Ten Great RPGs that Aren't D&D

[@reneesteeves3698]

When i doom scroll on social media and start feeling the weight of what’s happening to D&D…. Along comes Mike to give hope to the situation. Thank you for being so positive through this weird time we’re living in. These youtube posts are like a beacon in the darkness

[@mariodosantos]

Both 13th Age and Fantasy Age are getting second editions/revisions this year. 13th Age will do a kickstarter soon and a revised Fantasy Age core book is going to print soon

[@GratuaCuun]

Yes you are correct. Fantasy AGE 2e is having preorders for the book and the pdf go up in Feb, so next month. I'm super excited for it! One of the great things about the AGE system is (apart from Dragon AGE) you can take elements/mechanics from any of the other AGE games and with none or small tweaks have them work with each other. Want some cyberware elements in your Fantasy game? Look at the options from Modern AGE. Its a fantastic system imo

[@OldSchoolGM94]

Old School Essentials is very suitable for a long term campaign imo. I have been running a game for over a year and at this same time in 5e my characters where so strong I had to lash together the most ridiculous encounters in order to challenge them.

[@threesoftrees]

Old School Essentials is awesome. Necrotic Gnome is soon going to launch a Kickstarter for their Dolmenwood setting for it! Excited about it, especially since it’s easy to slot into my homebrewed setting.

[@m4rcLsKFP]

I'm a Shadow of the Demon Lord enthusiast myself, and I love the system Schwalb has created, as it has empowered me to be a GM myself. That said, I'm also looking forward to Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It really has a different tone to it, but Schwalb's influence can be found in places like the lore or enemy descriptions. It uses the same basic mechanics, but also puts some interesting twists on the established Demon Lord engine. To name a few: abstract zone combat instead of grid measurements, weapon properties for more martial crunch, path-based meta-currencies, fewer but more powerful spells, no insanity or corruption, and so on. The playtest for Weird Wizard finished a few days ago and Rob hinted at a Kickstarter release date in March this year. Hope everything goes well 🤞

[@tjduck85]

Worth noting is that 13th Age and Fantasy AGE will soon get second editions. Fantasy AGE 2E will come out in Feburary 2023, the kickstarter for 13th Age 2E will be later in 2023.

[@mus0u]

OSE is fantastic! i love the first party modules they've published for it, i love having the ability to drop in any old TSR modules without needing to work to convert them, and i definitely love the deeply creative and weird modules like Deep Carbon Observatory that the OSR scene has created

[@Nastara]

Index card rpg has been having my attention lately. Because I basically ran 13th age that way. Except I just wrote what the area was. And players could use their actions to interact and I would read off the improvised dmg and effect table. A move action would move you from one adjacent card to the other.

[@FireallyXTheories]

I'm really happy Worlds Without Number is part of the bundle; it's so good and I'm happy to see it get in more people's hands! The bundle is such a great idea to give out a lot of systems for players/GMs to find the one that really jives with them.

[@jimyoung9262]

It's such a great system. The DM tools are fantastic.

[@ericksemones9681]

Fantasy AGE and its derivatives are really interesting! The stunt system really sets the game apart.

[@ConlangKrishna]

Great list! 👍 Having returned to the RPG hobby a few months ago, I purchased most of these systems to get an impression of the wide range of present-day systems. I agree with all of your choices. There is a lot to discover! Unlike 30 years ago, all these systems are complete, well presented, and have been tested for years. And ALL of them are more streamlined than D&D. In the 13th Age, adventurers become almost superheroes over time. And each class plays differently, from the super-easy Barbarian to the complex Rogue. Very gamey. Fate is really story-oriented. Index Card RPG reminds me of video-games, with several different worlds to choose from. Ironsworn almost seems to me like an abstract system to keep stories running. Numenera is super-beautiful with a world like no other, focused on discovery way more than on fighting enemies. Shadow Of the Demon Lord feels like a horror fantasy game with many options for people who do not have that much time, but still want to have the feeling of going through the whole character development in fewer than 20 sessions. And they try to stop the end of the world.

