So we do lots of video games on this forum, but there's also games that are bound to the nasty but glorious video technology. I'm talking about tabletop games: RPGs you play on your table, usually with dice and papers!
There's a lot of different things you can do with these games due to the vast number of games covering a wide variety of genres and playstyles, so I'll just go through some notable/recommendable stuff to check out.
Dungeons & Dragons: The big daddy of the entire roleplaying hobby. Outside of a few shakey spots in its history, it's basically been the dominant RPG and has only grown over the past decade. It's also notable for reinventing itself with virtually every single edition, causing a lot of heartache for older fans and probably more earache everybody else. This is a game that has gone from dungeon adventures (1E), world adventures (2E), fantasy simulation (3E), and dungeon tactical looters (4E). The current and fifth edition effectively merges that all together and is a really good place to start.
Being the biggest RPG, a given version of D&D is always going to be easy to get. Now is actually an interesting period because WotC has started to put out a lot of the older stuff again, making it to where all five existing versions are basically in print in some way. The core books for 1E and 2E have recently gotten reprints and are progressively having their various supplements made available in digital form. 3E lives on through this arm....I mean Pathfinder, a modified version of 3E from a separate publisher (through 3E's open license) that improves upon 3E's mechanics and strips out the D&D branding. Old 3E is also available as a free download through the system reference document, a part of the Open Game License made as a scheme to backdoor the d20 system into becoming the most dominent gaming system (fun note: the OGL scheme worked so well that it basically crashed the industry for a few years). 4E is recent enough that it is easily available in both the standard form and a more basic form known as essentials that is cheaper. 5E is the current (and, if you ask me, greatest) edition. It's thus the easiest edition of D&D to find. While it doesn't have as open of an OGL as 3E, it has a free version available that strips down some of the character building content but otherwise contains the full mechanics. Also, with regards to not getting into the split between Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (the existing line) and Basic D&D, there are also retroclones based on the oldest D&D rulesets. Google those.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying : Though known more for their miniatures wargames, Gamers Workshop put out a series of RPGs based on their warhammer wargames. WFRP is a solid D&D alternatives that has also been through several edition updates. The newest edition, by Fantasy Flight, is the easiest to find though it's pricey and relies on a lot of trinkets and stuff. This recently went out of print, but should still be somewhat findable.
Earthdawn: An older RPG that is experiencing a revival through a reprent of the third edition rules and its even more recent kickstarted fourth edition. It currently exists as a prequel series to Shadowrun but is having that stripped out in the future due to the licenses meow being held by separate companies. The system is neat in how everybody is basically magic and the setting is based around the world being so magic that giant Cthulhu horror monsters popped up and forced humanity into underground cities for a few centuries before the magic levels started to drop and people could come back out of their hide-y caves.
Legend of the Five Rings: Based on a popular card game, L5R is another fantasy RPG with a system based heavily around feudal Japan. Though it was actually briefly tied into the D&D ruleset as a setting, it's actually based less around traditional D&D dungeon/world adventures and is based more around social interaction and stuff. There's plenty of traditional RPG fun in it either way. A new edition is currently in an open-beta test, while the previous version is easy enough to find.
Exalted: White Wolf's stab at the fantasy genre. Exalted is based around the idea that player characters should be godheroes adventuring around to save/destroy the day and do epic fun things in the world to change stuff. This idea is basically taken literally, as the exalted are effectively gods. The current third edition is out now and is easy to get, though the first two editions are easy enough to find as well.
Numenera: Recently adapted into a video game by inXile, this fantasy/scifi hybrid takes place in the far future, where the ruins of countless civilizations that have come and gone have all blended together to create a bizarre fantasy setting that has room for a lot of fun and crazy adventures. It's notably designed by Monte Cook, a well known designer who rose to prominence with his work on D&D.
Mouse Guard: If you ever read Redwall or...um....Mouse Guard itself and always thought the idea of mice living in a medieval society within our own world, this game is the game for you. Using a simple skill resolution system and easy to understand setting concepts, this is perhaps even a good first rpg for younger players.
Shadowrun: A fantastic cyberpunk RPG set in a future earth where magic has also returned, along with dwarfs, elves, trolls, and orks. Basically Neuromancer meets Tokein. I love it. It's currently on an updated version of its fifth edition, which is obviously going to be easy to find, but older editions are easy enough to find. You may know this from the recent string of solid crpgs.
Star Wars: I don't need to explain what this is beyond saying that Fantasy Flight is producing a solid RPG system based around the scifi franchise we all know and love. The new games are actually doing the interesting thing of breaking up the ruleset by playstyles, with the three core books being based around space outlaw adventures, jedi adventures, and rebel vs empire missions.
