@@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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'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.
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
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!
Great list! I've run a lot of these. here's a list of ones on my list you didn't linclide: DragonBane - Fantasy Old Gods of Appalachia - Horror Coriolis - Sci Fi Vaesen - Horror Defiant - Apocalyptic Champions - Super hero Villans and Vigilantes - Super Hero Coyote and Crow - Apocalyptic (kind of?) The One Ring - Fandom RPG Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Fandom RPG
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!
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)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Cartoon Action Hour has numerous supplements to allow you to play like any 70's/80's cartoon you might remember, or at least in something like their style. Each one works with the conceit that they were an actual cartoon that you get to imitate, and they all blend genres, including modern, sci-fi, and fantasy. Clever and very careful not to step on any copyrights or trademarks, tho clear influences can be seen, like the one called Wasteland 2010, which is nothing but a Thundarr rip-off/homage.
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.
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).
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!
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?
Numenara is freaking awesome one of my favorites of all time followed by Cyberpunk 2020. Theres a new sci-fi TTRPG coming out called Within Cold Stars that looks decent
Wow. That is a lot of games. Personally I like to go for fantasy like DND. Fantasy is my favorite narrative genres. I also like the idea behind games without a specific genre. These are things like Fate and Cypher. I like to imagine what this is like in fantasy.
PS One of the games without a specific genre is called Freeform Universal. I haven't heard of that one before. LOL. The book shows the initials FU for the title. FU is funny because it really reminds me of swearing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
> “Shadowrun 6th Edition”
*posts image from the superior 4th edition*
Me: nods in agreement
It was prettier 😂
Is that the one where everyone can hack?
@@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.
I'm surprised G.U.R.P.S. wasn't on this list.
One I really love is Ars Magica 3rd edition.
It's in the follow up!
I fucking love Ars Magica
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.
Everyone should check out Troika if they want some really wild, Douglas Adams-style fantasy nonsense. It's a great time
Ooh! Fun add!
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.
Seriously! Such a pretty book!!
@@TheClericCorner The art style is lovely. Free League are so good at that
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.
Anything by Free league is awesome! Would be so cool to see more free league games played in the US
I'm just happy Cypher, Numenera and the "Borgs" were mentioned 🤘🤘
Top tier! 🙌
Ditto. But Old Gods and the Strange weren't.
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!
No way! Great add! Love that they are expanding and gaining popularity!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
With so many out there, I was bound to miss a good one or two!
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.
Oh that does sound interesting! A bid to hit system would be fun
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.
Thanks! Got there eventually lol
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.
Absolutely!
Wow, I mean wow.
This is the best and most inclusive guide I have seen on the entire internet.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much! Hoping this reaches those who need it!
Awesome job putting all this together so fast!
All thanks to those who responded to the community post!
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.
Old School Essentials is not based on AD&D it is based on Basic/Expert D&D. Also it technically has the OGL inside it.
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
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!
1 year later and it's only been getting worse
Great list! I've run a lot of these. here's a list of ones on my list you didn't linclide:
DragonBane - Fantasy
Old Gods of Appalachia - Horror
Coriolis - Sci Fi
Vaesen - Horror
Defiant - Apocalyptic
Champions - Super hero
Villans and Vigilantes - Super Hero
Coyote and Crow - Apocalyptic (kind of?)
The One Ring - Fandom RPG
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Fandom RPG
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!
Great list. Currently, my two favorite non-OGL games are Fantasy AGE (Green Ronin) and Dragonbane (Free League).
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)
It is 👍. The others just weren't mentioned while I was polling
Also, Delta Green and Mothership!!
Mothership looks so good!
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.
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!
Definitely one of the more unique on the list!
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.
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.
"I am crossing my fingers that you're watching this six months from now and everything's A-OK."
Oh you sweet summer child...
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.
ALSO, I just got my Avatar Legends RPG and would love to hear your thoughts. Its a PBtA system?
You did Torchbearer absolutely dirty in its description.
Cartoon Action Hour has numerous supplements to allow you to play like any 70's/80's cartoon you might remember, or at least in something like their style. Each one works with the conceit that they were an actual cartoon that you get to imitate, and they all blend genres, including modern, sci-fi, and fantasy. Clever and very careful not to step on any copyrights or trademarks, tho clear influences can be seen, like the one called Wasteland 2010, which is nothing but a Thundarr rip-off/homage.
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.
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).
Alexandria RPG Library has been steering alternatives at events for years now.
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!
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?