[@monsaemon]

For fantasy style games, I haven’t done a long campaign on any of them, but I like running the Borg games for one-shots or small adventures. Mörk Borg does the dark wacky fantasy very well. Cy_Borg has a fun horror cyber punk vibe and is easy to play. And the recent Pirate Borg fills that pirate fantasy really well! All of those games are super easy and fun to hop right into. For more specific games I like City of Mist. It’s a PbtA modern fantasy style game where your players are solving mysteries but have mysterious powers or their own. Kinda reminds me of the 2000s show Heroes. Deep pull I know. Also Vaesen was a drunk kickstarter purchase of mine, and I’m happy for it. It’s a dark fantasy, mystery game where you can play in a late 19th-early 20th century Northern Europe setting. Very spooky. We love it.

[@BriConRPG]

There's a Forged in the Dark (Blades in the Dark's open license) game that's about overthrowing vampire overlords called Brinkwood. The big appeal to me is that its publisher is a worker owned cooperative called Far Horizons

[@paulianhodgson]

This sounds great, def gonna check it out.

[@BriConRPG]

@@paulianhodgson it's not even my usual style of ttrpg, but I literally was just searching for an explicitly worker owned rpg company and they are what I found. I hope people might be able to find others

[@TheUndeadRat]

Right now my go to alternative RPG is The Cypher System and I hope to run a Numenera game and a super-hero game soon. However, the one game I really really want to play but can't find brave players for is Monte Cook Game's Invisible Sun which is the ideal game if you love magic and the surrealism movement in art.

[@colbyboucher6391]

Ooh, first time seeing Invisible Sun. I love settings where the rules of the world reflect on the nature of reality and what it means to be an RPG a little bit.

[@kafka0622]

I have played in and run Invisible Sun. It's really great if you have buy-in from your players. It is truly unlike anything out there and well worth playing.

[@protomaker]

Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is another great alternative and its old school. Would love to have you feature other systems on your channel more often!

[@digitaljanus]

I've been wanting to try one of these non-5e games for a while, but this fracas has definitely ensured I will be doing so after my current 5e campaign ends. Thanks Sly!

[@nolgroth]

Interesting list. For my return to the TTRPG hobby, I chose Pathfinder for Savage Worlds. Just reading the SW rules and seeing how it all fits together has me more excited about playing than anything since I was introduced to the Hero System way back in 1989.

[@boblinhobgoblin]

Highly recommend Five Torches Deep, if you want something that feels like a more striped down, simplified D&D. Also pick up the Origins companion book to give your players similar options to what they're familiar with.

[@lucasmarquesdecamargos4298]

Talking about OSE and long campaigns: I think it is totally doable. The focus is not on the characters gaining flashy super powers, but in the emergent narrative that comes with play, the domain levels (if the group likes that stuff), with wizards building towers, fighters building keeps, and so on. Also, it is really common to retire some high level characters for a while and rejoin the living campaign world with novice characters under the veteran's tutelage. Character creation is so simple, anyway. Yeah, character advancement doesn't give you super powers, but the game is not about that. It is about problem solving, avoiding risks, and exploration in many scales (reaching more social interaction and political intrigue in higher levels if the group wants to, but it could totally diverge to a more epic cosmic typical AD&D 2e - 5e style campaign, since the characters are gonna be more resilient, have more magic items, etc). I strongly believe it can be a long term game, one of the best games for that matter, even.

[@JohnDoe-mk5zb]

One thing I would add about Level Up, is that I find it to be more DM friendly. That might seem counter intuitive. However, the exploration rules have massive amounts of DM content that make it easy to keep exploration interesting. Characters get access to thematic social abilities that can be used as good hooks for DM. And the overall quality level of advice, for example the encounter building, variant monsters, and such just has that extra touch. Heck, their version of the Dungeon Master's Guide might be worth it just for the exploration rules to drag and drop into 5E. And their Monstrous Menagerie just gives so much more bang for your buck. While it technically has more rules things seem to flow together in a way that I honestly think would make it better for a starting DM than Original 5E Dnd.

[@UncleRiotous]

I'm absolutely loving Old School Essentials. We've been running it for a couple of years and I can't get enough of it. It definitely focuses on player skill rather than character skill which took some getting used to. Amazing adventures too.