Star Wars also previously existed in the form of an older d6-based system that is getting harder to find now and is famous for actually being what Timothy Zahn used as a guide for the Thrawn trilogy. There are also two separate d20 systems, with the older and easier to find system being based roughly on D&D 3E and the later and weirdly harder to find one being based roughly on D&D 4E.
Warhammer 40k: Just like with Warhammer Fantasy, Games Workshop (and meow Fantasy Flight) produced RPGs based on their popular Warhammer 40k license. As with Star Wars, these RPGs are divided up into separate core books based on different styles of games, including space merchant adventures (Rogue Trader), space marine kill fests (Deathwatch), and space magic inquisitions (Dark Heresy). These just went out of print recently as Fantasy Flight and GW ended their partnership, but they are not hard to find.
Gamma World: Best summed up as Adventure Time: The RPG. This hilarious game is based around a future earth where all realities have converged into an apocalyptic mess of craziness, where "normal" humans are rare and almost everybody is some kind of zany mutant shapeshifting dog. I've played a game of this where the players randomly rolled a laser bug, a magma robot, and a ghostman. Yes, they rolled Space Ghost Coast to Coast and weren't even trying. There are multiple editions of this game (some tried to grimdark it up because people are lame), but the most recent one is based on a lite version of D&D4E and can be purchased as a boxed set that is not impossible to find.
Rifts: The inverse of a generic system, Rifts is what happens when 14 year olds are allowed to design a game because you get a combination of SciFi space epics, cyberpunk techno futures, fantasy dragons, magic, portals to infinite dimensions (don't act suprised when I say that those portals are called rifts). It's infamous for having a dense and crazy ruleset based on so many tables. This is the brainchild of Kevin Sembienda, who may actually be a crazy person, but god bless him for making it because this system is oddly endearing because of how crazy it is. The original system is technically still in print, but Palladium Games (the publisher) is in constant financial trouble and basically has to base their reprints of this system on getting money through other stuff. There is also a new version of Rifts that runs off of the Savage Worlds system and is a solid alternative.
Robotech: A Robotech RPG based on the same crazy ruleset as Rifts. As it actually predated Rifts, Robotech is a little cleaner and is more playable. There are numerous expansion books based on the various seasons of Robotech, as well as books based on different Macross things. It was later rereleased in a budget priced digest sized form to coincide with the attempt to relaunch Robotech as a thing in the mid-00s, and again when Palladium tried to relaunch Robotech via a minis game.
Cyberpunk: If you ever wondered where the upcoming...um....cyberpunk game from CDProjekt is coming from, look no further. This seminal RPG franchise hails from R. Talsorian Studio and was the brainchild of Mike Pondsmith. It's a really cool system that helped codify a lot of the genre. It's not terribly hard to find it.
Mekton/VOTOMS: R. Talsorian once tried to make an RPG based on Gundam and ended up making their own game when they couldn't get the license. Mekton is a weird but fun system that is based entirely around piloting robots. Mekton has gone through numerous revisions, many of which have been based on Gundam, Macross, and other famous mecha anime from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Also interestingly enough is that they did end up getting the license to VOTOMS and made a really nice version of Mekton with it that cleaned up some of the rules. That and Mekton Zeta are the easiest to find, though they are out of print.
(as an amusing aside, a publisher in Japan ended up getting the license to produce a Gundam RPG and used Mekton to make it. R. Talsorian ran into some money issues in the process of licensing it and bringing it over to the US, so it never got released over here despite them sitting on a complete translation)
Eclipse Phase- I really don't know much about this system, other than it's supposed to be an amazing sci-fi game with a specific focus on transhuman technology and ideology. It's also been released as a free download, though they also sell it for people who like it enough to support them making fun stuff.
World of Darkness: White Wolf has numerous story-based RPGs based around different traditional monsters. You've got Vampire for...uh...Vampires. Werewolf for Werewolves. Wraith for ghosts. Changeling for shapeshifting fairies. Mage for wizards. Also Mummy for Mummies, but we don't talk about Mummy. Each of these games are all based around social interactions, with much of the metaplots for each of the games being based around various groups within each of these different monster communities. WoD itself also exists as a more basic system to let you play as humans trying to navigate the world occupied by all these different monsters, but I guess that's kinda boring. There's also another human focused game called Hunter where you are tasked with fighting the fuck out of those creatures. Because of this social focus (and also because of other reasons), WoD games are popular for LARPing. World of Darkness is currently working towards a reset of its line of books, with a new edition of Vampire being in the works. The previous versions of WoD's games are all fairly easy to find, both in print and digital, as WoD was extremely popular enough to be in constant print for years. Vampire itself has perhaps been one of the most enduring WoD licenses, with it being fondly remembered for the excellent PC RPG.
