My Top 3 Tabletop RPGs of All Time (2024)

#rpgelite #tabletoprpg #roleplayinggame

In today’s video, we do an update of my top three favorite tabletop RPGs of all time.

The Leet Squad has:

• Monthly Giveaways - an online gift card or game to make it easier to get that game you have been looking at.

• Tabletop RPG Tips - short tips on how to strengthen yourself as a player or GM.

• Game Highlights - find out about the latest games, game supplements, and accessories for alternative genre tabletop RPGs.

• RPG Elite News - be the first to know when we post new material for our memberships and courses.

Interested in learning the basics of tabletop RPGs? Enroll in out FREE RPG Elite basics email course here:

THE NEW #3

THE RUNNER UP

NUMENERA

Are you into sci-fi? Get a digital facsimile copy of the Classic Traveller RPG for FREE here:

TTRPG TOOLS

TTRPG ACCESSORIES

SUGGESTED TABLETOP RPGS

SUPERHEROES

SCIENCE FICTION

POST APOCALYPTIC

SUPERSPY/ACTION

ADVENTURE

CROSS-GENRE

VIDEO CHAPTERS

0:00 It’s Friday!
1:58 Coming in at #1
2:57 Coming in at #2
4:54 Formerly at #3
6:59 Another Goodie from RPG Elite
8:29 The New #3
11:34 A Future Runner Up?
15:15 Question of the Vid

RPG Elite contains links to affiliate websites, and receives an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Our affiliates include the following:

• EBay Partner Network
• Partnerize
• Drive-Thru RPG
• Amazon

[charlieholloway]

YouTube just randomly showed me this video. I dig your enthusiasm bro! Subbed!

[JackMcCarthyWriter]

QOV: Depends on genre.
Fantasy: BECMI D&D.
SciFi: Star Frontiers
Horror: Vampire the Masquerade
Mecha: Mekton Zeta
Superhero: MSH
Great video, Servant!

[JackMcCarthyWriter]

"It's not perfect, but it's perfect in all the places it needs to be"
Beautifully said, sir
Been a fan of MSH since publication, and i think that's a very accurate estimation of the game as a whole.
Heck, I still love the basic rules, too!

[bark_madly]

Numenéra is so great and makes such weird, fun stories for sure! 😊❤

[NerdRageAgainsttheMachine]

Free League has done some amazing stuff, Alien, TRales from the loop, and Mork Borg all really rock

[tbruce]

My top 3:
1 Champions/Hero System
2 Savage Worlds (SWADE)
3 PF2e

[Tygertyger]

QotV: My top 3 rpgs (currently, anyway) based on "it" factor:
#3: Mage: the Ascension -- because a game in which magic is driven by player creativity is right up my alley. For added bonus, the central conflict of the game is western rational materialism vs. every other belief system humanity has ever tried.
#2: In Nomine -- the war between Heaven and Hell as a game setting? Sign me up. If you can't get an epic story out of that premise you're just not trying.
#1: Numenera -- far-future post-apocalyptic SF masquerading as fantasy? Yes, please. You couldn't ask for a better action-adventure setting.

[num]

QotV: Definitely going with Cypher System as my top choice.
Blades in the Dark and Alien RPG also get my imagination going. Heists, aliens, crime syndicates, the banality of corporate evil... Love it all!

[ad]

I recently asked some of my players for their favorite RPGs as well. We did it as a top-5 list. So here is mine:

1. Call of Cthulhu/Pulp Cthulhu (I’ve never played Vaesen and I also don’t care for the Year Zero Engine, but I can’t imagine Vaesen unseating CofC)
2. SWADE (I love their Deadlands and Pathfinder settings, and I’m excited about Rifts as well)
3. The One Ring 2e (there is so much overlap between 1e and 2e, but I didn’t get into TOR in the 1e days, so it’s 2e for me)
4. Cyberpunk 2020 (Red is a simpler rule system, but 2020 has the setting I enjoy the most)
5. Marvel Super Heroes (I agree that in the Superhero genre there is nothing better than FASERIP)

A couple of honorable mentions: Traveller (classic), Pendragon, Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy…all excellent systems and loads of fun.

Very good list. I love watching your stuff. And I especially love your enthusiasm!

[DanWebb_BoomerManDan]

I love the vibe you exude geeking over these games. I can only imagine how your players are getting into that!