[@saveversus]

I definitely feel that perspective that the Cypher System is a GMs game. My friends just don't want to play it and I constantly talk about how cool it is. 😄

[@cameronlloyd9752]

I had this sense when I first playtested it, but fixed this issue by changing my mindset on how I ran things. You *can* run it like D&D, but it doesn't shine. It functions, but feels flat when you do a crawl with combat encounters. Unlike PbtA, it doesn't make it obvious that this isn't how you're meant to play. Then I shifted to a cinematic/narrative style. I threw non-stop dynamic action scenarios at the players rather than breaking things up into discrete encounters. Suddenly Cypher shined, because I could improv constantly shifting situations.

[@shawnpeterson2523]

I can't believe how helpful this is. Thank you! You give enough detail about each system -- I can tell you've actually played them. This is wonderful.

[@dm4life579]

Great video Mike! I'd also recommend Savage Worlds (Savage Pathfinder) since we are focusing on fantasy. Great system gets crunchier at higher levels but overall fun and engaging.

[@nikoteardrop4904]

I can run around five complete greenhorns to Blades in the Dark from character/crew creation, first job, to downtime in a little over two hours. I've also run a six-month weekly campaign that showed no sign of slowing down when scheduling pulled it apart. Certainly way more play than 8-12 sessions for a single campaign.

[@cameronlloyd9752]

Cypher/Numenera has become my primary system. I found it has the best crunch/fluff balance for me. A narrative-first design with robust mechanics that support that narrative.

[@BlackShardStudio]

Commenting for the algorithm. Been a fan ever since I accidentally won a copy of Dungeon Master Tips just for being your 3,000th follower on Twitter. That little bite-sized booklet was a goldmine. Bought everything else you've published since then. Shocked you're somehow sitting at fewer than 50k subs.

[@sumdude4281]

OSE is DM friendly. Super easy to run. It's also basic. No pun untended. You can bolt on 5e stuff you like and leave off what you don't because its just a simple basic foundation. It's super deadly so we added death saving throws for example. We like fighter feats so we added some 3e type feats as found in their Carcass Crawler. Just an awesome system. It's Dungeon Survival as written. Nice video.

[@larsgottlieb]

I've played in and run long running Fate campaigns for 10+ years. We use the Dresden Files version. It is very definitely a solid system with good options for advancement.

[@jonhemphill7661]

This list is great. I am definitely sharing this with my players. I also appreciate the light to crunchy values for the games.

[@bgunz17]

Thanks for all the links. That 13th age sale was too good to good to pass up!🔥🔥🔥

[@zenhikerjoe844]

Great job! Keep up the fantastic work! I love Blades in the Dark. (Even though I haven’t had a chance to play yet 😢. That goes double for Scum and Villainy). I’m also looking forward to learning more about Fate!

[@Cuthbo]

I personally will be looking at really old RPGs, older editions of D&D, the West End Games d6 Star Wars system and those Advanced Fighting Fantasy books.

[@hungryewok1684]

WEG D6 Star Wars is my favorite game. Still play 30 years on

[@cybermerlyn2]

I'd also include EZD6, Not the End, They Came from Beyond The Grave, Pandora: Total Destruction, ARC: DOOM TABLETOP RPG, Knights of the Round: Academy... I am always searching for interesting games with unusual mechanics.

[@successfulgeek]

Great list! My 2 favorite alternatives to D&D are Dungeon Crawl Classics and Pathfinder 2e.

[@michaelvolling3120]

I just played in a demo session of DCC yesterday. It was a blast and had pretty epic enemies.

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

I really want to like pf2e, but I find that it’s crunch level isn’t suited to most groups. On one hand, it’s too crunchy for new or narratively inclined players, but on the other hand it really breaks down when it’s given to min maxers, so I’m not really sure who it’s for.

[@IraRomfh]

@@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112 I am curious what you mean about it breaking down when given to min/maxers. What I have seen so far is because of the action economy a single hyper optimized character is not really viable, it takes a team helping each other to overcome enemies. Plus the way crits + crit fails work adding a level or 2 to a monster completely changes the encounter dynamic.