Call of Cthulhu: Another long lasting series that is pretty self explanitory. You play people fighting against Lovecraftian horrors. And by fighting, I mean trying to not go mad and get killed. You will probably get killed. CoC exists across numerous systems and forms, though the most recent edition is obviously going to be the easiest to find. Depending on system preferences, it may be worth tracking down the Gurps or d20 versions if those float your fancy more.
Nightbane: Another Palladium game that is their answer to White Wolf, in that it's a world full of demons/monsters. You play as those demons, but you fight against the ones that want to hurt people. I guess you could say it's Digital Devil Saga: the RPG, but it's also still kinda weird to play because it's the Palladium rules and those are always crazy. It's out of print, but worth checking out.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Yes, this existed. You play as randomly generated mutant animals doing all sorts of ninja and non-ninja like things. It's based on the same crazy ass system as Rifts, but, like Robotech, is based on an earlier version of the Palladium rules and is almost playable. It's worth noting that this game got licensed really quickly after the original comic made it out, so it actually has some original work from Laird and Eastman in it. Palladium has long since lost the license, but it was around long enough for the game to be easy to find. Palladium had a version of the game called After the Bomb that is the TMNT with the license stripped out. You can also find that pretty easily.
Ghostbusters: It's a game based on Ghostbusters. Yes, this exists. Stop being surprised. It is the basis for the system that was eventually used for the older Star Wars RPGs. It's long out of print, but it's totally worth tracking down because where else are you going to find an RPG that uses eating a telephone as an example for the skill resolution system.
Street Fighter: Yes, this existed, too. It was made by White Wolf and was terrible. I'm only mentioning it because, come on, Street Fighter. Don't buy this game.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: A fantastic entry level RPG based around playing as an ever expanding stable of marvel heroes, rather than making your own. While it's still easy to find, it's been discontinued for a few years because this is a cruel and unjust world. There are also several other RPGs based on Marvel, but they are long out of print and you are not going to probably find them easily.
Mutants & Masterminds/DC Heroes: M&M is probably the most popular system based around superheroes. It was originally a d20 system, but meow it's its own thing. When developing the newest edition, they teamed up with DC to produce a version of M&M based on the new rules that was based around playing as DC heroes. Both of these are easy to find, though I don't know why you'd bother with the DC version at this point.
Champions: The longest running supers RPG. I don't really know all that much about it, but figured I should mention it. Mostly notable for somewhat recently being licensed for an MMO that actually came out and is also inexplicably still going. You can probably find books for it.
GURPS: It's in the name- The Generic Universal Roleplaying System. It's a very simulation heavy RPG that achieves the whole universal thing by having a metric ton of very specific skills and perks to cover almost every task and profession possible. Despite a very kitchen sink approach with including stuff in the core books, GURPS has a metric ton of supplements covering virtually every single genre and concept you could want to run that isn't fully covered in the core book. Its fourth edition is still in print and is easy to find.
Savage Worlds: IF GURPS was X-Wing Alliance, Savage Worlds would be Rogue Squadron. It's a much more arcade-y generic system than the former and basically lives up to its own promise to be fast, furious, and fun by having a small set of broad skills and perks that can be utilized to virtually any setting without any need to homebrew stuff. I love this system so much, you guys. There's a ton of really fun settings released for it, including one that is not-Pirates of Dark Water, one that is not-Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing, one that is about super villains fighting to save the earth from an alien invasion, and a lot more. Seriously, you guys, I love this system.
It's still in print and digital distribution. The digest sized (but still fully featured) core book is also only $10 and is an amazingly fantastic deal.
I wasn't joking about them having a book inspired by Hugh Jackman.
FATE:
Another recent generic system that is based more around fast and fun games. I've really got no experience with this game, but it's popular and I'll mention it either way. It's also notable for being the basis for the Dresden Files RPG and the Atomic Robo RPG. Like Savage Worlds, it's more focused on being fast and loose, rather than really extensive with its mechanics and skills. It's still in print and easy to find in its base form. The PDFs for the Core and Accelerated versions are actually pay-what-you want, so it's a very easy system to test out to see if you want to invest in it.
Maid: Ah, yes, the infamous Maid roleplaying game. This is an anime-influenced RPG where you act out a harem anime staring a series of maids competing with each other to curry favor. It's also notable for being one of, if not the, first localized tabletop RPGs to come from Japan. Because of the early nature of this localization, the kitchen sink approach to localizing all the supplements to include in one core book led to some incredibly unfortunate materials ending up in the game, making it a bit awkward to read at times. It's weirdly a great system and is perfect for convention play and one-shots with the right group in mind.
