4d ago

What 5 games would you recommend for the broadest possible sample of table top RPGs and story games?

If someone was interested in understanding as much as possible what the world of TTRPGs and story games had to offer, which 5 games would you suggest they play first, and why?

Ideally this would include a broad array of mechanics, themes and settings.

Inspired by a discussion over at !rpgmemes@ttrpg.network : https://lemmy.world/post/33918016/18604654

18 comments

That's a tricky question, but let's try-it
A D20, level based, high fantasy game, so let's say D&D/Pathfinder or one of the many clones
A prompt based, narrative immersive game with a lot of bleed potential let's say Alice is missing
A horror games, I would say Call of Chtulhu because it's the classic one, but also to show player a percent-based skill mechanic
Iron-sworn in GM-less mode, as it ticks both the narrative consequence driven game (PBTA) and the GM-less box
A sci-fi game, in order to get a recent design, and a sample of dice pool I would say Coriolis
Only 5 games is actually quite restrictive, especially to show different game type and mechanics. I am a bit annoyed that I didn't found any slot for Vampire/World-of-Darkness (considering how popular is the franchise) and that Iron sworn is the only PBTA (especially considering it's not the classical PBTA) I would also love to add a Cyberpunk game (Shadowrun or Red) as it's also a popular franchise, extend the D&D clones with OSR, and add Blade in the Dark considering it's massive influence on the recent RPG scene
- Cool answer, thanks. I like the way you explore and combine attributes.
  What do you mean by "bleed potential"?
  
  What do you mean by “bleed potential”?
  Bleed is that moment where your in-game emotion starts to mix with your IRL emotional system. A non RPG example would be crying while reading a book/wathcing a movie. The same can happen in RPG where you're feeling angry, sad, happy because your character feels so. It's something that some RPG player (Mostly narrative games and nordic LARP) players look for.
  The word actually comes from nordic larp but is also commonly used in tabletop https://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Bleed
- Good to see a GM-less option in the comments. Not everyone has the time to get a group of people together.
- Excellent list but Call of Cthulhu is tapping the same old vein of horror since the 80s and it doesn't carry the same weight. Delta Green is a very good update on the genre that has some really weird stuff to shock and amaze.
  
  Indeed, I am old enough to remember the time when delta green was just a COC sourcebook but it's a great take on COC. There is also a couple of modernized Chtulhu games, let alone non mythos horror games (Kult 😍😍😍)
I'd want to do some research before making a serious answer, but firing from the hip, not in order:
DND 5e. It's the big one. Even if you don't like it, it's popular. If you're going to learn about a hobby you should learn what's popular in it.
a white wolf game like Vampire. This was also pretty popular. It's got dice pools, no levels and classes, and themes that are more than "get treasure"
a pbta game. They're popular now and typically have a very different feel from DND. I'm not sure which one to pick but there are many.
one of those one page games, where you have like two stats. I don't like them but it's a good exercise to show what's possible.
some other indie game with an unusual mechanic, like drawing tarot cards instead of dice, or using a Jenga tower.
I don't keep up on every single system, but I'd go:
Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green
D&D 5e
Savage Worlds
MORK BORG
Kids on Bikes
I think that's a good spread. Edited: bullet points
- This might be a bit more readable as bullet points..
  Any comment on why these examples in particular?
  
  Fixed. It was super early and I'm not used to the formatting in these comments...
  CoC or Delta Green use the basic roleplaying system, which i really love.
  5e because I think it's the most user-friendly iteration of D&D and despite Hasbro being douches, I have a deep and abiding love for D&D.
  MORKBORG because I'm not a huge fsn of any of the OSR gamrs I've tried but it seems like they should be included ss a rules-light option for newcomers to get their feet wet and I think it's the most fun out of those options
  I haven't played Savage Worlds or Kids on Bikes, but they both seem like really good systems that wouldn't be hard to learn and look like a lot of fun. Also, they have mechanics the others don't so they're good from a variety standpoint.
Mothership, great pulp scifi horror that works for one shots or long campaigns.
Blades in the Dark, think oceans 11, or peaky blinders but haunted Victorian London.
Slugblaster, angsty teens traveling to other dimensions to skate and tag.
Numenera, billions of years in the future on earth. Medieval societies with tons of weird science so advanced its magic
Draw Steel, classic tactical mini based heroic fantasy. An evolution from D&D
- I've got slugblaster coming in the mail - the character arc mechanic looks awesome
  I don't know most of these - how well does this represent the diversity of mechanics?

18 comments