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

@@IraRomfh it’s not a necessarily a problem with a power game imbalance. The issue for PF2E optimizers is that the system heavily incentivizes specializing in 1 or 2 actions, which means that the process of creating optimized characters is fun for min maxers, but that those characters usually aren’t fun to play long term. The simplest example is for archers which use feats and features to remove the penalties for shooting multiple times and for shooting in melee such that doing anything else like moving becomes suboptimal at higher levels. (This is also true of other more complicated classes like casters which have ways of overcoming resistances, but I think archers are the easiest to describe)

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

the dark eye is an RPG out of germany if I remember correctly, and is apparently very very popular over there. There are also a bunch of PC games using it. advanced fighting fantasy I think is some sort of expanded rules set based around the old old fighting fantasy game books - the name would suggest that at least. I loved those old FF game books, owned a ton as a kid. I might take a peek at the advanced stuff at some point

[@KabukiKid]

I think the gold standard of OSR D&D rules is Old-School Essentials. The layout is amazing. Definitely the best one I have seen to date, at least. Personally, I prefer Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, because it is basically B/X D&D, but with a bunch of cool options from AD&D 1e mixed in. I strongly recommend getting the two volume set of that version.

[@colbyboucher6391]

This is an awesome list, it does a good job of showing off what role playing can be for people who've never branched out before. Personal additions in the same vein: - Savage Worlds is a great system for "pulp adventures". It's built to be setting-agnostic and revolves around making situations exciting! Dramatic! Rules-lite but not wholly "narrative", swingy, lots of support for miniataures. - The Basic Role Playing family is great for people who want more grounded games without getting *insanely* crunchy like GURPS. (Oh, yeah, look into GURPS.) BRP itself and my favorite game ever, Mythras, are great for homebrewing your own settings in any time period. Mythras has some of the most believable, detailed melee combat I've seen. Of course RuneQuest is the OG, Mythras is a more modern offshoot of it but with RuneQuest itself you get the best RPG setting ever written, Glorantha. OpenQuest is another fantasy system explicitly built to be faster / "more heroic". Then you've got Call of Cthulhu for all your doomed-to-die eldritch horror needs. - Paranoia is a very silly game in which the GM is halfway role playing themselves as "Friend Computer", who only wants what's best for you, and for you to know that your fellow players are probably in some death cult and want you dead. - Troika! is another very silly game. It's rules are rather simple. The book itself is fun to read through, and a lot of the charm comes from getting one of the prewritten backgrounds (or picking up more on Itch) and interpreting what it actually means in practice. Maybe you're a Thinking Engine which used to pilot starships, an Ardent Giant of Corda searching for their homeland, or just a fellow of the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks looking for new ways to get shredded.

[@johnberry5296]

Amazing vid. Thanks for mentioning solo play in the form of Ironsworn / Starforged. There are a plethora of solo RPGs and solo modes for other systems and I think solo play is on the verge of exploding similar to solo boardgames. The new “One Ring RPG” (Free League Publishing ) has a solo mode and Free League’s recently crowd funded “Dragonbane”. I would urge anyone to checkout any of the games published by Free League, Mork Borg, Cy_Borg, Alien, Blade Runner etc, etc.

[@philistineau]

Castles and Crusades would be my pick. It's a continuation beyond AD&D 2nd edition, but with a lot of modern things that the OGL is missing. As a result, you can easily play OSR material, all the way through to 5E material with minimal modification. It keeps the feel of AD&D 2nd edition and, best of all, is perfect for playing things like Dark Sun, Dragonlance and Ravenloft from those eras. Even those early boxed sets of Forgotten Realms.

[@captainhrothgar4637]

And Castles and Crusades can be easily modified for any systems you like from other games or editions. Wonderful system!

[@christophercorvus7691]

Sly, thank you so much for your ideas and thoughts! I really enjoyed your ideas & opinions.

[@CharlesEtheridgeNunn]

Out of these games I think Blades in the Dark is the one I’ve run the most and I adore it. That and Trophy Gold have been my top two RPGs right now. Love the rec for Band of Blade, too. It’s a really good grimdark fantasy XCOM type game.

[@FishTheJim]

Thank you. I am checking out Ironsworn right now. :)

[@TheBROtisserieChicken]

I just bought both 13th age and 13 True Ways. One of those books ive always wanted never did, and many years later finally did. Yeah I say its basically 4th edition but if the dude who made Pathfinder would have made it. so i always now refer to 13th age as 4.5 edition of DnD. How people see that is up to them lol.