FREE RESOURCES!
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Basic Rules: These are the official free rules for D&D 5e. They contain all the core rules for play and will let you play a full 1-20 campaign. The catch is that it only includes the for four basic races (human, elf, dwarf, and halfling) and four basic classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Thief) each locked to their most basic subclass.
The Hypertext SRD: This online resource has an easily searchable versions of the System Reference Documents for both D&D 3e and 5e. The SRDs are free documents intended for use with the Open Game License (which allows for people to publish their own books for these systems) but effectively can be used to also play the games. Neither of these are the full rules, as they strip out anything that is a strictly D&D property (namely monsters, certain spells, etc), but they can be used in place of the books. Just note that the 5e SRD does lock all the classes to a single subclass. Also note that you can find downloadable versions of the SRDs directly from WotC themselves, though the Hypertext SRD is the easiest way to work with them.
Savage Worlds Test Drive: This is the free basic version of Savage Worlds. It'll give you a pretty comprehensive experience with Savage Worlds, though obviously there is stuff that you won't get in it that will be in the books.
GURPS Lite: These are the free basic rules for GURPS. It's missing a bunch of stuff, but will give you a good feel for if GURPS is for you.
Fate Core/Fate Accelerated: The PDF versions of Fate's basic and full versions are actually pay-what-you want, making it a very good system for people wanting to try before they buy the physical book. Core is the "full" version of the game, while Accelerated is the speedier basic version of the game
Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition Alpha: These are the in progress rules for the upcoming edition of Vampire. It's obviously not going to be complete, but should let you play a fun game and give you a good idea of how Vampire plays.
Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition Playtest: As with above, this is a work in progress for the upcoming edition of Legend of the Five Rings. It does not include everything and will obviously be changing before the final release, but it should give you a good taste for what Lot5R is like. Do note it requires custom dice, but the pdf will give you a conversion chart for how to use standard dice.
Dice Roller: This basic online dice roller from Wizards of the Coast will cover your dice rolling needs for *most* games out there if you want to play without investing in a dice collection.
Roll20: This multi-function site that combines chatroom, mapping, and dice rolling features is a fantastic resource for both running games online and for mapping out adventures for offline play. It has a very active community that you can use to find games to play. It is free to use, but you can purchase modules and resources.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q) Where do I even begin with?
A) Admittedly, with so many options over 40 years of games fleshing out all sorts of genres, it can be so daunting to jump into the hobby. That said the easiest place to start is Dungeons & Dragons. While it's certainly been unapproachable at points in the past, D&D in its current state is an amazing place to start, both with its popularity ensuring a large pool of players and in how the current rules are perhaps the most approachable D&D has ever been. It also helps that D&D 5E also has two "beginner" options for people to start playing, a free PDF basic version of the rules (which lacks advanced mechanics and character options but can otherwise be used to play full campaigns) and an inexpensive starter box that includes the basic rules (minus character creations), a very solid premade adventure, and a set of dice.
If you feel a little adventurous and want something different than D&D as a first game, I might also recommend Savage Worlds. The price of entry is very low (with the paperback version of the core book being $10), the rules are very simple and straight forward, and it only requires a standard dice set and a deck of playing cards. Beyond that, I would also recommend checking out the free resources listed above, as there are free versions of many of these games that you can use to dabble in a game before you decide to commit.
Q) Do I need to buy all the books to play? This all sounds so expensive!
A) It depends on the system, but usually no. Publishers are typically good about noting what books are meant for players and what books are meant for game masters. Even with player books, 99% of players can get by with just the core player book, and often a group can get by with sharing. Basically, just look into each book and see if it has content that is relevant for you, and you should be good to go. That said, some RPGs can have a high price of entry just due to the individual books themselves, but then you can easily get more than enough hours out of them to make it worth it.
Q) Where do I go to find these games?
A) Amazon and your local gaming stores are good places to start for most games out there. Regular book stores often sell the more popular RPGs, and even big stores like Walmart and Target will sometimes sell D&D. It's also worth noting that local game stores are also often good places to go to for playing games.
Q)I don't have a local gaming store to play at or my friends aren't interested! What now?
A) Luckily for you, online tabletop gaming is better than ever. Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds both exist as very good and viable alternatives to playing in person, and Roll20 is especially good about having a community of people who are always looking to play/run a wide variety of games. Roll20 is free (with slight microtransactions), while Fantasy Grounds is a paid program where you can buy individual systems. Play By Post games via forums are also a popular way of playing, so we may even be able to play games here!
Q)So I heard about this game called Fata....
A)We don't talk about that game.
Feel free to suggest stuff to add to the OP, because I know I totally left out a lot of awesome stuff.
