Vincent Baker's Dogs in the Vineyard. I haven't read the rules in a while but if memory serves it uses the dice pools in a vaguely poker-esque bidding process. Haven't played it, but it's interesting.
Alternatives I've fount so far: Fantasy: Castles & Crusades, Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age, Shadowdark, Cairn & We Deal In Lead Horror: Night Shift: Veterans of The Supernatural Wars, Lamentations of The Flame Princess, Thousand Year Old Vampire & The Wretchedverse by The Red Room Sci-Fi: Hostile, Mothership, Thirteen Parsecs, Alien RPG & Classic Traveller, or Cepheus Pulp: Amazing Adventures Family: Cyberrats, Skate Wizards, Dark Places & Demogorgons Mature Audiences: Cha'alt Old School: OSRIC, Basic Fantasy RPG, Iron Falcon, White Box: FMAG, Delving Deeper, Wight Box, Swords & Wizardry. Westerns: Cowpunchers Reloaded Apocalyptic: Dystopian Dawn 2526 & Atomic Punk 2160 For the record, Shadowrun 6E is not one I'd recommend because it's clunky and makes assumptions that you know rules and lore from previous editions. It's a mess and one that isn't easily cleaned up unless they just roll it back to 4th Edition.
I've been a ttrpg hobbyist since 1980's. There was a certain feeling one got from OSR that was very challenging to find in so many systems. I liked quick, easy charecter creation with slant on exploration, looting and buying selling upgraded equipment or restocking. Finally found ttrpg I love called D100 Dungeon! D100 Dungeon is like playing D&D, Dungeon World 4AD and DCC in one awesome game system.
Surprised the Superhero section wasn't bigger since we also have Prowlers and Paragons, Icons, Sentinal Comics, and Mutants and Masterminds (though that last one might be tied to the OGL)
Feng Shui is tailor made for John Wick, Mission Impossible, The Raid, Fast and Furious, Hardcore Henry, and RRR. RRR is the poster child of what your Feng Shui game should be.
One that was left off is The Fantasy Trip. Steve Jackson's old RPG system that was hung up in legal for decades that finally made it back into print a few years ago
Great roundup! Lots I haven't heard about. And I watched some of your older videos and gotta say thanks for reducing the volume of the background music -- it was way too loud before.
Glad to see Fabula Ultima made the list! It really does capture the feel of old jrpgs, for anyone interested I should specify that it's mechanically quite light and more focused on RP than nitty gritty combat or dungeon mechanics. The mechanics it does have, however, are quite cool and versatile!
I personally stay away from dungeon world because of Adam Koebel (Sad because he is a very skilled GM but turned out to be an AWFUL human being), and I think FATE Accelerated is a more user-friendly version of Fate. Very happy to see Stars Without Number on this list as it's a favorite of mine. Mouseguard is another family friendly TTRPG where the players are all adorable mice-knights or other members of mouse society. Big support for people looking to try out new games, hopefully people find some new favorites!
I will still be playing dnd for my campaign for now, but I'm curious to also try Pathfinder, Shadowrun, maybe Starfinder, a new French scifi one that is going to be out in a few months hopefully, City of mist (which sounds really cool) and I'm intrigued by a ton of others. Maybe Lancer, Tales from the Loop... and of course the Avatar one because Avatar is one of the best shows ever. Too many ttrpg, not enough time ^^
Minor quip - just pointing out that 7th Sea is NOT actually set on Earth. It is set in the fantasy world of Theah (although heavily analoguous with early 17th Century Earth with magical elements). However you did present a great variety of trpgs here, thank you for giving me the heads up pitch for them!
Blades in the Dark is far from perfect, but I'd recommend every D&D 5e fan try it at least once. It really opened my mind to what "light rules" and "emphasis on roleplay" ACTUALLY mean. I love the faction system, I love the flashback system, and I've straight up stolen progress clocks to use in my own D&D games. Now if you subtracted all the poetic waxings of design philosophy that take up a literal third of the rule book, and replace them with a couple pages that add to this game about crime, espionage, and heists an oh I don't know LOOT TABLE? That'd be pretty cool. Otherwise, big recommend.
Wait. Is Cortex Prime based on the OGL? In my opinion the system feels like a crunchier spiritual successor to FUDGE compared to the freeform Fate system. Plus it's built to be modular. You can literally recreate most mechanics from DnD 5e in this game.
The thing is though, there is SO MUCH content that can still be created for D&D 5E without using the OGL. There is still so much space for D&D compatible 5E content to be created and sold that DO NOT use the OGL. The OGL allows for referancing the SRD, but they cannot copyright dictionary terms or simple phrases.
Second mid episode comment. Wish the other aspects WoD got the same recognition is Vampire. The whole world is rich with lore and opportunity. Werewolf is great in it's own right. Mage, although complicated is also cool. However, people only think about VTM.
@@JadeHarleyCoffeeMug The only thing I hate more than capitalism is pessimism. This video was made so we don't rely on corporations that hate us. Get bent.