[@Finnergans]

One of my favorite RPGs that I found last year is Advanced Tiny Dungeon. It's a d6 system that's kind of like Fantasy Age, but it's much more fluid. It has awesome flexible character progression that's similar to a Soulsborne game. You have a starring class but when you lvl up yoy can build up any way you want. It's excellent

[@Tysto]

What I’m attracted to is Castles & Crusades and Low Fantasy Gaming. Both have AD&D 2e sensibilities but clean mechanics, as if D&D never went down the 3e road of becoming overly complicated & bloated.

[@lakewood2535]

great games for consideration. do you have any experience with the one ring 2e by chance? otherwise 13th age might be what i try next, after i conclude the campaign i'm just about to start running (unfortunate timing but oh well)

[@KrustalHersh]

I used to run 13th regularly but haven't for a few years. Are they still publishing stuff for it?

[@nikoteardrop4904]

I absolutely fell in love with Into the Odd, by far my favorite of the OSR games.

[@Krooks44]

Was sad not to see Symbaroum on this list. I am absolutely hooked on this setting, system and the feel of it. To me it’s the most original systems and setting I have seen in a long time.

[@deathmetalbard]

Loving all the lists, but 13th age is my goat!

[@mosthra9048]

Dungeon World and Ironsworn is also very good 😁

[@akamai8097]

Your previous video inspired me to get the Non-OGL bundle

[@quark12000]

All these games look cool. There's also a little game called Pathfinder that D&D fans might like.

[@jessehupp44]

How is it I never see Shadowrun, or World of darkness, in any of these or at least Deadlands. Has everyone forgotten about Call of cuthlhu.

[@MZero8099]

Thanks so much for this video, I was looking for a list exactly like this. Really excited to finally try other tRPGs!

[@paulianhodgson]

Blades in the Dark is so great, and Band of Blades as well. Such a simple system but so flexible.

[@spacerx]

Good video! To discuss what comes across as an offhand comment, I completely disagree that mechanical character progression is necessary for long term campaigns. In fact, quite the opposite. Mechanical character progression LIMITS the campaign length. I used to play adventure path type games, and after a few months, you get up into high enough level that most games are too complex to run, it feels like a different genre than you started out as, and , and you hit the ceiling before too long anyway. The scalability problem of D&D applies to most other games that have strong mechanical character progression, especially levels. 5e tried to solve that with "bounded accuracy" but they didn't really implement it as well as needed. Leveling and other similar forms of mechanical character progression is a trap; it actually forces your game to END rather than allowing them to be truly long-lasting. Curiously, you note this in your Numenera discussion, but I've found it to be true in every level-based game, or other game that has big jumps in character progression. Games like BRP that have slight tweaks, like increase a skill by a point or two, on the other hand, don't seem to have this problem.

[@AlbertaGnome]

With you all the way, just to say: the one advantage of D&D is the # of modules (adventures) available. I am a forever-DM, they provide a plot framework and fresh ideas for locations, NPCs, lore … Embellishing and remixing modules is fun; writing a 2-year campaign entirely on my own is not (for me). In the 80s, my friends and I mostly played Top Secret and I remember the joy every time a new module from TSR appeared at the game store. Just my $0.02.

[@robotclaw22]

I always see Old School Essentials but never see Dungeon Crawl Classics mentioned. DCC is similar to OSE as an old school game, but I've found that it is even more random with spell checks and other stuff. It also has the mighty deed mechanic which I enjoy a lot. Both are great systems but I wish DCC got a little more love.

[@jasonsunday2932]

The 2nd Edition of Fantasy Age comes out in February 2023!

[@GratuaCuun]

Yes and Im super excited about it!

[@TonyCrenshawsLatte]

Dungeon Crawl Classics deserves a mention!

[@michaelpackard6953]

Thanks for the awesome list, Mike!

[@NewbieDM]

Dragon Age! Love it. I created a Star Wars version of it back in the day.

[@rustythoughts]

Fantasy Age 2e is apparently coming in February according the publisher, Green Ronin Publishing.

[@wymanbartlett4648]

Here is a short list of great games and settings if you want to break out of just D&D: Exalted, Shadowrun, Legend of the Five Rings, Mutants & Masterminds, Vampire: The Mascarade

[@FrostSpike]

I was wondering if anyone had looked at Autarch's Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) and its warfare supplements and how that stacked up against OSE?