Also feel free to share epic stories of hilarious games and all that fun stuff that should go in a thread like this.
There's a lot of different things you can do with these games due to the vast number of games covering a wide variety of genres and playstyles, so I'll just go through some notable/recommendable stuff to check out.
Dungeons & Dragons: The big daddy of the entire roleplaying hobby. Outside of a few shakey spots in its history, it's basically been the dominant RPG and has only grown over the past decade. It's also notable for reinventing itself with virtually every single edition, causing a lot of heartache for older fans and probably more earache everybody else. This is a game that has gone from dungeon adventures (1E), world adventures (2E), fantasy simulation (3E), and dungeon tactical looters (4E). The current and fifth edition effectively merges that all together and is a really good place to start.
Being the biggest RPG, a given version of D&D is always going to be easy to get. Now is actually an interesting period because WotC has started to put out a lot of the older stuff again, making it to where all five existing versions are basically in print in some way. The core books for 1E and 2E have recently gotten reprints and are progressively having their various supplements made available in digital form. 3E lives on through this arm....I mean Pathfinder, a modified version of 3E from a separate publisher (through 3E's open license) that improves upon 3E's mechanics and strips out the D&D branding. Old 3E is also available as a free download through the system reference document, a part of the Open Game License made as a scheme to backdoor the d20 system into becoming the most dominent gaming system (fun note: the OGL scheme worked so well that it basically crashed the industry for a few years). 4E is recent enough that it is easily available in both the standard form and a more basic form known as essentials that is cheaper. 5E is the current (and, if you ask me, greatest) edition. It's thus the easiest edition of D&D to find. While it doesn't have as open of an OGL as 3E, it has a free version available that strips down some of the character building content but otherwise contains the full mechanics. Also, with regards to not getting into the split between Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (the existing line) and Basic D&D, there are also retroclones based on the oldest D&D rulesets. Google those.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying : Though known more for their miniatures wargames, Gamers Workshop put out a series of RPGs based on their warhammer wargames. WFRP is a solid D&D alternatives that has also been through several edition updates. The newest edition, by Fantasy Flight, is the easiest to find though it's pricey and relies on a lot of trinkets and stuff. This recently went out of print, but should still be somewhat findable.
Earthdawn: An older RPG that is experiencing a revival through a reprent of the third edition rules and its even more recent kickstarted fourth edition. It currently exists as a prequel series to Shadowrun but is having that stripped out in the future due to the licenses meow being held by separate companies. The system is neat in how everybody is basically magic and the setting is based around the world being so magic that giant Cthulhu horror monsters popped up and forced humanity into underground cities for a few centuries before the magic levels started to drop and people could come back out of their hide-y caves.
Legend of the Five Rings: Based on a popular card game, L5R is another fantasy RPG with a system based heavily around feudal Japan. Though it was actually briefly tied into the D&D ruleset as a setting, it's actually based less around traditional D&D dungeon/world adventures and is based more around social interaction and stuff. There's plenty of traditional RPG fun in it either way. A new edition is currently in an open-beta test, while the previous version is easy enough to find.
Exalted: White Wolf's stab at the fantasy genre. Exalted is based around the idea that player characters should be godheroes adventuring around to save/destroy the day and do epic fun things in the world to change stuff. This idea is basically taken literally, as the exalted are effectively gods. The current third edition is out now and is easy to get, though the first two editions are easy enough to find as well.
Numenera: Recently adapted into a video game by inXile, this fantasy/scifi hybrid takes place in the far future, where the ruins of countless civilizations that have come and gone have all blended together to create a bizarre fantasy setting that has room for a lot of fun and crazy adventures. It's notably designed by Monte Cook, a well known designer who rose to prominence with his work on D&D.
Mouse Guard: If you ever read Redwall or...um....Mouse Guard itself and always thought the idea of mice living in a medieval society within our own world, this game is the game for you. Using a simple skill resolution system and easy to understand setting concepts, this is perhaps even a good first rpg for younger players.
Shadowrun: A fantastic cyberpunk RPG set in a future earth where magic has also returned, along with dwarfs, elves, trolls, and orks. Basically Neuromancer meets Tokein. I love it. It's currently on an updated version of its fifth edition, which is obviously going to be easy to find, but older editions are easy enough to find. You may know this from the recent string of solid crpgs.
Star Wars: I don't need to explain what this is beyond saying that Fantasy Flight is producing a solid RPG system based around the scifi franchise we all know and love. The new games are actually doing the interesting thing of breaking up the ruleset by playstyles, with the three core books being based around space outlaw adventures, jedi adventures, and rebel vs empire missions.
