In part thanks to Stranger Things, when many people think of Tabletop Role Playing Games, they think of Dungeons & Dragons. The famous game has more to thank for its continued success than the Netflix series, of course - it was the first commercially available TTRPG to exist and has been continually updated to reflect more current game-playing standards. But there is so much more to the TTRPG community than Dungeons and Dragons.
While D&D is based on high-fantasy inspired by The Lord of the Rings, many TTRPG systems opt for a different setting altogether. There are TTRPGs for almost every genre - Sci-Fi, Mech, Horror, and even Dating Sims! Fans of TTRPGs have hundreds of options to choose from. Thanks to Actual Play podcasts - podcasts based around TTRPG gameplay - it's easier than ever to get a taste for different systems before committing to a whole new rule book.
8 Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
- Actual Play Podcasts: Rad Rolls, War Game News Radio
Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is an officially licensed TTRPG version of the popular video game series Fallout. Players can choose from six different origins familiar to the Fallout universe: Brotherhood of Steel, Ghoul, Super Mutant, Mister Handy, Survivor, or Vault Dweller. It's like a fully customizable Fallout game - keep it similar to the video games or make it a whole new game!
The game only uses d20s and d6s, which will be familiar to Dungeons & Dragons players, but potentially a lot simpler. There's also a token system that works for and against the players.
7 Ryuutama
Inspired by the world of Hayao Miyazaki, Ryuutama is a breath of fresh air in the TTRPG world. It's a 'natural fantasy' TTRPG written by Atsuhiro Okada and translated into English to bring the world of Ryuutama to an even wider audience.
Like Dungeons & Dragons, Ryuutama is inspired by Western medieval tales but takes a more laid-back approach to combat. While combat definitely happens, the central focus of the game is wonder, exploration, and companionship. The GM, or 'Dragon-Person', creates the world around the players, who go on exciting, feel-good adventures.
6 Numenera
- Actual Play Podcasts: Numenera The Signal, Simulacrum
Numenera is a science fiction TTRPG set on Earth one billion years in the future. There are said to have been eight worlds before the current one, and all of these worlds have risen, transcended, and fallen. Players play in the ninth world, one that is full of remnants of the past, strange relics to be discovered and explored.
Because Numenera is so different from most TTRPGs, new players might find it difficult to adjust. It's worth sticking with for just how unique the setting can be, and the incredible stories that can be told using the system.
5 Deadlands
- Actual Play Podcasts: A Fistful of Dice, Sounds Like Crowes
Deadlandsis an alternate-history TTRPG that mixes features of the Steampunk, Western, and Horror genres to create something entirely unique. Set in the late 19th Century, Deadlands adopts a 'weird west' setting thanks to the juxtaposition of the classic Western setting and the fantastical monsters that haunt America.
It's also unique in that character creation and spell-casting are done using a standard 54-card poker deck, as well as the standard d20 system and 'fate chips' that determine a number of events in the game.
4 Pathfinder
- Actual Play Podcasts: The Glass Cannon Podcast, Find The Path
Pathfinder is a TTRPG fairly similar to Dungeons & Dragons because the original is based on Dungeons & Dragons' 3.5E. It was initially created to make edition 3.5 of the popular role-playing game more compatible with previous versions of the game, before branching out into its own game altogether.
It uses the same d20 system as D&D, making it easy for fans to get a grasp on. Players take on the role of adventurers for the Pathfinder Society, and travel through the high-fantasy world as a party.
3 Lancer
- Actual Play Podcasts: Zero.Blue.Orion, CCRPG
Fans of the Mech genre will love Lancer, a game that takes everything to love about the Mech genre and rolls it into one spectacular TTRPG. Set thousands of years in the future, players take on the role of mech pilots with any number of motivations and interests.
There are tons of Mech customization options in Lancer, as well as player backgrounds, and a system/setting with room to tell any story the GM pleases. This makes it great for fans of the military sci-fi aspects of Mech, as well as those that want to tell heartfelt and interesting stories.
2 Genesys
- Actual Play Podcasts: Campaign: Skyjacks, Excess Advantage
Genesys is an incredibly versatile system that can be used in a variety of different campaign settings. What makes it so unique is the dice pool, which consists of Positive Dice and Negative Dice.
Positive Dice represent things the character is good at - skills they have, training they have gone through, or any advantages they might have. Negative Dice, on the other hand, represent the disadvantages a character has. It's a fairly simple system that encourages role-playing an imagination over strict rules and statistics, though there is plenty of that too.
1 Monster Of The Week
- Actual Play Podcasts: The Adventure Zone (Amnesty), The Critshow
Monster of the Week is a system inspired by the campy, fun horror of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Files, and Scooby-Doo. It runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse system, a TTRPG system that strips tabletop role-playing back to the basics, making it fun and accessible for new and old players alike.
In Monster of the Week, players take on the roles of archetypical characters found in the TV shows that inspire the system - like 'The Chosen', 'The Crooked', 'The Mundane' (a character type based entirely around being comically normal), and 'The Spooky'.