[@Arkanjil]

Very nice list; thank you for sharing this

[@Aasinp]

Mike what is your opinion on Pathfinder 2e?

[@eganderson]

Sorry if you've covered this somewhere else, but what do you think about Pathfinder 2e?

[@O4C209]

I have half of these, and now my group has a reason to finally try them. Thank you WotC.

[@scottmckay9049]

I can back up icrpg gives a lot for little investment probably imo best replacement for dnd. I love Mork Borg and it's compatible games like Demon Dog too and of course wfrp.

[@RodBatten]

So happy to see the recent surge in support and recommendations for the "other games". In this respect, WizBro's stupidity has benefitted the hobby in a way that nothing else could have. I picked up BitD a while ago but the setup has been problematic. Hope to get that sorted and a short Paranoia campaign up sometime this year.

[@michaelmcdaniel786]

I noticed Pathfinder didn't make this list. Is there a specific reason? I don't play PF but was thinking of making the switch

[@simonfernandes6809]

I'm finding that the PF2e rules are too crunchy for casual gamers. It's a great game for what it does but it fills a niche within a niche.

[@michaelmcdaniel786]

@@simonfernandes6809 thanks

[@GeeVeeGM]

"Dark, dark things, man. Dark, bad stuff..." Your Lebowski came through load and clear, dude. 😂

[@protonneutron9046]

Castles & Crusades is the best "D&D" since 1st Edition.

[@captainhrothgar4637]

Agreed and as I commented above under another post, it's very modular so you can modify or add any systems you like.

[@Mantorp86]

I love Old School Essentials. Lately I am all into Mörg Borg

[@andreacavalli4290]

I wish to recommend to you all also the excellent L'Ultima Torcia (the Last Torch) by the Italian Serpentarium. It is a very good fantasy RPG made by Italian authors with a strong Old School D&D vive, High letality and High suspence. Thank you very much.

[@RyanWBL]

"Get out there and play some role playing games." Nice little change you did there for your sign off. 👌

[@hicamajig]

Love Index Card RPG and would love to see more recorded gameplay online. It is a great read even to apply some of the concepts to your other game systems.

[@PhilipDudley3]

The GM Section of Index Card RPG is the best I've ever seen. Actually given GM's mentality and tools to make challenges that aren't just XP tuning or challenge rating. Be feared but fair.

[@MrBrianofarrell]

Completely agree, I have taken the zone based movement over to D&D and the general cinematic fun idea as well.

[@PhilipDudley3]

@@MrBrianofarrell If you watch Runehammer's Index Card RPG is here! video, he explains the "concept" or zones approach too.

[@thereisn0m0re]

In case you didn't know about them, there are several Alfmarches gameplay videos on the Kane's Kiln channel and the Rat King's Receptacle channel

[@zenthr]

Ironsworn's full PDF is, indeed, free. It's expansion (Delve) and Starforged are not. For anyone interested in trying, I recommend just using Ironsworn alone first and not worrying about these until you are hooked.

[@willschoonover8654]

Eagerly awaiting Shadow of the Weird Wizard!

[@VaGuS343]

Thanks for sharing Mike. Really looking forward to picking up Shadow of the Demon Lord. Looks so interesting. Have played and own most of the others. I'd like to share back to you! Check out DCC if you have not. Man that's a fun take on D&D. I wish I discovered it years ago. Keep up the good work! I'm gonna open my copy of the lazy DM and prep for my old school caves of chaos session tonight! 💪💪 Thanks again.

[@paulunderhill550]

I'm looking for something that's not as basic as OSE, but feels like 2nd AD&D where my characters don't really feel heroic at level 1, but are pretty weak until around 3rd level. Any suggestions?

[@captainhrothgar4637]

Castles and Crusades

[@doombunnybomb]

Castles and Crusades

[@micklangan7544]

I am waiting for my 'Old gods of appalachia' book from M.C.G' however I probably wont use it with the Cypher system. I am planning on using it with my 'Vaesen' game using Free Leagues 'Year Zero engine' system. WOTC D and D 5E, may still be the best known role playing game, but is it peoples favourite because they enjoy it the most or because it is the only one they know? I feel safe in saying the WOTC D and D 5E is not the best TTRPG and certainly not the game I would recommend to someone new to TTRPGs.