Star Wars also previously existed in the form of an older d6-based system that is getting harder to find now and is famous for actually being what Timothy Zahn used as a guide for the Thrawn trilogy. There are also two separate d20 systems, with the older and easier to find system being based roughly on D&D 3E and the later and weirdly harder to find one being based roughly on D&D 4E.
Warhammer 40k: Just like with Warhammer Fantasy, Games Workshop (and meow Fantasy Flight) produced RPGs based on their popular Warhammer 40k license. As with Star Wars, these RPGs are divided up into separate core books based on different styles of games, including space merchant adventures (Rogue Trader), space marine kill fests (Deathwatch), and space magic inquisitions (Dark Heresy). These just went out of print recently as Fantasy Flight and GW ended their partnership, but they are not hard to find.
Gamma World: Best summed up as Adventure Time: The RPG. This hilarious game is based around a future earth where all realities have converged into an apocalyptic mess of craziness, where "normal" humans are rare and almost everybody is some kind of zany mutant shapeshifting dog. I've played a game of this where the players randomly rolled a laser bug, a magma robot, and a ghostman. Yes, they rolled Space Ghost Coast to Coast and weren't even trying. There are multiple editions of this game (some tried to grimdark it up because people are lame), but the most recent one is based on a lite version of D&D4E and can be purchased as a boxed set that is not impossible to find.
Rifts: The inverse of a generic system, Rifts is what happens when 14 year olds are allowed to design a game because you get a combination of SciFi space epics, cyberpunk techno futures, fantasy dragons, magic, portals to infinite dimensions (don't act suprised when I say that those portals are called rifts). It's infamous for having a dense and crazy ruleset based on so many tables. This is the brainchild of Kevin Sembienda, who may actually be a crazy person, but god bless him for making it because this system is oddly endearing because of how crazy it is. The original system is technically still in print, but Palladium Games (the publisher) is in constant financial trouble and basically has to base their reprints of this system on getting money through other stuff. There is also a new version of Rifts that runs off of the Savage Worlds system and is a solid alternative.
Robotech: A Robotech RPG based on the same crazy ruleset as Rifts. As it actually predated Rifts, Robotech is a little cleaner and is more playable. There are numerous expansion books based on the various seasons of Robotech, as well as books based on different Macross things. It was later rereleased in a budget priced digest sized form to coincide with the attempt to relaunch Robotech as a thing in the mid-00s, and again when Palladium tried to relaunch Robotech via a minis game.
Cyberpunk: If you ever wondered where the upcoming...um....cyberpunk game from CDProjekt is coming from, look no further. This seminal RPG franchise hails from R. Talsorian Studio and was the brainchild of Mike Pondsmith. It's a really cool system that helped codify a lot of the genre. It's not terribly hard to find it.
Mekton/VOTOMS: R. Talsorian once tried to make an RPG based on Gundam and ended up making their own game when they couldn't get the license. Mekton is a weird but fun system that is based entirely around piloting robots. Mekton has gone through numerous revisions, many of which have been based on Gundam, Macross, and other famous mecha anime from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Also interestingly enough is that they did end up getting the license to VOTOMS and made a really nice version of Mekton with it that cleaned up some of the rules. That and Mekton Zeta are the easiest to find, though they are out of print.
(as an amusing aside, a publisher in Japan ended up getting the license to produce a Gundam RPG and used Mekton to make it. R. Talsorian ran into some money issues in the process of licensing it and bringing it over to the US, so it never got released over here despite them sitting on a complete translation)
Eclipse Phase- I really don't know much about this system, other than it's supposed to be an amazing sci-fi game with a specific focus on transhuman technology and ideology. It's also been released as a free download, though they also sell it for people who like it enough to support them making fun stuff.
World of Darkness: White Wolf has numerous story-based RPGs based around different traditional monsters. You've got Vampire for...uh...Vampires. Werewolf for Werewolves. Wraith for ghosts. Changeling for shapeshifting fairies. Mage for wizards. Also Mummy for Mummies, but we don't talk about Mummy. Each of these games are all based around social interactions, with much of the metaplots for each of the games being based around various groups within each of these different monster communities. WoD itself also exists as a more basic system to let you play as humans trying to navigate the world occupied by all these different monsters, but I guess that's kinda boring. There's also another human focused game called Hunter where you are tasked with fighting the fuck out of those creatures. Because of this social focus (and also because of other reasons), WoD games are popular for LARPing. World of Darkness is currently working towards a reset of its line of books, with a new edition of Vampire being in the works. The previous versions of WoD's games are all fairly easy to find, both in print and digital, as WoD was extremely popular enough to be in constant print for years. Vampire itself has perhaps been one of the most enduring WoD licenses, with it being fondly remembered for the excellent PC RPG.