Savage worlds sounds fun. I am excited to see more content like this from you and other creators.
Such a pretty book too! Lol I'm on the edge of my seat too!
Numenara is freaking awesome one of my favorites of all time followed by Cyberpunk 2020. Theres a new sci-fi TTRPG coming out called Within Cold Stars that looks decent
Wow. That is a lot of games. Personally I like to go for fantasy like DND. Fantasy is my favorite narrative genres. I also like the idea behind games without a specific genre. These are things like Fate and Cypher. I like to imagine what this is like in fantasy.
PS One of the games without a specific genre is called Freeform Universal. I haven't heard of that one before. LOL. The book shows the initials FU for the title. FU is funny because it really reminds me of swearing.
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.
Definitely have a ton that have very evocative worlds
Well its a ttrpg. The settings needs to be flexible because of the nature of play
Holy ship! So much content! And under 20 minutes!!! Well done
You ain't seen nothing yet! **Looks at tomorrow's video** 😂
I would add: Dragonbane (Fantasy); Delta Green (Horror); and Starfinder (Sci-Fi).
Thank you for this and keep up the great work! 🤘🏻
Thank you! Might be enough out there to do a part 2!
@@TheClericCorner can’t wait!
Most useful video on YT regarding ttrpgs ❤
GURPS: Am I a joke to you??
Did you mention Shadowrun??
You forgot about Hitos - a great RPG system that uses the dice pool and is highly adaptable to many environments and gentes!
Unfortunately wasn't mentioned in the poll!
@@TheClericCorner Hitos uses OGL, and Old School Essentials too. Great video!
I'm attempting to learn Twilight 2000.
Ooh, I haven't heard of that one!
Great guide, you have gained a new suscriber!
Glad to have you!
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.
Yeah thank you for this video. I look forward to trying some of these out in light of what's going on.
Hoping there is something for everyone on there!
Can you look into game with their own open licenses. It would be cool to get into games that people can build off of.
How not to mention Pathfinder 2nd Edition and WoD games? Those are complete essentials for any RPG-lovers! And Stars Without Number is great fun, too!
Thanks for the video! Glad we can look to more welcoming games and not rely on unsavory businesses.
You bet!!
Not actually true. The unsavory business model relies on the convenience of the apathetic. Capitalism is just the Boogeyman that gets blamed for it.
@@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.
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.
Nice list. I have played and enjoyed many of these games. Spread the word!
Spread it!
"Maybe in 6 months the OGL scandal will be gone"
Me 1 year later: Oh my sweet summer child...
Death in space is a very good one to add to the sci-fi section
Got that one in my last video!
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.
Swords of the Serpentine!!
Ooh, what's that one about?
fun fact: "mörk borg" translated to "dark fort" in swedish
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).
Great run down! Have you ever done an exploding dice system?
Not personally!
@@TheClericCorner I love the idea of the mechanic. I want to just roll dice. 😅
Dark Heresy is such a blast! So dark and gritty!
Unrelated but I love the Young Avengers (and the Runaways)
Add in Ankur!!!! Think Summarians with Aliens
If y'all like some zombie apocalypse style rpg, try All Flesh Must Be Eaten. It's a blast.
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 :)
Everyone is John. Everyone should play that once.
L5R uses five elements, not four. You forgot Void.
Whoops! Thanks!
It's 10 months later & things are settled, but I'm wanting to find a "better" system to play with my group.
Where do you actually buy Tiny Dungeon?
Dmsguild
@@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.
No mention of RIFTS/Palladium Fantasy Roleplay? :(
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.
Good thing there are tons more out there!
Only 3 weeks later and so happy to say that 5e is saved lol
Do you have sources for these ?
All easily searchable on the Internet
@@TheClericCorner Thanks, I'll check some of them out
How is forbidden lands not on here!
Thanks for this
Earthdawn has a 4th edition now. Has done for a few years. You are a little out of date. It is still great to see my favourite fantasy rpg mentioned.
Very cool
Any spark your fancy? Lol
I'm enjoying Zombicide: Chronicle TTRPG
Classic!
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.
Everything turned out A OK!
Traveller's real game is character creation and ending it with an actual playable character 🤣
😂
8:50 Did you say Arthurian??
Congratulations
The second one came true
Hell. Yes. 🙌
You list Hero, but not *_GURPS?_*
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.
Forbidden lands is really a fantasy game more the apocalyptic
This is a nice, rather complete oberview ...
No HARN?
Maybe in the next video!