[@CondemnedGuy]

I'll definitely keep Shadow of the Demon Lord in mind. Personally, I'll branch out into cyberpunk stuff and horror for a while. Fantasy gets kind of old when you play too much of it.

[@TyLarson]

Everway, Amber, Ars Magica, Talislanta, Lex Arcana, One Ring, Gurps, and Morra.

[@kyrnsword72]

A good way to showcase a ttrpg is to show the charecter sheet. And the easier less crumchy the sheet is to me the better. The ttrpg that does this real well for me is D100 DUNGEON.

[@olivesandtuna]

I cannot imagine 8-12 sessions being a Blades in the Dark full campaign, there is very little you can improve in the crew with only so many scores!

[@donovk]

Unpopular opinion but I feel like I still have years of 5e. I may splash in some new rules if I like them from the next edition. 5e has so much content due to the current OGL... That said I did just pick up shadow of the demon lord and will pretty much buy anything from MCDM.

[@RichardRohlin]

I'd love to see you give a look at Jackals: Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying.

[@rontalkstabletop]

Great list!

[@thejammiestjam]

If anyone has any suggestions for contemporary, urban fantasy systems, please let me know! I love D&D, and all that is has to offer, but I am truly struggling to find a system designed for modern day magic and adventure. I picked up Everyday Heroes, since that uses d20 Modern and has rules for stuff like vehicles and tech, which I intend to borrow from. But... I wish there was something else. I don't want to lose the magic in a contemporary setting; I want it to still be very much part of the system. Anyone know of anything like that?

[@TalkingAmerican]

Cypher System and Monster of the Week are good places to start.

[@cameronlloyd9752]

Cypher System/Numenera can handle that. So can FATE.

[@ghosteeniesmith6219]

Why no L5R? Legend of the Five Rings?

[@thehubbleton]

Great video.

[@SlyFlourish]

Thanks!

[@Runehammer1]

thanks Sly!!

[@catdragon1313]

Thanks so much Mike!!

[@DGB_Smyth]

You should check out EZD6 by DM Scotty! Published by Runehammer. You'll love it!

[@edenbenson3769]

What is your view on Pathfinder as a step away from 5e?

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

I’ll admit, I think pf2e is cool in theory, but after running it for a couple of months, I think it has some real problems. Namely, it’s crunch level is odd. It’s too crunchy for newer groups or groups that prefer more narrative play, but on the other hand it really breaks down when you give it to min maxers, so I’m not really sure who it’s for. Also and maybe most importantly, it’s very difficult to run from the GM side of things, much more so than 5e which was already fairly taxing.

[@Nastara]

@@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112 PF2e is actually heaven for min maxers who don’t want to break the game because it is impossible to break it. The most OP build is a gnome flickmace fighter of all things. A build like that would be D Tier in PF1e and D&D 3.5e. The game literally cannot be optimized to the point of ruining the game. And 90% of optimization happens outside of character build and instead in player tactics. Players who want to break the game with their Tier 1 prepared casters look elsewhere. Also I ran it for my partner who twice who has practically 0 experience with TTRPGs and they understood it just fine. The only thing confusing thing was saving throws vs attack rolls. Which would have been just as confusing in 5e and any D&D that isn’t 4e. Also it is not harder to run than 5e. As someone who ran 5e for quite a few sessions balancing encounters was a nightmare. CR didn’t make any sense. Meanwhile 2e encounter builder actually works. And out of combat you can run it just like you run 5e if you want to.

[@thabookwyrm]