Call of Cthulhu: Another long lasting series that is pretty self explanitory. You play people fighting against Lovecraftian horrors. And by fighting, I mean trying to not go mad and get killed. You will probably get killed. CoC exists across numerous systems and forms, though the most recent edition is obviously going to be the easiest to find. Depending on system preferences, it may be worth tracking down the Gurps or d20 versions if those float your fancy more.
Nightbane: Another Palladium game that is their answer to White Wolf, in that it's a world full of demons/monsters. You play as those demons, but you fight against the ones that want to hurt people. I guess you could say it's Digital Devil Saga: the RPG, but it's also still kinda weird to play because it's the Palladium rules and those are always crazy. It's out of print, but worth checking out.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Yes, this existed. You play as randomly generated mutant animals doing all sorts of ninja and non-ninja like things. It's based on the same crazy ass system as Rifts, but, like Robotech, is based on an earlier version of the Palladium rules and is almost playable. It's worth noting that this game got licensed really quickly after the original comic made it out, so it actually has some original work from Laird and Eastman in it. Palladium has long since lost the license, but it was around long enough for the game to be easy to find. Palladium had a version of the game called After the Bomb that is the TMNT with the license stripped out. You can also find that pretty easily.
Ghostbusters: It's a game based on Ghostbusters. Yes, this exists. Stop being surprised. It is the basis for the system that was eventually used for the older Star Wars RPGs. It's long out of print, but it's totally worth tracking down because where else are you going to find an RPG that uses eating a telephone as an example for the skill resolution system.
Street Fighter: Yes, this existed, too. It was made by White Wolf and was terrible. I'm only mentioning it because, come on, Street Fighter. Don't buy this game.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: A fantastic entry level RPG based around playing as an ever expanding stable of marvel heroes, rather than making your own. While it's still easy to find, it's been discontinued for a few years because this is a cruel and unjust world. There are also several other RPGs based on Marvel, but they are long out of print and you are not going to probably find them easily.
Mutants & Masterminds/DC Heroes: M&M is probably the most popular system based around superheroes. It was originally a d20 system, but meow it's its own thing. When developing the newest edition, they teamed up with DC to produce a version of M&M based on the new rules that was based around playing as DC heroes. Both of these are easy to find, though I don't know why you'd bother with the DC version at this point.
Champions: The longest running supers RPG. I don't really know all that much about it, but figured I should mention it. Mostly notable for somewhat recently being licensed for an MMO that actually came out and is also inexplicably still going. You can probably find books for it.
GURPS: It's in the name- The Generic Universal Roleplaying System. It's a very simulation heavy RPG that achieves the whole universal thing by having a metric ton of very specific skills and perks to cover almost every task and profession possible. Despite a very kitchen sink approach with including stuff in the core books, GURPS has a metric ton of supplements covering virtually every single genre and concept you could want to run that isn't fully covered in the core book. Its fourth edition is still in print and is easy to find.
Savage Worlds: IF GURPS was X-Wing Alliance, Savage Worlds would be Rogue Squadron. It's a much more arcade-y generic system than the former and basically lives up to its own promise to be fast, furious, and fun by having a small set of broad skills and perks that can be utilized to virtually any setting without any need to homebrew stuff. I love this system so much, you guys. There's a ton of really fun settings released for it, including one that is not-Pirates of Dark Water, one that is not-Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing, one that is about super villains fighting to save the earth from an alien invasion, and a lot more. Seriously, you guys, I love this system.
It's still in print and digital distribution. The digest sized (but still fully featured) core book is also only $10 and is an amazingly fantastic deal.
I wasn't joking about them having a book inspired by Hugh Jackman.
FATE:
Another recent generic system that is based more around fast and fun games. I've really got no experience with this game, but it's popular and I'll mention it either way. It's also notable for being the basis for the Dresden Files RPG and the Atomic Robo RPG. Like Savage Worlds, it's more focused on being fast and loose, rather than really extensive with its mechanics and skills. It's still in print and easy to find in its base form. The PDFs for the Core and Accelerated versions are actually pay-what-you want, so it's a very easy system to test out to see if you want to invest in it.
Maid: Ah, yes, the infamous Maid roleplaying game. This is an anime-influenced RPG where you act out a harem anime staring a series of maids competing with each other to curry favor. It's also notable for being one of, if not the, first localized tabletop RPGs to come from Japan. Because of the early nature of this localization, the kitchen sink approach to localizing all the supplements to include in one core book led to some incredibly unfortunate materials ending up in the game, making it a bit awkward to read at times. It's weirdly a great system and is perfect for convention play and one-shots with the right group in mind.
FREE RESOURCES!