End of video comment. GURPS is also a great do anything system. A system that I wish would get used for a video game again since the original Fallout thing never worked out.
Playing The Witcher for the past 2 years, can highly recommend it for anyone who likes a fantasy world filled with magic and supernatural beings, yet more down to earth and realistic than, for example, D&D. The game is made by Talsorian Games (the guys who invented Cyberpunk), in coordination with CDPR, so it captures very well the atmosphere of The Witcher video games, especially the 3rd one, with 100% respect to book lore (which they expand much better than Netflix did).
Mid episode comment. I love 7th Sea. It's a great setting. My Only problem is that the original version was designed so that you were always going to be second class to the more impressive npc's who were all made on infinitely more points then you. It didn't feel like you were as much the hero of the story. That small complaint aside it's still a fun setting. I love my narcissistic pirate, scholar, alchemist. Oh and embraced chaos like a worm blanket. All though he was very heroic by nature and some rules he always lived by he was flippant and random. "What if the Joker was a heroic pirate." As likely to fight a fair duel, as to role a grenade under the feet of his opponent for lol's.
So no mention of Mutants and Masterminds, Jiangshi: blood in the banquet hall, Toon, Mouse Guard, or Honey Heist? Or are any of them ogl and I am just unaware, that’s why I assume Mazes and Minotaurs (and it’s spin-offs Vikings & valkyries and fiannas & fomors) was skipped after all.
I actually started working on a TTRPG system of my own even *before* all the OGL shit, and now that Paizo and the other publishers are working on the ORC license, when it's *done* , I'll actually have a license to publish it under that *doesn't* allow Whiffers of the Coast to steal all my ideas!
Anything from Free league is my recommendation Please check out Dragonbane, Symbaroum, Forbidden Lands or the One Ring LotR rpg's if you like Fantasy. Coriolis, Alien rpg or Blade runner for Sci fy. Vaesen (Väsen) rpg basically Candela Obscura but good 😜 = soft horror. Or Kult divinity lost (hardcore horror) alternativ to Chuthulu or Candela Obscura. Twilight 2000 = apocalyps/war, what if WW3 happend? Or Mutaint year zero = apocalyps fantasy. Or The Walking dead rpg... Pick any of the above rpg's and it will be awesome 🤘🏻 all by free league (but one, Kult is by Helmgast).
No GURPS?, it's a shame. It is one of the best agnostic games available and highly recommended for those who love options and freeform character creation no matter how absurd the is concept. I know it has a bad reputation in the community (and I don't understand why) but in my experience many of the things that people often complain about on the internet are lies or misinformation. The game is not even complicated, 3d6 below your ability and that's all, the books are full of optional rules to make it more interesting and above all, and the game encourages you to create your own rules if none of them convinces you. I love this game :)
I don't know if they use it, but Borderlands has Bunkers and Badasses as a TTRPG for that fandom game. I thought White Wolf was the publisher of World of Darkness or did they change names or ownership?
This is an interesting list. Which of these have you played and what do you make of them? Also as a quick correction, 7th Sea is not set on Earth, but a fictional faux-Europe.
AGE= Adventure Gaming Engine. C'mon, dude, it's an ACRONYM, it's not that hard. Savage Worlds is good, I like Green Ronin's AGE system even better, and The Expanse RPG best of all. Old school PALLADIUM has a clunky system, but many great settings that are loads of fun. Tons of older, long-established systems overlooked--shocked that GURPS didn't show up.
I don't really like Dungeon World (perhaps we just used it wrong), and I have trauma related to FATE (it's not ironic and isn't about the system itself, just really bad memories associated with it). But I guess I will still try to find something else for me, not just because of all this situation (my main campaign will most likely remain in D&D anyway), but because D&D doesn't really work for lots of stuff I would like to try.
@@TheClericCorner Thanks! I tried to find a link on their site and looked for Amazon listings but I had no luck. I couldn't even find it on dmsguild through their search bar. I ended up googling "dmsguild tiny dungeon" and that got me to the page.
There is never any love for GURPS in these lists. It’s a generic system, grounded in real world numbers, and can handle anything. As simple, or as complex as you want it to be. You can readily adapt settings and adventures from other systems, and genre crossovers are a breeze, as there are no new systems to learn. GURPS sprang from “The Fantasy Trip”, both of which were written by Steve Jackson (US), and is available from Steve Jackson Games. The system uses d6, and most everything is resolved by a 3d6 test against a skill level, which generates a nice bell curve for results.
Great video. It'd be awesome to see a deep dive on lore/worldbuilding for any of these games. Kinda seems like D&D's idea of lore revolves around slapping basic concepts together and then not developing cultures ot fleshing anything out.
I can not believe that you did not have anything made by Palladium Books, they have been around since the 80s and have games in every genre Palladium Fantasy, Heroes Unlimited, Rifts, Beyond the Supernatural, Chaos Earth, Splicers, Recon so many games for every niche, they use D20 and percentile dice skills and with the exception of Palladium Fantasy 1st edition which is more like D&D all of the games uses the same system so they are all cross compatible, Rifts even has a savage worlds version now.