Pathfinder 2e is better at pretty much everything D&D 5 is designed to do, which is to say, tactical combat, character customization, and dungeon exploration. It's a significantly more complex system, which will be a turn-off for some, but in return for a steeper learning curve you get a system that's a lot more varied and interesting. If what you love about in D&D is building unique characters and fighting monsters, you'd probably enjoy Pathfinder 2. As a perma-GM, I find the game roughly as difficult to run as 5e is, if not slightly easier, but it's a different kind of difficulty. In 5e I find myself constantly having to make and then remember rulings for the things my players want to do, and lots of times I have to put my game designer hat on to handle things the actual designers of the game really should have thought of. But in Pathfinder that time is now spent finding the rule that tells us how to handle a thing. Usually the rules make sense, but sometimes I get frustrated with badly explained or confusing mechanics and have to get that game designer hat back on. I'd say the thing that gives Pathfinder the slight edge here is that the encounter design actually works. If a monster or hazard is level X, you can actually be sure that it's going to be that specific level of challenge, versus 5e's much more vague challenge ratings. Now, if what you like about ttrpgs is roleplay and story, I have great news: Pathfinder has exactly as much support for those aspects of the game as 5e does, even if that amount of support is still zero! If you'd like a system that's really good for those things, I strongly recommend playing Dungeon World, FATE, or Burning Wheel, all of which place emphasis on your character, their beliefs, and their relationship to others around them. Personally, I **love** Dungeon World. The book has a ton of interesting RPG philosophy in it, the systems are simple and elegant, and it's just so damn stylish. The language they use for everything is super evocative, and the game has real personality because of it.

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

@@Nastara hard disagree. There are a couple of issues. 1. I’m glad your partner picked it up easily, but I run weekly pickup games at my community center. I teach a dozen new players how to play trpgs every month and both DnD 5e and PF2E are terrible for new players. Every time I’ve run either, I’ve spent the entire time answering rules questions, even after making 1 page handouts. They’re completely counterintuitive and frankly just get in the way of learning improvisational story telling. 2. The issue for min maxers isn’t power, it’s flexibility (although the game is just as breakable as 5e). The system heavily incentivizes hyper specialization to the point where optimal characters are designed to do 1 maybe 2 things. As a consequence, most min maxers enjoy making characters but have less fun actually playing the game than in other systems. (The simplest example is archers where you use feats and features to remove the penalties for making multiple attacks and attacking in melee, such that doing anything other than firing a bow is suboptimal.) 3. I don’t know how many systems you’ve run, but by comparison to most alternatives PF2E is very cumbersome from the GM side of things. The encounter building tools don’t work any better than 5e’s (which are also terrible), there are far more modifiers to factor into every roll which tax the GM, and the core materials are a cross referencing nightmare (I.e. monster attacks reference status conditions which then reference other status conditions which then reference other sections of the book). Yes, the system can be run well once the GM has memorized enough. By all accounts, I ran a satisfying 30 session / 6 month campaign, but a decent GM can run any system. The question is whether or not a system is an asset or a liability, and pf2e necessitates so much wasted work when compared to systems like Numenera, Fantasy Age, Call of C’thulu, Warhammer Fantasy, The Strange, or Fate.

[@Nastara]

@@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112 1. Yes 5e and PF2e are bad for newcomers. Almost any 3.5e with tactical combat is bad for newcomers with no desire to go there. That being said of a newcomer wants to build characters and bust out the battlemap the systems are pretty good. Even 5e which I do not like is a solid first crunchy rpg game for new players. 2. No this is factually incorrect. PF2e punishes over specialization by throwing enemies immune to your tricks. An archer who pew pews with his arrow will be stuck against enemies and invested in nothing else will be fucked by enemies that are tickled by such things. They better have at least 3-4 things to do to remain useful instead of dead weight. Also you can’t stack massive numbers to compensate for limitations nor can you easily substitute statistics for another. 3. No PF 2e encounter building is painless. If you want a moderate encounter you plug in enemies till you hit moderate encounter XP budget. If that is difficult I have no idea what to tell you. 4. I like rules light just fine. My go to is Dungeon World to onboard people who never played before. 13th age is also fantastic too since it actually is real theatre of the mind game instead of playing pretend like 5e. Same thing with Genesys but that one is kinda crunchy and dice are unintuitive. I’ve liked almost every story teller type game I’ve played as well. I’d like Fate too. And one day I’d like to run it. But from what I read Fate is an lil fit for tactical combat + roleplaying. I’d run Fate for what other systems can’t provide me. For someone who ran PF2e the issues you said you had with it don’t make any sense. And there are plenty of them but what you mentioned ain’t it.

[@angryheathen3463]

I bought shadow of the demon lord recently and I’m looking to run a campaign. Problem is my gaming group is me, my friends and our wives so no one has the time to write a campaign and I am running into problems finding pre written adventures