[tenbones]

MSH is still my most requested game at my table, since its inception. I've turned so many players onto it that would never otherwise have had a chance to play it.

[youtube-critic]

I am really digging on mythras right now. And in second place is castles and crusades. Great video!

[jakethesnake]

great audio quality, like your style man! My top three are Blades in the Dark, Dragonbane, and Pathfinder ( purely because that was the first ttrpg I ever played with my friends and little brother in high school )

[edgargriffie]

I understand the butterfly feeling you're talking about. I think it's most strongly connected to the game that first got you hooked on RPGs. For you it was Marvel Superheroes, for me it was Champions. I love superheroes and when I found out you could use the system to tell ANY genre story I was doubly hooked. I took a break from RPGs when I left the Air Force since I didn't have a group to play with but I kept collecting the Hero System 4e books. Within the last year, I've rediscovered the hobby. Still don't have a group but I REALLY enjoy playing solo and Savage Worlds is well suited for that. Monster of the Week is another great game. I think it would be really easy for newbies to pick up. I haven't played it yet but I like the idea of it.

[hotemet]

Several: Alien RPG, Blade Runner, Cyberpunk Red/Edgerunners, Imperium Maledictum, Numenera, Hyperborea, Flash Gordon (Savage Worlds), John Carter of Mars (2d20), DCC Dying Earth, and The One Ring (2nd Edition). So, a lot of dystopia, with a dash of planetary romance, the odd man out of The One Ring, and whatever Hyperborea would be (science fantasy?).

[gavinruneblade]

I bought Vaesen on your recommendation. Haven't had a chance to play yet, finishing existing campaigns, but it is in the line waiting.

[warmmilk]

Might have to check out Vaesen. Great video. The more I thought about it, really trying to give a "good answer" on which RPG gives me that butterflies feeling... I realized I was pushing aside the genuine answer: I don't really have one yet in the systems I've tried. I like many of them, but it's the groups I have a good or bad experience with.

That said, if we talk mechanics? It's Call of Cthulhu for me. I adore the system mechanically. Lower chances to crit fail due to d100 means it isn't as frustrating that it's an option, but I want it present. And when you fail almost any roll you're not out of luck yet. Pushed rolls and spending luck can both get you out of a bad situation. If you are willing to take the risk. And the sanity mechanics are great too. I am not as big on the fiction of the system because I do not like Cthulhu mythos. But thankfully CoC works for nearly and kind of horror.

[orokusaki]

Might need to make it your top 5 favorite RPGs, SoS!

[michaelhoward]

Fading Suns is the IT game for me! Thanks as always for the vid!

[gethsemanegamespublishing]

Nice list, and some great explinations of what it is that draws you to them.

For me, I think (and I am excluding my own RPGs because that seems like an ego trip) the games that give me that feeling are;-

CHILL (1st Ed) - I bought this on the same day I bought a copy of Call of Cthulhu. I had recently played a game of CoC and enjoyed it, which made me decide to buy a copy and run it. At the shop, I discovered they also had CHILL, so I bought both. CHILL came much closer to my preferred style of Horror. Having been brought up Hammer Horror and the BBC's "Man In Black" radio plays, CHILL emulated that feel far better than the cosmic horror of CoC. It also had a huge impact on the way I design games, and you can see elements of it in Haunts and Horrors

Blue Rose - One of the AGE system game by Green Ronin, but with its own built-in background and one I really like. Aldis has a feel of high fantasy and wonder that I often find missing in many more simulationist games. I probably slightly prefer this to their Fantasy AGE but FAGE does have the greater flexibility of setting, which I like because I love world building.

The Expanse - Another AGE system game, but set in my favourite SF universe! The lack of classes raises it slightly above FAGE for me, and the modified version of the combat system really suits the setting and makes combat feel very different. In The Expanse the moment someone fires a shot all heck breaks loose, people panic and everyone dives for cover. Combat in the Expanse tends to be fast-paced, over quickly but has an incredible amount of tension. Becasue of it's lethality it tends to encourage people to look for other solutions first.

NightBane - A Palladium books RPG. I love the setting and how dark it feels, I love the idea of playing quasi-demonic beings with two forms and how utterly different to each other each Nightbane's Morphus is. The layout is enough to induce headaches, and the system has its faults but the game is just so much fun. At it's best with the "Through a Galss Darkly" expansion.