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Basic Rules: These are the official free rules for D&D 5e. They contain all the core rules for play and will let you play a full 1-20 campaign. The catch is that it only includes the for four basic races (human, elf, dwarf, and halfling) and four basic classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Thief) each locked to their most basic subclass.
The Hypertext SRD: This online resource has an easily searchable versions of the System Reference Documents for both D&D 3e and 5e. The SRDs are free documents intended for use with the Open Game License (which allows for people to publish their own books for these systems) but effectively can be used to also play the games. Neither of these are the full rules, as they strip out anything that is a strictly D&D property (namely monsters, certain spells, etc), but they can be used in place of the books. Just note that the 5e SRD does lock all the classes to a single subclass. Also note that you can find downloadable versions of the SRDs directly from WotC themselves, though the Hypertext SRD is the easiest way to work with them.
Savage Worlds Test Drive: This is the free basic version of Savage Worlds. It'll give you a pretty comprehensive experience with Savage Worlds, though obviously there is stuff that you won't get in it that will be in the books.
GURPS Lite: These are the free basic rules for GURPS. It's missing a bunch of stuff, but will give you a good feel for if GURPS is for you.
Fate Core/Fate Accelerated: The PDF versions of Fate's basic and full versions are actually pay-what-you want, making it a very good system for people wanting to try before they buy the physical book. Core is the "full" version of the game, while Accelerated is the speedier basic version of the game
Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition Alpha: These are the in progress rules for the upcoming edition of Vampire. It's obviously not going to be complete, but should let you play a fun game and give you a good idea of how Vampire plays.
Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition Playtest: As with above, this is a work in progress for the upcoming edition of Legend of the Five Rings. It does not include everything and will obviously be changing before the final release, but it should give you a good taste for what Lot5R is like. Do note it requires custom dice, but the pdf will give you a conversion chart for how to use standard dice.
Dice Roller: This basic online dice roller from Wizards of the Coast will cover your dice rolling needs for *most* games out there if you want to play without investing in a dice collection.
Roll20: This multi-function site that combines chatroom, mapping, and dice rolling features is a fantastic resource for both running games online and for mapping out adventures for offline play. It has a very active community that you can use to find games to play. It is free to use, but you can purchase modules and resources.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q) Where do I even begin with?
A) Admittedly, with so many options over 40 years of games fleshing out all sorts of genres, it can be so daunting to jump into the hobby. That said the easiest place to start is Dungeons & Dragons. While it's certainly been unapproachable at points in the past, D&D in its current state is an amazing place to start, both with its popularity ensuring a large pool of players and in how the current rules are perhaps the most approachable D&D has ever been. It also helps that D&D 5E also has two "beginner" options for people to start playing, a free PDF basic version of the rules (which lacks advanced mechanics and character options but can otherwise be used to play full campaigns) and an inexpensive starter box that includes the basic rules (minus character creations), a very solid premade adventure, and a set of dice.
If you feel a little adventurous and want something different than D&D as a first game, I might also recommend Savage Worlds. The price of entry is very low (with the paperback version of the core book being $10), the rules are very simple and straight forward, and it only requires a standard dice set and a deck of playing cards. Beyond that, I would also recommend checking out the free resources listed above, as there are free versions of many of these games that you can use to dabble in a game before you decide to commit.
Q) Do I need to buy all the books to play? This all sounds so expensive!
A) It depends on the system, but usually no. Publishers are typically good about noting what books are meant for players and what books are meant for game masters. Even with player books, 99% of players can get by with just the core player book, and often a group can get by with sharing. Basically, just look into each book and see if it has content that is relevant for you, and you should be good to go. That said, some RPGs can have a high price of entry just due to the individual books themselves, but then you can easily get more than enough hours out of them to make it worth it.
Q) Where do I go to find these games?
A) Amazon and your local gaming stores are good places to start for most games out there. Regular book stores often sell the more popular RPGs, and even big stores like Walmart and Target will sometimes sell D&D. It's also worth noting that local game stores are also often good places to go to for playing games.
Q)I don't have a local gaming store to play at or my friends aren't interested! What now?
A) Luckily for you, online tabletop gaming is better than ever. Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds both exist as very good and viable alternatives to playing in person, and Roll20 is especially good about having a community of people who are always looking to play/run a wide variety of games. Roll20 is free (with slight microtransactions), while Fantasy Grounds is a paid program where you can buy individual systems. Play By Post games via forums are also a popular way of playing, so we may even be able to play games here!
Q)So I heard about this game called Fata....
A)We don't talk about that game.
Feel free to suggest stuff to add to the OP, because I know I totally left out a lot of awesome stuff.
Also feel free to share epic stories of hilarious games and all that fun stuff that should go in a thread like this.
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